Complaint Review: Mountain Area Communications - Sneedville Tennessee

I am an employee of MAC and I have a few things to say. The only part being recorded is the part that we inform the customer about. We do not record anything else because we want the customer to know it is being recorded. The recording is actually a call with an automated system that asks questions that the customer answers. The questions consists of their first and last name, how many magazines they're getting, the amount of the payments, how many payments, the card information they're using to set up this account, it says that the first payment will not be made until 5-7 days from that date and they have to say ok to that, it says that we will prepay the magazines for them so we ask you not to cancel and they have to say ok to that and then it's ended. As far as sending a certified letter to cancel, that is nothing, means nothing, and does nothing. They are on recording agreeing to our service. They can feel free to have their lawyer contact us regarding their account but it's usually more expensive to pay the lawyer than to just pay for the service. I wrote this on another board. I am not a bot. I am a real person sitting at home bored surfing the net until my friend gets here but I feel this is necessary. From another board: The reason you cannot cancel the order is because we pre-pay the magazines for you right after you go through the verification process. That's how we can guarantee our rates to never increase. It is $3.85 per week for our service for a full 60 months but who seriously wants to pay for something for 5 years? Especially a weekly charge. You're looking at around 240 payments of the $3.85. So we bundle it up to make it affordable. Most people can afford an extra $49.90 a month. So we figured it up that if you pay $49.90 a month for only 20 months(1 year and 8 months) then it's paid in full so the other 40 months(3 years and 4 months) you pay nothing because your account is already paid in full. The publishers who produce the magazines have a no return and no refund policy so if you cancel the order for free, we are stuck with hundreds of dollars we've already paid out for your service that you agreed to pay on a recorded tape. As for not receiving your magazines after 2 weeks since your order, the verifier specifically tells you that it does take 8-12 weeks to receive your first magazines but you will get a full 60 months of them. If after that you still haven't received your magazines, you can call customer service at 1-866-900-2719 and they will gladly issue a complaint to the publishers and the publishers will do a full investigation as to why you're not receiving your magazines. As for the gift certificate, it was simply a bonus, a thank you for your magazine order. If you're not happy with your gift certificate, we sincerely apologize but your agreement with us is for the magazines. You speak to 3 different people to ensure that you do understand the service completely before we process the order. So I have an OK! magazine here at my house. I'm going to work some numbers for you. That magazine is $3.49 an issue. So, say you buy 6 magazines of the same cost each month.. 6 total. That's $20.94 a month. With our service, it's $3.85 a week for 6 magazines. That's $15.40. You save $5.54 a month with our service. But I know for a fact that Cosmo is at least $5.99 a month here. So imagine getting 6 magazines that are $5.99. That's $35.94. You're saving $20.54 a month with those magazines by using our service. But what you don't realize is, the OK! magazine, it's a weekly magazine. And with our service, that weekly magazine is for 60 full months. So imagine how much that would be. 4 magazines a month times 60 months is 240 magazines over time. This is one hell of a service. You see these complaints on sites like this. But really, there's like a total of 15 complaints. We have thousands of customers. I could see if we had thousands of complaints on here but we don't. Every company that deals with the public in any way has complaints, even wal-mart and McDonalds. But we all still go there, or most of us probably. If you're not receiving what we promised you, give us a call and we'll will take every action possible to correct the issue. We're really a great company. I enjoying going to work there everyday. IF you're using our service just to get the gift certificate, then you're not going to be happy. But as I said before, you agreed on a tape verified call to make these payments for the magazine service. I'll be happy to assist each and every one of you in resolving your issues but we can't help you if you don't let us know there is a problem. As I posted earlier, the customer service number is 1-866-900-2719. Sometimes that line is busy, so just keep calling. I hope this helped some of you out. I'm sorry that some of you are not happy with the service but with every service, things happen and we need your input to resolve these things. Have a great and safe day out there! End from the board. That pretty much says it all.

Concerning the: You obviously were not paying attention nonsense. This same "paragraph" has popped up on multiple websites under many names including: Tasha, CJ, Dean, Dedicated Employee, etc... Which leads me to the conclusion that this paragraph is either being posted by a bot, or that MAC maintains people to search out negative comments against their service and post it. Regardless, the hostile content and downright nasty tone of the paragraph should tell you all you need to know about MAC and the people it employees. Anyone who is going to deride and insult and throw themselves into such a defensive maneuver at a consumer comment obviously has a flaw they are compensating for or trying to hide. Also, the companies refusal to be even mildly diplomatic about these situations only serves to further destroy their credibility not only as a company, but as people. My advice to you is thus: If they call; hang up. Should their high-pressure sales pitch force you into subscribing and you want to stop, send a certified letter, get it notarized and photo-copy it. Don't answer their calls; they will record you and re-engineer the call to make your conversation different for the purposes of legitimizing their claims, a tactic I should point out that is used by many tele-marketers. Should they threaten legal action: DON'T BE INTIMIDATED. Tell them you would be glad to speak to their attorneys. Should attorneys call, simply ask for their name and number, than tell them your attorney will contact them, then end the conversation, the less verbal communication the better. Above all, be persistent, NEVER COMMUNICATE OVER THE PHONE, make all communications in writing, keep photo-copies of everything you do, and should you absolutely have to talk over the phone, write down everything and ask questions. Make sure you know the first and last name of whomever you are talking to, get their employee number. If they ever refuse you any information, ask to speak to their supervisor. If the supervisor is busy, ask to talk to the supervisors supervisor. Work your way up the chain, should you continuously be denied, hang up. Make sure you record the date, and time of the call. Good Luck. Keep fighting the good fight!

I am an employee and let me break this down for you. I am going to try to make this where you can understand it okay...NOW LISTEN...$49.90 for so many months not the whole time. When you were transferred to the gift department they explain this where even my 7 year old can understand it. Here is my suggestion for you when you get another call offering you a great deal like my company did< you should do this. 1.Tell them to hold on. 2.Tell everyone in your home to step outside. 3. Turn all appliances and electronics off or anything that makes noise...you can even unplug your refridgerator for just a few minutes...food will stay good that long. 4. Get a paper and pen and go to a closet where there is good lighting, and get back on the phone, and 5. This is very important okay are you listening, cause this is the simplest part of it all...you ready... "PAY ATTENTION!!!" and thats all there is to it, do you have any questions. Listen folks MAC is offering you a great deal to save on magazines and to recieve a shopping spree and all you have to do to understand is listen. If they were doing what all these people that have nothing better to do than talk negative about people are saying I would not be a part of it. Those people need to quit being so insecure about themselves and take a second to listen. I hope everyone gets a chance to enjoy what we have to offer. Everyone have a great day, and I will pray for you insecure people! To your comment about being asked your card info then they told you about magazines.....Thats BULL!!!! You were told about the magazines b4 they asked about your card. So that being said you need to make sure you are paying attention when you talk on the phone and STOP being so insecure.