Complaint Review: Pimsleur Approach - Internet Order LLC - Philadelphia Pennsylvania

I wanted to learn Russian and saw online that you could get a beginner's cd for Russian for $10.00 on ww5.PimsleurApproach.com.  I thought it a good deal and signed up on 12/31/2008 after looking at the site, everything seemed straightforward.

I received my beginner's cd and was happy at first. About a month afterwards though I received a package in the mail. I admit I forgotten about signing up but I did remember they said you could quit at any time and return the product as long as it was within a month of receiving the item. 

It was a big white box addressed to me from a Internet Order LLC. I did not realize it was from Pimsleur until after I opened the package to see the Pimsleur logo and around 8 cds. At first I thought it was a present from my boyfriend who is Russian, but he told he hadn't ordered anything like that for me.

So I called Pimsleur's number to cancel the program, but I could never get through. I called the next day with no response then again the third day. Each time I called I would wait for the phone to ring 15 times then hang up and wait 10 minutes. I would then recall for about an hour to an hour & a half each day between 8am to 10am in the morning.

I could never get in contact with any representative. I get spam mail in my email box all the time and yet in almost a year I have never been contacted by them through email or the postal system or by phone.

I do admit the phone number that they have on file does not work correctly. I didn't know it when I ordered through them that the phone doesn't ring through. But I still think they could've reached me by mail or email. After 10 days I decided to send the cds back since I didn't want to go over the 30 days.

I found out that I had to pay to return the items because they had not paid postage to include if the items were sent back. I believe it was around 5-7 dollars to return them and I wrote on the box "Not Wanted".  About 2-3 weeks after I returned the box I received another identical box. I thought they had returned the items I'd just returned and was irate.

I didn't open the box because I thought they were the same items but they were not. I now know that the first box was the Russian 1 Set which they took back and that they were now sending me the second set which is the Russian 2 Set. I tried calling them once more and got no response.

I did not send the second box back because I thought I would just get it AGAIN after paying to have it shipped back.  I decided to wait till they contacted me since I couldn't get in contact with them.

I was finally contacted by them by letter in the mail. It arrived here this morning on 10/27/2009. They informed me that I owed them $236.00 for the Russian 2 set course they had sent me which I hadn't returned. I offered to return the unopened set if you would not resend it out. I was informed there is no way they'll take it back.

They can verify their language course is unopened which should make it returnable. I did not ask for this stuff, do not want it and shouldn't be charged because they can't get it through their heads that it is unwanted.

All over their site they claim its easy to quit their program. Wrong! What they fail to mention is you can not get in contact with them to get out of their program. They are scammers that use sly tricks to get you to try their $10.00 product, and you end up paying upwards of $736.00 if you aren't careful.

I'm going to contact a lawyer if they pursue this; it is unreasonable.  And on their page they say all you have to do is call to quit the program. There are a lot of people on here and the Better Business Bureau who have been mistreated by Internet Order LLC. In fact the company's rating with the BBB is an F. That is the worst a company can have with them. 

At least 70 of their customers have all called repeatedly with no answer, left messages but been told later either they have no record of the calls or that they could not understand the people's info they left when asking to be taken out of the program. There are too many instances that are almost exactly the same. 

Also they sent out in public mail, which could fall into anybody's hands, the first 5 digits of my social security number.  That seems to me to be extremely unsafe. I will never buy from them again.

Meri, Wishing I'd just gone to Barnes and Noble.
10/28/2009