Complaint Review: Ultimate Readers Service - Lakewood Ohio

In march of 2013, I recieved a phone call from Ultimate Readers Service, stating that I could recieve 7 magizines for a total of $39.95 and qualified to enter a contest to win $25,000. The sales rep I spoke with was a fast talking person, and I could barely keep up with her. When I asked her to talk a little bit slower because I had a stroke recently, she said that she too, had a stroke, and did not slow her talking down whatsoever.

She proceeded to offer me several magazines that I was uninterested in. I made her aware of this and she then listed off the magazines availble, of which, only a select few seemed interesting to me. I selected some of the magazines from the list that she read. She then proceeded to tell me if I recieved any magazines I did not want, I could call them and change my magazine selection at any time.

We continued the order process, and I was required to leave a credit card with the company. I asked her if this would be charged monthly, and they sales rep said "no, this is for your first payment, then afterwards it stays for our records and will not be charged without your authorization." They then asked for an emergency contact (which I thought was a little weird for a magazine company). I gave them my fiance's info as my emergency contact and completed the transaction.

From the time that my order was put in in march, it took over 4 months to get the first issue of one magazine. I was still waiting and never recieved any of the other magazines that I had ordered. I was unhappy with the way i was being treated, and decided that I no longer wanted the magazine subscription. I called the company to cancel and after talking to the sales rep, I was told that I could not cancel, and that I was commited to 24 months of the subscription.

I then waited another month or two, and called the company back, as I had still not recieved any more of the magazines that I had ordered. I talked to another sales rep, and again was told that I cannot cancel. I complained that I had not recieved any more magazines, but had still been recieving bills from the company. They told me "it sometimes takes 2-3 months to send out some of the magazines". It had allready been 4-6 months since I started the order and I was getting extremely disgusted with this company.

After recieveing the first bill, and sending my check in the mail, the credit card that the woman had asked for initially, was charged for $39.95, meaning that I had made a double payment in one month. I proceeded to call them, and was told that I had missed a payment, and funds were taken from the card automatically, and that I had authroized this. I informed them that I had not given them permission to charge the card whatsoever. I had to contact my bank and cancel my credit card, so that they wouldnt keep charging my card without my permission. In the meantime, the emergency contact they had asked for (my faince), was called over 50 times looking for payment (and yes, we have call records showing the 50+ missed calls). She was told that if I could not pay this bill, they expected her to do so in my place. 

With all the problems I was getting from the company, I decided to contact my state's Attorney General's office. I was told by the A.G. that they would send a notification to the company about the problem. A week later, I recieved a call from the Ultimate Readers Service, stating that they had recieved my A.G.'s letter, and it was at that time, that the supervisor that I talked to stated she would cancel the subscription. She also advised me that it would take a few weeks for the magazines to stop, that no more bills would be sent to me of any kind, that if I did recieve any more bills, to disregard them, and that any magazines I recieved from them from that point on were mine to keep.

After all this aggrivation caused by this company, it was finally stopped by contacting a government official. My advice to everyone with a similar problem, Contact your local Attourney General's office, and they will help you.