I had signed up with CMS to purchase magazines with 12 even monthly payments of $49.92 for 12 months. They were to be charged to my credit card. They however took it upon thmeselves to deduct the entire amount of $524.12 out in the first month. They charged the agreed upon $49.92 and then later in the month tacked on an additional $474.20.
When I called customer services telling them that they had illegally cahrged an amount to my credit card without my permission, and I wanted to cancel the entire deal; I was told that my account was not open for cancellation. I had only ten days from the original sign up date to do that. Since the magazines weren't even supposed to start being delivered for 4 to 6 weeks, and then were delivered to the wrong addresses and I didn't receive the Credit card billing until way after the 10 day deadline, they told me that I was basically stuck with the contract.
I offered to pay the first monthly installment, but that I demanded that they credit my account with the other 474.20 that they had fraudulently charged, they refused to do that. They told me that I had to pay for the first two months on the credit card. They would only refund $424.28. I had already called the credit card company and they had put any further charges from CMS on a denial, so the man I spoke to said that they would not cancel the account, and would continue to send the unwanted magazines, and since they couldn't access my credit card anymore, they would just bill me direct.
So in fact I had to pay for 2 months of $49.92 and they are holding me hostage for the balance. I told him that the contract was for 4 years, so in effect I had already paid for 8 months of magazines that I didn't want to have him send. He insisted that they would send them anyway and then take me to a collection agency to screw up my credit, if I didn't pay!
Is there any recourse in this matter? Threatening people over the phone to ruin their perfectly good credit is obscene! A decent company would cancel the balance of the account, since I told him directly that I had no intentions of sending them any more money. Why would they continue to send magazines that would never be paid for?
Any legitimate business would consider themselves lucky that I agreed to pay for magazines that I had never received for the first 8 months, and cancel the remainder of the contract.
Sandy
Reno, Nevada
0 comments