I received a phone call from a company out of Las Vegas on Friday of last week claiming to be "U.M.A." which was a marketing group offering magazine subscriptions at discounted prices.
I was told by an Allen Johnson that I would be getting an awesome deal for 4 magazines at the low, low price of $3.98 a week. As a bonus, they were going to throw in an extra two magazines at no cost to me. After I agreed to continue with the phone call, and acknowledged that it sounded good, I was transferred over to a "supervisor".
From that point, the lady (her name escapes me) started speaking extremely fast and I caught the words "... At $64.00 a month..." and I says, "Whoa, lady, slow down, I was told $3.98 a week and that sure as hell doesn't total to $64.00 a month."
To which she explained that over the course of a 60 month period that I'd be receiving these magazines (6 in total), I would only be paying for them in the first 25 months. So, you do the math-higher payments per month and of course, no way of knowing whether or not you'd recieve the final 35 months of magazines.
Okay. Well, I began to object, stating that that was just way too much money to spend when I was only a student and not working at the time. Very quickly, she dropped the price, not once, but twice and stated that this was the lowest she could go and this price was only offered to employees. Gee, great.
After five more minutes of hyper-dialogue, I was told that I would be transferred to Patrick who recorded my conversation and my agreement to the terms. I agreed to paying $39.99 a month to these guys for a period of 25 months. (I was kind of interested in having some of these magazines and thought that it did sound pretty good still.)
Like I always do, I asked for a phone number was told that it was a call center and that they really didn't have a number that I could call, however, I'd receive information in the mail in approximately five days from my home state, which is NC. He kept asking if I had anymore questions, and I said "Yes, I need to have a number, just in case."
After hesitating and an uncomfortable moment, he replies, "Well, I can give you this number, but you won't be able to speak with anyone. It will only allow you to leave a message." I said that was fine. Two days later, I decide to give the number a call. Maybe it was paranoia, I don't know, but I kept having a nagging thought about the whole deal.
I try the number, and what do you know? Doesn't work. Red flags go up! I proceeded to check with the Better Business Bureau in Las Vegas, and again, problems. This particular company was unknown, and no information could be found. I did a reverse phone search, and the number I was given did not register to this company at all.
I called my bank and cancelled my Visa Check Card so that payment to this place could not be made. I am worried about legal retaliation, as I did agree to the terms, however, I also know and was told several different times that I could cancel at any time. So I did. Before the first payment was ever made.
My honest opinion is that this company has shady business practices, as there are no formal numbers, addresses, names, or contacts ever given. My advice is to steer clear of this because it is a scam.
If I hadn't caught the part where they increased the payment by breaking it down in just a few months versus the sixty, I would've been bouncing checks left and right in my account. And the kicker is, I would've tried to call to find out what happened with the infamous 888 number and not gotten through.
This company is bad news... Stay away. I'll post any new developments if they try to use that verbal agreement against me.
0 comments