These folks called my wife's employer and she wound up fielding the call. Rather than just hang up, she allowed PBS to go through their sales gimmick and she agreed to look at their offer once it came though the mail. Not once did she ever agree to pay for the service or that she wanted to confirm subscriptions through them. The telemarketer said she would receive a packet in the mail within 2 weeks and would be able to confirm or cancel at that time.
The original call was on December 21, but nothing arrived in the mail until January 22. They called her at work asking if she had received the paperwork and she told them she hadn't, since at the time it was still not received. When we got it yesterday, I was shocked to see an invoice for $720, payable over 30 months... With the statement that we had a non-cancellation clause and that they had a tape-recorded confirmation of the contract that made it binding. I immediately discovered that this company has a horrible track record with the Better Business Buereau and an awful number of complaints on various sites like this one.
I contacted the Federal Trade Commission and my state Consumer Affairs section with the Attourney General's office for advice, and also filed complaints against PBS. I called the PBS office to cancel the deal before it activated, since we had never said yes to the contract or sent them any payments. The phone rep (James Woods) said he would review the tape, because if we said yes anywhere in the tape that we were liable for the full contract amount and that they would send the matter to a collections agency if we did not pay. He then made 2 harrassing phone calls to my wife with small snippits of the recorded conversation included.
The phone conversation confirmed that my wife never actually agreed to sign up, only that she wanted more information. I then called the company back, armed with the FTC information and was ready to fight them on the issue. However, the lady I spoke with (forgot her name) was very helpful and friendly and said that because they failed to get the paperwork to us within the 2 week window, that she would cancel our account, and she gave me a confirmation number to that effect. It was a good end to a raw deal.
For the short of it, if you ever get a call from these people, HANG UP IMMEDIATELY! Do not engage them, just get off the line. They will do everything they can to hook you into their service contract and then attempt to use scare tactics to trick you into a payment. DON'T FALL FOR IT! It is a scam, pure and simple. Do not ever make a payment to them either. We got lucky, and I hope that today's phone calls to them is the end of our contact with them. Time will tell, but in the meantime I'm keeping the FTC and AG's office phone numbers on the fridge.
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