I received a call in the morning on a Sunday. The telemarketer was from India and was trying to give me $300 in free gas for trying out a new marketing program. I kept saying no thanks and he would ask "can I ask why you don't want to?" It felt wierd that someone in India was desperately trying to give me free gas and I liked the guy's personality (supposedly his ID is #1842), so I finally said OK. I was told that the only cost would be $3.90 and that I had 7 days from when I received the packet in the mail to cancel. Then I was transferred to a lady who had me answer questions while being recorded.
The message said that other charges would be mentioned but not to worry, I would only be charged a fee of $3.90. I said yes to United Benefit Advantage which I was interested in, and Identity Sweep 360, and maybe Roadside Assurance? I can't quite remember, but I remember saying no to one because suddenly I was being signed up to all these different things the first guy hadn't mentioned. They were very insistent that I need to write down the tracking ID # at the end of the call (4711992), of what use this is of to me I have no idea.
I was never charged a single fee of $3.90, but individually $2.95 for Identity Sweep 360, $1.95 for National Roadside Assisurance, and $1.95 for ID Theft (I don't even remember that one) - a total of $6.85, the first lie. I received the packet for Identity Sweep 360 first and am trying it out online. So far they have not charged me the fee that they will in 30 days, so I don't have a problem with them and they are the only phone number I could get through to leave a message.
I received the packets for Roadside Assurance and United Benefit Advantage on 10-28-08, the paperwork inside even says I have 7 days to review it. I was charged $49.33 for Roadside Assurance and $29.97 for ID Theft (no paperwork rec'd yet for ID Theft) on 10-30-08. I have not been charged for United Benefit Advantage yet, but that may be because my credit card is at its limit now.
So on the weekend I tried to call the many phone numbers given to me - 1-866-680-5518,1-866-251-7975,1-866-886-7695,1-866-239-6788- they all linked into the same system, which said the estimated waiting time was 7 minutes. I waited 35 minutes and then a message came on that said thank you for calling Active Periodicals in Deerfield Beach, FL. The company is open 8:30-5:30 M-F, to leave a message please press 0. I pressed 0 but it just kept repeating the last message.
I tried again for another 35 minutes, same thing. I was alarmed, what if I had needed to cancel the membership on the weekend (not with-standing that I had already been charged)? So I tried all these numbers again Monday (this morning and again in the afternoon) and the line is continually busy. The only line that allowed me to leave a message was 1-800-511-9165 for Identity Sweep 360 and I left a message, but I doubt they'll take responsibility for the other companies.
I tried the website www.unitedbenefitadvantage.com, but there is no link to contact someone for help or information. I'm worried because I cannot contact anyone to cancel my memberships and some of them are set up to charge monthly! I'm supposed to cancel by tomorrow to be legitimate by what they told me, but at this point nothing is legitimate anymore. I will continue to try to rectify this, and I hope this report is helpful.
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