I received a yellow post card in the mail that states it is important that I call them. I call and am informed I've been entered into a sweepstakes to win alot of money. I'm given the impression that they are affiliated with my credit card company. They state that I'm a preferred customer and then say something about a purchase I made with my credit card recently and that's why I'm entered into the sweepstakes.
I'm then told they are sending a diamond encrusted watch to me. Lastly, after I'm all excited about all of this, I'm told that for just 3 dollars a week, they'll send several magazines to my address. She runs through a bunch of gibberish and math I don't quite get but assures me that I'll only be spending 3 dollars a week for these magazines.
I'm then forwarded to their gift department where a guy then proceeds to assure me of what she stated. Since I'm under the impression that they are affiliated with my credit card company, I figure he's just verifying my credit card information by asking for my expiration date. Then he asks for my 16 digit credit card number. I tell him I'm not comfortable giving that number out over the phone. He insists. So I do it thinking that 3 bucks a week is no big deal, plus the watch and the sweetpstakes entry. He tells me that he understands being a credit card owner himself why I was uncomfortable giving my number out over the phone. That if anything showed up on my credit card statement that I didn't approve of or it was something I didn't expect, I could just dispute it.
He then runs though a bunch of other stuff like he was in a hurry. I begin to suspect something's up. So when I hang up, I get online and realize I've been scammed. So I call them right back up to tell them I just signed up with them 15 minutes prior and wanted to cancel it before anything ships out and I get billed. They tell me that it's already being processed, I've already been billed, and the magazines and information is already on its way to me.
I then discover that they are actually billing me about 60 bucks a month. I tell her I was under the impression it was 3 bucks a week. Finally she reduces my payment to 20 something after I repeatedly tell her I want to cancel. She says that it cannot be canceled now that I've already been billed and everything is in process.
So I'm going to try and dispute it with my credit card company, but I've got this really ill feeling that it won't matter anyway. I just want this company to go away. I don't want their magazines, their watch, or their sweepstakes. I was misled and conned into this by the promise of a diamond encrusted watch and an entry into their 100,000 dollar sweepstakes...
0 comments