Publishers Business Services called my home in Fairfax, VA in November asking if I would participate in a short survey. After completing the survey they said they would award me with 5 free magazines of my choosing and all I would have to do is pay the shipping and handling for the magazines.
I thought their purpose of the call was to do a survey, but it turned out to be a magazine sale. PBS did not disclose truthfully and promptly their purpose for the call, which was to sell magazines. The sales representative on the phone said that I can try these magazines on a trial basis, and if at anytime I want to cancel I would be able to. I told her to send me more information to my home address and she then asks me if she can record our conversation in which I will give them permission to send the information to my home address.
In the recording she tells me in a very fast paced manner the shipping and handling is $29.90 a month for two years. Trying to hurry up and get them off the phone, I say yes to all their questions, not knowing I was entering a verbal contract. According to the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule it requires sellers and telemarketers to disclose the total costs to purchase, receive, or use the offered goods or services. PBS never told me it would cost me a total of $717.60 for all these magazines to be sent to my house. Wanting to get them off my phone I hang up as quickly as possible thinking I would get more information in the mail about the offering.
I later find out after receiving a bill to my house, and a phone call from an accounts receivable person that I agreed to a non-cancelable clause in our verbal contract. The FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule prohibits sellers and telemarketers from misrepresenting any material aspectone that would likely have an effect on the consumer's purchasing decisionof the nature or terms of the seller's refund, cancellation, exchange, or repurchase policies. If they made it clearly known that I was agreeing to a non-cancelable contract and that I would have to pay a total of $717.60, I would have NEVER agreed to this trial offer. I agreed for them to send me more information ni the mail about the offering; I never agreed to a contract. The act says, Sellers and telemarketers may disclose orally or in writing information about material restrictions, limitations, or conditions to purchase, receive, or use the goods or services being offered, as long as the information is clear and conspicuous and disclosed before the consumer pays. Their non-cancelable contract and the total cost of the magazines were NOT clear and conspicuous.
On the phone, the accounts receivable person threatened me by saying that if I didn't pay my bill she would send me to the collections office. I told her to cancel my subscription, and she says it's a non-cancelable contract and I can't cancel for another 180 days. She offered me a business discount in which I could pay a lump sum of $358.80 up front and that would give me a 2 year subscription to the magazines rather than 5 years. I told her that I didn't have a business and she said I can just create a name. I didn't think this was morally right and told her I would speak to my lawyers, and if they were going to send me to collections, they should start the process now because I wasn't going to pay for a bill I never agreed to.
Since I've never paid their monthly subscription fees, they have been harassing me and annoying my family and me by repeatedly calling my house number everyday and sending me bills once a week. The Rule according to FTC's Fair Debt Collections Practice Act prohibits sellers and telemarketers from engaging in certain abusive practices that infringe on a consumer's right to be let alone. The Rule's privacy protections include prohibitions on: causing any telephone to ring or engaging any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass.
Publishers Business Services falsely claimed the magazines were a trial and that I would be able to cancel at anytime. They also failed to include an official notice of cancellation or inform me in writing of my right to cancel, and connived me into agreeing to a non-cancelable clause in their contract. They engaged in false and deceptive tactics to promote their magazine sales, and engaged in intimidating tactics by harassing me with multiple phone calls a day.
Cynthia
Astoria, New York
U.S.A.
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