I got a call about entering a sweepstakes and receiving free stuff, as long as I sign up for a magazine subscription. I was first talking to a female, then was transfered to a male who told me the previous woman was "new" at the job. It started out reasonably priced, but by the end of it, they were telling me I needed to pay 69.90 per month for 5 magazines! So I declined and I was offered a lower payment of 49.90. They have really good, persuasive fast talking sales people, and I already gave them my card number so I gave in. They will also record you agreeing to everything they are asking you. But then I googled this company and found a complaint on this site, so I called my bank right away. I found 4 pending transactions on my account: a 49.90, and three $1.00 charges by the same company. My bank told me they cannot dispute pending charges, and that I should just wait and see if the transactions go through or not. They eventually didn't, so I let it go and assumed I wouldn't be charged again for those rip off magazine prices. But then one week later, I was charged a 24.99 by a company named Magazine Virginia Beach (which I guessed were the same people). First of all, the first transaction didn't go through because I didn't want it authorized, secondly, this new transaction isn't even the same amount that I was told I was going to be charged. So I called the number listed on the transaction, and talked to a "new" salesperson who couldn't even get past 5 minutes talking to me about cancelling and decided to call in her "supervisor" who started to explain to me that I was talking to a "new" girl.De ja vu much? Same story as the first call. I then told the supervisor that I want to cancel, and she kept insisting that I am locked in and cannot pull out of the deal. When I kept insisting that I wanted to cancel, she proceeded to give me a 70% discount and that I MUST pay the monthly and whatever bs they had left to pull. I told her the bottomline was that I wanted to cancel and that I am in no legal way bound to keep paying. And if they weren't willing to cancel, I will just freeze my bank account. She then became pissy and told me that they were making an $800 loss and even had the nerve to ask me "are you happy now that our company is making a loss?" and I said "Yes." So she cancelled it. They better not charge me again. My advice, just don't give your card number to anyone calling from either Universal Reading Services or any magazine services coming out of Virginia Beach. But if you unfortunately have already, just keep insisting on cancelling, don't fall for their discounts or specials as they call it, and be ready to freeze your account if you have to.
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