Advice please!!!
Years ago I had ordered some magazines through a service called "United Readers Service". Years ago I had let this all run out.
On or about Nov 16 I received a call from Pleasure Time Readers who said they were cleaning up their records and were terminating my account. I believe that the original readers service had changed names a few times so the fact that this company name was different didn't alert me to any issue yet. They also had all my information (check processing number etc) so it may actually be the same original company.
The first person that I talked to told me the part about terminating my account. That conversation was short and then she turned me over to a supervisor to confirm. She also claimed she was a new hire. The second person then read me all my info from their database. (I never gave him any info in this call. It was all read to me.) He said that in order to help make sure no one would contact me in the future, he would rearrange the last 4 digits of my phone number. He also changed the name of a secondary contact person to a random name in order to avoid anyone else being bothered.
Then he said that for their records, they needed to repeat this info while being recorded. So the recording began and he repeated all the info. As he spoke, he referenced an order for magazines. As I recall, he didn't really use words that said it was a new order. It was more generic and could be interpreted as my previous order. (Or a new order is what I'm afraid of.) At one point he referenced the cost. Then, I spoke up and said "And that's all paid in full. Correct?". At that point, he stopped the recording and said that the records couldn't include questions so he had to start again. Granted, this is where I am an idiot and should have hung up. But I had periodic calls from these people a while ago and I just wanted it to all end. So I let him start again.
After he was done, he said something would be mailed to my house that included a security code that I should ask for if anyone posing as them tried to call me. There would also be a magazine listing as well in case I wanted to get any.
Well, on Nov 20 I received a mailing from them that looks like an order. So far, I haven't seen any charges to my bank. This letter says that will start to happen monthly on Dec 7.
So here's what I plan on doing just in case I'm being scammed (which is what I'm suspecting):
The back of the letter says that if I submit a written cancellation within 7 business days, the order will be cancelled without penalty. So I'm going to return the letter noting the cancellation and a letter spelling that out specifically. I will have both notarized (thanks to this site for that idea) and sent by certified mail. I will also note in the letter that I am on the "Do not call list" and that they are not to contact me and that I will contact a lawyer if I get charged or contacted.
I will also call my bank as soon as possible and notify them of what I suspect, let them know its not authorized, and try to get them to block the charge.
Is there anything else anyone can suggest? I will say, that in their defense, I have not yet given anyone any money that I didn't want to. Maybe this all goes well after I send in the cancellation notice. But after reading some of the other info in here, I'm not so sure it will.
Tim
Olney, Maryland
U.S.A.
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