I had just moved into our house we just bought, when I recieve a package in the mail from Reader's Digest Young Families. It was a box with an invoice attached, saying I owed them $6.48 and by accepting this, I'm ok-ing them to subscribe me to young readers program, meaning they keep sending me stuff, and I keep paying them. I just took on a crippling mortgage, and I DID NOT sign up for this... But now I had to deal with it.
Of course there were no return instructions included (nor could I afford to send it back to them), nor was there a phone number on the invoice to call them - so if I did not have internet access I'd be hard pressed to find a number for them. But fortunately I do, so I e-mailed their c/s and said - I did not order this, I will not be paying for it, and take me off your list. I recieved a reply from them, apologizing for this, to go ahead and keep the package as a gift, there were no charges on my account, and my subscription canceled. Great!
Of course it wasn't that easy. A few weeks later, I recieve a "past due" bill from them. I was furious, and now had to pay long distance charges to clear this up (they don't have an 800 number, if they do, they don't make it well known)
So a young woman comes on the phone who I wanted to scream at, but she was very nice and apologetic. She said that for some reason, they failed, via the e-mail c/s to cancel the charges, and she seemed genuinely confused as to why that happened. While on the phone with her, she assured me that she made the change for me and everything was fixed.
A few more weeks pass when I recieve yet another bill, this time threatening to send me to collections if I did not send payment "at ONCE!" For the third time I had to contact them (again with long distance charges) about this.
This time I really wanted to scream at the rep on the phone, but again, I was cordial, and I explained my situation - that I did NOT sign up for this, what the other c/s reps said, and again another bill.
This rep, was not so pleasent. She told me, "Reader's Digest does not send things to people unless they recieve a request to do so, and it says here we recieved a request via US Mail." First of all, I'm one who does things online - not through the mail. Secondly, she's calling me a liar. Thirdly, I was buying a house, moving, etc. - I barely had time to send out my utility bills - let alone send out for something like that, which I cannot afford.
So, AGAIN I was told, all charges were removed, and I was no longer a subscriber. It has only been about a week, though, so I may get yet another bill.
So, let's see, they added stress to my life, upped my phone bill, called me a liar, and it's apparent to me that their c/s is incompetent. Normally I wouldn't get so upset, but in this situation, they'd be taking food off of our table. I can't afford much for my daughter and so when I can get her something, it's important to me that I pick it out, instead of whatever they send me that month.
I would advise that you don't deal with them, if you can help it. Unfortunately, I didn't have a choice.
0 comments