In April of being pregnant and vulnerable at 8:00 pm one night, I received a call from a telemarketing company, claiming I had won a sweepstakes, his and hers diamond watches. Somehow they managed to tack on a magazine subscription. Said it was a great deal and I could get Rolling Stone for 5 years for a fraction of the newsstand price, and he'd even throw in some free ones to go along with it! I agreed.
A few months later I noticed that this crap was expensive, and it took 4 months to get any magazines, (the diamond watches took 1 year to arrive and about 6 emails/calls to receive, and they were metal crap with a tiny cubic zirconia, not even a real tiny diamond) Anyway, I called them up and let them know that I felt like I had been lied to, and that they were frauds and scam artists. They said I signed a contract and it was bindable by law. I see now on this letter I received today that I signed the gift release form, not the contract! They are somehow holding people bindable to a verbal telemarketing agreement. All of which should be easily cancelled within a reasonable timeframe at no charge but not these people. I didn't know this at the time though. So they graciously said they'd change my payment timeframe from 27.68 for 30 months to 41.47 a month for 12 months, saving me over 400 dollars.By the way, Rolling Stone is how much a month? Times 60 months... You do the math. How does $800 total save me a bundle over newstand price?
Bottom line is - I paid them in full for 12 months. They got me for over $400 and all I received from them was 3 years of Rolling Stone and 2 years of Self. And I wouldn't have gotten over 1 year of them if I hadn't called, emailed, and bugged them about my renewals everytime I started getting those reminder cards from the magazines.
Now here it is, I should still be getting magazines but am not. I had let it go, written it off as a learning experience and had forgotten all about them, when all of a sudden Friday I get a letter in the mail from a Judy Nye, who is the "account specialist" and the letter is dated Nov. 5th with a copy stamp on it, as if it is a 2nd attempt. It says with regards to your account with us, we have been unsuccessful in having any response from you either by phone or by mail. Because of this situation, your fees are multiplying.
Then in bold and large font is says, "This account will be going to court at the end of November with our legal team!!!" (keep in mind I am reading this on December 5th)
Next is "This is very serious!"
"If this goes to the attorneys, it will become very costly to you. I would hate to see that happen. Please contact me as soon as possible to stop the court proceedings, and let us both work together to get this account paid off ASAP.
Then at the bottom is handwritten:
"Pay ASAP $189.99 (bal. Due) to pay your account IN FULL or this WILL go to court for a cost of $200.00 PLUS additional fees! MUST be paid by 12/14/08. PAY or CALL ASAP
So I immediately called. She answered the phone just saying hello, I was like, who is this? She said who is this? I say my name and start telling her I received a letter in the mail and that I paid SEF off years ago and she cut me off and said, "why don't you call me back at another time when you aren't being so rude" and then HUNG UP ON ME!!! I could not believe this. It infuriated me. I called back and got a lame cell phone like answer service, so I left her a nasty message to show her what rude was. Then I called again and left her another one letting her know that I'm a business woman and familiar with contract law and that they will hear from my lawyer. I then call customer service and a cleaning lady answers the phone.
"hello how may I direct your call?"
"is this not customer service?"
"oh I'm sorry I'm just in maintenance and happened to pick up the phone, I'm not really working here"
"what? Is there someone there who works there?"
"hold on, I'll transfer you to the manager on duty, I'm just tidying things up around here."
This is the weirdest phone call I've ever made to customer service, anywhere. So I get on the phone, they can't access my records, only this Judy, but he says he's got a good guy, a guy named Obrien that will call me.
Tonight at 7:00 pm eastern I receive a call from Judy. She says that its a fee I'm being charged for changing magazines. I never changed the magazine order. She keeps interupting me and talking over me. I keep telling her I've never changed anything and had paid in full. She says if I don't pay it will cost me $3000 in court. Says the attorney general for my state told them they were valid in their right to sue for the money or something like that. I say I'm going to write the attorney general myself, and she says "do it! But you better hurry you only have 10 days!" so I'm like, well how about you fax me the papers that you sent to the attorney general that somehow prove I owe this, and she says she will tomorrow morning, gets my work fax number.
I get home from my mominlaws to see all these reports about this same amount and scam and fee and threats... Even her name specifically, and I wonder what I should do now? I'm writing the attorney general, and I have already told her to shove her invoice up her you know what, but should I worry about identity theft or her somehow gaining access to my bank info? I have a new account so if they ever had my bank info, they would not at this point and would not have authorization. Should I threaten to sue them for the magazines I never received? For fraud and harrassment and demand a refund of what I've already paid? Do I fight back? Obviously I am not paying her anything, I don't owe it, but does she have any truth or validity in saying they can take me for $3000 in court or is that all empty threats to scare me into paying the money? What do I do to make sure I'm protected and within my rights?
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