I was already recieving several magazines from another telemarketer and put my name on the do not call list shortly after that subscription, this happened about 2 years ago.
A company called me up saying they were Heartland, Inc. And they had alot of personal information on me and somehow even knew the exact magazines i was already getting but talked so fast after that i could barely understand what the lady was saying. I didn't give them any information and hung up.
Somehow, someway they started taking money electronically out of my account and sent me a letter stating my new "account" with them. It was for the same magazines i was already getting from the other company so i was basically getting billed twice for the same magazines even though i know i didn't give them any information.
I demanded they show me proof that i started an account with them and they let me listen to a recording of my voice, it sounded identical to what i said to the other company i was getting magazines through. I had alot of tragedy in my family at the time so i decided to let it go and just pay both telemarketing companies the monthly bill until it ran out and that would be the end of it, this was the least of my problems at the time.
But of course i guessed wrong! Heartland kept calling me, they kept trying to get me to say my account number over a recording, and other personal information and i kept telling them VERY CLEARLY that i have no interest in another account and asked why they were asking me this stuff and they would say the information was for verification purposes only but i wouldn't tell them nothing, they did this alot.
Then one night they called and asked me what i did for a living and how much i made a month, not thinking they could do much with that i told them, said it was for verification purposes again. Didn't think much of it then.
One day i called Heartless, Inc. Up about a week later from the last time they called me and asked them to send me a statement or something so i would know how much i had to pay them, i was just going to pay them off and get them out of my face because they were really starting to tick me off, 3 days later i read the "statement" they sent me, i was shocked to see that it was paper saying that i was starting another account! Not only that, but again for the same magazines i was already paying twice for!
At that point i called them up and started flipping out about it and the guy said very cocky that there was nothing i could about it so i better pay it. At that point i closed my checking account and got a new account and debit card. They were pretty mad they couldn't get no more money from account anymore.
Then the threatening letters came from Heartless, Inc. I tried a lawyer but that costed me a small fortune and didn't get anywhere, i eventually settled with the collection agency and paid for the original "account" with a money order and that is the end of it.
I hope if i can help one person even don't do business with telemarketers, while there are some decent ones, alot of them are pretty shady and will do anything to suck you into contracts, with them there is no such thing as "NO". The laws definatley need to be reformed, this is communism when you can't even say no and they can still do this.
If anyone is interested in a class action lawsuit against Heartland, Inc. I would be more then willing to join it.
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