At the beginning of April I received a call from the International Readers League in Norcross, GA. It was a solicitation to purchase magazines. At first I was not interested, so the salesman on the phone went through several offers before finally coming to one I was interested in. I agreed to pay $46 for three months in order to receive a subscription to five magazines for a period of one year. I gave my debit card information over the phone to be billed automatically.
I did not begin to receive magazines until May. The company billed my debit card as agreed for three months and then some.in October I was balancing my checking account and realized that a deduction in the amount of $46 was being drafted on my account. I called my bank to verify who was drafting, as I had not authorized a draft and I did not have the funds to cover it. Because the bank automatically honors all electronic drafts, they could not stop payment, so I ended up with a negative balance plus a $30 NSF fee.
When they confirmed who drafted the amount, I called to question why I was still paying on the magazines. I pulled a history of my bank account and found that six payments had been made to the Internation Readers League. Since my husband had been managing the checkbook to that point, he had assumed I authorized it so he didn't question it.
I instantly called the company and a representative informed me that I had signed up to pay $46/month for 20 months and I would get two years after that with no payment. There is no way that I would ever agree to pay for magazines that long. I really didn't even want to do it, but I have a way of being "taken" by telemarketers. The representative told me that she would stop payments for the magazines, but they would not refund the extra three months I had paid unknowingly.
I never received any paperwork about the agreement. The only record of our agreement was supposedly recorded and the company will not allow me to listen to this recording or submit written proof to me of this agreement. I may never get the three extra months of money back and I may never recoop what I had to pay in fees in addition to what they tried to get from me.
This company is running a scam. I know there are people out there who were sucked into their money making scheme and they need to realize that they are not alone. If enough people come forward who have been ripped off then maybe we could stand a chance of getting back what we are owed.in addition to this reporting, I plan on contacting the office of consumer reporter Clarke Howard to see what other actions can be taken to right what has been wronged.
Stephanie
Warner Robins, Georgia
U.S.A.
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