Great American Reader claims we entered into a verbal contract for $49/month for 20 months for magazines. We did not, and they cannot provide proof of the contract.in early Oct, noticed a mysterious $49.90 charge for past three months on our mastercard statement. Checked the phone number in the charge, and eventually traced it back to Great American Readers. I called them during "business hours" and they wouldn't talk to me, as supposedly the "account" was in my wife's name. All they would tell me it was for magazine subscriptions? Did some more research here at complaint and elsewhere, and had the scoop on these crooks - so was somewhat prepared for the next encounter. When my wife got home, called them back on speaker phone. They went into their spiel of a "contract" that we cannot cancel. I told my wife to ask them for a written copy of this contract that we supposedly signed. Oh no, it's not a written contract... We supposedly VERBALLY agreed to this insane $49 per month for 2 yrs for some magazines. No way we would have agreed to such a foolish purchase. The GAR rep kindly offers to play back our "verbal contract"... She pulls up a digital recording... Their computer voice asking questions, but no response but static. Says "I must have the wrong one"... She pulls up another one - all you hear is background noise (like a crowd or maybe television). She tries a third time - still no human on the other end saying anything, and certainly nobody from my house. The GAR rep promised to call us back later that day when she "found" the recording. I was prepared to tape that conversation, but they never called back - what a surprise. That was early October. As this was obviously a scam, the next business day, I contacted my Mastercard bank (USAA - very good), explained the above, and they immediately cancelled our card and re-issued. So, now GAR cannot charge our account. Also generated a fraud report with USAA. Of course, since they can no longer get their money... The nasty phone calls started from them to my wife, threatening, presurring, etc (all of which has also been reported by other victims on consumer complaint websites - obviously their normal practice). This wk (mid Nov) get a notice in the mail (the first document of any kind from them, by the way) that we're "past due" and if we pay soon, they'll forgive us - other wise it will have a negative effect on my wife's credit rating. Oh, and we could simply pay the $848 balance and it would all go away. Not likely. We are rx'ing a number of magazines that we never asked for, all attempts will be made to cancel these subscriptions and "return to sender" via post office, but other consumers have reported trying this to no avail. To this day, I have no idea how they got our phone number or credit card info - probably sold to them by some other vendor. I have filed a complaint with the MN BBB (one of very many they have on file for GAR). I will be contacting USAA tomorrow to check status of our fraud report, and follow any suggestions they have for further protecting ourselves from the dishonest business practices of GAR.
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