Didn't order Playboy but receive invoices
Complaint
Mike Martin
Country: United States
I never ordered PlayBoy but recently received a threatening letter from Charles Martin. He threatened to send my account to collectors if I don't pay $14.68. If this is an identity theft why did I receive the bill to my address. I assume this "Charles Martin" sends invoices using addresses from their subscribers database.
If anyone else has received similar letter, what did you do? I am not sure how to deal with this scam and I definitely don't want to be sent to collectors over $14.68....
If anyone else has received similar letter, what did you do? I am not sure how to deal with this scam and I definitely don't want to be sent to collectors over $14.68....
Comments
This is a violation of 39 U.S.C § 3001:
www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode39/usc_sup_01_39_10_IV_20_30.html
U.S. Code TITLE 39 > PART IV > CHAPTER 30 > § 3001
§ 3001. Nonmailable matter
§ 3009. Mailing of unordered merchandise
See: www.complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/GsSIVypX9ABi7AjJs5TAkg
What company name letterhead and address does this "Charles Martin" send his letter under?
http://www.complaintsboard.com/?search=playboy
"Playboy
Posted: 2006-08-22 by Marilynd
Billing scam is alive and well!
Complaint Rating:
My son started receiving bills in his college dorm this past spring (2006) for a Playboy magazine subscription that he never ordered. He ignored the bills and now he has received the same nasty collection notice from Charles Martin that others here have mentioned. Charles is only asking for $10 for the subscription, so I guess his $17 and $12 scam solicitations aren't working for him. I don't recall the exact P.O. box, but it is definitely in a city in Iowa other than Des Moines, so he's moving around, too. Let's hope he leaves the country and goes into another line of business before more innocent young people give up $10 in fear of having their credit damaged. "
"Playboy
Posted: 2007-06-14 by Stacie M
Subscriptions to minors
Complaint Rating:
Got a subscription card in the mail today for my 16 year old asking him to join Playboy for $1 an issue. Drilled him about it and he has no clue why it came. I read another complaint here about the same thing. There has to be something that can be done about this. Anyone with any ideas please email me. "
It sounds similar to this:
https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/GsSIVypX9ABi7AjJs5TAkg
Since they allow ANY response from their postcards and also responses thru their website to place an "order", with no way of even confirming who is actually placing the order, and they don't even appear to start magazines coming without payment first, they are sitting on the fence between claiming an order was even legitimately placed and must be paid, and claiming if payment is sent, an order will be placed.
They appear to feel it is safe enough to threaten to get payment, and if they then got payment, they would claim that the product was ordered, but they also appear to be aware that a lot of the "orders" they are sending these bills out on are NOT real. You can tell that from how they both include a threat, yet leave off contact information that would normally be included in any business communications to resolve any problems in good faith with an actual customer:
"there was no invoice number, no date of subscription, or account number...
Imagine...no phone number either."
Despite knowing that a large part of the orders they get thru these channels are bogus, they are attempting to block cancellation of illegitimate "orders" by consumers.
They are guiding the consumer's response to their questionable bill toward payment, and deliberately leaving off the normal information that would be part of a legitimately opened account that a consumer would use to cancel and close an account that might have been opened due to fraud, perhaps as a prank. They may also be attempting to sidestep liability under 39 U.S.C § 3001 by making ambiguous whether this is an "invoice" or an attempt to confirm an order, by leaving off the usual indications of an invoice such as an existing account number, etc.
They probably get a lot of prank "subscription requests", and do not start actual delivered subscriptions without payment, yet they are not above threatening even the victims of these pranks with sending the "account" to collection, and the implied consequences in damaged credit, even though there is at this time no actual "account", and no "account number", and they know they don't even consider this to be a real opened account subscription until they get payment.
Furthermore, they have been reported to follow up the series of "Charles Martin" letters with letters under the name of some "collection agency", but there don't appear to be reports of much beyond that.
Conclusion: Borderline scam, perpetrated by Playboy itself, designed to take advantage of the "plausible deniability" created by the large number of bogus responses they get from their "easy order" postcard marketing campaign.
File a complaint with the Postal Inspector, as outlined above.
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/billing-nastygrams-c710.html
"82 days ago by S.g. Hopkins
This bill is not legit!!! Here is the deal... I have received this bill from playboy collection manager "charles martin" i never subscribed to playboy and would not dream of doing so. " I like real people not pictures ". So what i did was this, I went to the playboy site and ordered playboy with a false name and had it sent to a friends address. We waited to see what would happen and sure enough no magazine was sent but we received a bill from "charles martin" he threatened to go to collections and the whole bit! I just laughed because for one thing he never received any kind of information whatsoever ( except where to send a magazine ) on the person that he is sending this bill to! No ssn or anything like that and he would need this information to place anything in collections on anyone! So screw him and just ignore the bills and please send a complaint to the playboy headquarters in Hollywood calif. We all know that the small amount of money for postage on these bills does not seems to affect such a big corp. But when the owner or the accountant gets wind of it you can bet that they will re-think about what information they collect on someone that is ordering their service so that the thousands and yes i did say thousands of dollars spent on this form of collections is not wasted ( that is just for the postage not to mention the cost of printing these bills and the envelope & paper ). I'm sure " hef " would not enjoy hearing how his money is being wasted. It does add up believe me...
Good luck everyone and i hope this has helped you. "
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/playboy-c350/page/0.html#c3625
"217 days ago by Gina
My son started receiving invoices from Playboy about 3 months ago. He called me from AZ (I live in IL) asking what to do about it. I asked him if he got the magazine and he said no, so I told him to ignore the invoice as they were probably trying to get him to subscribe. Last night he phoned me again saying he got a very threatening letter signed by Mr. Charles Martin. The letter said if he did not send $17.00 he would be turned over to a collection agency. However, there was no invoice number, no date of subscription, or account number...rather odd wouldn't you say? I told him to give me the phone number on the letter and I would call them. Imagine...no phone number either.
Wonder how many people have actually sent them money to keep their good credit. "
The were very helpful in canceling my automatic renewal.
The were very helpful in canceling my automatic renewal.
I TELEPHONED PLAYBOY CUSTOMER SERVICE AND THE STATED THAT HE WOULD BE REMOVED FROM THE SUBSCRIPTION MAILING LIST. THEY WERE VERY COURTEOUS ABOUT MY REQUEST. THE NUMBER 1-800-999-4438, FOLLOW THE OPTIONS THROUGH OR HIT "0" FOR AN OPERATOR.
HOPE THIS IS ALSO HELPFUL TO YOU. I HOPE THAT MY SON IS INDEED REMOVED.