unfair practice
Complaint
betty willis
Country: United States
have called this co several times about not receiving my magazines and ten they blame it on the postal service, i went to the post service and they every magazine came in was delivered and i am tired of paying for something i am not getting. my complaints are not being heard. they blame it on every one else. i have only received half of the magazines i ordered, but they bill me full price every month, i will stop this rip off in feb.
Comments
The "magazine shakedown scam" goes like this:
Make a sales pitch about how good this deal is, so much better than from the publisher, maybe "you even get the 60 month price". You agree, and soon find you don't get what you ordered, maybe even get something different, added magazines, missed issues, etc. When you call, you get nowhere, as they keep taking your money monthly.
They may try to stretch out taking your money monthly as long as possible, then switch to the "settlement" phase for "spiff money", all while looking like just a "mistake", "disorganized", "incompetent", or "it's the post office", rather than fraudulent, all while they run out the 60 day bank dispute clock on each new month's payment.
What they want is for you to want to "cut your losses", and try to "cancel".
They will then spring some "too late to cancel" BS on you, claiming "you agreed" to some multi-year "contract" that they never disclosed up front, twisting some deliberately vague wording that was never sent to you in writing. They will demand that you pay out to the end of this made-up "contract", including for all the magazines you are NOT getting, and maybe for some more they add, and you have to pay it all, maybe around $1200. If you actually got the magazines you ordered that would be several times the publisher's direct subscription price.
They can then offer a "settlement", maybe for $300-$400, basically for nothing, just talking and threatening you on the phone, to supposedly go away. They basically con you out of $400, maybe more if they can play you well, and the magazines they sent might have even been free publisher's samples that cost them nothing.
Even then, they might come back for more, claim there were some other magazines "agreed" to, etc.
They're looking for chumps, so if you act like a chump, they will dig into you and milk you.