Upon the date of August 8th, 2009 I recieved a phone call from a company trying to sell magazine subscriptions around 9:00 central time. They informed me that they had selected me from Master Card because of my excellent credit accountability. I was chosen to participate according to Jeremy (the sales representative I spoke to). I specifically asked them before I gave my credit card number through their voice recording system if I could cancel my subscription at any time. He replied "yes, but our customers usually don't feel like they need to, because they are overly satisfied with our magazines." After that was said I felt assured that if I were going to purcahse these magazines, and I felt like I no longer needed the subscription I could back out no strings attached. Before the conversation was over "Jeremy" told me his supervisor wanted to personally thank me..His Supervisor got on the phone (it sounded to me like the same guy as before)..But I didn't think much of it other than they were trying to be nice. He was making conversation and asked a few questions about me such as if I was currently employeed. I said yes, and I am also going to school for teaching. He told me his brother was a teacher. Small conversational questions similar to those were asked. He gave me a confirmation # as well as an order number. Then they informed me that a one time fee would be applied to my account for $49.90, and would be redeposited within 3 business days. The next day I checked my bank statement online to make sure the specified amount was the only amount deducted, and it was for a total of $ 49.90. After 3 days I checked again to make sure they had redeposited my $ 49.90, and they had. I was convinced they were the real thing. On August 18th, the first payment was automatically deducted from my checking account for the amount of $ 49.90. I could now only wait to recieve the magazines. After waiting a month and having still not recieved any magazines I began to get suspicious. I tried to call the customer service number but it was a Friday night and was after their business hours. The next payment date was coming up and I did not want them to deduct any more money from my account before I had gotten in touch with the company. Some Important things came up and it took me a few days before I finally got the chance to call. On the days I was busy with other things the day came for the second payment to be made. They deducted another $ 49.90 on September 18th. I was getting worried.
I recieved mail from the company around the middle of August. It was from

Readers' Service
357 East Maiden Street - Suite 303
Washington PA, 15301
1-866-954-3955

The letter I recieved was thanking me for allowing them to serve families like mine and how it was one of the most enjoyable and rewarding part of their work. It also stated that their plan guaranteed protection against inflation despite and increase in the cost of paper or printing. It listed the magazines I had chosen to recieve which were Rolling Stone, Cosmopolitan, Elegant Bride, Glamour, and Elle. The payment Arrangement was also typed mid page. It stated " You will pay $ 49.90 a month for the first 20 months and nothing for the remaining months of service. The total of your payments is $ 998.00

FOR YOUR CONVIENENCE, YOUR FIRST PAYMENT WILL BE BILLED THROUGH YOUR CREDIT CARD #: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ON 8/17/2009. EACH SUBSEQUENT PAYMENT WILL BE APPLIED EACH MONTH ON DAY 17 OF THE MONTH.

It went on to list some of the benefits I would recieve and ended with a "Again, let me extend our sincere appreciation for joining the thousands of customers whom we are proud to serve."
It was ended with sincerely yours, Lucy Jamison

I called the number listed under the address and spoke with someone claiming to be customer service. They replied "Customer Service how may I help You" I relpied I would like to cancel my magazine subscription.
She said "I need your order number please" I gave her the order number that was printed on the mail I recieved (which was different from the order number I was given by phone) and she replied with my name and upon confirmation from me she said "please hold"...while I was on hold I could hear a television in the back ground and the phone being brushed against something. It was not like a normal business putting you on hold. You usually can not hear any background noises. Someone who seemed to me to be the same person picked up once again and with the same voice replied " Customer Service what can I help you with" I repeated that I wanted to cancel my magazine subscription again. She said "we can not do that mam', your order has already been processed." I told her that I had not recieved any magazines and I had already made 2 payments both for $ 49.90. She informed me that it was going to take 90 business days before anything could be shipped. I got angry and told her I wanted this cancelled, and that I wanted a refund. I was not going to pay almost $100.00 to get magazines from August in November. She said she could not cancel my order because they had already paid the Magazine Company the money to keep the prices at what they promised me. I was very angry and told her that this was not right and to review my tape because I specifically made a point to ask that this could be cancelled at any time on the tape before giving my card #. She refused to cancel my order and said they would review my tape, but until then they could defer my payments until November 2009. I hung up
Later that day I called them back trying to make the same attemt to get this order cancelled. I got the same woman who claimed to be Customer Service before, the same noises when put on hold, the same lady that I got the first time, and the same answer NO. I began to get hostile with this woman. She also began yelling at me and was contradicting everything she had said the first time. She then offered to lower my monthly payments and the amount of magazines I would recieve. I told her I did not want her stinking magazines!!! This time she told me it would take 60 business days for the order to be processed ( not 90 like before)..I asked her how she could minimize the amount of magazines I would recieve if they had already paid for them, and why if she could minimize them why couldn't she cancel them. I repeditly got the same answer No they couldn't cancel my subscription. I asked to talk to the supervisor...Coincidently she wasn't "In" today. I requested that she return my call asap! Before Ending the conversation with the Customer Service I said I would call Every Single Day for as Long as it took until this order was cancelled. She said "Ok that is your perogative"

* I googled the address and turns out it is not a legitamite address..the building is there, but there is no Readers
Service in a Suite 303
* I googled Readers Service and found other complaints reguarding Scam/ Fraud...etc
* I found that there is a "used address" from the building in a Suite 201, but the suite 201 is the PA Chamber of
Commerce Building.
* They were formerly known as Budget Readers Service in the "chamber of commerce suite 201"...Bull crap
* the number that called me the night I subscribed was a Verizon Wireless cell phone number and had been
disconnected
* I obtained a few names Leslie (no last name)...Lucy Jamison...and Jeremy the guy who sold me the
subscription (whether they are fake I am not sure)

Today ( September, 23rd) I got a call from who claimed to be Lucy Jamison...it was the same voice as the customer Service representative!..I told her I refused to pay the $ 49.90, I knew this was a scam, they would no longer get any more money from me, I had cancelled my checking account, and that I had already reported this to the Attorney General of my State. She said that she figured I had already done that and that they would report nonpayment to the collection agency, and that their attorney would be getting intouch with me to serve me papers. I thanked her for threatening to report me to collections, that that was exactly what I wanted her to do and hung up. I did infact contact my states Attorney General, and cancel my account with the bank.

I plan on Calling the Credit Bureaus to warn them about this scam, incase they do try to report me
I plan on Contacting the Better Business Bureau
I plan on contacting the state of PA's Attorney General to inform them
I plan on contacting the Company's of these magazines to let them know that they have people pretending to be them, and selling scam magazines
I plan to report this to every complaint board on the internet


They may end up with my $100.00 but I'm glad I caught it early before they tried to get more money...I have yet to receive Augusts Magazines!