Menu
Great American Readers
Great American Readers Customer Service Phone, Email, Contacts

Great American Readers
reviews & complaints

Learn how the rating is calculated

2.8 59 Reviews

Great American Readers Complaints Summary

27 Resolved
32 Unresolved
Our verdict: Dealing with Great American Readers, which has an average resolution rate, requires some diligence. Research their service in depth and read a variety of customer reviews for a balanced view. Approach any customer service interactions with detailed and well-prepared queries to facilitate a better resolution process.
Verify
Is this your company? Claim it and get a lot of features. Read more
Get notifications about new complaints and reviews of Great American Readers. We promise not to send you any unrelated messages.
Share
Claim Your Business
Take control of your profile: address complaints and engage with reviews
Write a review File a complaint

Great American Readers reviews & complaints 59

Sort by:

Newest Great American Readers reviews & complaints

ComplaintsBoard
D
6:03 am EDT
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Great American Readers won't cancel subscription

Was suckered into buying magazines by receiving $250 gift card. The price was 49.90 a month for 20 months back on 8/23/11. Never got the gift card. I paid for the magazines for 14 months for a total of $698.60. I then get a call in June 2012 telling me that since I was a great customer they were going to lower my payment to $39.90 which I agreed to. I am retired on a fixed income, when I checked my bank statement for August, there were 2 charges one for $49.90 and one for $39.90. Ninety dollars a month for magazines is a little much, that's my electric bill. I called to complain about the payments and I was told that in June I renewed the magazines. I am 57 years old and my hearing is excellent. Renewal was not in the conversation I had with the representative. I told them that I wanted to cancel the subscription and was told that they couldn't do that. I had to close my bank account so they would stop taking my money. They insisted on another credit card which I laughed and told them that I didn't want the magazines. I did not sign a contract and I have the right to cancel. My daughter who lives 20 miles from me called to let me know that Great American Readers called her home and was harassing her as to where I was because I refuse to talk to them. They tricked me into this second contract and want them to leave me and my family alone.     (Less)

Read full review of Great American Readers and 2 comments
Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Hide full review
2 comments
Add a comment
M
M
Misty0911
, US
Jun 30, 2016 9:03 am EDT

I'm a new victim, to this fraud that's going on. They contacted me a few days ago and offered me a $250 gift card, and said that I could call the 1-800 number at anytime and cancel my subscription. I received the papers in the mail, a couple days ago, but they didn't tell me that I was going to have to send something back in order to get all of my gifts. They had already took the $49.90 out of my account, but I never received any of the gifts. I didn't want them taking money out of my account so I called the number to cancel it, and My so called accountant, got hostile with me. He didn't want to cancel my membership, he kept refusing to cancel it. He tried to bribe me with lower payments, but I didn't want payments at all, he got even more angrier. I never dealt with a company so unprofessional. I've been scammed to many times before, and the only reason I didn't see this one coming is because they explained it so well, and made it sound good. All along there just a fraudulent company that scams people out of money. I can't keep being a victim to society, so I'm going to change that.

T
T
tariqshareef529
Irvington, US
Mar 22, 2013 6:56 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

My heart really goes out to you guys because the same thing is happening to me with these unsavory individuals. Great American Readers refusing to cancel my subscription unless I pay them 700.00 because of some contract that I wasn't given the opportunity to read or sign. The y would charge me a late fee of 59.00 I mean that's UNBELIEVABLE! And like you and I'm sure so many others, they agreed to give you a reduced fee of 39.00 a month for the subscription when they're really charging you for a renewed contract. So, not only do you have to pay the outrageous fee of 71.00 over the course of four months you also have to pay the 39.00 for the unintentional renewed contract for FIVE MORE YEARS! DO YOU THINK THAT'S FAIR, I SURE DON'T! I hope these jerks go out of business.
They can't treat their "so called customers", like this. They just can't!

ComplaintsBoard
T
9:04 pm EST
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Great American Readers magazine subscription scam

Company called and offered me 4 magazines for 5 years with only 3 years payment, plus offer of a free giftcard. I must have been crazy, because I agreed. After a few months of them taking the monthly payment from my Visa, they called and offered a 20% discount if I would pay a larger amount for just a few (4, 5 or 6) months. I told them I would think about it. Then a couple weeks ago, my purse was stolen, so I cancelled all my cards. All of a sudden, GAR started calling wanting a payment because the Visa had been declined. I explained that I had to cancel everything because it was stolen. They have called every day since, getting really belligerent and hanging up on me in midsentence. I have never received the magazines I agreed to, but have gotten numerous others that I have no interest in. Plus the gift card promised was nonexistent; turns out you have to shop at certain stores and send GAR receipts and then you get reimbursed. This whole deal is bullcrap. I wish I had never agreed to their scheme.

Read full review of Great American Readers and 1 comment
Hide full review
1 comment
Add a comment
M
M
marcus5101
, US
Apr 10, 2012 10:08 pm EDT

gar is a bad deal talked to a guy and he told me i agreed and the have audio i did not talked to the manger did not know i was beenning taped the guy asked me if i wanted to listen to the tape so i sed yes it sounded like it was two different audio like they used a old wore out tape and the digital audio you could not hardly her or understaind the guy do to facted it sound old grainy and poor sounding but you can her my ansewer clear i told the guy that i did not talked to the superviser my call got dropped by my cellphone the guy tolded my if i did not agree to they will take to court so bewere of gar

ComplaintsBoard
B
9:50 pm EST
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Great American Readers scam

I received a cell phone call from this company telling me that I had won $1, 000 dollars. I'm 18 and they tricked me into agreeing to pay $49.90 a month for 20 months for magazines. Once I realized I wasn't winning $1, 000 dollars, I tried to cancel and I was told I could not cancel. I approved my mother to be put on the account so she could talk to them. She was told that we were stuck in 20 months of service but that they would lower the amount each month. Then she asked to speak a supervisor that could approve a cancellation and he said that he reported to the owner of the company that did not take customer calls. She told him that we had cancelled the credit card linked to the account and how would we receive our request for payments. He said that we would be to their collections department. She asked to speak to the collections department and he said they do not speak to customers. With threats of reports to the Better Business Bureau and the STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL’S OFFICE, She told him he was useless and hung up. Then called back to cancel again and the customer service department told her that the account was already cancelled and gave her a cancellation number. I strongly encourage everyone to report this company to STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL’S OFFICE so an offical investigation can be started.

Read full review of Great American Readers and 6 comments
Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Hide full review
6 comments
Add a comment
D
D
debby k
, US
Aug 09, 2010 5:22 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

i was also contacted by the great american reader company. I was told i won a 1, 000 shopping spree.I never received it. I was stupid enough to give them my credit card number. i felt like something was not right after talking with them. I called my credit card company and canceled the card. GAR had alredy put through 29.90. Now i just received a letter demanding full payment of 568.10 with a finance charge of 15.00.I am in the process of filing a police report and turning it over to the bbb.I learned the hard way. Never give your credit card to anyone over the phone.If they insist just hang up.

N
N
NoelleK
Richland, US
Jan 11, 2011 6:42 pm EST

They told me I had won a $1000.00 VISA card and all I had to do was order 4 magazines for $1.83 per magazine. Dummy me gave them my card number and they started charging my account $39.90. They did not send me the magazines I wanted, but did infact send me some magazines...that I have absolutely no interest in. I called them to cancel my "subscription" and they told me thay can't cancel until all the payments are made...for 4 years! I told them that's the point of a subscription...cancel the order and they quit sending them. Nope, they can't do that. Regarding the $1, 000.00 "VISA"...well, it's not a visa, it's a certificate to a cheesy website www.selectyourgifts.com that barely has any products. The products they do have are cheap...like a 1998 collector Christmas ornament of some dead singer. Oh boy. Plus, you have to pay shipping that is more than the product is worth...like a no-name workout cd costs 7.95 to be shipped using UPS ground with 7-14 day delivery. Yeah, right! Now I am expecting them to call because I've cut them off at the bank. According to all the people here that have gotten tangled up with this company, I can look forward to them calling me and threatening me and so on. I just wish I would have seen this web site BEFORE I thought having magazines would be a cool thing. HOw is it that people have been getting scammed by this company for years and somehow the company is still in business and taking people's money? How do we shut them down? Put them in jail?

B
B
B. Bivalacqua
Kenner, US
May 25, 2011 9:21 pm EDT

This company called me and offered what I thought to be a good deal on some magazines I wanted. Instead I started getting magazines I never ordered, I was getting so many odd magazines, I canceled my bank info and payment. Now they are harrasing me saying I owe them over 800 dollars! For Magazines? Everyone you talk to is rude, and they say there is no way to get out of this and they are turning me over to collection. Why can't the government shut down companies like this? I saw so many complaints on this company when I logged on, so I wasn't the only one fooled by them. I have reported them to BBB and will call the police and file a complaint there too.

T
T
81tom
tunkhannock, US
Oct 18, 2012 1:50 pm EDT

Scammed money off my debit card

A
A
asapua
Honolulu, US
Feb 15, 2012 3:13 am EST

So in all, what did you say to them to get it cancelled? I tried cancelling myself, but the girl told me she couldn't do that, she could only lower the price... i thought of that as CRAP, told her I don't want the damn magazines, and I'm cancelling my card because this is not something I want. So i asked for someone higher up, she said the person was busy and would call me back. I didnt get a call back, so I called again the next day and no one answered... ALL DAY, every time I tried calling. So finally I left a message saying I want my account cancelled or else I'd go to the better business bureau and the state attorney general, because i remembered seeing someone telling them that and they cancelled, but I didnt get a call back to confirm the cancellation... I want to call again, but I want to make sure I say the right things. Can you tell me what you said?

L
L
Lalalss
Kileen, US
Feb 02, 2011 7:56 pm EST

I was stupid enough to give them my details also. I don't know why, maybe because I actually am medically inclined partially ###ed, if you consider calling someone who is depressed out of their mind and can't take 'no' for an answer, then yeah, I'm stupid. But i got scammed, they must have hacked into careernetwork.com cause in order for me to apply for a job i had to click two ' free' subscriptions (im pretty skeptical of those things but since it was a re-nouned website i was like, "this surely can't be right, but whatever"). Then i received a call from them and they said "thanks for your application" ( they didn't clarify, i was just thinking it was the actual job application), then they told me my subscription would be "$3.88p/w so, $18.00 a month" for 20 months, and told me that i can't back out or cancel the subscription then transferred me to their 'financial' division. There they told me i had subscribed to apparently 49.90 for 20 months and asked me when they would prefer the first payment to come out, i told them 1st March. However, a week later on the 20th Jan $49.90 came out and i was like, "wtf, over!"

I lost my card (suck ### to them) so i went to the bank and got a new one and when i called a couple of days later to make a stop payment their was no point cause the card was already canceled and they can't use it. ( i guess thats one way to get rid of them) Only problem i have now, is that if they try to threaten me in any sense, well let's just say it's lucky i went to JAG, filed disputes and whatever else and if they cause mental distress to a mental ill patient already ( yes, i have a personality disorder, and others) well.. poo to them.

Don't fall for this scam. It's terrible.

P.S The million dollar sweepstake they sent me is funny. They used random 'deluxe' rich style pictures, also all the winners on the bottom look like their pictures were taken in the 40's, and their isn't a single winner who looks like they are from this era in time. Sad. Below it says ' Real people - real winners'. Lol.

Also. The $250 gift card, is just a peice of A4 paper with a ### colored watermark, which so easily was done on word.

ComplaintsBoard
R
11:00 pm EST
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Great American Readers bogus 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. They would tell me it was for magazine subscriptions. When my wife got home, called them back on speaker phone. They went into their spiel of an "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. Who the hell agrees to that? They kindly offered to play back our "verbal contract"- by all means, I want to hear this...she pulls up a digital recording...their computer voice asking questions, 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. That was early October. 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, etc. 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"...but 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! Tomorrow, I'm contacting the USAA fraud department and check status of our report, and seek suggestions for next steps - Colorado Consumer Protection, Attorney General, legal action, etc. We are definitely not paying another dime to these scammers.

Read full review of Great American Readers
Update by Ric_denver
Dec 05, 2011 1:24 am EST

followup: this issue has been resolved to our satisfaction. The MN BBB was absolutely key to winning this issue...but our case might have been unique, as we held the high ground since GAR could never prove we had agreed to any contract with them. Here's a summary of our actions, so that others might also see success vs GAR:
- GAR: immediately after noticing charges on MC, called GAR and demanded proof of "verbal contract". they could provide none.
- Credit Card: contacted USAA Mastercard, informed them of issue, they immediately cancelled our MC and issued another. Disputed the charges via their process (1 page signed). Since this was an unapproved charge, they also reimbursed us for the 3 x $49.99 payments that GAR had rx'd.
- Consumer Boards: published this complaint and one other at /link removed/
- GAR: when they could not charge our cancelled MC, we got a letter (only written communicatino from them in entire process) telling us to pay by 1 Dec or it was going to collections.
- BBB: ***submitted complaint to Minnesota BBB. This was key. http://minnesota.bbb.org/
they have many complaints vs GAR and are very experienced in dealing with them.
- Credit Report: upon advice of USAA, submitted Initial Security Alert for all 3 credit bureaus so that we would have some recourse when/if GAR attempted to go to collections and damage our Credit Report. did this at Experian, but it auto-replicated to the other two: https://www.experian.com/fraud/center.html
- BBB: within 2 days of submitting complaint, MN BBB already had an agreement from GAR to cancel our account and seek no further payments.
- GAR: called GAR rep who replied to the BBB case and opened conversations with the BBB Complaint #. She knew of the case and confirmed that account had been closed and no further payments.

Hide full review
ComplaintsBoard
N
2:05 am EDT
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Featured review
This review was chosen algorithmically as the most valued customer feedback.

Great American Readers - fraud and deceptive practice magazine subscription

Problem, fraud and deceptive practice, and direct violation of the national do not call registry ; via magazine subscription telemarketing service of great american readers, bloomington minnesota... (Read this, any class action suit seekers out there?, i'm willing if you are...) My husband agreed to a 4-magazine subscription for 1 year from a telemarketing...

Read full review of Great American Readers and 8 comments
ComplaintsBoard
B
12:34 am EDT
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Great American Readers cancellation

I want to cancel the magazines I keep recieving as they are not anything I would read not only that but I never ever agreed to pay $900.00, I keep getting thier bills and I have sent them back with cancellation request in there and I get no answers only more bills. What will it take to get results. They only were suppose to take out of my debit card a one time fee of $49.00, after that a payment of $15.00 a month plus I never recieved my gift cards I was promised.

Read full review of Great American Readers and 1 comment
Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Hide full review
1 comment
Add a comment
L
L
Larry McCombs
Bloomington, US
Jul 06, 2011 8:13 pm EDT

I'm having the same problem with this sham of a company. They keep sending magazines I didn't request. They have nothing I'm interested in. A fraud that needs to be stopped. They won't stop sending mags.

ComplaintsBoard
D
5:17 pm EDT
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Great American Readers will not cancel subscription

i have not even received any magazines & they are refusing to cancel my order. i'm not asking back for my initial payment, but i feel that i was deceived, even though i may have misunderstood what they wanted, since nothing waas shipped out yet, they will have to do the right thing, i will rather spend money on attornee fee, since it will be cheper than the price that they are trying to take from me

Read full review of Great American Readers
Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Hide full review
ComplaintsBoard
K
2:42 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Great American Readers I don't want anything to do with this co. Because of all I have read but I made the mistake of giving them my debit #

The day they called i had just lost my dog of 15 years and they called atleast 4 times and I just wanted off the phone i thought i was going to pay one month of $49.90 until I got paper work a week later I don't want any thing from these people. my anxiety level was higher than it's been in years plus I am on medication for depression and I'm in constant neck and back pain due to whip lash that happed over 8 years ago.. all I want to know is how to get my debit card # away from them I have written to the BBB and got a response from them now I guess I have to make a police report and tell my bank not to allow them to take any funds out of my account or change my account all together..

Read full review of Great American Readers and 2 comments
Hide full review
2 comments
Add a comment
D
D
david berryhill
, US
Nov 17, 2011 11:09 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

My daughter sighned up for a free magizine. Now our home is over loaded with magizines that we dont want. My daughter called them three months ago and told them to stop. They have not.
Now they want over $700.00 dollars or they claim it will go on her credit report. What can I do. I hate to hire an attorney, but thier customer service is smug and threating.

D
D
david berryhill
, US
Nov 17, 2011 11:06 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

How can I get out of this terrible situation. My daughter keeps getting these magizines and is now billed over $700.00. I heard her on the phone three months ago telling them she does not want the magizines. Thier customer support is smug and is no help. Can she be liable even thought she never signed anything. This happen on the internet. Pleae help.

ComplaintsBoard
D
10:44 pm EST
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Great American Readers collection on magazine scam

The people of Lubke-Baker & Assoc. have been harrasing me about collection on a scam deal done by Great American Readers. What I was told was that Lubke-Baker & Assoc. were a firm and had me beleiving that they were going to settle the case with Great American Readers which is a company that sends you magazines for a monthly fee that you have to pay for 2 years. I cancelled within the 14 day grace period but instead of canceling as I had asked the person on the other end of the phone extended the due date of my payment out an extra month. Long story short, I had my credit card cancelled so that the greater american readers wouldn't get any more money from me due to them being a scaming company and now they have this second scaming company Lubke-Baker on me to collect an outstanding debt of over seven hundred dollars and they can settle the case for me for a mear 199.19. Only thing is they lied about when they were going to cash the check, they lied about the amount of the check and from what I have read on the internet if you give them your checking information they will process the same check through your bank over and over for different amounts. This goes on until they get caught. Fortuniately I went to the bank the very next day and closed my checking acount down so they wouldn't get any payment at all. I work to hard for my money to throw it away to scam artist.

Read full review of Great American Readers and 2 comments
Hide full review
2 comments
Add a comment
A
A
Ann HArper/Josh HEtrick
Idaho Falls, US
Jul 01, 2011 4:34 am EDT

this company took my client's debit card number and has charged him 1000.00 for magazines. I have told him not to pay becuase of the fraud involved. This makes me very mad!
I want this reported to the bbb and something needs to be done immediately!

Ann Harper LSW/TSC

N
N
Nurse76
LaPlace, US
May 19, 2015 11:05 am EDT

I too fell for this scam! I am outraged by this so-called "business"! I totally misunderstood what was going on when these damn telemarketers called me! Now, after making 2 of the monthly payments, this "company" claims they will be contacting a lawyer to claim the over $800 I supposedly owe them. I never received any gift cards, and am completely pissed off at myself for falling for this! Customer service was a complete joke...and extremely rude. Beware!

ComplaintsBoard
S
11:38 pm EST
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Great American Readers fraud

This is a group that manipulates customers into purchasing rubbish. Solicited callers at home are manipulated into submitting personal bank account information. Please contact your banker and change your account information. GAR will persistently continue to pester you, but REMEMBER you have the right not to disclose your personal information over the phone to ANYONE! The only way to get these guys off your back is to change your account info. (This means you need to talk to your banker about changing the account numbers on your debit card. If you used a credit card, you need to call the number on the back of your credit card and ask to deactivate it or report it stolen.) But first meet with your banker.
The only two numbers I have acquired to contact these fraudsters are listed here.

Good Luck... A friend of mine was manipulated by these guys and lost about $1000. Their wolves and they will not stop calling or withdrawing from your account. If you have been frustrated with canceling your account at GAR don't waste your time. They won't let you. Just change your bank info w/your banker and they can't pull anymore money out of your account.

Read full review of Great American Readers and 7 comments
Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Hide full review
7 comments
Add a comment
A
A
AlanzoP
Brooklyn, US
Nov 30, 2009 11:39 am EST

My name is Alanzo phillips and I'm here to file a complaint against Great American Readers. They called me and told me that they will give me a $1000 gift card when I order magazines for a low price for 60 months but they end up charging $598.00 for the magazines even though I told them to cancel the order. They was also bei g rude to me and they told me that I have 14 days to cancel and I called them before that. All of sudden later on, I get a $598.00 and I Neva received what they said that they would of give me and that's why I was trying to cancel the order. This company is fraud for real and I want something to be done.

R
R
rapturetrumpet
Wayne, US
Oct 01, 2010 6:05 pm EDT

These guys send you a $1000 gift certificate on a website for Cheap Crap. You cant even use anything on the website. They start sending you magazines you didn't even choose. They started charging my card $39.90 a month. They didn't tell me there refund policy in the beginning. When i tried to cancel a month later they said i would need to pay a balance of $600.00 to cancel my account. I told them no. These guys are scammers dont sign up with them. They use unfair pressure tactics to make you signup.

K
K
kittyweb65
Leander, US
Nov 22, 2010 8:51 pm EST

After reading all the complaints, I called the company nd was able to cancell, the girl said a rep would all in a fe days to resubmit the funds back into my account. We will see if this happens. I have already notified my bank.

W
W
WHITNEYCHRIS
, US
Jun 15, 2011 10:20 pm EDT

I'm in the military and I had received a call talking about a promotion that I had won and I had signed up for the free magazines. I had made my first initial payment of 37.90 or something like that and never received my $1000.00 worth of gift certificates, but I did receive magazines every so often. I received a call today about not paying my bill because the card I had initially used I had lost. They tried to tell me that I had affirmed a contract by accepting the terms of engagement for 4 years, which I didn't. Also said that if I wanted to pay everything off then it was going to cost me, $773.00 for a loan for magazines, like really who does that? If I really wanted a magazine I'd buy one from the store, not take out a loan for one. They started threatening me about sending a letter of indebtedness to my branch of service for not paying, but I also told them that I tried to call the number back that I had first set everything up through to cancel, which I could never get through. THESE PEOPLE ARE SCAM ARTISTS, JUST TRYING TO MAKE A GET RICH BUCK. DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO THEM.

A
A
alice fay clark
Milford Center, US
Oct 06, 2010 8:31 am EDT

I think that we all should get together and file a class action suite on GREAT AMERICAN READERS . If they want to play this game lets fight back maybe one on one they can bully people but if we stand together maybe we can get our money back.

Z
Z
Zozarosa
Arvada, US
Oct 04, 2010 3:01 pm EDT

Great American Readers
I received a solicitation from this company awhile ago. It sounded too good to be true but I agreed if I received a list of magazines, I would review it and order some. I didn't get a list, I didn't get a $1, 000 credit card but I have received numerous magazines, none of which I ordered or would be interested in ordering. I have called to cancel any subscriptions and send each magazine back with cancel, refused, return to sender written on each one. I still received invoices and threats to turn me over for collection. This is fraud and please do something immediately.

Z
Z
zebra kitty
Indianapolis, US
Dec 09, 2009 1:27 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Last week they were making calls claiming a person won a $1000 gift card from purchases made using their Visa or Mastercard on Black Friday.

They deduct that money right away. No sooner had my friend called me about that uneasy feeling we were online checking the bank account and it was already a pending transaction...

Christmas time is always a difficult period to understand someone may be evil, but during this recession is especially daunting.

ComplaintsBoard
R
5:17 pm EST
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Great American Readers scam/ripoff

I have tried several times to call this company only to get the last four digits as letters that do not corespond with a number. Plus they didnt even give me any of the magazines I wanted to boot! Frustrated is an understatment. I guess the only recourse I have is to permanetly block them on my bank account and report them to the Better Business Buruea. Sorry about the spelling as I am so upset I can't hardly stand it.

Read full review of Great American Readers
Hide full review
ComplaintsBoard
J
12:30 pm EST
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Great American Readers poor service

From day one my order on these books have not been correct. Trying to talk with these people is like talking to a wall. You can't ever get an honest answer with the connection they have with receiving the $1, 000.00 in gifts that's promised due to signing up. Once I've tried to order some of the things that was promised with my $1, 000.00, the web-site is always under some sorta problem. It's been times that once I've contacted them, the excuse was their site was under construction and wouldn't be available for sometimes months later. Last, but least the items are junk that you wouldn't wanna give to someone you don't like. They promised me that I could obtain a real nice computer for my college daughter, which was my only true reason for signing up, NOT even close. It's just like I just have to take it and pay my funds every month.

Read full review of Great American Readers
Hide full review
ComplaintsBoard
K
2:23 am EST
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Great American Readers fraud

Do u have any power over these thifes ?How long is this going to go on! THEY DID'NT SEND ME ANYTHING, WHEN I started calling us and threatning us I said we don't even know u, Rudest Folk I ever heard-Threats Threts Threats- Bad mouths Bad Mouths Said u'll pay and then we're gona ruin your credit TOO... And for Wal-Mart to be in on this what a shame I'm telling any/everybody about this the nerve to be doing this to a Diabled american I;m on a set income and it seem the goverment is helpping everyone Rip us off and take what we have left! This Realy needs attention right NOW! I see the say complaint about this company going back yrs. whats with that is this thier web site or what, I think it's time we all start sending letters to Bloomington MN> Attorny General and my self I going to send one to Walmart home state and see what they have to say about this! They want a Fight thats what their all going to get I say we start a web. site and then we get the Newsshows in on it It's a Disgrace what the get away with we need to stick together, start sending me e-mals and well all get together on this!

Read full review of Great American Readers and 1 comment
Hide full review
1 comment
Add a comment
A
A
apps44cal
Baltimore, US
Dec 09, 2010 2:47 am EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I wonder if great american readers is associated with mountain area communications

ComplaintsBoard
N
5:01 pm EST
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Great American Readers fraud scam

Im an a college student. This company (Great American Readers) called me to tell me I had won 1000 dollar online gift card and would only need to pay $49.99 a month for 60 something magazines. Then, they asked for my card number. After looking up the company online I couldn't find it and only found complaints about it being a fraud. I politely told the man I was talking to that I did not want to give my card number out and he get got very defensive. After not agreeing to give him my number, he hung up on me. Don't fall for this company please.

Read full review of Great American Readers and 1 comment
Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Hide full review
1 comment
Add a comment
D
D
Donald Stinnett
Louisville, US
Sep 05, 2013 11:23 am EDT

I have actually been scammed by this company, they told me that I had won a 250.00 gift certificate which I never received. To "spice it up" when they started their magazine crap, the lady on the phone said it was her "first day on the job and that I needed to help her out by signing up for this subscription." Through her very poor English she told me I would receive 2 magazines a month for 20 months and that after a one time payment of 49.90 the remaining payments would be 10.00 a month. I also was under the impression that these were the subscriptions to "Guns Magazine" and " Tactical Pro" which I had requested with the NRA. I though that GAR was simply the distributor used by the NRA to sell their magazines. Frankly 10.00 a month really isn't that bad and these were going to be magazines I would enjoy reading, so I agreed to the 2 magazines for 20 months for 10.00. Then when the "one time payment" was subtracted on my statement, I didn't give it a second thought. However, once I saw the same "one time charge" had been repeated I immediately contacted GAR to address the problem. It was then I was informed by a so called "manager" I had signed up for 5 magazine subscriptions for 49.90 a month for 20 months. This was absolutely not what I was told when I had agreed to the charges and promptly asked for a refund to which they simply refused and began to assure me they would "work with me on my payments." I have just simply gone to my bank and closed my account and opened a new one with a new check card. Their "financial department" still calls my phone twice daily stating "its very important I return their call regarding my account." I have yet to hear from their scammers in crime the "big scary collection agency", but I will be getting a new phone in a month anyway and will be changing my number. My advice to anyone reading this is don't ever give bank account or card numbers over the phone and never take freebies because there is always a nasty catch.

ComplaintsBoard
B
4:27 am EST
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Great American Readers will not let me cancel

I have called Great American Readers several times to ask them to cancel sending the magazine's. The young lady said I could not cancel. She had told me if I wasn't happy I could cancel at any time. The next day I called asking them to please cancel That I was on disabilty I could not afford the payments. I was told they would not stop that I would be getting more magazines. I have received many magazines. I have never heard the name of some magazines I have received. Two payments were taken from my credit card. I had to get a new credit card because another person had charged on my card. After receiving my new card they called and was very rude to me. Politely I ask the lady to stop calling. She replied to me I will call any time I want. I told the lady my name was on the do not call list. After I told the lady it was worse. Started calling on my home and cell phone. We were on vacation in September and had went out to eat. When we returned the front desk clerk said I had a phone call. He gave me the number and it was Great American Readers. I do not know how they knew we were on vacation. This was a shock to me. I ask how did you know we were on vacation and where to call to. The lady told me they had ways to find out and it wasn't any of my business. This has been going on for months. I received a letter 11/18/2010 stating balance to pay in full $678.30, past due $274.50. giving me 10 days in our office that I wa suthorized to proceed with my maximum effort to collect this just dept. The letter was from Great American Readers. P. O. box 20051, Bloomington, Mn. 55420. Phone number [protected]. I do not owe.tried to cancel. I have had phone calls from different people. I kindly told them I have called and mailed letter asking to please stop calling .

Read full review of Great American Readers and 1 comment
Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Hide full review
1 comment
Add a comment
N
N
norvin vivas
Houston, US
Nov 29, 2010 6:11 pm EST

i agree with you this company "Great American reader's " should be stoped for scamming people that cant even afford that payment in this economy. I got scammed by this company that have workers that have an education of a 6th grader and i am really mad but i got a solution maybe they have sent you a letter that is saying " That they are going to file a fraud claim against you " if you ever got your money back from that card that you canceled it turns out they cant do anything just encourage them to take you to court most likely they wont the reasons why well we have all the things needed to take them down one thing is that they are impersonating a collector because that agency doesn't even exist at all! that is very illegal that reason that i know how come since both of them are different company's how do they know very well that name of the workers and this happened to me once they called he told me he was from the collecting agency and then tells me that his :co-worker: talked to me and i said how do you know her name and he just hanged up and then the magazines are only promotional magazines which in other terms means "free magazines " which come from the publisher so how the freaking way should we pay 49.90 for free magazines man i got so many proofs that can take that company down and turns out the address is fake they are not from bloomington they are Minneapolis
and dont worry guys who ever fell for this no life scam artist we are not in contract and after all that remember they said they were from "visa, master card, etc... they lied and its called impersonating as well so really this company is full of crap but to help you just say that you called the bbb, ftc, and your state general oh and the postal office scam office they will help you alot and tekll them you have a lawyer and demand them to go to court thats what i want to do so i need the help of everyone to to take this company down for once and for all so please send me by email or mail your story at Cosmeticos@live.com or norvin vivas at 11515 brookledge, Houston, TX 77099 and i promise i will help you get rid of this guys when you need my help

ComplaintsBoard
G
8:52 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Great American Readers will not cancel order

I have been dupe into buying this scam from this company. Just like the other complaints about this, they will make you into thinking that you will only be paying $3.83 a week for 5 free magazines but they will not tell you that they are taking them in advance that's why you will be paying $25.00 a month. And they will not tell you that you will be paying it for 20 months but they will play you a recorded question where you will answer yes or no but you will not hear the 20 consecutive months. The magazines, if you pay a yearly subscription directly from the magazine company, like Reader's Digest will only cost $14 compared to their $60 ($5 a month times 12 months).

They promise to send you a gift certificate for $1, 000 shopping spree and when you ask what I can get there they don't even know what items are in there. When it comes to you and you go to their website the items there are like from five years ago.

I wanted to cancel the first time but I was given the run around. Can somebody tell me how to cancel? I'm just afraid that they will mess up with my credit score if I stop paying them without them agreeing to cancel my subscription. Will somebody please help me?!

Read full review of Great American Readers and 1 comment
Hide full review
1 comment
Add a comment
A
A
asapua
Honolulu, US
Feb 15, 2012 3:04 am EST

I need help too! Did you find out what to do? Because I've already cancelled my debit card i gave them, but I dont want to be hasselled by debt collectors. Please get back to me

ComplaintsBoard
A
4:07 pm EDT
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Great American Readers scammers

I am an attorney and have made aware of the scam that's being carried out by Great American Readers (and/or Blue Whale Publications, which appear to be one in the same). Recently, I helped a client get completely out of the alleged "contract" she had with GAR (which doesn't seem to be enforceable anyway), and the company stopped attempting to collect on her debt altogether. I know how to deal with these scammers. If this has happened to you, email me at [protected]@gonwalawgroup.com and tell me your story.

Read full review of Great American Readers
Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Hide full review
ComplaintsBoard
E
9:38 am EDT
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Great American Readers magazine order scam

Great American Readers LLC -

here's who heads it: Incorporated by Peter Hanssen, Great American Readers, LLC is located at 6281 Hummingbird Rd Excelsior, MN 55331. Great American Readers, LLC was incorporated on Sunday, January 04, 2009 in the State of FL and is currently active. William Salim represents Great American Readers, LLC as their registered agent.
Source: Public Record data - Department of State - Division of Corporations.

has but my name in about 12 magazine subscriptions, and processed it via a middle man either Priority One Clearing, or Budget.
I have stopped all subscriptions but all publishers tell me I, as a consumer, have no power in cancelling magazines, as I was not the one who ordered the magazines. MAGAZINES HAVE TOLD ME I AM POWERLESS - I THINK NOT!

I have contacted the Attorney General in MN and in FL as they are incorporated in the state of FL. I have read there are dozens who have fallen victim of this SCAM, please contact Attorney General's office in FL too, as they are incorporated in the State of FL.

TO ALL VICTIMS; DO NOT GIVE IN TO THEIR SHAKE-DOWN OF MONEY, THERE ARE NO BETTER THAN LOAN SHARKS!

Read full review of Great American Readers
Update by EmmaJames11
Sep 09, 2010 9:40 am EDT

I too have had the same thing happen to me!

Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Hide full review
ComplaintsBoard
C
1:17 pm EDT
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Great American Readers will not cancel order

I call Great American Readers to ask them to stop sending books to me because my husband was just layed off . I was told that they Could not stop them that if Iwanted to stop them I needed to pay them 600 dollars I said Why would I pay for some thing I dont want. The young lady on the line told me that it was not her problem that my husband got layed off and that i needed to find a way to pay them .

Read full review of Great American Readers
Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Hide full review
ComplaintsBoard
K
5:38 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Great American Readers they sent me a gift certificate and i can't even use it, now they are going to bill me.

this company is runing a bonafide scam. i called to inquire as to how do i go about getting the order with my gift certificate and the person i spoke with did not have a clue about how to log on and confirm the gift certificate. i will not pay any money for the 60 months because i wil take legal actions. something need to be done about this.

Read full review of Great American Readers
Hide full review
Trust badge
Collect Your Trust Badge
Be recognized for outstanding customer service

Contact Great American Readers customer service

Your Voice Matters: Our Commitment to Genuine Reviews

Empowering Real Experiences

At ComplaintsBoard, we believe in the power of true customer stories. Our platform is a space for authentic voices, where experiences, both good and bad, are shared openly and honestly.

Dedicated to Authenticity

ComplaintsBoard is vigilant in our fight against false reviews. Our team employs robust verification methods to ensure every review reflects a real customer experience, upholding the integrity of our platform.

Encouraging Detailed Feedback

ComplaintsBoard values reviews that come with real evidence. Whether it's a photo, a detailed account, or additional documentation, such substantiation adds credibility to your story, helping others make better-informed decisions.

Balanced and Constructive Conversations

We're more than just a complaints board; we're a community for balanced dialogue. ComplaintsBoard encourages reviews that not only highlight issues but also acknowledge positive aspects, fostering a fair and comprehensive understanding.

Free and Fair Platform

ComplaintsBoard's commitment to maintaining a free and unbiased platform is unwavering. Every review is treated equally, ensuring that your voice is heard and respected, regardless of the nature of your experience.

Is ComplaintsBoard.com associated with Great American Readers?

ComplaintsBoard.com is not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way officially connected with Great American Readers Customer Service. Initial Great American Readers complaints should be directed to their team directly. You can find contact details for Great American Readers above.

ComplaintsBoard.com is an independent complaint resolution platform that has been successfully voicing consumer concerns since 2004. We are doing work that matters - connecting customers with businesses around the world and help them resolve issues and be heard.

Use this comments board to leave complaints and reviews about Great American Readers. Discuss the issues you have had with Great American Readers and work with their customer service team to find a resolution.