National Magazine Exchange review: big scam! 120

In somewhat of a defense to the people that were talked into the magazine subscriptions, I have to say that these people are excellent at bombarding you with back to back questions about buying this and that and it's almost non-stop while in all actuality you're just waiting to hear about the 2, 000, 000 dollar sweepstakes. I don't know how they go about it now but I got caught up in this deal about six years ago and it just happened to be the 2 months I was out for a hernia surgery so the pain medicine didn't seem to help me negotiate the whole deal. I ended up with a ton of subscriptions which weren't bad. It was actually a good deal for the money. Now the cheap watch and electronic planner were bottom of the line worthless garbage that was thrown in the deal but the magazine deal wasn't bad. Just beware, if you decide to call the number, the questions will come at you like wildfire and I would suggest the word "No" be ready and waiting because they will try to confuse you and "no" can save you from buying something you don't want. I would have to say that these people are the best online salesmen I've come in contact with and the bombardment method of asking you to buy different magazines can be overwheming. I do not recall any rudeness but I also don't remember any personality on the other end of the line. The perfect type of situation that could prove to be an entertaining event. Have your way with the person on the other end of the line instead of letting them get a step ahead and lead you into agreeing to something you don't want. I never tried to cancel my subscriptions because I only got the ones that I wanted but I also am not afraid to just shut people down mid-sentence when I know they're trying to sell me something I don't want. But if you want a decent deal on numerous magazines for a long period of time then it may benefit you. Just listen as closely as you can when they're speakin a hundred miles an hour and don't be afraid to ask the person to repeat the question, more than once if you need them to or just plain out tell them to stop or slowdown. Oh, and I didn't win any money. I doubt that part even exists. Good luck friends. I hope my somewhat aggressive approach can help you with this situation and maybe even other situations in life. It's definately helped me.

Well I'll remain neutral in the matter. I work for the company and don't agree with the backlash this person has received from former employees and current employees. I've seem some pretty nasty responses that are uncalled for.

National Magazine Exchange doesn't specialize in scams and yes, we have been certified for a reason. I can understand the frustration that you guys are facing, but you have to realize that nothing is free. We sponsor our sweepstakes with the money purchased on magazines.

Have you ever been told that, "Nothing is for free; someone had to pay for it." Well... it's true. We don't get "bail outs" from the government... we don't have some rich fat cat throwing us money. We make our money through magazine sales. It isn't a scam, nor are you being lied to. We are not scam artists, but average people earning a living in sales.

People here are upset and blaming us and saying we're this and that, but the truth of the matter is, on your mail piece, it DOES say that there is no purchase or payment required to enter or win. All of you who bought magazines did it willingly because no one forced you to give a credit card number and when you did, you absolutely had to know you were making a purchase. If you didn't, that's really a sad thing that you would give that information to anyone at this day in age, without knowing what you're getting... That isn't a shot at anyones intellect or integrity, but I'm just trying to say, we are hired to be salesman. The sweepstakes is legit and has been for almost 30 years, but the truth of the matter is YOU WILL BE PITCHED a sale. No matter if you have a credit card or not. Other companies pay our company good money to find people with credit cards to promote for them...

Our company gets paid for that... It's business all in the end, but if you TRULY feel you were mislead and not just "unable to say no because you're just out of highschool" which someone used as a pretty creepy excuse... you should have them pull your recorded call. In no sales business can we say that a salesman didn't lie or mislead you... not until we pull the recorded call. We have a quality department that listens to these calls all day long just to make sure you are not mislead. If it happens, it's something that can be fixed and we apologize... but it's like crooked policemen... You trust that they'll do the right then but the first time a particular officer crosses the line, you can discipline him and can even stop it from happening again, but you can't predict when it's going to happen.

I understand the plight of the consumers who feel duped and to some extent probably feel like "idiots" for allowing themselves to give up their credit card information, but I also understand the frustration of my fellow employees because after all, while we're not doing anything unethical or illegal, by submitting all of these stories, you're really putting thousands of people out of an honest living. The best thing to do is dispute the charges with the credit card company because in the end, in most cases, the only person to blame is yourself and again I don't mean that to be harsh, but it's the truth.

I can say with absolute certainty that most people we sell to enjoy what they are getting and understand pretty well how much it cost but see it as a small investment for so much.

You guys are getting a great deal. For pennies a day, you get 10 magazines and you don't have to take all 10, but they are offered to you! Enjoy them! Give them as gifts to hospitals and nursing homes! I'm actually about to take advantage of the offer myself!

Goodnight folks. I just hope you ALL realize how petty this is and ask yourself, "Am I really representing the company I work for to the best of my ability, " and "Can I really blame anyone other than myself for giving up credit card information over the phone?"

P.S. For the original poster... Magazines can take up to 9 weeks to start being sent out. It's not something that gets transmitted over to the magazine company and just automatically sent. They run on circulation so 9 times out of 10, even for weekly magazines, It can be January first and they've already got labels ready for current customers up until April so when they get your info they can't just say, "Oh let's go and print one up for Jane Doe... she just signed up through NME!" It's a process... It's not our process... it's the magazine companies'.

VERY GOOD EXPERIENCE

For the past 3 years, I have renewed with NME. I take 10 magazines and pay $20+ for a 3-mth period, and that's it for the whole year. As you know, just one of the high-end magazines can cost $60 for a subscription, so this has been an EXCELLENT deal for me. Yes, I also received 2-3 that I did not order (Bass Fishing, NBA), but I just sent in the label and discontinued them. WHERE ELSE could I have gotten these high-end magazines for such a low cost -- nowhere that I know of.

The reps I have talked to have always been very courteous, however, you can make all of your changes yourself online -- NME will switch out your magazines at no extra charge. So I am surprised to hear that others are having problems with NME.

Originally, I took Architectual Digest, W Magazine, Yachting, Vogue, Unique Homes, Spa, O at Home, Gourmet, Veranda Magazine, Psychology Today.

When I renew, I like to change it up a little, so I took Black Enterprise, Entrepreneur, Essence, Forbes, New York, Prevention Magazine, Country Living.

Then I switched out and now take More, Tampa Bay, Travel 50 & Beyond, Smart Homeowner, Forbes, & some of the same ones I've already taken. All in all, I am very pleased with NME. -- Annie in KC

I'm not clear about what NME's terms are for cancelling. I heard 10 days, but I was told "anytime", but when I tried to cancel a couple years back, they hung up on me twice. And I can't figure out why their magazines are so expensive for anyway. There's no way in hell I'd spend $67.08 for some crappy ### magazines. They don't even have a good selection. There best magazine is probably Maxim, but even that isn't all that and a bag of chips. And for you people that think we're stupid for being gullible enough to fall for their scam, you're definitely wrong. First of all, I only even called them to enter my sweepstakes number.. I had no idea they were going to throw a sales pitch at me. The guy asked me if I had a credit card and i said "yes", but i was thinking "oh ###, they want to sell me something." I should've just hung up on them, but I didn't want to be rude and I was also naive, so I stayed on the phone... He told me that if i subscribed to two magazines at half price, he'd throw in four more magazine subscriptions for free as well as a men's and women's gold watch. So I was thinking... okay, what the hell! Doesn't sound that bad... boy was I shocked when I received my first bill. And like I said, as soon as I tried to call and cancel, they hung up on me twice. And for the record, not only could I not cancel, but they charged me full price for seven different subscriptions: ESPN & Maxim (my choices and supposed to be 1/2 off), Vibe, US News, Star, Blender, and Men's Fitness... most of which were for four year contracts. Does anyone know of a class action suit against this company. I'd be tickled pink to join!

My husband enetered a sweepstakes and ordered the magazines I called within the week period to cnacel and the lady basically told me I couldn't cancel I was bound to this I said I thought I had a week to back out and she said no. So I've paid some of the money already and haven't recieved one magazine, I called and they said they were on their way. That was 3 weeks ago. Still no magazines. I am not going to pay anything more. and if they start calling I will turn them in to the bbb, Etc. I just hope they can't put this on my husbands credit report. Erin

MY WIFE WAS SENT THE SAME LETTER AND I DID MY RESEARCH TO FIND I. WAS RIGHT A BIG SCAM. DO RESEARCH GUYS PLEASE.

Thanks for this information, I just received the same letter saying that I could win all that money too.

Everything is so true. I'm a teen and my wise mom told me that it was probably a scam and I had my doubts, but thank you so much. I would have had so much debt problems. I got the same letter yesterday!

why did i get this letter and where does this sweepstakes money come from.our economy is too bad for a company to be giving out millions of dollars.just for future reference...if you want to buy magazines go to the local grocer...dont give your account info to some random person who you have never met.i wouldt even give my mom my account number...geeeeez

My husband is kind of gulliable, and he was litterally tricked into signing up for the crappy magazines at the National Magazine Exchange in early 2007. Well, I don't care for that smut, but to humor my husband, I let them send me some for a few months, then called and cancelled the order. They said that I have one payment left and that they'd stop sending the magazines. I paid the last payment of $60 (which is a TOTAL RIP OFF in it's self... $60 for a few mags?!) and they stopped sending me the magazines. Well, recently I recieved a notice that my account was grossly over due and that it was being sent to collections. I have attemped to correspond with some manager chick CASSANDRA NEW, but she ignores my correspondance, and now my husband is getting calls every day about up-grading, or re-newing, or whatever else they can think of to bug us. My husband has told them repeatedly that we nolonger wish to hear from them, to take his and my number off their call list, that they are harassing us... do I even have to say that so far they have not listened to a word we say? MY ADVICE TO ANYONE READING THIS OR CONSIDERING CALLING NATIONAL MAGAZINE EXCHANGE, BEWARE! THEY ARE LIARS, THEY ARE GREEDY, AND THEY WILL HARASS YOU TO DEATH! BEWARE!

I just recieved a sweepstakes letter it did not tell me what it was about just that I was going to need to send in to get entered in the sweepstakes so very glad i looked it up on the computer before i did anything with it. I now know where this peice of junk mail is going my birds sure do love junk mail lol

You can find out who runs the company under The Secretary of State in Ohio

http://www2.sos.state.oh.us/reports/rwservlet?imgc&Din=200802301844

HERE IS THERE PHONE NUMBER, LETS SHUT THEM DOWN

[protected]

All these companies like NME want is money even when you lose your job. I was fresh out of High school and have problems saying no (inherited family trait) it took 5 times calling before they finally canceled my subscriptions.

Do not, under any circumstances, deal with this company. Do NOT sign up for a magazine subscription, because in spite of whatever they may say to you, you can not actually cancel your subscription at any time for a refund. I have tried several times, and they say the same thing about supposedly "not taking cancellation orders over the phone." I did not believe this for a second so I kept trying and I was eventually told that they would cancel and refund my money, but it never actually happened.

Do yourself a favor and give your money to a more legitimate business that actually cares about customer satisfaction.

I called to bother the people there a little and figure out how they got my name and address. After being transferred three times and being put on hold for a total of about 6 minutes, they told me to send a letter to the company so they can respond to me through mail.
Peace

Just quit the company, after finding a real job. Most of us workers get lured in by their sales pitch on US, but then we find out how unethical and stupid the script is, and quit. Those that stay are repeatedly threatened, harassed and attacked by bosses of all levels for not sticking to script. Oh, they don't call YOU, you call them. Nobody calls you unless you initiate contact first. There are duplicate promotions out there, so if you get called, it's another company.

As for the sweeps, you have a better chance of landing on the moon or being crowned Queen of England, than winning that thing. If you cannot resist and enter, tell them to put you on the "no call" list, or your information can be shared with other companies.

In my opinion, SDP needs to shape up or ship out. In training, we were taught "Some will, some won't, who cares ? Who's next?" With that kind of attitude, they produce cookie cutter reps, who, if they don't do as they're told, get threatened like crazy. Truth is, you'd have to be a total ### to actually be fired by this place. They don't want to pay for Unemployment so they just try to pressure people out. Nothing about this company is kind or merciful. I was a verifier (a level above the people who answer the phones), and it was the most horrific job I've ever had. It was just a bridge job until I found better..and actually, flipping burgers at a fast food joint would be better than this place. Just say "no" to calling and/or applying to work at this place. I am happy free of their tentacles, forever.

Laura

Current employee---your company calls my cell phone every 2 hours M-Sat from 9AM-5PM. This has been going on for 2 weeks now. At this point, do you think I care if you lose your job, since your job is basically to harass people by calling them repeatedly on a daily basis? Nay, on the contrary, I hope that you are the one calling me and wasting your time every day and that your family loses their house, vehicles, and even starves because you have no tact. Calling somebody every 2 hours for days on end is NOT, repeat NOT, the way to do business. If your company was reputable, you wouldn't have to resort to this kind of low-brow drudgery to get customers. Hope you miss your quota because of me and are fired, sheesh even collecting unemployment is more honorable than what you people do. Have a nice day!

I ordered "ONE" magazine subscription and have been receiving others I never ordered and got charged for the same. I have attempted to cancel having no results. I have absolutely NO intention of paying for anything I never ordered. National Magazine Exchange is a HOOK leading into false charges and an assortment of other misleading items than never pan out. Now I have a huge bill from NME demanding that I pay for the magazines I never ordered but received anyway. I will NEVER order ANYTHING of the kind EVER AGAIN!

Please don't blame the people on the other end for not taking no for an answer. It's not our choice; we either keep pushing, or we get written up, or we could even lose our jobs over it. I would recommend that, before you give your card information out over the phone, make sure you understand completely what all the charges will be. You can also ask for the employee's first and last name, as well as the employee number, so if there is any rudeness on the part of the employee, you can report them to a supervisor.

Big Scam! You only need to know this: They cannot add this to your credit report, they cannot send you to the court but they send this to a collection agency. They are going to call you 3 times at with by law (Depends of the state, FDPA Federal Debt Collection Practice Art law) and they are going to send you several bills and letters. Don´t pay the bill, i work for a collection agency and i know about this business.

Me dummy. I was on my computer when taking this call, so I should have done the checking right then. Anyway, after reading all the posts, I called my credit card company and canceled the card. Man, they had already posted two charges! Tomorrow will call the cancellation number and see what they say. I won't have any more charges, and the two will be removed by cc company.

I had the same exact thing happen to me. WHAT A SCAM! They never take no for an answer. They try to make you think that you actually WON something, but you don't win anything. and i told them I didn't want any magazines and they kept pushing. And the rep that called me said if i don't like it i would get a refund in a month. So i call there a week later and they said they can't do a refund.

RIP OFF! Don't fall for it!

I called them also about the sweepstakes. i agreed to get the magazines. They told me about 50.00 but when my husband came home we called the credit card company and they charge me 90.00 for the mags. I then call the company to cancel everything they said ok gave receipt # saying that the money would return to my money. Well they did not give back the money but instead sent another bill now for 150.00. So to all you people out there i would never buy from these people again. They talk way to fast on the line that you can't under stand anything they say. Will be calling again and try to get to a supervisor

F*ck national magazine exchange! And everybodies money they took!

I think that I fell into the scam to but I agreed to buy these worthless magazines that I still receive and haven't paid anything over a year. I paid my bill, at least I thought, until I received another bill in the mail about one full year after thinking I had already paid. I called the company with no talking to a human on the phone, I wrote 2-3 letters asking if I had any debt to let me know so I could take care of it, with no response. So assumed everything was taken care of. Until I had a debt collector calling me saying that it the outstanding bill was turned over to them. And still can't find out where to contact NME.

If you can help me in anyway contact them so I can yell, I would appreciate it. I know it probably won't due any good, but I at least want my free 2 night stay in Vegas I was promised!

I called and signed up. I admit I was a little leary at first. But, after asking them several questions about their company, including where their offices were (if you ask someone who is sitting in another country, they will dodge the question and change the subject), so I felt comfortable about getting involved with their program. I also received 3 extra subscriptions and extra freebies from having a really nice conversation with the sales manager. So, for the money, I made out and completely understood what I was signing up for. Now if I just had the time to read all of them! I've even called and changed a couple of my subscriptions and found them to be very pleasant. The other posters are right - you should pay more attention to what you are doing, especially when you give out your credit card info! It's just plain common sense. There are too many people out there who never want to take responsibility for their own actions and rather blame their mistakes/misunderstandings on someone else.

I called in to sign up for the sweepstakes, the ladies on the phone were very polite and talkative. I knew what I was getting in to, and a few weeks after making the decision to sign up for the magazines I decided to cancel. I called and the call was very short. I was very pleased with the response from the company. All in all, my experience with them has been very pleasant. I was given a cancellation number, and the woman on the phone (although sounding disappointed) was more than willing to cancel my account. She told me I would be credited my money, and within hours it was.

WOW! Judy... I think you might have misunderstood when we told you $67.00...its not $67...its $67.08
And whats 8 cents? You are on a recording... and you had to have said yes to being billed $67.08
And you were on a recording to have 48months of service.. which btw is 4 years.. if you didn't want 4years you should have told the supervisor this. But its your own damn fault that you didn't. And now you want to whine and complain about how much we are rude. How about how you act? Its not our fault that you people don't listen.. and want to make it seem as though we are ripping you people off. Why don't you clean out your ears and listen closely next time.
We are just doing our job, which is legit.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I got the same pink letter from National Magazine Exhange today and honestly almost make call to enter the sweepstakes. But i did research first, instead make call and now i find out the truth they are scam. Again ..thank you.