World Wide Readers Service, Inc. review: Subscription scam 2

This company is a bunch of fast-talking telemarketing scam artists.

For about 8 months in 2009, they called me every couple of months, introducing themselves with a different explanation each time. They never tell you what they really want and lead you to believe that they are calling from a legitimate magazine about a subscription that you are currently receiving. Between every "business" comment they throw in distracting questions that have nothing to do with magazine subscriptions. At times I thought they might only be doing a survey. Every time I kept asking questions, trying to figure out exactly what they wanted.

At times they are extremely rude, and threatening. I didn't "fall" for any of this. I spent a lot of time trying to make sure that they had NOT "signed me up" for anything. I usually was able to figure out that they were not calling about the magazines that I was already receiving, trying to get me to extend a subscription, and would end the call. I have always renewed online at a PUBLISHER'S WEBSITE - not some subscription "service."

At one point in time they were calling me every few days and I would tell them - in no uncertain terms - I AM NOT INTERESTED - and hang up.

In December I was on my way out the door when they called. The same ambiguous language, distracting questions, and references to "my magazines" - so I was still trying to figure out who they were. I wanted to end this ridiculous harassment so I told them to call me back later. I left, telling my husband to deal with them - and get rid of them - if they called before I returned.

Of course they got my husband on the phone. They told him that they just needed to get information from him about "your wife's magazine order." If they had told him that he was signing up for 5 new magazines, for a total of $1200 he would have said "you're CRAZY" and hung up. But they didn't and he didn't and he gave them our credit card information.

When I got their letter in the mail I thought it was JUNK MAIL. It is a piece of crap, xeroxed hundreds of times, with misspelled words, which I filed in the "to do" pile to try and figure out later.

We always get a little behind on our paperwork over the holidays. By the time I was able to review credit card receipts, they had already billed us for $49.95 TWICE. A call to them resulted in a screaming match with an extremely un-businesslike woman. The next call was to my bank. They reversed the debit on my card, at my request. A twist of fate caused that card to be closed out - hackers accessed it through a legitimate donation to Haiti earthquake relief fund - and with a new number and exp. date I hoped that the magazine crooks would not be able to put on any more charges. As the bank had switched over everything from old card to new, the red flag didn't go up, alerting them that charges from this particular merchant were unauthorized. So now, more charges are on the new card.

I will seek advice from the bank as to what to do next. I have received 3 magazines, which I will be returning to them.

Here's a funny part of this scam: on one of their many calls I had them read their entire list of magazines available and I said "NO" to every single one. Because I never chose "my magazines, " THEY CHOSE THEM FOR ME! Those on the list of 5 are publications that I HATE! I'm an older woman - no way am I interested in Redbook! And - unlike lots of people - I CAN'T STAND RACHEL RAY. Really funny that I would choose to subscribe to magazines that I would never read for a price I can never afford.

SOMEBODY PLEASE, PUT THIS ### WORLD WIDE READERS SERVICE OUT OF BUSINESS!