What happened was I was filling out a form I thought was for PCH's contest. Part of the way filling out the form, I seen it was for mags. I left the form and went on and found what I was looking for. I went to town and in heavy traffic and the cell phone rang. My wife answered it. It was Gulf Coast Readers wanting to know why I did not finish filling out the form. Trying to hear them and dealing with traffic, I only picked up part of what they were saying. They kept saying I would have to say yes and at that point to get back to being safe in traffic, I said yes. They called me back in a few minutes and asked me to say yes again. Still in traffic, I said yes. Next, here comes mags and a bill. I sent an email to cancel and they said to call them. But with all the complaints I have seen about them, I do not think it would do any good. Can you stop this problem?
Consumer Complaints & Reviews
This company is a telemarketing magazine sales company. A woman called my mother and told her it was time for her to renew her magazine subsriptions. She told the saleswoman she couldn't afford it but the woman said she had to renew them, she had no choice. My mom is old suffering from dementia so she was bullied into giving her checking account information to this thief. The next week mom received at least ten magazines,some were about health, cooking, sports, men and all kinds of things my mother had no interest in what so ever. Her bank account was debited $60.00.
I told my mother to cancel this immediately and then I called the bank and told them not honor that debit again. The bank explained we had to close the account to prevent it. So I took my mother to another bank where she opened a new account and transferred the money. Then she received a bill from Gulf Coast that said she had subscribed to 5 years worth of magazines for a total of $1,200. and she owed $60 a month for twenty months. My mom is 85 on Social Security so that was either her food or medicine money.
I called this company up and spoke to a woman who was nameless and she said they would make a deal and forgive $900. of the debt if we would pay $189. I asked what that was for and she said because they had reserved that many magazines for my mom. I told her not another penny would be pay and that I was going to report them to the BBB and anyone else I could think of because they were stealing from old people. She said goodbye have a nice day. Then she called me back a said they were going to forgive the debt.
Mom broke down in tears, the whole epsisode was very stressful for her. This company said that they had recorded the conversation of their sales rep and my mom accepting the program she was told she couldn't refuse. They acted as if that was the same as a contract. These people are preditors on old people whose reasoning isn't what it used to be and who fall for their threats. My mom is still out of $60 but she got off cheap considering the max was $1,200.
