International Society Of Poets CRIMINAL MISREPRESENTATION Owings Mills MD Maryland

A while back my then 14 year old son saw an add for a poetry contest online. Since he had some success with a particular poem at his school level, he decided to send his poem to the organization interested in new young writers listed as The International Society Of Poets, based in Maryland. Some time later, he got an E-mail stating that his poem was picked out, and that it would be re-printed in some poetry book in the near future. Well, my son came running into us with the news, and he was quite excited, to say the least. They also informed him that because his poem had been chosen, he was to recieve an award from The International Society Of Poets, and all we had to do was pay for shipping, nothing else.

A few weeks later, he got his award in the mail, postage paid for by us ( we had to give our credit card info to the company to cover the shipping) which came to a few dollars. The award was a little glass cube with his name scribed into it, something he quickly put up on a shelf, in a safe place for all to see, We thought it was nice of "them" to give him an award, it made him feel good about himself, as it would with any child. Then months later, we got a bill through our credit card company for a sum of $ 189.00 , charged by The International Society Of Poets ! We called our credit card carrier and asked what this was for ,and they were unable to provide details but suggested we get in touch with the organization making the charge. We called the number listed, but it rang off the hook at all times, or, a recording saying they were closed with the hours of operation. Then we e-mailed them several times, but to no avail.

I certainly was'nt going to pay for something I never got, and I wanted an explaination. The credit card people tried to be sympathetic, but said there was not much they could after some time had passed. Well now it's handed over to collection agencies and they say it will all go away if we just pay it! Thats easy for them to say but why should we pay for something if we don't know what it is we're paying for? We still have not gotten an answer from "THE SOCIETY", and now with penalties, the amount has grown to over $ 300.00! We really do not know where this is going to end up, and will probably cost us even more money to find out or clear this matter up! They can have their stinking award back for all we care! And THEY can pay for shipping!!

Kirk
si, ny, New York
U.S.A.