Software USA -- hard-sell and deception

Stay away from Software USA! These people will call you with their pitch. They send you monthly CD-ROMs with collections of shareware on them -- programs you could find yourself online if you wanted to.

My wife accepted their offer and received a CD. We decided to return it, but they wouldn't refund our money. Instead, they gave us the hard sell, urging us repeatedly to stay with the service. We had to talk to at least five different representatives, all young women with pleasing voices that masked a tough-as-nails, won't-back-down selling technique. They gave us a flimsy excuse for not refunding the money: they said we hadn't actually "reviewed" the software, as specified in the "offer". We finally looked at the CD, called back and said so, and got our money back. In the interim, I sent a letter of complaint to the California Attorney General.

After dealing with this company, I started responding to all telephone solicitations with the statement, "I'm sorry, but I don't accept solicitations over the phone." Since then, I have never spent more than ten seconds on the phone with a telephone marketer (they hang up), and I have received scores of such calls.