Active Periodicals fraudulent billing unable to cancel subscription I didn't order RIPOFF Deerfield Beach Florida

I originally opened an account with this company in May of 2001, and signed up for a four year contract at that time. The service has always been horrible, and on two past occasions that I recieved calls about extending my acocunt I clearly told them that I did not want any additional extensions or contracts with them.

After several years of bad service paying double what I would straight from the magazine companies, I had decided that I'd wait out the remainder of my payed-in-full contract and walk away from the loss, that changed tonight, however.

I recieved a phone call from a person claiming to be the regional manager for my area, asking me if I wanted to reduce the cost of my subscription since their service was poor (as far as I know I haven't seen an actual magazine from them in months), which didn't make sense to me since my 2001 contract payments stopped years ago (the contract was frontloaded with the last three years free, I have this in writing sitting in front of me).

I told "Laura", the regional manager, that I had paid my contract in full which is when she told me that almost a year ago a new contract had been opened that extended for another 48 months from today's date! She then claimed that although this account had been open for over a year, she couldn't explain why my credit card hadn't been charged "I don't know how it's being paid, I'm in service not billing".

Laura didn't know some other things, either:
- The phone number for Active Periodicals customer support
- Any phone number where I could contact Active Periodicals directly ("I'm on an outgoing only line").
- My account information for the previous legitimate contract I had made with them ("I can't pull it up").
- The reason why my old account might have dissappeared even though it's current for another four months.
- The balance due on the contract I never authorized; she gave the amount per month ($32), and despite being asked repeatedly never did give a total, which would have been ($1536).

Laura tried to coerce me into paying $11 per month for 2 magazines a month by saying that it was much less money than what my account showed I would be paying, but I refused to agree on the grounds that I never agreed to any contract in the first place and I didn't want to agree to one now.

Laura promised to send me the information on my contract including proof that I authorized it (which would be hard to produce since I twice told them explicitly to not extend or renew my contract and never changed my mind).

Laura's pitch was that since service was bad they were going to reduce my subscription volume and therefore the cost; of course, the new cost would have been $5.50 per month per magazine, or more than I would pay at a newsstand, and there was no promise of improved service.

I believe that Active Periodicals was trying to badger me over the phone so that I would agree to a real, four year $11 per month contract instead of a fake one at $32 per month. I'll be watching my credit card statement carefully to make sure that they don't attempt to charge for services I never asked for.

Karl
Dublin, California
U.S.A.