Mailbox Magazines scaming innocent people Tamarac Florida

I received a call on Friday morning (8-24-07) which was not out-of-the-ordinary as we had just moved to Houston and everyone and their brother called to sell us this or try out that. We had put our selves on the Do Not Call list when we set up our home phone service, but were told it would be about 4 weeks before our names actually showed up on the list. We just had to get through the hoopla until then.

I had gotten pretty good at telling people no until this call. These people knew what they were doing and did it well. The call started with Sabre asking me if I wanted to enter a sweepstakes and receive a free diamond watch to boot. I said sure - I still periodically play for Publishers Clearing House. She asked if I wanted a mens or womens watch and described it. I told her mens as my husband loves watches like I love shoes.

Sabre then told me along with my free watch I would get 3 free magazine subscriptions. All I had to do was buy 1 magazine subscription. "Wow", I thought, "I could do that. That's a great deal." If only I had known. I agreed and she gave me 3 choices: ESPN, Rolling Stone and Time. I chose Rolling Stone because my husband plays music and I thought he might enjoy it. Sabre then explained that the computer chose 3 other magazines automatically for me.

She then told me if I didn't like the magazines I could change them anytime, as many times as I wanted for no extra charge. A full list of magazines would be mailed to me along with my order. She then told me the prices would be less than newsstands and would not incur any increases during the subscription.

She then verified my order and told me she would be putting her supervisor on the phone to verify everything and to tell him what a great job she had done. She said that the more praise she received, the likelier she would be to go when they awarded the sweepstakes October 31, 2007. She also gave me a sweepstakes number and told me to keep it where I could find it for the drawing.

I was then given to her supervisor and was asked to verify my name, address, phone number, credit card info and order. Then was told my card would be billed for $59.80. I understood it to be a one time payment...little did I know it would be per month for 15 months and that this was a 60 month subscription. I knew I would have to cancel this subscription after I did the math...897 dollars was a lot more than I wanted to spend on magazines. After everything was verified, we hung up. At this point, no one has told me I could not cancel this purchase.

A while later, the phone rang again and it was yet another person from Mailbox Magazines. This time she verified everything and told me that I would not be able to cancel this order. That would have been nice to know BEFORE I was suckered in. I told her that I was not comfortable with the $59.80 being charged for 15 months and she offered a package for $35.88. I agreed thinking that It was a one time payment yet again. Nope wrong again! I discovered this would be a 36 month subscription. I was upset and didn't know what to do. I was going to have to tell my husband and I didn't know how to do it.

My husband found out before I could tell him. He called me from work Tuesday (8-28-07) and asked if I knew anything about a magazine subscription charge for $59.80 that showed up on our bank statement. I told him what had happened and told him that they weren't supposed to charge that much. He gave me the number associated with the charge and had me call to find out what was going on.

I called and asked about the charge and was told it was just a hold they had put on my account and that it wasn't an actual charge. Since I had changed my package and they had already sent in the 'intent to charge' it was going to come off and they would charge me the $35.88 that I had signed up for. At this point I asked to cancel the account and she said no. She asked if there was anything else she could do for me and I said no. I called my husband back and told him what was said and he became very upset and decided to call himself.

A few minutes later he called me back and said I had to call back and add him to the account before they would talk to him. I called and told the same woman I spoke with before to add him to the account and she did. I then called my husband back and he in turn called them back.

During the time my husband was on the phone with them, I started doing research on the internet about this company and the amount of the subscriptions. I discovered that Rolling Stone is a bi-weekly publication and that the cover price of the magazine is $4.50. On the official website was an offer for 4 free magazines if you bought 22 issues for $19.95 and cancel ANYTIME. That works out to $1.10 per issue and it's only for 1 year. Now I know I'm getting ripped off!

I also checked out the Better Business Bureau website and the BBB gave them a C- rating. This ordeal has definitely taught me to research before I buy anything and not buy anything that I didn't ask for over the phone.

When my husband called me back he told me he got the same answers I got from Mailbox Mags and that he had called our bank and was disputing the charges from them. He said our best bet was to have my check card canceled and order a new one. He said he was going to do some research too. I then called the bank and had them cancel my card and send me a new one. Then I had to figure out what bills were automatically coming out monthly from that card and change them. This has been such a headache and I only have myself to blame.

I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and they will be following up with that. My husband will be calling the states attorney office and I will be writing some letters and talking to lawyers. It is a shame there are people out there that are willing to take advantage of us like this. May God help them.

Rebecca
Houston, Texas
U.S.A.