Consolidated Readers Institute Ripoff Arlington Heights Illinois

Yesterday, I received a phone call from a woman saying that she was from the court. She was calling in reference to Consolidated Readers Institute. She asked if I remembered agreeing to get magazines from this company 5 yrs. ago. The name of the company didn't register with me at the time.

She named off the magazines that I was supposed to have received and said that I had made a couple of payments and stopped. She said that this company was saying that I owed them over $1100 because of late fees and she didn't think the way this company operated was right but that I needed to pay her by credit or debit card, $400 right then to keep from being subpoenaed to court. I explained to her that I did not have $400. She asked if I could pay $300 then and I told her I didn't have that either. I told her that what little money I did have, I had other bills I needed to pay.

She told me that I needed to let my light bill, phone bill or whatever bills I had to pay this week, go for 6-7 days in order to pay the $300 or to call someone and borrow it in cash to put in my bank so that I could pay it by debit card. She said I needed to have it done no later than 2PM.

She said that she was trying to keep me from being subpoenaed to appear in court and having to pay attorneys and court costs. She even addressed someone as a Judge when she said someone had come in the room while she was talking to me. She said that he could hear me but that I couldn't hear him.

I told her that I would see what I could do and call her back on the number she gave me so that she would leave me alone. There was no way I could get $300 in about 3 hrs. and I didn't call back. She called back at 2:30PM and I hung up the phone. She immediately called back and told a co-worker that I had hung up on her and to tell me that I would be subpoenaed to court and hung up on my co-worker.

As for the magazines, I went online after talking to this woman to see who this company was and vaguely remembered them calling me. I may have received a few magazines but no more than that. I went through some old bank statements when I got home and I had paid them a total of $78 back then. Evidently the magazines stopped coming after that and I never gave it another thought.

I did not remember this company when the lady called because I have had no contact with them since then and had forgotten all about them. It's been almost 4 yrs. since the last payment I sent. Shouldn't I have gotten something from the company first in regards to owing them this money and since when does the court call someone at work or home about something like this anyway?

I have a copy of my credit report that I printed off a few months ago and there is nothing on there regarding this company at all. I think that this was a ploy or scare tactic to get money from me.

Thank You

Kay
Wallace, North Carolina
U.S.A.