Time Life Deceptive advertising on TV, had to ask their customer rep 3 times before he would reveal the price Nationwide

The people who take the orders for The Time Life TV ads belong to a company called West Direct. This is due to the nature of the way bulk infomercials are sold. Time Life never knows when these commercials are going to air - it's based on the television station's ability to sell advertising in its market. When they need a filler, they put bulk commercials on. West Direct is a huge company with offices across the United States and abroad and for the most part has no idea what they're selling unless the information is on the screen in front of them.

West Direct employees sell infomercial products for 15 minutes. If you call in later than that, you'll get a response for another product...whether it is a Time Life product or a completely different company's product. Because they are NOT Time Life employees, they really don't know anything about the products other than what they have on the screen at the given moment you choose to ask the question. If you know anyone who has ever worked in a scripted environment, you know Quality is a major factor and skipping over the script to find an answer can lead to a failed quality score. West Direct employees are supposed to give you the number to Time Life Customer Service if you have any questions they can't answer.

If you see something on TV you want to order from Time Life, it's better to call their Customer Service line directly and speak to a Time Life employee that knows something about the products. They have two types of products they offer on TV ads - programs and sets. Sets usually come with 10 CDS or more.

Programs give you an opportunity to purchase a set of CDs over a long period of time. If the ad is for a program, it will feature the first disc in the series offered at a discount as a thank you for purchasing the rest of the discs in the series (kind of like getting a free toaster for opening up an account at a bank). They show you the other discs from the series they will be sending you near the end of the ad. You don't get the first disc at the discounted price if you don't want to receive the rest of the discs in the series. Hence calling up and demanding to receive a disc at $9.99 and then saying "and don't send me any other discs" isn't going to work - West employees have no access to Time Life's ordering system so they can't cancel anything. You have to call Time Life directly for that. The order files are electronically transferred from West Direct to Time Life and usually take 3 days to get there. If you only want one disc, you have to pay the regular price for it.

Sets usually come in different sizes. The traditional set offered on TV contains 10 CDs, usually in 5 plastic cases (2 CDs per case). The larger sets are built in two different ways. They use the smaller set as a base and either have their own volumes to make the bigger set or in the case of your 70s Music Explosion they add other discs from another series to compliment. This can suck if you already have the other series or if you wind up liking the other series...then you have to call customer service to get the rest of your discs. Make sure you know what discs you're getting if you're ordering larger sets. Call Time Life directly.

I would never buy a trial set because when the trial is over, they are always billed at the regular price. Why would anyone want to pay an extra $10 and only have 30 days to return the discs when you can order it regularly with whatever discounts they offer in Customer Service and have 60 days to return it? If you do return it, they give you your monthly installment fee back, if you don't decide to return it you've already made two payments in 60 days.

I have a lot of Time Life sets. I enjoy them all. I'd call the horse's mouth first though if I had any questions. I treasure my money too much. Time Life's Customer Service Department is 1-800-TIMELIF for US Customers. I have no idea what it is in Canada. They are usually open from 8:00AM ET until 10:00PM ET Monday through Friday. Saturday they are open from 9:00AM to 3:00PM.