International Society Of Poets, poetry.com ripoff Owings Mills Maryland

There are a lot of people here that are hurt. I've noticed some people passing judgement on them about their grammar and whatnot. How petty. As for feeling demoralized and losing self esteem, that is a very subjective reaction and is legitimate for each individual. Why should we have to justify feeling horrible to somebody that is challenging us? Because it makes them feel better about themselves, that's why.

To the others that came to this board for the same reason I did. Poetry.com builds up your self esteem to limits that are out of this realm. When you realize that you have been taken, (and yes, I was one of the suckers that put a deposit on not one but 2 books...and yes, like the others, mine did arrive and was on the first page,) you just have to live and learn and remind yourelf, "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me." This scam artist of a company going by the name www.poetry.com should be shut down.

I plan on reporting them to the BBB, although that holds no water these days...but at least I will have a paper trail. I am keeping the books, which finally arrived. I am not however, paying them the rest of the money due. Off the record, I plan on making another call next month to let them know the books never arrived. Screw me...I'll screw you right back. They came USPS. No signature required, no proof.

Before receiving the books, I received a threatening letter that they were going to sue me for the balance of the books. I called them to tell them that I had never recieved the books, which was true at the time. I informed them that I had put a deposit down, but they hadn't kept their end of the bargain up by providing the books they were now billing and supposedly suing me for. The woman was very nice and told me that the letter had been sent in error. 2 days later, the books were in my mailbox.

I had to laugh though. Sue me for $79.00! Ha! That's a good one. You can't take anyone to court for less than $120 or something to that effect. Either way, I've got the books for a minimal cost (the deposit.) I am going to disregard any more letters asking for full payment. With this website alone, I'd win even if they did take me to court.

I was a sucker. We have all been suckered. I have learned a great lesson from this. This is truly one of the greatest scams in current day history. It's amazing what a little word-smithing can do to keep you barely legal and rolling in the dough from all of us suckers!

Good luck to you all. I hope you make your own decisions based off of my email whether to keep the book for basically the cost of the deposit. I say, don't pay them the remainder. They've already made what it's worth with the deposit, or they wouldn't even send them out. Everything else they've written has been a big fat lie. Why would telling me they'd file a law suit be any different.

I would bet that the only positive comments on here are from employees from www.poetry.com that come to this board to defend those scums. I have one question for you. How do you sleep at night knowing that you do nothing but rip people off all day? Go blow smoke up somebody elses #$$!! I've had enough of it.

Sarah
Boston, Massachusetts
U.S.A.