media communications smart shoppers club, area circulation, telemarketed magazine subscription for 5 years, and more VIRGINIA BEACH VA area code 757 an expose' on the sketchy operations of Media Communications Corp Virginia Beach, Virginia

I worked for this company for about 8 days while in graduate school during the winter of 2010. Looking up a ripoff report about a company that was contacting my fiance, I did a search on my former employer, Media Communications Inc. I was shocked to see that they are still operating and continuing to rip people off.There are some reports on this site claiming to be written by former employees that detail the extent that this company went to rip people off. Please take these reports to heart, despite their numerous grammatical and spelling mistakes: the substance of their claims is absolutely true. Here is what I observed during my short tenure at this company.
 
Many reports name an individual who goes by the name of Russell. This man is a reptile. He was my immediate supervisor while I worked at the "resolution and claims" department. This is a nonsensical department title: we were slimy telemarketers with a deceptive moniker. We were issued small 3-ring binders that were loaded with pages and pages of highlighted, paginated and dubiously-worded scripts. There was a protocol in place for making "rebuttals" to consumer arguments-- and they ranged from outright fabrications about special promotions, non-existant Wal-Mart vouchers and special discounted rates. 
 
Everything promised was a lie. Everything said or claimed was just an inlet to the marks' credit cards and banking information. If the customer couldn't pay the first rate, which could cost almost $8,000 for 5-7 years of magazine subscriptions, the length of subscription and rates were changed. If there was no one in the houses we called who'd benefit from the magazines, we'd talk about incarcerated loved ones, disabled relatives or emerging readers in the household. The majority of the marks that we called were retirees or individuals on fixed and limited incomes. We were pressured by Russell the reptile to be slick and misleading. If the scripts weren't working, we were encouraged to improvise. We needed to get the marks to repeat that they agreed to terms that they did not understand for our recorded conversations. Want to know why Virginia is one of their operations hubs? Virginia is a 1-party state, which means that only 1/2 of the conversation's participants (Media Communication's half) of the conversation needs to be aware of any audio recording. The customers were never informed about us taping them, unless they disputed charges with another sketchy department that later replayed for them their acquiescence. Russell would listen to our conversations if we did not seem to be very effective at conning people. He would coach us on how to be deceptive, how to leverage their scripts, how to make seniors, the mentally incapacitated and the simply ignorant give up their credit card information and some of their trust. 

 Believe the claims of rampant drug use-- employees have to do something to deaden the pain of knowing they work for an immoral, corrupt and shameless group of scammers. Take to heart that they write and spell like 13 year-olds: the bulk of the staff there is poorly-educated and in desperate economic straits themselves. My coworkers were mostly young and unwed mothers; some were wanted fugitives from out of state, some were illegal immigrants, and some were drug addicts. Believe the claims of spotty pay checks due to money being bounced around: who else pays employees every 4 days? 
  Under some sort of commerce investigation, they closed my department soon after I started working there and offered me a position working for their department that scammed people with cosmetics instead of magazines. I declined and walked out that day.

DO NOT EVER fill out claim cards for free ipads for the 50,000th visitor to a website from a popup ad, fill out the cards for car and timeshare giveaways posted in restaurants, or offers for free vouchers from companies like Wal-Mart. These are all the major data mines for companies like Media Communications. They prey on your trust and ignorance.  They actually bought "scouted" leads from data mining companies who acquired your information from those surveys, cards and things you've filled out. Don't seek any free gifts from marketers. DO NOT sign up for more than one year of a magazine subscription at a time. If you want to "lock-in" a low rate on a magazine, or save off the newsstand price, ask yourself: can you really afford it after all? If called by this company, DO NOT JUST HANG UP-- ask to be added to the do-not-call list and then end the call immediately. 
 
I have one more bit of advice for you: be persistant in seeking your money returned. Threaten legal action with whoever you speak with at Media Communications. Keep track of your bank statements and report what you feel to be unauthorized charges and dispute them immediately. Real companies won't ask for a $1 hold fee on your bank account: it's just a scam to get ahold of your numbers. File a police report and save copies of the numbers you were called from. Safeguard your personal financial information and for God sakes remember: if it seems like a good deal, and it's being made by phone, you definitely should reconsider it and just hang up the call.