National Magazine Exchange ripoff How it all works and why you end up paying big time Clearwater Florida

And like many skeptics I went and did a search on the internet for a company I have never heard of before doing business. After reading a million posts on this company alone I came to one conclusion. you all make fun of each others post and not take a chance on the company. So I decided to be the quinea pig and become 4 different people.

First of all reading the telegram it says "call reguarding your sweepstakes id# 792564879" so I turn it over and it is real long so let me summarise it tells when the sweepstakes is 12/31//05 and how much will be paid 33,333.34 in 30 years. It DOES say i have been selected to receive magazines on credit. No where does it say i actually won anything just they have been trying to get ahold of me

Call 1 : Easy buy
I figured I would buy the magazines go all the way through and cancel. I found out that California law says I have 7 days to cancel something purchased with my credit card so I gave it the test. I called in gave my entry number and the pitch started. Her name was emily or something she only said it once. I can hear lots of chatter in the back ground so I am guessing this place employs a bunch of talkers. The very first question I was asked was "you STILL carry a visa mastercard ...." of course I am thinking "how do you know if I carry one let alone STILL do. Anyway I said yes and apparently that is enough to be "officially entered" then they wanted my phone number to call if i win. Which i happily gave. THEN THE SALES pitch she explained I would get 3 magazines for 1.29 a week. basically yelling "not for each one ALL 3 TOGETHER" she read a list of about ten that no man would really want and said "Pick 2" Of course I wondered why I was told 3 then now only 2 I didn't like any of the list and I told her so. she asked what I liked to do I said fishing. THen she read off a couple fishing mags. Now any good fisherman knows we fish we don't read it. But for this experiment I selected Field n stream and saltwater something. Then she added the 3rd "at no extra cost" AHA went my mind thats where the third comes in. And yet again she confirmed "again you are getting all three for 1.29 not each" and something about the exchange program where I can change them at anytime at no extra cost. After verifying my address she said she had to get her boss on the phone to see what gifts I am going to get. After I was transfered the "boss" added 2 more magazines out of the blue (he chose them not me) and verified "you are getting all five for 1.29 a week emily explained that correct?. Of course I said yes. Then came the hammer "for YOUR convenience we accept payment on visa,mc..... I just need the experation date first. Having my card out already knowing this is going to lead to it I gave the experation date on the visa. Then he says "no I just need you to read the numbers from left to right starting with the 4" so of course I read mind you no payments have been said yet. After I read I heard a few keystrokes in the background and my card was approved (better be or wife has some explaining to do). Then the billing came flying by "instead of billing 1.29 a week for 48 months we make 4 equal payments of 67.08 a month to your credit card so after 4 months you are paid in full." I said I understood and it was fine. Then I heard a "beep" and he started confirming the information again "you do understand we are charging you 67.08 on the 14th of each month for the next 4 months to your visa card correct" I said "uh huh" he then said "I need a clear YES for the recording" so I yessed it. Then he thanked me for my order and wished me luck in the sweepstakes and gave me a customer service number to call when I was ready to change my magazines. I gave it a couple days before I decided to cancel. So two days later I called the customer service number and said I couldn't afford it I had just lost my job. AND LET ME TELL YOU prepare for a fight. First they said they could lower the lenght of the service to only one year so just the first payment will be charged and I will be paid in full. I was firm I wanted to cancel. Then they lowered the price to around 69 cents a week. Now honestly folks if I read magazines this would have had me but for this I am canceling. I still said no then they wanted to add 2 more mags. Now I am no financial advisor but 7 magazines for 70cents a week is good deal guys but i still said no. She said that she understood and my cancelation went through gave me a confirmation number. Each hour after that call I checked my cc statement online and it took about 9 hours before the money was refunded.

Call 2: easy buy (sort of)
Now I have seen posts where people are being charged when they said they didn't want to be. So I decided to say yes to the first person, give my cc but say NO on the recording. I called in for a "manual" entry (somewhere a post said I can call in anytime). Upon saying manual I can hear this guys huffiness in his voice. But he asked me name address and gave me a new ID number. then pitched. Funny how it sounded exactly the same. But nonetheless I said yes and got the boss again (again sounding the same) I chose the same magazines just to make it simple. Boss threw in 2 more got my cc information and "beep" "you do understand you will be charged..... " and I said no "beep" (guessing he turned tape off) he then asked me if i had a problem with the billing I said that I couldn't afford it. And just like the cancelation he started lowering length of time and the price throwing more mags in whatever it took to get me to say yes. I stood firm and continued with the NO after about 7 times he gave up and sent me to a recording with A MILLION offers I hung up and went to check my cc statement online and to my surprise I was charged 67.08 I called the bank right away and apparently when you give out your cc the company puts a "hold amount" on your card to see if you can handle it. And apparently it takes 24 hours to come off. So I checked it the next day and it was removed.


Call 3: NO NO NO NO
Lots of posts complain about badgering until you say yes. So I decided to be a NO man. called in and got some guy obviously from some country and whose english I couldn't understand (on a side note if you can't speak read or write english fluently get out of my house) got new ID and Began pitch. I said no to the first 10 then he explained price again "not each all together" I said No again. Then asked what I like. I said porn he laughed and asked if I get any now. I said nope then he said "before you pass up..." I interupted him (normally i would have hung up by now) I said no. Then he reminded me there wasn't a purchase neeeded and asked if I wanted to switch to geico. Yeah me too first magazines now insurrance. I said no.. then he asked if i wanted gas or a hotel stay. WHAT THE HELL I said nothing. then i went to a recording like the one the boss sent me too. Wasnn't any real badgering more annoying if you ask me. If that was considered badgering then I am going to right posts about my 6 yr old "badgering" me to buy her that toy over and over and over and over again.

Call 4: No credit card
Lots say you won't get anywhere if you don't have a credit card. So i called and when asked I said No cc. then I was sent to the recording right away. Making me wonder if I was still entered in the sweepstakes.

In closing the million bucks may be a cheap tactic to get you to call. But you are not being misled in anyway. The telegram says what they are going to do and you didn't win. The billing may seem a little high at first but they don't slam you like long distance companies. The price was said over and over again to the point of being annoying then recorded. When I wanted to cancel I did have to fight but it was canceled and I was not charged. For those that think they were charged and didn't say they wanted to make sure it wasn't this "hold" thing. And ask to play the recording of you saying yes to the payments. I don't feel this is a scam or a rip off of some sort. Infact 10 cents a magazine is friggen awesome if I read them. But I don't so I didn't buy any. Point is I knew what I was getting into and there is no way I feel anyone can be duped into doing it unless you don't pay attetion to someone you call and end up being on the phone with for 15 minutes. So some of you that say you have been ripped off need to take resposibility in your own actions for not being able to say no. Or is it you are all trying join the bandwagon and trying to jump in on a classaction suit on a company that obviously has some money? Now I Know some of you will debunk anything I just said but the fact is these are actual calls that I have done to the company and the results so for those reading these posts for the first time make up your own mind on the company and don't use disgruntled people to make your decision

I am an employee of national magazine exchange and we are very open about giving information to ALL of our customers. We are trained NOT to discloe any information and to make sure that the customer knows EXACTLY what they are agreeing to. When we say okay, an okay is not enough for the customer to say to us it is scripted for us to get an affirmative YES from them or we cannot sell to them. These people are all disgruntled because they did not win the money or they couldn't get a job there. I am treated very fairly and I have never seen anything wrong here. There is always a bad seed but there are lots of people that care. We all have been scammed once or twice but I haven't seen any scamming at national magazine exchange.

Okay I will go through this slow

you said-
However, it is worded in a way that doesn't give you the chance to say NO. They use a script designed that when they say "OKAY", your nature response would be "okay", giving them the ability to charge you. You could be thinking that you are just confirming what he/she said or thinking you are letting them know you are following along. However, they are programmed to get you to buy at almost any cost.

yes it is scripted with okays in it except for one problem you have. in order to have magazines charged to you in any way you must say yes to "______ you do agree to purchase the magazines which you authorize us to charge to you credit card?"

you said-
Now, should you catch the fact that you just spent the first of four back to back monthly payments of $67.08 for magazines which they will add at their own feel will, without really asking you which ones do you want. They may add one or two you want, however, they are spiffed to add magazines so they can make a few extra bucks in their pockets.

we get spiffs for working extra hours, compititions between the teams, we even have contests sponsored by publishers. But in 20 months I have never been spiffed to add a magazine to your order.

you said-
Mind you, if you don't have a credit card, they will not allow you to pick certain magazines or allow you access to some of thier products and will charge a different amount for the same service. I believe it is something like $1.50 a wk for CC holders and $0.99 for non-CC holders.

sometimes we have 2 different price sets, it has nothing to do with wether you have a CC or not. has to do with the fact the manual entry option doesn't know which geographical area you are calling from so it arbitrarily assigns a price set.

you said-
(Texas they have a different prize structure for your state, it is $100,000.00)

Tx is $25,000. I could go on but I have proven that you are not as knowledgable as you think you are.