Originally Posted by Jeremy Untouchable

To whom it may concern:

I have recently received a threatening postcard from Allied Publishing.
This postcard stated that I was 2 months behind and that if my account wasn’t brought current with in one week actions would be taken against me.
As you can imagine this caused me some concern. I have been prepaying a 5 year subscription to 5 magazines with these people and I had tried to cancel 3 times already.
I first tried to cancel the first time they sent the payment book to me. It looked like some kind of scam. The little payment book was smudged and looked contrived. So I called and tried to cancel at that point. The lady was real nice and said that it was to late to cancel and they had already purchased the subscriptions for me. At this point I was very busy and didn’t really have time and just pushed it aside. I had no trouble paying the twenty-six dollars a month and they had made it sound cheaper in the long run.

Fast forward a year. I have moved and have more bills and I am running out of ways to pay them. I called to cancel once again thinking that I would rather have money eat lunch then have a few magazines around. They refused to cancel saying that they had me on record saying I accepted the agreement. I decided to try to pay them as soon as possible.

A few days went by and I still didn’t have any extra money to send them. I am still very busy and I sort of forgot about the bill. Then this post card. Very pushy and threatening.
I called the Allied Publishing Office that same day. I told them I HAVE to cancel. I can’t afford it. I have credit cards and bills to pay. I still couldn’t get any satisfaction from them. I was told to call back later to talk to the manager. Which I did, I explained the whole thing to him. He was rude and said “you should have thought of this before you agreed to the service” and that they would take me to small claims court if I did not pay.
I was really upset by this and did some research online. I was looking at first for there website. I couldn’t find one for them but I did find a list of magazine scams and scammers. I was shocked to find that prepaying for 5 years of magazines was a scam.
So I did the math and sure enough. They have me paying almost double the subscription price and just less then news stand price. I have already paid 240 dollars or so (10 months at 26.00 a month.) That is way more then enough to cover one years subscription to five magazines. (12.99-15.99 x 5 = 79.95 at most) I’m not expecting a refund from them. I did check with the magazines them selves and all of them allow cancellations. (motor trend, car and driver, esquire, men’s fitness, and what was Jane for my wife)
I just want them to cancel and leave me alone.
I did some more research online and read about there practices of marketing to enlisted men at our Army,Marines and Air Force. This made me want to pay them even less. Also found 65+ complaints had been turned in on them at the BBB in buffalo. Also found a number of accounts where people got them paid in full and the subscriptions just quit coming.
I have the power as I hold the money. I am not about to get scammed any more then I already have.
I will caulk this up to paying more attention to what telemarketers are trying to sell and avoiding scams. I am sending a copy to the NY Attorney General and the “magazine service”. As well as the publishers of each of the five magazines.

As luck would have it I did some searching about verbal agreements and they are not binding in the state of Texas per:

Texas Business & Commerce Code, § 26.01. Promise Or Agreement Must Be In Writing.
________________________________________
(a) A promise or agreement described in Subsection (b) of this section is not enforceable unless the promise or agreement, or a memorandum of it, is
(1) in writing; and

(2) signed by the person to be charged with the promise or agreement or by someone lawfully authorized to sign for him.
(b) Subsection (a) of this section applies to:
(1) a promise by an executor or administrator to answer out of his own estate for any debt or damage due from his testator or intestate;

(2) a promise by one person to answer for the debt, default, or miscarriage of another person;

(3) an agreement made on consideration of marriage or on consideration of nonmarital conjugal cohabitation;

(4) a contract for the sale of real estate;

(5) a lease of real estate for a term longer than one year;

(6) an agreement which is not to be performed within one year from the date of making the agreement;

(7) a promise or agreement to pay a commission for the sale or purchase of:
(A) an oil or gas mining lease;

(B) an oil or gas royalty;

(C) minerals; or

(D) a mineral interest; and
(8) an agreement, promise, contract, or warranty of cure relating to medical care or results thereof made by a physician or health care provider as defined in Section 74.001, Civil Practice and Remedies Code. This section shall not apply to pharmacists.


I never signed anything. They don’t have my Social Security number or any thing else except my home address and now a home phone number.

This is my Cease and Desist letter to Allied Publishing service.

There address is: Allied Publishers Service
Of Mid Atlantic States
625 Delaware Ave. suite 100
Buffalo, New York 14202

I will also be sending this for further review to:

Buffalo Better Business Bureau
741 Delaware Avenue, Suite 100
Buffalo, NY 14209
(716)881-5222 - (800)828-5000

FAX: (716)883-5349


Regional Office of NY Attorney General
Statler Towers
107 Delaware Avenue
Buffalo, New York 14202-3473
(716) 853-8400


And I am sending this to these publishers so they know what kind of “services” are being done in there name.

Hearst Magazines Customer Service • P.O. Box 7186 • Red Oak, Iowa 51591 (Esquire)

Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Inc.
Attention: Legal Department
1633 Broadway, 45th Floor
New York, NY 10019
Phone: 212-767-6921 (Car and Driver)

Primedia Magazines, Inc.
200 Madison Avenue.
New York, NY 10016 (Motor Trend)

Condé Nast Publications.
4 Times Square, 17th Fl.
New York, NY 10036
+1-212-286-2860 (Phone) (Allure Magazine)
212-286-5960 (Fax)

American Media, Inc
1000 American Media Way
Boca Raton, FL 33431-1000 (Men’s Fitness)

Thank you for your time.
Jeremy

(I would sign this but I don’t want them to have my handwriting )

Originally Posted by Malice Black

Been in contact with a lawyer?

Originally Posted by onerabbit

went to "WHSmith" and bought Gears of War - £34.99!! .. only becuase i had vouchers

went to "Game" 5 mins laters, seen it for 19.99! .. wasnt happy.