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softpjOS -> "Free" magazine offers (10/14/2007 1:08:17 PM)
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Ok, I'm sure just about everyone that has bought anything in Best Buy, FYE...pick your store has been offered those free trial magazine offers by the cashier when you produce a credit card for purchase. Love those words "free trial offer". What they often don't tell you is that when you accept that free trial, the credit card you just used to buy that CD is going to be handed over to the sharks offering the "free trial". If you do not cancel that magazine, your credit/debit card is now free game for charges you wouldn't believe. Now, most of us know all about these little ploys and quickly say NO but.... imagine those that don't.
Someone very close to me is mentally handicapped and has fallen victim to these sharks. And if his story helps one person not become the next victim, then it's worth the time to type this.
So, he's at the mall and decides to go in and buy a cd. The ever so helpful cashier asks him if he wants a free magazine. Of course, hearing the word "free" he says sure! What he wasn't told was that his credit/check card information would be sent to another company doing business under the name TWX magazine offer and that card would be charged if he didn't cancel the subscription he just "bought". He said yes to the offer of a free magazine without being fully informed of what he had just said yes to.
So this young man, who has a very limited income has just "given access" to his bank account to some very unsavory people. He gets a couple of magazines in the mail, then starts getting a different magazine as well as the one he said "yes" to... and has no clue that this company is tapping into his bank account every two weeks taking "payment" for his subscription. Then the bank "overdraft notices" start coming in. His guardian goes to the bank to find out whats going on and is told he made two purchases, a cd and a magazine. So the guardian puts more money into his account to cover it and sits him down to explain to him what he's "done". He insists he's not spent too much money. Which in fact, he actually didn't but... the bank ledger doesn't lie so... yea. We don't believe him. About a week later, I'm at the bank with him for some other business and I decide to take it upon myself to make sure he's keeping a register and to teach him to balance a bank account. We ask the bank manager for his available balance and while she's pulling it up, I ask him what he thinks his balance is. He says one amount, she writes down a different amount. hmm. So I ask her to go into his account and tell me whats going on. He insists he hasn't used his card at all. This is when we discover the new charges from TWX. They've made three charges over the past 3 weeks. Total charges were only $23 but created over draft charges in the amount of $120! This young man gets a spending "account" of $200 a month. And no, he never received a bill, a cancellation statement..nothing in the mail indicating he was/would be charged if he didn't do something.
A quick search of TWX gave me all the info I needed to know I was dealing with sharks. There are class action lawsuits pending as well as many many many complaints of this happening to other people. It took me just a few calls to get them to agree to refund the $23 they had taken, waiting to see if that actually happens. My current "battle" is with FYE for selling his credit card information without his full informed consent. If nothing else, I want to see them being more informative to their customers when selling these subscriptions.
Silly us for thinking it was ok for him to go into a store and buy a CD without legal representation or someone standing right next to him the entire time! It would be nice to think that he learned a valuable lesson with all this, but being mentally handicapped I rather doubt it will completely sink in and as such, he will not be able to go into any store to buy anything without direct supervision.
Perhaps if those of us that are informed, and are outraged that these stores are helping the sharks out there prey on the mentally challenged/uninformed, maybe if we all speak up, contact the store corporate offices....maybe just maybe they'll decide the small kick back they are receiving isn't worth the lost customers. Even if you reply to the cashier when they offer the "free magazine" with.."and what happens at the end of the "free trial"?" loud enough for others in line to hear the response...the next person in line becomes informed and you just may save them some serious financial problems down the road.
Ok, soapbox put away for the day.
pj
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