Unethical Business Practices

[TrooperChuck]

I am so tired of businesses taking advantage of us.

For a few years I had a subscription to a magazine called Men's Health. I decided to cancel the subscription because I no longer found the magazine interesting. I've been married to the same woman for 28 years, and intend to stay that way, so I didn't need tips on dating. I'm NEVER going to buy a pair of $120 blue jeans, so I didn't need their fashion advice. Except for this dinosaur of a computer, I'm not into techno-gadgets, so I ignored their reviews of the latest, hottest mobile communication devices.

So, last November I cancelled that subscription.

Then, in January, I received a new copy of the magazine in the mail. When we checked our credit card account we found we had been charged for a yearly subscription.

A call was placed to Men's Health. They admitted they had started up a new subscription for us, using the credit card information they had on file. The customer service guy said, "We always do that because lots of people, when they get the magazine, change their minds and decide to keep the new subscription."

GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

You know, where I come from, if someone tells you, "No thanks", but you go ahead and charge something to their credit card anyway we call that THEFT! But, apparently, it's a routine practice in the magazine business.

Men's Health agreed to RE-cancel their danged subscription, and, they replaced the charges they made on our credit card. But, I'm wondering how many other folks have experienced something like this?

[Des804]

More times then I can count... There was one place I could Subscribe to but didnt have a way to unsubscribe didnt have a way of contacting the place either. I just blocked them from being able to pull from my card and then I got a call from them I told them I didn't want the subscription and that they didnt have a way for me to unsubscribe. From what i heard later on I wasn't the only one that had that problem with this place.

[ArtS]

Isn't that illegal? How can they do that? They shouldn't even be keeping that info on file!!!

Man I can imagine how mad you got, I'm furious just reading your post!

Art

Edited March 8, 2009 by ArtS

[rhallskid]

I have had them send me a collection notice--legal like...after I had cancelled a year before in good standing. I wrote them a scathing email, to which I got an appropriate response but I was SO mad. I don't buy ANY of their publications at all now, won't do it!

It is infuriating they get away with it--but I think it is like fishing, you put it out there enough and you are gonna catch something! They make enough on people not following up or not paying attention to warrant them giving it a whirl.

[Jordan]

I think it may be a common business practice. There are enough people that do not pay any attention to their billing notices making it profitable for them, when caught they are able to say oops sorry for the mistake and restore the charge, meanwhile they have received and used the cash from the card company. It may just be my cynical nature, but obviously all those unethical business people from Enron and other such debacles did not simply disappear, they were absorbed by businesses throughout the spectrum. And since they suffered no real consequences and walked away with millions, they are certainly continuing their ways. There will undoubtedly be many more cases of this type of thievery as the financial system continues to spiral downwards and the unethical and dishonest find newer ways to make the fast buck and to heck with any long term ramifications. They all know the goverment will just throw money at them if they get in trouble anyway. It is probably all (babyboomers) our fault for raising and educating a generation of lazy pukes that think it is beneath them to engage in an honest days work for an honest days pay. There I said it, and if I offended anyone sorrybout that. But everyone can't be the CEO on their 1st day on the job.

Generally having a bad day, ticked off at the world as you have probably surmized by my rant. I will be better I promise!

[BubbleDragon]

Magazines seem to be notorious for this.

There is a certain store I know of that consistently gets complaints that they use the mailing address and credit card you use to purchase items and sell it to magazine companies. Apparently by signing the slip, you're "giving them permission" to sell you a subscription as well.

[HorsehairBraider]

Unbelievable. What a bunch of thieves. I have a merchant account but according to the rules, I'm not allowed to store ANY credit card numbers. AT ALL. This sometimes makes people mad at me when they decide to buy something else from me and have to give me their number all over again, but I fly by the rules - if it says don't store numbers, I don't store them.

Maybe the rules are different when you are a huge business. Or maybe everyone else with a merchant account just figures I'm a sucker for obeying the rules...

I've never had this happen to me but would absolutely come unglued if it did. Although, Qwest tried to pull a similar stunt with me, and I won't do business with them to this day, because in my mind they are known thieves. I'd feel the exact same way about a company that just charged stuff on my card because they felt like it.

[CitizenKate]

This has happened to me on a couple of occasions. Sometimes it's the credit card companies that are involved. I had an unauthorized charge on my AMEX from a hotel I had stayed at 3 months prior. I called AMEX to dispute it and got the money charged back. Then, a few months later, a magazine subscription I had never ordered appeared on my statement. This time, I called AMEX and told them to cancel my card.

"What is your reason for cancelling?"

"The reason is, I've had two unauthorized charges on my card in the last three months, and I think you should be doing more to prevent this sort of thing."

"Ma'am, give us a chance to look into it and resolve whatever issues there may be."

"Okay, but if there is even one more, we're done."

The amount of the subscription was charged back to me, and there were no further incidents. On further investigation, I found this magazine had some kind of partnership affiliation with AMEX, and they were offering it as a benefit of AMEX membership. Some benefit. They knew durn good and well I never authorized it.

So if it happens to you, see what happens if you go after your credit card company.

Kate

[Elliot]

Generally having a bad day, ticked off at the world as you have probably surmized by my rant. I will be better I promise!

Hope many more get very ticked OFF.

Any scam is now ok if you share with a politician.

[TrooperChuck]

Well, I'm both glad and disheartened to see that this kind of stuff has happened to others.

You know, I'm really beginnning to think the real reason for the turmoil in the world today is not because this person is conservative or that person is liberal, not because this person is a member of a church or that person is an atheist, not because this person is one color and that person is a different color... I think the real problem is that somewhere along the line lots of people in our society decided "Anything is okay as long as you can justify it!" Morals and ethics are thrown out the window in the pursuit of more, more, more.

I wish I was smart enough to know how to fix this. Unfortunately, the only idea I've come up with is to try to set a good example for others. And, I suspect someone else already figured that out, so it's not even MY idea!