Family Readers Club review: Fradulent Tactics bad business practices 44

The same exact thing has happened to me. I was told that I could have 5 magazines for 60 months for only $49.95. I was also told that I could cancel at anytime, no questions asked. However, when I attempted to cancel I received nothing but the run-around and was eventually told that I was not able to cancel. I told them I would decline the charges with my bank and was told that legal action would be taken if I refused to pay. Family Readers Club is a terrible scam and should be taken out of business! Who knows how many people they have scammed or how much money they have fraudulently taken from honest people!? It is just appalling!

I am going through the samething now. I am suppose to receive 5 magazines each month for only $39.90. I haven't received any magazines and my bank account is continually charged for their "product". I actually had my bank refuse payments to them and they called my phone repeatedly, threatening to take me to court if I didn't pay. I finally paid to get them off my back but their "legal" department told me that wasn't enough. This company is shady and ridiculous! Has anyone been able to get out of this situation? Has anyone finished the contract with them? If so, did they really stop the subscription or did they continue to charge you? I have reported them to the BBB but I am afraid nothing will happen. They need to be brought down!

Same thing is happening to me right now. I'm still trying to figure a way out. They keep leaving messages with a phone number to call back. I call them back only to leave a voice mail everytime. I'm trying to get them to provide me with a copy of the "contract" as proof that I have to pay. I'm going to take it to my lawyer as soon as they give it to me, if they give it to me, and see if it is actually binding. I sent in my cancellation letter the day after I got it as was told it was to late to cancel.

Im going through the same thing right now. My husband ordered 6 magazines for $49.99 and we have only ever received 3 of them, and of the 3, one of them he didnt even order. I tried to cancel right away and after leaving messages for a week and no return calls, I finally reached Tyler. I tried to cancel, but was told it was to late. We went round and round for a while with the conversation ending with, and I quote" To ###ing bad if you dont want the magazines now, you shouldnt have ordered them", and he hung up on me. We recently started getting phone calls daily asking for my husband from John, I always tell him my husband isnt available, he doesnt want to talk to them. Last week John calls 3 times in one day, saying there is a problem with the account, I checked and they are still taking my money every month, no problem for them. He calls the next day and I answer and tell him were not interested, maybe he will go away. OH NO, he calls right back and I let it go to voice mail, This is the message he leaves.."This is John form FRC-everytime I call some stupid ### keeps hanging up 0n me, so this is what Im going to do, Im just going to triple your fees. Maybe then you'll answer my calls". The funny thing is all the messages he leaves, and there have been a lot, never does he leave a return number. He just keeps calling. I got ahold of the manager Rekha, and let her hear the message and tell her what is going on. She is very nice and says she will find out who John is and fire him immediately..Yea right.. Anyways after talking to her and trying to canel, she still says I have to fulfill my contract and continue to pay until the 5 thousand years are up, or pay the remaining balance now.
Everybody should start calling Rekha daily and bombarding her with calls and let her know what a piece of ### company she represents! GOOD LUCK!

Same exact thing happened to me. My wife was told that she would get magazines for 2 years, if she paid 50 dollars a month for 4 months. After the 4 months were up I noticed that I was still getting billed when I called the lady was very hostile and said that I have to pay for the next 2 years 50 dollars a month or she will call the collection agency. This company has also been double billing me, in that they charge me 50 dollars twice in a month but with different names on the credit card bill. (Family readers, as well as Magazine866---). I called them today to tell them to stop the auto pay and they said that "our system is down right now I can't change it call back tomorrow, lets she if they give me the same run around tomorrow). I'm gonna cancel my CC and she what they do. Please give me any advise if there is a way to stop them from ruining my credit.

I just recently worked with these people. I should have researched first. I was very clear I was making no financial obligation. I kept declining anything I had to pay for, but said I would accept the free watch and trial magazines they offered, but not the packaged deal I had to pay for. In my advertising class I learned that if you don't agree to anything financial anything you get in the mail is yours to keep. I gave them no credit card or bank account information. If I have any trouble with them I will skip the BBB and call the Federal Trade Commission. They are sort of the parent of BBB. DO NOT PAY THEM FOR SOMETHING YOU DID NOT ORDER! CONTACT YOUR LOCAL BBB OR THE FTC!
I am now fairly nervous about this...great...

donot pay tem and get a new bank account .

yeah same as me however i was offered 1000 gift card. i got a new checkings and credit card, screw them.

i dont know about you all but i never signed a contract agreeing i would pay, it was just a recording over the phone argeeing i would pay
therefore, i could care less what they try to do to me
they dont have my ssn, they dont have a signed contract from me agreeing i would pay, nor do they spell my name correctly.

The owner of this company is steve bolf his phone number is [protected] or [protected] he has numerous company's like this and yes it is a scam. DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT PAY HIM A PENNY.

I ordered this subscription two months ago, however the day after I ordered, I called this organization back in an attempt to cancel my subscription. I receive the magazines, but, I don't have the time to read them. I have attempted to call repeatedly to cancel the order and no one on the staff will return my phone calls. Now, I am calling my bank to stop payment as I find this is very poor business practice. I was told I could cancel this at any time. Very hard to do when no one returns your phone calls.

I have read a lot of the comments regarding Family Readers Club on this website found via GOOGLE and Ripoff.com and it's amazing to me how many there are; mine is just one of thousands. I have had the same experience described in everyone of these except whenever they call me, and the calls have been too many to count...they NEVER leave a message! If my cell phone rings to the default ringtone (unless I'm expecting a call) I don't answer it because I'm usually at work and have better things to do than talk with them.

Itotally Agree

Today I spoke with Mr. Bolf and one of his managers on the phone. I found them to be concerned and professional about the cancellation of my daughter's order. Mr. Bolf has been a business man for more than 45 years and is "not out to scam anyone", per our conversation. I believe if you are having problems reaching someone "live" at Family Readers Club the next best bet is to send a certified letter to them and work with your bank and credit card company. Waiting for someone else to correct your financial commitments is never a smart idea.

D. Pavay
California

Totally. I subsciribed and on the same day went online to check out the company, I found lots of people commenting that its a scam. First thing I did was call my bank and they told me that the company already took out money, which was weird because after I hung up with a representative from the company, I went online for 5 mins after the subcription then called my bank and money was taken! I called the company back the very same day and got reach of one lady she said to call customer service. Customer service told me to call the next day so I called the representative back on the same day and got transfered to another lady who told me i could'nt cancel since it went through already but the thing is i tried to cancel on the same day that i subscribed, how is that too late when it was only within one hour? They also offered me the stupid watch and two other magazines at no charge which i'm sure they're just ###ting. Stupid thing that got me was the chance to win 100, 000 dollars. I should have known, I guess the company hired some pretty damn good scammers to work for them. Family readers club is a scam. Now i'm in the process of getting myself out. I can't beleive i fell for it.

Same thing for my son He has been having money taken from checking account for 4 years and they say he can't cancel. Also, two other magazine clubs started taking money from his account. Even our bank couldn't figure out how to get in touch with those companies. One was called Tropical Readers. We cancelled the checking account. Now they are sending letters about ruining his credit. I am contacting the Federal Trade Commission, BBB and also our attorney General. This company is a scam. No one pays that kind of money for magazines! On top of it all my son has a learning disability and does very little reading!

i just got a call from these guys. i went to go check out the website and it goes straight to here. i immediately call the people back and didnt get nothing it just went to the guys vmail. who ever is in the same situation call your bank and cancel that debit or credit card you put it on. thats what i did and im getting the amount that they shouldnt even have beentaken out yet disputed! im so mad that i feel for this crap! i would never do something like this again!

I was told that for 49.99, I would receive 6 free magazines of my choice. I was told by 1 person at Family Reader's Club that I could cancel at any time, while an employee in customer service told me I had to cancel within 3 business days. I was informed that I would receive $1, 000 in Gift Certs to restaurants. I received a coupon booklet from Hotmealscooldeals.com. Has anyone heard of them or know if they are a scam? I have been waiting for 2 1/2 weeks and still have not received my gift certificates from them. Also, does anyone know of a phone number of Hot Meals Cool Deals? All I can find is an e-mail address for customer support, but they apparently do not return e-mails. I have a feeling that I will be not be getting my gift certificates. Has anyone had success in getting gift certificates from this company? They are supposedly located in Knoxville, TN. Thank you very much and please do not fall for this scam.

i just recived a call from these people, his name was Quinton. oh boy he was rude! he told me he was garnishing my wages and sending me to cort. i laughed... they dont have the rite spelling of our last name. when i told them i didnt recive the correct magazines and i would send them all back to them he yelled at me and told me he will tak my Fu*king house and garnish my Fu*cking wages and call my house every Fu*king day! once i said i had him on recording he hung up the phone. this company did not send us the correct order nor would fulfill the contract the say we had signed. as well as this is not the 1st time i have been told off by this company. they wanted me to agree that i would pay $200.00 to stop the $900.00 outstanding balance from going on my credit. i laughed and said well if you would have sent me the correct magazines i would have payed... but im not paying for the wrong order and would send back the crap they sent me.

This company is a 100% nut-house. It seems like the right hand never knows what the left hand is doing. I can't sday i was scammed into it, because the company does have me on recording orering the magazines. They just don't tell you it's 49.95$ a month. This is the kind og company who probably hires all kinds of different sales rooms and probably have no idea what's going on / being said in them. I highly doubt they can hurt your credit.

What really ticked me off was this one:

They called me telling me i had been doing well with my payments so they were reducing my monthly rate from 49.95$ to 29.95$. Finally i was seeing a compassionate side to them. Then on my next credit card statement i had 2 charges! one for the 49.95$ and one for the 29.95$! so i was double scammed!

I think i will try reaching Mr. Bolf, i here he's then only one you can speak to who will do something for you. He must be Derek's Son or something, it says on their website the owner is derek Bolf.

STOP PAYING THESE PEOPLE! with enough of these complaints, they'll be outa business in no time. maybe even in jail!

This is form their website:
Family Readers Club
Address: 90 County Route 38, Norfolk NY 13667
Tel: [protected]
Email: customerservice@frcsite.com
Family Readers Club was established in 2006 as it perceived a large need in the North American market for a business to promote readership for the benefit of consumers and publishers alike.

The magazine industry continues to evolve as new challenges push it forward (cable television, satellite television, the Internet, Blogs, PDAs, and iPods to name but a few).

Derek Bolf saw the opportunity and decided to do something about it. Derek is a young, dynamic businessman with many years experience in both the Magazine sector and technology sector.

Derek and his executive team combine over 150 years of experience in the magazine industry. Using this experience and vision for the future, the team continues to blend old and proven methods with young and dynamic vision to push the envelope and develop new and exciting possibilities in the multi-billion dollar industry.

aboout 2 1/2 months ago i had got a call from the family readers club, they had offered me all these good deals. they tricked me into signing up and i would be paying $14 a month then when i gave them my credit card number and my adress and social security number and phone number, she sent me through a recording saying that i would be paying all of a sudden 39.95 a month. When i told her i could not afford that she said that i would get a extra magazine for only 29.95. I still told her no she ran my credit and said it was to late and the money would be on hold untill the end of the month. She then said call back in a few hours and talk to the "main boss" and that he could and would cancel it for me. I called back and they were not available i called the next day and left messages and no one could return my calls. So the next hour or so i callled my bank and they said that 39.95 got taken out of the bank already. So I called them and they would never answer or call back. Next month i got a bank statement and it said they took out 29.95. The next day i went to the bank and and told them what was happening and they said that they would credit my account back, because i did not authorize that transaction. The next couple of weeks or so my bank wamu bank rupted and chase took them over. Chase then sent me my new bank account number and credit card. So that stopped the payments from comming out. I then had recieved calls from them saying that i need to pay the bill or i would be sent to legal collections. The next week or so i told them to take my number out of the system and cancel it, they said they would. On Aug 4 20o9 i got a phone call from a man saying that my books where running late and that they were sorry, before he finished i told him that they were suppose to be a canceled subscribtion he then sent me to his suppervisor and he said ok i will cancel it for you. All you need to do is call this number to make sure it was canceled. I then called them and said she had no authority over that. I then called family readers number again, and they gave me the run around call this number call that number but it always took me to the same person, and when i got through they hung up on me 3 times. My boyfriend then called and said you need to stop hanging up on me and they said they were sorry and they would cancel it and i asked for a name she said her name was kristina i then called back and made sure they had canceled it and they didnt i then asked for kristina and the person on the phone said there is no kristina. So they are giving me a false name and scaming me on top of it. After a few hours later i finally got a number for the two names of justin and chris. I called them and told them what was going on and that i want to cancel it. They said they would offer me a settel ment of only 50% of the orginal agreement which would come out ot 500 i then told him no he said ok last offer i will settle it for only 25% which came out to 298 and be able to get the magazines for 2 years i told him no, he then aruged with me for a while and said the deal is off the tabel and they they are going to turn me over to collections and that is bottom line after that he said guess what you just screwed up your credit and that i was stupid thats right he said i was stupid. I hung up on him and said screw you. My boyfriend called him back and talked to the other guy justin and he said your wife had call a minuet ago and that all agreements were setteled that you will be paying the full thousand and what ever. I told him we never got a bill we never go a statement saying we had a time limit to cancel it nothing at all. He then said i can settel it for 70% which came out to be 730 dollars and that i will not be getting any more magizines and that is like a cancelation fee. I told him no that he will not get a penny from us and that the bank is closed and that is it. He then said you are a loser and you are stupid as well. So moral of the story is agree with anything from them it is all a SCAM, they lie to you and they will harass you and will take your hard earned money in a heart beat.

report thim to bbb ftc and distric atorney in your state and new york we will stop thim

http://familyreadersclubscam.webs.com/ i made this site to keep us together and billed an online story to help peaple and to know a way to contact each other incase we can take thim to court thanks

recieved this phone call back in May... Telling me congradulations I have been selected by my bank for keeping my account up to date and then the started asking me all of theses questions about magazines and such.. tellingme that i will recieve a gift card for $1000 for any restaruant in the United States... Told me that I can choose any for magazines...I have called them several times wanting to cancel this account and they keep telling me that if I want to cancel I would hve to pay them $800.00 since it is past the cancelation date. I didn't authorize them to to do this..My family lives paycheck to paycheck...I want this money refunded.. And Please anyone who this has happened to.. I am with you on anything needed to be done...

I had to use the BBB and my bank to get my money back. Best of luck!

More details on my situation are here:

Apparentley this is the biggest scam ever unfortanetley there out to get everyone! My boyfriend was also promised a 1000 dollar gift card which he NEVER received and for a two year term he is obligated to pay 29.95 we have called repeadetley to let them know that were going through a rough time but they didnt care they said that if we werent to pay that they would send us to collections . Which isnt fair weve worked very hard on building our credit for a stupid scam company to come and mess it up. But no one has been able to stop them . There has to be something that we have to do to get our money back and also stop other innocent people from purchasing. If anyone happens to encounter a way to stop them please let me know via email.!

being billed for magazine never received

My husband was a victim of the scam that Family Readers Club is running. He was told by the first person he spoke with that he was going to be entered into a Grand Prize Drawing for a cruise and all he would have to do is sign up for some magazines. This person told him that he could cancel at any time, but to wait until after the end of the year. When he tried to cancel his subscription Customer Service told him that he could not cancel and that he had pretty much agreed to a loan to be paid for 60 months! Of course he never signed a contract, but they said that they had him on a recorded message and that was the same thing and would hold up in court. They also threatened to report him to the Credit Bureaus. After reading this blog, I can see that he was not the only one that fell for this scam and is having a hard time getting out of it. We are sending a certified letter with a print out of this blog attached, hoping to cancel this account. Also, we have sent back every magazine that has come to his house to the publisher. The Postal Service told us that all we have to do is write "Refused" on the address portion of the magazine and put it back in our mail box for pick up. Then, the Postal Service will notify the publishers that we will not accept any more of their magazines. I really hope this works. Meanwhile, my hubby has to cancel his Credit Card, because I am afraid they are passing along his information to other companies as well. I would like to hear from anyone that was able to resolve an account with this fraudulent company.

I orderd magazines from these people, 3 days later I cancelled the order. The
lady I talked to said every thing was okay, but I had to send a registerd letter to
them and to another company working wit h them, that was over 10.oo.
Yesterday, I get a phone call from a man telling me that I was still under
contract with these people, and he could get me out of it for $449.00.
I'm a senior citizen, and dont have that kind of money. When your phone
rings and they ask for you by name, HANG UP////. These people are the biggest
scamming_ _ _ holes I, ve ever had to deal with.

I have experienced almost identical incidents with the complaints listed. In fact, I received a call just this week telling me I owed over 400.00 on my subscription. I asked them to send me an invoice so that I might pay it off with a certified cashiers check, and I kept getting the run around advising me to use my checking account, or a one time paid credit card. I consider myself lucky that the Target Credit card this subscription was on was compromised and thus canceled. Upon cancelation, there was no way that they could receive any payment. I was told by my bank to cancel my checking account and open a new one so that there would be no way these people could get into my account and the only way to "pay them off" would be through a certified check. The only way to get out of this scam is to leave nothing available for them to draw on. I would urge anyone with this problem to cancel the bank account the "Club" is drawing on, cancel the credit card, and send them nothing. Ignore their threats, and do not let them wear you down with the good cop/bad cop, "I'll check with my manager to see what we can do." It is all a LIE.

I responded to a job ad and they contacted me via e-mail saying that they were trying to call me but my phone number was wrong. I apologized and told them that I had asked them to respond via e-mail for that very reason and that my phone would be up and running soon. I asked them to give me more info on their company and the position in the mean time but that e-mail was never responded to. So I googled them and found two sites including this one full of complaints! I had already sent them another e-mail with my new number and encouraging them to call me but after seeing this I immediately sent them another e-mail basically saying that since they failed to respond to my inquiries I did my own research online and unfourtunatle I do not want to work for a fraudulant company. My caution flags went up as soon as they sent me the first e-mail. I found it too good to be true that a company is hiring a manager with no business management degree or diploma or without any prior management or supervisory experience. Thank you guys for this info and I cannot believe that they are still in business!

Just another dissatisfied-taken advantage of-pissed off-scammed customer although didn't even know that I WAS a customer. Apparently they had sent a letter of which I tossed without opening which stated that I was enrolled but if wanted to unenroll had to call them within 30 days. Since I hadn't opened the envelope, didn't know about the unenrolling. Started receiving charges on my credit card but thought they were my husbands charges until he noticed them and told me they weren't his four months later. We called the #'s and as everyone else stated, couldn't get anyone. My husband kept trying, leaving his name & # and finally got a call back of which she informed him of the letter sent. In our opinion, this is outright stealing and also unauthorized use of our credit card. This is a travesty! I will be sending this company a letter informing them that they are now entered in the Super Bowl of Theives and Scammers and will be reported to BBB and FTC as winning a title in these two elite clubs.

Oh, my goodness. I am so tired of dealing with this people. They are sick and they are all going to hell. I have been trying to cancel with them for over a FREAKING YEAR. I have already paid them $500 and they still want $750 more. I remember when I got the original package from them. I received the letter from them almost two weeks after it was written and it stated that the cancellation letter needed to make back to them within 5 days. I tried sending it back anyway, stating that I received it after the time was up and they did not honor it. I am still trying to fight them over it. I have had to cancel my credit card so that they can stop taking automatic deductions. I am currently fighting two magazine companies and I know that they are all in on it together, because they answer the telephone the same way. Meanwhile, they are messing up my credit, while I am trying to pay REAL bills.

We've been dealing with these people for over 2 years. They are not honest, and are only out to get your money. We managed to stop the credit card charges and we also managed to stop the debit charges on our bank account and got all our money back. We still get the harassing phone calls, are called names on the phone when they call and any attempt to rectify the situation they just hang up. If you're not going to talk about how they are going to get paid they just call you a nasty name, tell you to stick it where the sun don't shine and then they hang up. I'm done trying to be nice to these people. I've contacted my State's Attorney General and they have opened an investigation into their practices.

I all of a sudden started getting charged 24.95 to my account, I tried calling the number that the bank statement has listed who took the money out, [protected] and it was all in french, when I randomly hit numbers it turned out to be a pre paid voice box in Canada somewhere. I never received any phone call from FRC or even a letter. Have contacted my bank to cancel my card and to file a distupt of charges. What I find interesting is that after all this time, they are STILL in operation. I would have thought that the FTC or the FBI would have slammed the door shut on them.

i have been getting quite a bit of overdrafts from my bank and i was wondering if family readers club responsible for it.i am going to find out from my bank and if this is the case they are going to refund my money back to the bank.i am hoping and praying they are not the ones doing it.

i just cancelled my account before i even received the gift card! they dont even refund your 8.93 back they charge. i might have to close my account seeing that by all these reports i've been reading, that they keep charging yours! bad mistake to give into!

I went into maps.yahoo and typed in their address and they couldn't find that address. Do this company really exist. I also went into the company's web address and it was really weird because it wasn't there. Now what?

Wow!. I'm going through the exact same thing as everyone else. I have been unemployed for over 1 year and they keep telling me that "you can't cancel because we've paid for these magazines up front to the publishers." Maybe the Attorney Generals of all the states need to be notified of this scam! One person even went so far as to tell me that that's how she puts food in her kids mouth! I don't want these magazines and they will keep billing me $49.95 each month even if I'm homeless they told me. Biggest rip off on earth!

The National Do Not Call Registry gives you an opportunity to limit the telemarketing calls you receive. Once you register your phone number, telemarketers covered by the National Do Not Call Registry have up to 31 days from the date you register to stop calling you. If a consumer asks a company not to call, the company may not call, even if there is an established business relationship. Indeed, a company may not call a consumer - regardless of whether the consumer's number is on the registry - if the consumer has asked to be put on the company's own do not call list.