Universal Reading Services reviews and complaints

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I just got off the phone with the supervisor. He told me I couldn't cancel; it was too late and I made an agreement. I told him I had already cancelled my card and reported it as fraud to my bank and he gets really intimidating saying that my bank does not have the authority to cancel. I hung up on him. I'm really scared. Even after canceling my card and getting a new one, they are still charging my card. Thankfully my bank refuses to let the money get taken out. I don't know what to do.

Does anyone have a phoone #for this company

Does anyone have a number for this company

A while ago, was driving and got a call that I was entered into a sweepstakes for $20, 000. All I had to do was order a subscription of magazines. The guy I was taking to had a pretty thick accent so I had a lot of trouble understanding him. After a good amount of time, this other guy comes on the phone asking how was everything, because the guy I was talking to was "new", and he wanted to make sure I was okay. So he starts to continue my subscription. He starts to continue my order. He tells me they're giving me a deal of $68.28 for the magazines for the year, but something doesn't feel right so I say I didn't I wasn't aware I was paying for all this. He ends up talking me around adn they get my account number. After a few days I check up on them and realize it's a scam. So I try to call them but can't get a hold of them, so I just cancel my card. To ensure the whole situation is really over I call them up and cancel my account. A girl answers the phone and I tell her I want to cancel, and she says that I can't because I gave them my word I would pay for the whole subscription. She passes me over to her supervisor. The more I tell them I want to cancel, she tells me she can't but she has the authority to lower the cost. I tell her I don't need discounts, I need to cancel. They also record you agree after the first call so they can pull it up and use it. So after a while, she gives in and cancels out my account. This was May 27.
July 5, I was constantly getting these calls from a number that I didn't know. I finally answer. It's the company looking for their payment. I informed the girl that I canceled the account. She says she sees that I attempted to cancel in May but it didn't go through. She all I have to do is call customer service number and cancel my account again. My advice if they get you account info, just cancel your card.

I have just been a victim of this exact same thing from the exact same company. DO NOT FALL FOR THEM! Everything people are saying is what happened to me as well. I am so pissed off right now. I called my bank and they said since the charges are still pending, they can't do anything until it goes through. But when it goes through, they will fight it for me if this company does not cancel the service. I don't know what else to do and my heart is pounding!

I too have been ripped off. The company called me while I was at work and rambled on through a speech. I felt bad for the woman being a telemarketer and all. I naively agreed to subscribe to their services thinking they were giving me such a great deal (at least that's how the woman made it sound) I have been taking medicine that causes me to sometimes feel a little out of it and so I gave her my credit card number. When I had time to think about it and realize that I was being ripped off I planned on canceling, it just so happened that my credit card had been compromised so I cancelled the one they charged. So when a woman called me to collect more money (after they took 68.28) I informed this lady I wanted to cancel my subscription anyway and that I would not be giving her anothe credit card number. She proceeded to give me the run around and was very rude so I hung up on her. This company has been calling me several times a day every day for the past 6 months! I am stressed because I don't want to hurt my credit but I am not going to pay for something I cancelled. I hope that someone will put a stop to this kind of fraud. The last person I spoke to told me my balance was 1, 227 dollars and some change! For magazines. Seriously ?! But he was willing to take 50 % of that and call it good. I told him no so he made it sound like he was doing me a favor and going to take a loss and accept 30% of the balance. I was tired of him being rude and not listening to the word NO, so I told him I was sorry he felt that way and I hung up. :( I pray they are stopped soon, there are people that really can't afford to be ripped off like this. God Bless.

I received a call this morning from this place. I have had the flu for the past week and consequently am not up to par. So I laid disoriented on the couch while this guy (Devin) rambled in my ear about a sweepstakes and magazines. It sounded like a good idea to me since I was looking into a subscription anyway. (Hindsight: Don't ever sign up for a subscription from someone who comes to you. Go get it yourself firsthand.) He gave me the story about how he is new, blah blah, and I get a free watch, blah blah.

There were a couple things I noticed even through the fog of flu. First of all, they talk really fast. And when I would ask questions, they would avoid answering completely and instead give me an irrelevant response. Then the feeling that something wasn't right sank in when I was reading my card number aloud. The problem is that they are really slick about getting you to give information. I admit it was dumb on my end - but the "supervisor" on the phone was leading me to believe that he had all of this information already anyway and just wanted to verify that it was correct. And maybe they do have it and they just need to have you on recording so they can say you authorized everything. Who knows. But he would give me part of my info and I would give the rest. Stupid me. It did occur to me in the call that it was really odd that he was reading off information of mine and I had never even answered a call from here before.

When I realized this was a scam then I told the supervisor I wanted out. He fed me crap about me already consenting and he already put me in the drawing (boo-hoo, dude!). Then he proceeded to talk me down to a lower monthly rate (which added up to about $700 bucks overall, by the way). I was sick of him and I thought $39.31 a month wasn't so bad so I went on with it. At the end of the call I asked for a number to call them back (so I could cancel) and he said I would get it in my welcome package. "Oh, okay. Thanks." *Click*.
...wait..."I WOULD GET IT IN MY WELCOME PACKAGE?!?!?!" HELLO! Are you stupid?

I immediately went into my bank account and there was the charge! Plus some other $1.00 hold. The $39.31 came from UNIVERSAL READING COMPANY, VIRGINIA BEACH. The $1.00 hold came from MAGAZINE INC. MARIETTA HWY FL. (Florida? What?) What I am guessing from the million numbers I've called is that the $1.00 hold is from all that secondary crap they feed you at the end (hopefully you didn't make it that far) when they tell you about some other ID theft companies or some other companies they are giving information to. Whatever that third party was, that's your $1.00 charge.

The scammers gave me the correct number for that third party but this second number they gave me leads only to some underwear place (Crap.) I already canceled with Universal Reading so I shouldn't have an issue with this third party.

The best thing you can do is
1) notify your bank of the scam and ask them to reverse the charge. Most banks will do this for you. You may have to wait until the charge posts but that beats $700 of your life getting sucked away.
2) Cancel and replace your debit card. My bank said this is the best thing you can do in this situation. I did that. You should not have issues with collections and crap if you can get through to Universal Reading and cancel your subscription. Unfortunately, that's the hard part.
3) Call the scammers and cancel. The following numbers worked for me and you'll end up getting the same people no matter which number you call (another obvious clue that this is shady):
[protected]
[protected]***
[protected]*** (***these two numbers will get you the same guy)
They will try to tell you that you made an agreement. They will also try and sell you a lower price. Just ignore it and tell them firmly that:
A) YOU ARE NOT UNDER CONTRACT WITH THEM and
B) YOU HAVE ALREADY NOTIFIED YOUR BANK AND THEY WILL GET YOUR MONEY BACK NO MATTER WHAT
This shut them up for me and I had it canceled. Call time there was 3:33 -- so just be firm and you won't have 20-40 minute calls. I also called each of these number back again and I verified again and again that it was canceled. Also, they can give you a cancellation #. ASK FOR IT.

I am PISSED. I have never even spoken to this company or signed up for ANYTHING and they jsut charged my account for $68. When I finally found the number (after tons of searching) I spoke to an EXTREMELY rude "Supervisor" that told me they couldn't pull up my account information for at least 48 hours. ###. So even though I did not sign up for this and never agreed to anything they can't (more like won't) even pull up my information to take off the fraudulent charge?! ugh! Luckily my bank cancelled my card and will be fighting the charges. I am so pissed. Someone needs to shut these ###s down.

I am LIVID. I didn't even speak with this company EVER and they have somehow charged my account for $68! I am a poor college student and do not have money to jsut be throwing around! I tried to call them and explain that I NEVER agreed to anything but some ### supervisor told me that they couldn't even pull up my information until 48 hours after the account was made. I am FURIOUS. Not only was she rude, but that doesn't even make sense to me. They charged me almost $70 and can't pull up my account?! ###. Thankfully my bank is cancelling my account and they are going to fight it.

substitute there with their. thanks =)

My attitude towards this complaint is neutral for a number of reasons. To start, those of you who just say yes to anything and everything on the basis of a "good deal" flat out deserve what you get. You didn't listen to the speed talking "marketeer" and if it was to hard to hear or understand tell him/her to slow down or repeat. There is no reason why you should say yes to something if you do not fully understand it, ESPECIALLY when it concerns your finances. Now, this does not mean that I agree with there business practices. They use falsified information and give you the run around and it took me a great deal of time to track down there customer service number, which is the number you need in order to cancel. THAT IS THE ONLY CONTACT NUMBER. it is provided on the initial letter they send to you OR you have to snoop around online. The number is also provided in one of the comments above by Blademagepsn. [protected] in case you cant find his comment. Speak with a customer service rep. Do not play nice because they have no intention of trying to let you go, simply state that you are NOT under any contractual obligation what so ever. Itt'l take you about 5 to 10 min since they have to read a million responses to your cancellation off of some ###ing sheet, just repeatedly state you are cancelling. Eventually he/she runs out of options and they will give you 2 magazines = to the amount of money paid i.e. 68.29= 2yrs supposedly. Requesting a refund will not only take MORE time but you will have to jump through more hoops as well. Such is life. I mean no disrespect to anyone who fell into this trap, I knowingly signed up for this JUST so I could figure the way out. Hope it helped and best of luck.

[protected] IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

I was in middle of having my dinner at campus and i didnt hear them well they ripped me off taking from 39.31 dollar, i didnt realize what i did until i want and read you guys complaint, then i was 20 minute late from an important class bc i wanted to cancel my card i called them and told to cancel the subscription they refused and told me let lower it to 19 i said no and told them u guys dont send anything finally they agreed and canceled and told me ill recieve 2 magazines for a year hopefully they cant charge anything or put me on hold

this company is pure [censor] and needs to be shut down.They are ripping peopple off everyday and it needs to be stopped.just call([protected] ask for crstal be very firm ask them for their buisness id number and tell them you will be turning them into better buisness services if they dont refund money asap they move very quick then.also go to your bank cancel your card and tell them about it I printed this page they will assit you to.Good Luck and learn from this!