Nov 13, 2009 9:21 pm US/Pacific
Call Kurtis: A Costly Misread
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ―
A West Sacramento woman joined a magazine club. But when another company called pretending to be from that club and got her financial information she called Kurtis.
Penny George has had it.
"I'm not going to sit and take this and nobody should. Because they are very, very sneaky and it's fraudulent."
She already belongs to a magazine discount club.
"You buy one magazine and you pay full price for that magazine, then you get seven other magazines and you get them for seven years."
So when she got a phone call in June from a man identifying himself as "her magazine service" she assumed he was from that same company. She says they told her;
"We're calling because we no longer accept checks. So we have to get a credit card and we'll be taking it out monthly that way."
Penny gave him her credit card number, but according to her bank statement, the charge wasn't from her magazine service but a company called Patriotic Readers Club our of Denver Colorado. She tried calling them to cancel but could never get through. So she closed her credit card. Then she started getting monthly bills, and some magazines she says she never ordered. Then the company started calling her, threatening collections.
"I argued wit h them. I told them that was a very fraudulent was of getting business and accounts. My husband argued with them."
When we called Patriotic Readers Club we got the same recording…every time.
"At this time all of our representatives are assisting other customers. If you please leave you name and number we'll get back to you shortly."
We've left nine messages since mid-September and never head back from anyone. We then looked in to the company's record. There's a long list of complaints about them on-line. They even have an "F" rating with the Better Business Bureau. The next place we turned was the Colorado Attorney General's Office, they confirmed collecting complaints on Patriotic Readers, and are looking into the situation. As of now Penny is still out her $49.95. But after our messages with the company the harassing calls have stopped.
"Very frustrating and you know I'm not the only one, there's many like me out there."
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