Liberty Readers Service
Complaint 194355 Details

I am writing to warn you about Liberty Readers Service (LRS), a company that operates on questionable business practices and harrassed my boyfriend (D.) and me for over one year.

In the summer of 2011, Liberty Readers Service called D. to solicit a magazine subscription service. They said that if he signed up, he would receive six different magazines, monthly, plus one weekly magazine for $20/month, along with a free sign-on gift. D. stated that he was interested in this good deal, but that due to his irregular income, he was not sure that he would be able to guarantee making these monthly payments. The LRS representative stated on the phone that if he ever was unable to pay, all he would have to do would be to call them to cancel and then stop paying and they would stop sending the magazines. Satisfied with this answer, D. agreed to sign up for the magazine subscriptions and gave his debit card number to LRS over the phone.

D. started to receive the magazines, along with automatic charges on his debit card ranging from $39-$65 per month. The charges were higher than the sales rep on the phone had stated, so he called to inquire about this and then asked to cancel the service. The person on the phone at that time stated that he would be unable to cancel, and that he was locked into a two-year contract. Frustrated, D. paid about $200 to LRS over the next few months. Eventually he stopped paying and LRS began to tack on a late fee, and later, they finally did stop sending the magazines, but continued to charge for them.

After D. spoke to his bank about this issue, they suggestested that he get a different debit card number, so he did, and they put a block on the monthly charge from Liberty Readers Service at the same time. But Liberty Readers Service had obtained his direct bank account number and continued to withdraw money every month. The LRS withdrawals kept being made, despite the block. The bank said that all LRS had to do was to change the charge amount by one cent and then the transaction would go through. So the bank closed D's account and opened a new one for him.

LRS has been calling every phone number they can find for D. to try to get money from him. The calls continued for over one year and there were often several calls per day. The calls always came from different numbers, and the customer service person never left a message. All calls are handled from their in-house collections office, which seems to be a huge part of the company. During these calls, LRS stated that is would cost D. $800 to buy off the remainder of the contract that they say he agreed to. During one phone call, I asked them to provide proof of this agreement in writing, which they refused to do. No contract was ever signed, and the initial sales representatives lied to D. on the phone. Many magazine subscriptions cost only $5-$25 per year. How on earth could two years of magazines total $800? What a scam.

D. was overcharged, overbilled, and was hounded for a product that he would not have ordered if LRS had been honest with him. I will be filing claims to the Better Business Bureau, ComplaintsBoard.com, RipoffReport.com, and Scambook.com. I hope no one else will sign up for any products/services over the phone without seeing a contract first. Don't get scammed by LRS!