Southern Magazine Promotions reviews and complaints

I received a call in December 2008. I told the employee i wanted off the list and didnt want to purchase any products. Two weeks later I received another call. I decided to purchase 2 years of magazines(paying for 4 and receive 9) for 50.00 a month but I got it knocked down to 33 a month. I was told money would be taken out in March, I double checked and asked repeatedly about EVERYTHING.
In Jan money was taken out 42.00(not the amount I agreed to), I figured it was an early payment. I tried to call the number I was given...it was invalid. So I was going to wait to possibly get mail that they said I should get, along with the free paid vacation to any one of the 50 selected locations. Yea that was b.s. too. Money ended up being taken out of my account in Feb and March...no products received. I called my bank, they blocked the company. which was listed as a Childrens Book Club. About 2 weeks later my bank called and said they finally found a number that worked. I called the number...of course they had nothing of me on file...name, number, address, or banking info..nothing!
So that phone number was with customer service, but you cant talk to anyone with the actual SMP company unless they call you. Well the customer service lady said to dispute the charges...so I did. THEN the magazines and calls started.
I got calls thorughout the entire day. I explained to at least 30 people the issue...they didnt care. I was called a [censored] by one girl who said "you dont have a choice, you have to pay!" And another guy who said I was a piece of crap and if I didnt want the commitment I shouldnt have signed up. Another guy told me to "f*ck off" because I had to pay and didnt have a choice. The last jerk to call in July of 2009 set me off bad. I tried to talk and appariently he had had a horrible day already and started cussing, yelling and freaking out. I couldnt understand half of what he said...imagine some of the worst names you could call a girl/woman...this guy had a bad mouth. So I finally hung up and just ignored any numbers that werent in my phone book.
I didnt receive any calls for roughly a month.. Then I started to get a call from the phone number 1. Yes, only one digit. It freaked me out so I didnt answer it until I was with someone who could hear everything with me. Go figure it was SMP. The customer service manager "David" called because the employees were having trouble trying to get my payments from me. I told him everything in detail. He then said "Im sorry to hear of your troubles, but I can only go off of what the computer shows and the computer shows nothing about what your telling me about." I said "of course your computer isnt going to show any loggings that an employee called me, harrassing me, and calling me a b*itch...would you log that in?" He didnt care what had happened. The original price for the 2 years was supposed to be around 200.00.(you pay for a few months in bulk so you didnt have to make smaller "annoying" payments. After a few months of not paying because it was a load of crap the amount went up to 386.00. I freaked. How the heck am I supposed to have that kind of money laying around to pay off some jerks so they will stop calling me?!?! Well my boyfriend talked them down to 250.00 and payed with his credit card in Nov of 2009. He told them if there are any further issues he would get a layer etc. David agreed that everything was resolved and I would receive my paperwork within 2 weeks...over a month later nothing showed up...of course.
I called and spoke to David who said my account has been cancelled. WTF! I paid 250.00 to cancel my account? And NOT receive any products?!? I was pissed, so he re-activated my account, then I received a letter a few days later. I payed for 2 yrs of magazines, the letter stated I would only receive them for 6-8 weeks. So I called again. He said it was a "regular" letter that they send the same one to everyone. Well its been a few weeks and nothing else has shown up. He also claimed it would take longer to get them because of the holidays. Yea, im sure, as long as he has his money he doesnt care if they ever show up.
Before when I looked up the co. in early-mid 2009 I found nothing, then today Jan 2 2010 I found TONS of complaints all matching similar ones as mine. So I have now disputed my 250.00. This is the biggest bunch of crap and b.s. I have ever dealt with in my life. I feel bad for anyone and everyone else who has had any relations with this company. Im about to change my phone number and look on my credit score to see if its listed there...if it is im disputing that as well...they can count on it. This is a scam, harrassing, fraudulent company who doesnt care about customers or product...all they want is money. DISPUTE ANY AND EVERYTHING YOU CAN WITH THIS COMPANY! If they dont have any paperwork signed or legal consent...in any written form...you CAN dispute the money. And I highly recommend recording any and ALL conversations. My e-mail [protected]@yahoo.com

I too had received a call from from Southern Magazine Promotions. When I answered the phone, they said that I had been entered into a drawing by one of my credit card companies and that I won a free vacation and three magazines subscriptions. The only thing was that I had to pay for the fourth one. By the end of the phone call, I had signed up for six magazines and was paying $50 a month for 20 months. Of course I didn't do the math and was caught off guard. When I hung up the phone, I had realized that I just signed up for a $1000.00 magazine subscription. I called them back from my caller ID and said that I wanted to cancel the order that I just put in. I was also told that I could not cancel my order. I have been trying to cancel and cancel but to no avail. I will gladly pay the two months that I know owe, but would appreciate anything help that I can get to get this cancelled. So, I looked up their name on Google and found a link with a letter describing a similar situation listed on your website. I was able to get the whole canceled through the pushiness of my father.

I just wanted to add a complaint to let people know that they are out there again, and preying on anyone they get a hold of. They are fast talkers and will tell anything you want to hear, and then ask for a credit card number. I was gullible to fall for it, so I wanted to try help warn other consumers.

hey if u have been scammed by this company n already have money out of your account n never recieved magazines in tifton, ga... please list ur name . i think its rediculous. need names to prove matter, this will be taken into legal hands, help put a stop. think about the elderly, young teens in college, pple getting screwed all for couple bucks in their pocket. help out by listing your name and what city and state u live in. thx

I get this call form a nice lady named Carrie, She says that I am a finalist in a free vacation contest. She also asked me if I wanted to buy magazines. I told her "No magazines, I just want the vacation. " She need my card number to verify that I had an active account. She assured me that there would be not transactions, no magazines, only a vacation entery. Now I'm sitting here with 10 magazines I don't read, $200 out of my account and I still owe $40. Maybe I was a little nieve. I feel I am in part to blame for not forseeing this, but had no right. Do not fall victom to these animals.

My son was sucked into a scam by this company. They called him about a vacation. That's literally all he remembers about the phone call. He knows they asked a bunch of questions but wasn't sure what. then all the sudden all these magazines start showing up. We live in a small town so even though the mailing address was WRONG, the magazines still ended up in my box. I didn't know what was goin on. It was my son's name but I know he would never order "Time" or "Handyman. He was called by the company today and was told what I've read in several stories, about how he agreed and they have verification and stuff and that he better pay or they will ruin his credit. (By the way, my son is 19) He told them he would have me call and then he hung up. I called them back and asked to listen to the verification tape. They were right when they said it was his voice. But something was off. First a computer would ask him a question, then a lady would come on. My son's voice would be garbled, and then a lady would repeat the answers. (or her version of the answers) He had pauses before some answers and no pause for others. There is no way this was an actual conversation. It's cut and pasted. The lady asked me what I was going to do and I told her I would call my son and visit with him. But we are gonna let them know that we will just turn this over to the Better Business Bureau and that I've found large numbers of complaints of this company with fraudulant claims. If needed, I'm sure a lawyer will be able to get this taken care of. We were some of the lucky ones. They didn't get our address right or the credit card number right. So they have no way to charge him. As for his credit. I don't think so!

holy crap, these guys are persistent. thanks everyone for posting the crap these horrible people are pulling. i was so close to giving them my debit card number, but i told them to call me back so i could do a little research and this is the only sight that let me know it was a scam. thanks again everyone, you all really just helped me out more than you know.

I was dumb enough to subscribe to SMP for the same deal, knowing that i would be moving overseas soon. They assured me that i was able to receive the magazines to an overseas address, and that all i had to do was to call back and change the address on the phone. What happened after i got the package was that they told me that they do not ship overseas and hence i was stuck. However, i managed to push for a refund after complaining to them about it. They told me to send a letter in, which i did, 1 mth later, still nothing. Only after speaking to the supervisor did i mange to get a refund immediately credited back into my acct. WTF... if they could do it now, why put me through so much trouble in the first place?