So about two months ago, I was buying a PS2 game in EB Games, and the cashier asks if I want two free issues of two magazines, Playstation and Electronic Gaming Monthly. I say sure, why not? I had no intention of subscribing (in this day and age of the internet, who really needs magazine subscriptions anymore?) but might as well take a couple free issues for bathroom reading material.
So this morning I log into my bank account, and find out that they’ve charged me $60 for a 1 year subscription to both magazines. What the fuck, I never signed up for this! How the hell they even got my credit card # is beyond me…EB Games must’ve used the same credit card I used to buy the game and gave it to them. I’m going to call them up when I get out of work and get this cancelled. I smell fraud by either them or EB Games, because I would not have agreed to sign up for a subscription (especially since Playstation magazine is $40 a year, a fee which they seem to justify by including a DVD of DEMO games every month)
These print magazine companies must be so desparate for subscribers these days that they’re going around signing people up without their authorization and telling their business partners to “forget” to tell their customers that their 2 free issues come with 12 more that will be pre-paid for.
It’s a standard enough technique. Not one I’ve used myself because I’ve mostly stuck to trade press but I see it happen. Check your fine print on the offer. It probably mentions that the two issues are FREE but you’re signing up for an ongoing subscription following on the free copies.
Yeah, EB Games is kinda sketchy like that. I picked up a used copy of Final Fantasy VII for 12 dollars. The total came to 15. New Jersey has a 6% tax rate, so it was that. The cashier told me that their was a charge for an optional one year warranty, which I asked him to remove. He kindly obliged.
: Shrug : That’s the price for good games. Keep your eyes open when you’re there. Good luck with everything.
They’re supposed to tell you about that automatic charge, and you can cancel it (like I did). If they didn’t, go back to the manager and tell him that this is unacceptable. make a stink over it, and they may do something for you.
Next time, read the fine print, and always recognize that they’re out to screw you. Generally speaking, I turn down every similar offer I get out of hand.
Definitely. If it’s something you don’t particularly want (those magazines sure sound unappealing to me), it’s gonna be way more trouble than it’s worth to get out of the rest of the valuable offer.
Can’t you contest the charge through the credit card company?
I occasionally get people trying to “give” me six or eight “free” issues of SI. First off, I don’t really read Sports Illustrated all that often. Secondly, I could have signed up with a much better deal through any number of services or even the NFL courtesy rate application I got sent a while back. (Man, the NFL really knows how to market.) We’re talking a full subscription here for 40 bucks. Plus a sweatshirt. As it is, I didn’t sign up, but I got a handy wallet-sized 2005 NFL schedule that can go right in with my pocket periodic table and pai-gow house way cards.
I think you would be completely in the right to ask, no, wait, demand that your credit card refuse these charges. Getting handed two magazines is most definitely NOT the same as signing up for a one year subscription. There’s a reason that we have to sign the credit card receipt when we use them in person; you are acknowledging that yes, indeed, this is a valid charge and you agree to pay it. You did no such thing for this spurious charge.
I would go after the company that used your credit card number without your permission, too. Vendors that have agreements with credit card companies know very well that there are privacy laws and they are most emphaticially NOT allowed to use customer’s credit card numbers without explicit permission of the customer.