What a joke! I called and spoke with someone named Nicole, who told me she couldn't help me because the charge I received on my credit card was through her sister company. She gave me another number to call. I called, sat on hold for 5 minutes, then got connected to... Nicole! Yes, the same person. She was as stunned as I was. I'm now on hold for a manager. These thieves should be shut down - even their employees (this one happens to be very nice) don't know what's going on.

I'm so glad I found this post! I've been trying to cancel these darn renewals for awhile now and can never seem to figure out who to call. What a rip off - all the sudden I'd see these charges on my bank statement. I called the number above, just kept hitting zero and was connected with a rep. under 1 minute. He said he would reverse the charges. I'm crossing my fingers!

Thank you very much for your help! i also had a few charges and I called to cancel, but they didn't provide me with the option to talk to the representative. So i cancelled without receiving refund. I gave up till I saw your post. I called just now and getting my refund back. Thank you !

It is a magazine subscription service. They charged my bank account for magazines I did not order. Be careful.

I don't know what it was for as recently have not purchased anything but thought it might be Tru Credit. I thought I would check my credit report online and had belonged to a reputible one before.  This time...nothing and they deducted $22. from my account.  The number was 800-205-9198.  This is a rip off whatever it is.

The company is called Synapse, Inc., in Stanford, CT and they are outsourced from Time Warner, who does the actual billing. They do the subscriptons.

The poster who advised to press 0 over and over was correct. Keep pressing it. The automated system will tell you it will "take a long time to get customer service" but it took about 2 seconds after pressing zero about 10 times.

They said "Didn't you receive the blue postcard notifying you of the auto renewal for the 4 magazines you receive?'" I said no. These magazines were part of a gift from BizRate, which gave me 4 - 1 year subscriptions to Money, Oprah, Rolling Stone, and Nat Geo Traveler. They auto-renewal if you don't respond to the fictional blue postcard - which the guy said most people throw out as junk mail. He's a big liar.

They immediately said they would credit the refund back to my account ($39) but by this time, I had closed my debit account due to it being a fraudulant charge. He said since the card was close, it would be credited in 72 hours.

I told him that if it was not, I would file a complaint with the Attorney General's office in Conn., where they are located.

So, call the number 800-205-9198 and when the voice prompt gets your respons as to whether you want to use voice or keypad and says "Let's get going" start pressing 0 over and over and over.

You will get a person. Demand a refund - get a CONFIRMATION NUMBER - then tell them you will report them to the Attorney General's Office in Conn. if they don't refund in the amount of time they say.

Good luck.

Looks like I am one of many who got caught up in this so called "free" scheme.  I did call 800-205-9198 and was treated very professionally.  They made arrangements to cancel my subscription and quoted me what I was to expect for a refund.  In less than a week my credit card had been credited.  Thank you for the help.

Just had the same problem.  Pretty sure it was as a result of a free subscription offered at Loeman's.  Never gave them my visa or authorized any renewal.  Wasn't told that it would automatically renew.  This is a SCAM.  Ended up reporting to VISA as fraud and they canceled my credit card and sent me a new one.  I am told i will be getting a full refund.

LIAR!!!
Pure SCAM and FRAUD! REPORT THESE FRAUDS AT ONCE, CANCEL YOUR CREDIT CARDS AND GET NEW ONES FAST.
THESE PEOPLE ARE THIEVES AND LIARS!!!

Subscription "renewal service" scam. $34 for a 1-yr renewal to Rolling Stone. Go to the RS.com Web site and you can get 2 yrs for $32. Call immediately, keep banging on the '0' until you get a live person, and demand an immediate refund. DO NOT fall for any claims that you have to pay for "issues already delivered" or anything like that. They claim to have records showing that you ordered from them online and asked for automatic renewals. I simply said, "No you don't. I read fine print and if there was anything in your offer to suggest that I was signing up for automatic renewals, I would have declined." No response from the drone on the other end.

Be careful, too, because they tried to cancel my sub and then give me a "complimentary" six-issue sub for an $8 handling fee, or some BS like that. Worthless outfit that needs to dry up and blow away. I'll be filing a complaint with the BBB.

Wow, nice little PR post there, Grok. How much do you get paid for this propaganda? This place is a scam, pure and simple -- you know it, and so do they. I called, hit '0' about a dozen times, and finally got to speak with some drone who sounded like Marisa Tomei in "My Cousin Vinny."

I got billed $34 for a year of Rolling Stone when you can get a 2 yr subscription through the RS Web site for $32. I told the woman that, and asked her what service her company provides. She said that they can't compete with the publisher's price. I asked again, "What service does your company provide?" She stuttered a bit and said something about "the convenience of automatic renewals." Then she tried to get me to accept a "complimentary" six-issue subscription for an $8 processing fee, or some such BS. What a joke. I've asked for an immediate refund and simultaneously contested the charge thru my credit card. Thanks to the info on here about their corp. headquarters, I'll be filing a BBB complaint as well. My guess is that mine won't be the first or the last.

You were right! I just hope I do get my refund next month....Thank You

My credit card was also charged without my authorization. The bank provided me with the 800 number but I could only get to a live agent in the magazine company after reading here that I had to keep pressing zero. The magazine agent told me that I has agreed to subscribe at Loehmann's. That's when I remember that Loehmann's had offer two magazines free - one time promotion. The magazine company advised me that I would have the refund in 72 hours. I will place a call to Loehmann's, as well and will report both to the Better Business Bureau.

I recieved my refund the very next day, just contact them through the website MagCustomerService.com find your account information (all you need to know is your address and the magazine you recieved) and you can cancel it and get your refund from there

go to MagCustomerService.com you will be able to search for and find your account with any and all subscription information, you can opt to cancel from here and it also gives you details of your subscriptions terms. My terms stated i would be notified before my term was renewed and i was billed but they never notified me. I emailed asking for a refund, if they dont i'll dispute it with my bank since they didn't abide to the terms of the agreement.

hint: if you call this number 0 no longer works. you have to use *00 to get through, otherwise it takes at least 6 minutes of craziness to get a real person. Once through they were good at the cancellation - but a complete hassle.

the one post was right.  just keep hitting zero over and over again to get to a real person.  it only took me about 1 minute.  they will give you all sorts of bull about terms and conditions, etc etc etc.  i informed them that i had already reported it to my bank as a fraudulent charge, that gets their attention!  they will cancel it quickly without hassle!  it took less than 5 minutes total from calling to hanging up.  they state it will take approximately 1 billing statement for the credit to show up but i am sure my bank will speed things up.

I saw that number on my credit card statement with two separate charges of $61 and $39 for time and rd magazine subscriptions. The charges were made on 11/26 - the day before black Friday when people make lots of purchases. It is very easy to overlook these extra lines in your statement. I called the number and pressed 0 several times and finally got to a live agent. They told me that they were going to cancel the transaction and my refund would come in my 1st or second bank statement. (just another way to get me forget this fraudulent charge)

I called my bank and reported this as a fraud and cancelled my card.

I learned that the charge on our card was authorized via active.com for a magazine we do not want.  It took some blunt language, but I was finally able to convince the rep I spoke to that all I wanted was my money back.  If you have memberships through active.com or other organizations, beware.  They are using your cc information to sell you stuff you had no idea you ordered.

called  800-205-9198 messed with the automative service for 10min until I finally came across this website. DON'T even attempt to talk to the recording. Immediately press 0 over and over again until you are directed to an operator. The operator was very nice, canceling my "subscription" and refunding my money.

Call the number and hit zero until it transfers you to a live person (I did this maybe 15-20 times).  You must tell them you want a REFUND for the charge, not just to cancel, otherwise you'll continue to get the subscription... the only thing they cancel is the automatic renewal billing.

I have had 4 charges to my account too! I didn't catch the first 2, but I caught them the second time. I just made the call and listened/responded to the automated voice and hopefully that works. If I don't get a refund within the next 2 days like the automated voice said I should, what should I do? Are they really going to refund me almost $200? Or should i just let it go?  I guess I learned my lesson that when you're given a "free gift" online it's never really free.

I have used this service quite a bit over the years. They are indeed a magazine subscription service called "The Magazine Service Center", they have live customer support and even a support website at MagCustomerService.com.
  They seem to me to be legit, at least they have always dealt with me as honorably as any internet business I have dealt with. The are always  polite, professional and thorough, and have always refunded my money when requested. Please note, that they do deduct for a magazine that was already shipped, which is fine, but if you actually did not initiate the order, tell them, they have always treated me fairly.
  (And hey, let's be fair here, I'm always signing up for these
   crazy things and often forget all the details until the charges
   show up on my card. Is that you as well? Just call them.)

  I initiated these transactions as part of some get-something-for-nothing offer, always aware that I can cancel within 30days, or anytime after that. The offer takers always give me the # to cancel at the time of initiation. This number, 800-205-9198, is the number I was given and have successfully used, including just now, to contact them.
  I do not think they are scammers (although, you should take that with a SHAKER of salt, I mean, aren't they all at some level. Hey, aren't we? I mean at some level.)
  Anyway, that's been my experience with these guys.

  I Hope this helps. I'm VERY committed to exposing the bad ones, and this site is great, it only seems right to give credit where credit is due.

I did what the person above me did.  They tried to tell me it was an automatic renewal, even though I haven't gotten the magazine in over a year.  I have cancelled and am waiting to get my refund...

After a stunning lack of success with the confusing cancel options on the automated system, I called (203) 595-8255 and was able to speak to a real person.  She claimed that 3 unbidden renewal subscriptions were to be cancelled and refunded.  Poor person on the other end, the folks who should have heard my frustration aren't ever going to.

The above happened to me too--I tried to called the CT number that Suresh posted, but it was no longer in service. I finally just called one of the 1-800 numbers that was listed on my credit card and kept hitting "0" until I could talk to an actual person. The make their automated menus so confusing with all of the double speak that it's impossible to actually get your refund, you are just canceling (which means you don't get your money back). Keep calling!

I received my credits as promised.  I was charged $29, twice, and received two credits for $26 (perhaps the difference is an issue of each magazine???).   It's better than nothing!  Honestly, if you've been charged and haven't received your refund call the number and talk to a person.  Most likely your status was set to 'do not renew' instead of 'cancel and refund'.

You got lucky!  I just got hit for $55 and $44.  Wow!

I had charges as well from the Magazine Service Center (phone numbers 18002059198 & 18009279578).  I had called and used their automated system to cancel my subscriptions but have not yet received a refund.   If you are in the same situation, call them back and press '0' until you get an operator.  The automated system will try to get you to avoid talking to someone, but be persistent.   It took me a couple of minutes to get to a person but it was worth it. She was very friendly and helpful.  Apparently the automated system placed my two subscriptions in a 'do not renew status' instead of 'cancel and refund' and that's why my refund hadn't been processed.  If the system said you were to get a refund and you haven't received it, definitely call and talk to someone!  It's a nice little money-making "glitch" they've got!

New Sub Services Incmaps.google.com

4 High Ridge Park
Stamford, CT 06905
(203) 595-8255

Guys, my credit card compnay gives me the address and found the phone number over the internet and contact the above phone number, cancelled successfully. Lost around 2 dollers per subscription. Call them quickly