stated they were the electric company that we had to pay a certain amount o avoid disconnection- this is fraud! scam! police are trying to find them! do not give ur account information!!!!

They just called again and hung up when I answered.

The lady Lydia: The telemarketer called and was very polite and offered us a Highschool alumni directory. Yeah. it only cost 43 dollars and we could pay now or later. Me Working in the telmarketing feild as a corporate quality analyst and Licensing coordinator I asked all the right questions and she had the answers very quickly. So we said if they send the hard bound book to us along with the bill it would be paid. We never supplied a checking account or CC number as I do not give such information out over the phone. I do not even like doing that with my home loan company...3 week pass with no calls. then we get a bill in the mail for $106.94 and it states overdue!!!  we have now recieved 6 mailing and No book. the return address in merley a PO Box.  
P.O Box 29920 New York NY, 10087-9920.  and they even have easy pay available...SCAM SCAM SCAM.  We contacted the Highschool my wife attended and they have no such record of this company being allowed to publish such items as this and is not authorized to do so.

There has to be a better solution than complaining to my senator.  I received the collection notice today for 99.41.  This is the first correspondence from this company I have ever opened.  The many cards went into the trash, and so did any letters in envelopes.  My husband did answer one of the many phone calls and only confirmed the information the lady already had.  He did not order a directory.  I can't decide whether to continue it ignore these people or reply.  I will not pay for the directory, we never would have order it and we did not receive it.  Does anyone know of the "collection" threat is part of their scam?

They called my elderly father saying they represented the Eagle Scout Association. After a "friendly" chat, they offered to send him confirmation that he'd been an scout 70+ years ago. He reports there was no mention of money. He subsequently got an Eagle Scout Directory, a bill for $136 and a threatening collection letter. He called them and got "Margaret Armstrong, Collections Supervisor" at (800) 829-2629. She offered to arrange a return and asked for his email address so she could send him info on how to send the book back (so now they have his e mail address too). Her email to him promises to credit his account if he returns the book by a specified date.  I called and gave her the usual hell. I got the usual negligible result.

I've pursued the issue and I think there are two actions that may be effective: The first is to contact the Do Not Call Registry and explain how their exemption of nonprofits is being exploited by Harris Connect, which is using "unfair and deceptive business practices". It would help to call your senator and representative as well. The second is to contact your college, Boy Scouts, etc. Explain that you can't support an organization that contracts with Harris Connect and that you're going to take this up with the alumni organization. Then follow through. Ask for a written response. Based on my prior experience with this sort of thing, 10 contacts will be enough to make them review their policy. They know that, for everyone who complains, there are 100+ who are just as angry. Do Not Call doesn't want questions from legislators. Colleges can't afford to have 1000 alumni mad at them. But you have to do it if it's going to work.

Hi,
I am recently going through the same problem you described. I got an Alumni directory in the mail along with a bill for $108 which I do not remember ordering. But according to them they have a recording of me ordering this directory. The customer service representative said that she heard the recording and it was a long conversation in which the sales rep asked me to buy the directory and I agreed and she asked me if I would like to pay over that phone, and I said no. So she asked me to mail me the invoice in the mail. My misunderstanding was she will send me the order form or something like that which I receive from my school anyways to extend my alumni membership and stuff like that. So I thought I'll just ignore it and they won't send me anything, but instead they mailed me the directory first and then the bill in a few days. I receive monthly news letters from school as an alumni, so I thought the directory was something like that. When I saw the bill, I tried to call the school, but they did not inform me that they contracted the publication to a company called Harris Connect. Anyways it was a big misunderstanding. I did'nt hear from Harris connect for a couple weeks and then I was out of town for a while. When I got back there a bill/notice sitting in my mailbox saying that my case is in collections, and I cannot return the directory because my 30 day trial has ended. I asked them to let me listen to the recording and I haven't heard back from them. I am about to pay this bill, just because I don't want to deal with this reflecting badly on my credit score. In the future I will not give out any kind of information to anybody. When this company Harris connect called me I also do not remember them telling me they are from Harris connect, so I thought they are calling from my school. So be careful when you confirm or give out even your basic information to anybody.

In around Feb. 2008 I received a card in the mail that my information for my ANCC certification needed to be updated.  I am a nurse practitioner and worked hard for my certification so I wanted to make sure they had all the correct information.  I needed to update my certification in 2008.  I called the number and gave my updated information.  Then there was talk about a directory.  I wasn't sure if this had to do with my re-certification or not.  They asked for my Visa/credit card number.  I said I would be interested in a directory but did not have my Visa card.  I wanted to check to make sure I knew what I was buying.  A few weeks later I received a notice of payment due for this ANCC directory.  There was no number to contact so I wrote on the card "return to sender" and wrote on the other side "I do not want this publication" and put it in the mail.  I continued to get notices due on this publication/directory CD.  Tonight I finally picked up the phone to try and stop what I thought was a telemarketing call.  I have been receiving calls almost every night from 1-800-829-2629.  I picked up the call but no one was there.  I called the number back from my caller ID and was informed it was Harris Connect Collection Agency.  They said I had not paid the bill for the CD I received.  I let them know I wasn't sure I had received this CD and certainly did not want it.  I ended the call.  Went to my car and found the CD in stacks of mail.  I called them back to tell them I would put the CD in the mail because I have not used it and do not want it.  I was told it was too late.  I had 30 days to send back and missed the deadline.  They said they send the CD to me in May 2008.  I had not received any of this information about any policy.  I have a CD I don't want and do not want to pay for.  I would never but something like this.  This feels like a scam to me.  Any ideas?  I have left a message for my attorney and will talk with him tomorrow.  I just think this is not fair and I hope no one else falls for this scam.  If this is a legitimate agency they have absolutely horrible customer service and unethical practices.

today i recieved a letter in the mail stating that this is an attempt to collect a debt.  i had no idea what it was for so i called the company and someone by the name of Greg was rude and stated that he was recording the conversation and that i owed 110.00 for a book that i never recieved.  then i remembered recieving the post card in the mail to which i responded to to update my information and at the time this guy wanted me to put it on my credit card -- i told him if i wanted the book i would pay the bill.  obviously i did not want the bill because i did not pay the bill.  This Greg guy told me that since i did not recieve the book to  not worry about the bill but then i asked him for a letter stating that and he said "that if i am going on your word that you never recieved the book you will have to go on my word that this will not go to collections."

I received notices in the mail from this company that looked like it was from my college. They said to please call so i can verify my information for the alumni book. I thought it was free until I called and the guy said it would be two payments of 43 dollars. I called to cancel and the customer service rep was very rude on the phone and asked me why I didn't want it, I told her I would never look at the thing. Then she told me the payment woulnd't have been processed for 90 days. Well two days ago I noticed $43 taken out of my account. I called the company yesterday and the lady I spoke to last week never put the cancellation through. Then I was told that they post payments 30 days not 90 and that my money would be given back to me between 10-14 days. I am going to email and write and fax this company until i get my 40 dollars back. Being a recent college grad with an underpaying job..........40 bucks goes a long way.

The problem is that their first question is if you are interested in an alumni directory, to which I said yes, and then they brought up the subject of payment, to which I said no.

The next thing I know, I'm getting calls from the collections dept and have received one very ugly pile of paper that is supposed to be an alumni directory.

This is the collections department for Harris Connect. They contract with Universities to do their Alumni Directories and Internet Services:

Harris Connect
Corporate Offices
1400-A Crossways Blvd.
Chesapeake, VA 23320

2500 Westchester Avenue
Suite 400
Purchase, NY 10577
800.326.6600

Customer Service
P.O. Box 41135
Norfolk, VA 23541
800.877.6554
moreinfo@harrisconnect.com

Executive Team

William K. Harris
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Paul A. Gangi
President & Chief Operating Officer - Internet Services

Thomas Burke
Senior Vice President - Chief Financial Officer

Susan L. D'Agostino
Senior Vice President - Administration

Wylie Schwieder
Senior Vice President - General Manager, Directory Operations

Also see notes under http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-757-962-8857/2

Redial and it says that you for calling the collections desk of the Harris Connect.  So what "collections" mean can be anybodies quess.  Thank god for caller ID

They call me about 10-25 times on avg. a day on my cell phone, 5 times a day on my house.  they want me to pay over a 100usd on a s****y alumni directory that isn't work the paper it was written on,  I have to change my cell/house number.  I think they are called Harris connect

Can you beleive - yet another call on my cell phone.  2X's last night and once this morning.

They are trying to sell a professional directory and I keep telling them I am not interested and to put me on the DNC list.

They claim they can call as often as they like and the FTC and Do Not Call laws won't touch them because the Directory they are pushing is produced by a non-profit.

The real kicker is, they won't even tell me the organization who is ultimately funding the directory to let them know who they have doing their calls.

Another call on my cell phone.  It was a missed call with no message left.  This time "Lydia" answered and it appeared to be a wrong number.  They are soliciting Alumni Directories.

They refused to remove my cell# and claim to not be subject to National Do Not Call laws.

Again sounded like a telemarketer.  Could not understand what he was saying or asking for.  Told him I requested to be removed from the call list because last called refused to ID himself or the company.

Called back number on ID, and it claims my call can not be completed as dialed.

When I called back, he indicated call was being recorded but refused to Identify himself or the company he represented