Complaint Review: Specialty Merchandise Corporation

I joined SMC in November of '09 after my dad saw an informercial saying it was $25 to start your own home business that is apparently SO successful. After calling to join, they told me it was actually $40 dollars... A MONTH! for a total of almost $500 unless you wanted to pay it in full that day and receive a discount.

Reluctantly I agreed with the 40/a month charge and joined. I ended up never selling anything and this morning received an account alert on my debit card that SMC took out $80 dollars. After almost 15 minutes of googling SMC to find their customer service number, I found a "805" area code number and called that. They told me that I cannot close my account because I had been a member for over 30 days! At no point was I ever told that I only had 30 days to cancel. Furthermore that I was obligated to pay the full $500. I said NO and the guy on the phone said "Luckilly for you i can offer you a deal, pay $79 dollars today and that will satisfy your contract for a full year" I then reminded him that SMC had taken 79 dollars out THAT MORNING and he said he had no record of it. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was forwarded to some womans voicemail who has yet to even call me back. I just filed a BBB report and am waiting for the pending charge on my debit card to go through so I can file a dispute with that as well.