Consumerist

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Subscriptions

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new york magazine

Closure For NYMag Sub Never Ordered, Collections Threatened

How would you feel to learn that not only had your household become subscribed to a magazine against its will, you were not getting threats that your account was overdue and was about to be sent to a debt-collection agency? That's exactly what happened to husband and wife Keith and Stacy with New York Magazine. After our post went up about them, NYmag, wanting to defend what Communications Manager Lauren Starke called, "the good name of our circulation department—one of the most solid in the industry." We put them in contact with Keith. After a flurry of testy emails between the two, here's what happened. More »

12:41 PM on Wed Jun 18 2008
By Ben Popken
14,780 views, 58 comments

Latest by keith4298: @guymandude: While you may be right that it is technically mail fraud, I would bet that neither your postmaster, DA more »

new york magazine

UPDATED: NYMag: Collections Threatened For Sub You Think You Never Ordered

You know we're at death's door for the print industry when they have to resort to a sleazy subscription tactic like this debt collection warning New York Mag sent Keith's wife for a subscription she believes she never signed up for. Keith called the number on the back of the card and a customer service rep said that an "affiliate" put in the order. Dawn let Keith cancel the order without fuss. When Keith asked why the company was threatening to send people to collections for something they never ordered , "Dawn" said, "Don't worry...it doesn't make a difference since we don't have your social security number and we will never ask for it." As if that's going to protect you from a debt collector. UPDATE: NYmag says the subscription renewal was valid and the customer must have forgotten about it. Full response inside. More »

10:36 AM on Wed May 21 2008
By Ben Popken
8,418 views, 60 comments

Latest by AlphaTeam: No I haven't gotten this from magazines, but I have gotten notices from Sprint after they lost my payment; not more »

follow-ups

Another Hollywood Video Employee Contests Earlier Claims

A second Hollywood Video employee has written in to counter the claims made last week by an anonymous employee—he writes, "It sounds like whoever wrote in initially has a particularly evil district manager who is instituting his own policies," and says that person should "go over his DM and talk to someone at corporate." But for the rest of us, what matters is that "The EW [magazine subscription offer] never went away, they just stopped requiring employees to push it. They're actively promoting it again. There's no 'silence is acceptance' however, and we need to scan your credit card (an additional time) to activate the offer." More »

11:39 AM on Mon May 19 2008
By Chris Walters
3,691 views, 20 comments

Latest by n/a: I should also mention the reward "program." You store wins a contest. The store manager gets the kudos. The employees more »

fine print

TIME's "Subscribe For $1.99" Offer Misleading

First, we want to say thanks to TIME Magazine for naming us one of their top 25 blogs. Now that's out of the way, and we can ask why they're using such a misleading ad on the masthead of their site: "Subscribe to TIME Magazine for just $1.99" it says! Yes, but when you click through to the sign up form, you see that your "subscription" is for six issues—six weeks—and that the fine print indicates you also agree to an auto-renewed fee of $19.95 every six months. We don't mind the $1.99 tryout period, but hiding the real subscription fee in fine print is sneaky. Any magazine with the good taste to recognize our blog should also respect its readers enough to be upfront on the details of its subscription offers.

9:04 PM on Wed Apr 9 2008
By Chris Walters
2,321 views, 15 comments

Latest by n/a: The thing about auto-renew programs for mail subscriptions is that they are not allowed by the USPS. I believe more »

subscriptions

KidsStuff.com Silently Charges $18 Subscription Fee To Grandparent Who Shopped There Two Years Ago

C writes in with another lesson on why you should check your statements frequently:
Two years ago I purchased items for my grandchildren at KidsStuff.com. This month (March 2008) I found an $18.00 charge from them on my American Express card. I phoned the accounting department and asked what the charge was for. I was told that it was an "automatic" charge for "joining" the KidsStuff "club." Of course, I never placed an order to join any such club. The accounting department offered to reverse the charge to be effective in five days. I demanded a reversal show up by tomorrow and promised to advertise their automatic charges everywhere I could. Believe me, I am a big internet purchaser and this sort of rip-off shouldn't happen, especially after not having been on the site for over two years. The obvious lesson is to be sure you always go over every single charge on those credit cards. Those small $18 charges can add up to big money for unscrupulous companies.

More »

4:06 PM on Mon Mar 24 2008
By Chris Walters
4,059 views, 18 comments

Latest by LawyerontheDL: She should have complained to AmEx. At least that would have been more of a headache for the Kidstuff more »

fees

WaMu Enrolls You In A Program Without Permission, Then Charges An ETF

Reader Michael signed up for a new free checking account with WaMu and the person who opened the account for him (accidentally?) enrolled Michael in some sort of bullshit coupon program that costs $5 a month. Now WaMu has charged him a $10 early termination fee and is refusing to refund it. More »

10:59 AM on Thu Mar 6 2008
By Meg Marco
5,761 views, 42 comments

Latest by soft_guy: Stand outside the bank holding a sign that says "WaMu stole money from me." until they fix it. Or if you more »

annoying

Despite Your Manly Bits, Art.com Signs You Up For Working Mother Magazine

Reader Brian doesn't have a womb, so when he saw a copy of Working Mother magazine in his mailbox, he was pretty sure that he didn't order it:
Last December I placed an order at art.com for a framed print which I intended to give as a Christmas present. I placed the order well within art.com's recommended time frame for delivery in time for christmas. During the order they promised delivery by December 17th. Well, as you may guess December 17th came and went with no package (they shipped it on the 15th via DHL.) December 24th came and went with no package. DHL finally delivered it on the 26th after I had been forced to go out and purchase another gift to replace the one that had not arrived.
More »

10:52 AM on Thu Feb 14 2008
By Meg Marco
3,834 views, 44 comments

Latest by n/a: I just received a random copy of Nylon today addressed to me. This is on top of my husband getting more »

price hikes

DirecTV Raises Rates, Warns Customers Not To Switch To Cable

DirecTV is jacking up rates by 4% as of February 27 and is reminding newly disgruntled customers that DirecTV still ranks higher than cable according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Most customers can expect a $3-$5 increase, but don't count on award-winning customer service. More »

8:42 PM on Sun Jan 27 2008
By Carey
6,882 views, 51 comments

Latest by n/a: I got Directv for the HD DVR. Now I find out that cable has local channels in High Def, Directv more »

possible scams

Hollywood Video Signing Customers Up For Magazine Subscriptions Without Permission?

We've received two letters claiming that Hollywood video is signing their customers up for magazine subscriptions without their consent. The scam sounds similar to the ones that Best Buy is accused of in their on-going racketeering lawsuit. More »

4:57 PM on Wed Dec 19 2007
By Meg Marco
4,000 views, 41 comments

con artists

Shady Magazine Seller Ordered To Pay Over $7 Million

Kevin Trudeau isn't the only one writhing in the icy grip of justice this week—one-time magazine subscription entrepreneur Richard L. Prochnow was ordered to pay over $7 million a few weeks ago when the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a judgment from July of 2006. Prochnow ran Direct Sales International (DSI), a bad magazine company that lied to customers and trapped them in a "buying club" that charged monthly fees and was very difficult to cancel. More »

4:12 PM on Tue Nov 27 2007
By Chris Walters
1,917 views, 8 comments

Latest by mac-phisto: what am i gonna do with 40 subscriptions to vibe? more »

maghound

Time To Offer Flexible Magazine Subscriptions

Taking a page from Netflix, Time is developing a service that will let customers pay a single monthly price for up to seven rotating magazine subscriptions. Dubbed Maghound, the service is Time's attempt to augment the yearly subscription model by embracing the internet. More »

11:42 AM on Sun Oct 28 2007
By Carey
1,655 views, 9 comments

Latest by reykjavik: Wait a second, this is taking a company until September of 2008 (basically a year from now) to start? more »

hey now

Sirius Cancels Loyal Customer's Lifetime Subscription, Charges Him For A New One

Say you're a satellite radio company with a loyal, even evangelical customer—someone who listens daily, who keeps buying your products for the people around him, and who steadily expands his own collection of your hardware and subscriptions. Wouldn't that be a great guy to screw over? Sirius seems to think so. More »

7:38 PM on Tue Sep 11 2007
By Chris Walters
11,969 views, 39 comments

Latest by n/a: @edrebber: ED!! Is that you?!?!?! This is Superbaby! more »

blockbuster

Blockbuster Store Requires New Members to Sign Up For Online Service?

Reader and blogger Morgan went to his local Blockbuster to rent a movie. He'd never rented at the store before, so he needed to sign up for a membership. We've all done this before, but this time, something was different:
The guy at the counter told me that I had to show a driver's license and major credit card (perfectly reasonable), pay a $10 dollar fee (a bit much, but acceptable) and sign up for their Netflix ripoff, Blockbuster Online. Wait, what? I told him that I didn't want to sign up for Blockbuster Online, and he refused to let me start a membership without signing up. And of course I couldn't rent movies without a membership, so I was forced to leave without my movies.
More »

3:51 PM on Tue Feb 20 2007
By Meg Marco
2,071 views, 55 comments

Latest by Shootingstar7678: @xxheath226xx: It's amazing to what extent the head honchos make us do! You know what I don't like the fact more »

caveat emptor

Third-Party Text Packages Cost Subscriber $7,000 In One Month

TampaForums member Treysdad received a $7,243.29 bill after subscribing to numerous third-party text packages. By purchasing an unlimited text message plan from Nextel, Treysdad thought he could receive any texts for free. More »

7:08 PM on Sat Feb 10 2007
By consumerintern
547 views, 26 comments

complaints

Car And Driver Is A Bitch

Car and Driver magazine sent Jim a real jerkoff collections notice, made all the more worse because his payment wasn't even yet past due. More »

11:54 AM on Tue Nov 7 2006
By Ben Popken
730 views, 34 comments

match.com

Match.com Joins The 19th Century

Match.com has sagely decided to stop requiring you to send a telegram to cancel your subscription. More »

8:39 PM on Wed Sep 27 2006
By Ben Popken
301 views, 8 comments

magazines

Happy Sunshine Fun-Time Magazine Customer Service Happiness

Maybe it's because of the nice sunny weather we're having after days and days of dreary, grey weather, but we're in a good mood today. And our good mood means we're less inclined to take the all-companies-suck-all-the-time perspective that some readers seem to think we need to be employing. Sometimes, believe it or not, companies screw up and then actually fix the problem. More »

5:09 PM on Tue Sep 26 2006
By consumerist.com
309 views, 5 comments

Latest by Mister_Keating: I'm afraid some of you have missed the point entirely. The point is that Money likes to play games with more »

adweek

Adweek Bilks Blogger

PR blog maven B.L. Ochman says Adweek screwed her over by charging her $19.95 a month for a magazine subscription she didn't order. More »

11:14 AM on Fri Sep 15 2006
By Ben Popken
32 views, 7 comments

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