What I do is sometimes order a subscription of a magazine because I don't know if I am going to like it or not and then after I get my first issue, and it turns out I don't like it, I always just send the bill back with the word "cancel" on it. Is that okay and will I get billed for the one issue later?
2007-04-06 13:50:48 · 7 answers · asked by Taylor B 1 in Entertainment & Music ➔ Magazines
Well - it is up to your own moral judgement as to whether it is wrong or not... it costs the publisher money to print your magazine and mail it. It is a total loss when you don't pay for it. They also have to back you out of their subscriber count for that issue.
If you really want to try a magazine, go to a newsstand or a bookstore and browse through it to see if you want to try it - then purchase a single copy there and read through it at your leisure. If you like it enough to subscribe, then send in the card that is in the magazine.
You will not get billed for the one issue if you write cancel on the bill - some magzines even use this as a way to get someone to sample a magazine. Usually you receive a promotion that says such.
Most magazines have guarantees that even if you pay for your subscription, you can cancel at any time for a refund on your unmailed issues.
2007-04-06 14:08:07 · answer #1 · answered by dzazzy 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You're not alone here. I think you'll be alright, but some of these magazine subscription and billing offices can be fiercely tenacious and often, not on the up and up. And usually, they are located in a different state from the actual publishing headquarters of the magazine itself. I'm not sure exactly what this says, but it does sort of raise a red flag for me.
Believe it or not, I had a bad experience with the Reader's Digest payment/processing center out of Red Oak, Iowa, that started in October of 06 when some how I got sucked into answering a questionnaire off the website of some AM radio station in Canada. In an attempt at trying to win something free (I think a short-wave radio which I never did receive) I gave this quesionnaire a shot. It went on and on and on, ad-infinitum, about this product and that service, etc. I thought it would never end. But one of the questions I remember answering in the affirmative was, something to the effect, do you enjoy reading the Reader's Digest?
As you can imagine, they subsequently started bombarding me with offers to hook me into a subscription. I finally caved when they offered me twelve months for only $10.00. Not bad, eh? So, I sent in my check for $10.00, but in addition to the magazine, they continued sending me notices insisting that I stilled owed them the original $10.00. The tone kept escalating until I finally got one on February 27th that went like this.
"Is there something wrong? You have received several notices about your overdue magazine subscription account. We have not heard a word from you to explain why you have failed to pay for what you ordered." I was incensed. Of-course, they never give you a phone number of anyone to talk to about your account on one of these notices. But these notices do keep coming to the tune of like one per month.
I did finally connect with someone from this billing office in Iowa, which, as I've already mentioned, is some five or six states away from the publishing headquarters of the magazine itself.
But here's the bottom line. I will not renew my subscription to Reader's Digest and further, if I just think I have to have this magazine or that magazine, I'll get it at the newsstand. Of-course, I'll be paying more for the magazine but the payoff is this, there will be no strings attached. Amen.
2007-04-06 22:17:32 · answer #2 · answered by soulguy85 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nothing wrong with that at all. If you read the fine print, that's usually part of the contract. If it wasn't, they could sue you for the balance, and who'd take the chance on looking at it then? They're playing the percentages, pure and simple. You win some, and you lose some, you know?
2007-04-06 20:56:05 · answer #3 · answered by texasjewboy12 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Thats wrong its almost like stealling! You do it and you get to read the mag. then get ur money back well if you didnt liek its ur fault...its like buying a book, then reading it, then taking it back beacuse you didnt liek it! You should just cancel the payment and move on!
2007-04-06 23:23:00 · answer #4 · answered by meg8693 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i do that too! but i only do that when they say that you can get like the first few issues free, then i cancel!
2007-04-06 22:38:41 · answer #5 · answered by Mrs.Manson/Morrison/Kravitz 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That's fine, it's kinda like returning things to stores if you don't like them.
2007-04-06 20:58:35 · answer #6 · answered by wheatgirl_97 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
is this ethical? You must answer that one yourself. I mean your behavior......
2007-04-06 22:29:36 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋