Magazine offers - DISCUSSION THREAD ONLY

princessmoneysaver

I'm very annoyed at the moment, just had this rather nasty email come through - see what you make of this.

"It has come to our notice that you have been taking advantage of subscription offers being made by a number of different magazines. These appear mostly to be those with free gifts as incentives.



These offers are made in good faith by the Publisher, for those people genuinely interested in subscribing to their magazines. Unfortunately, you are not one of these people, because you cancel your subscription order every time - presumably so you receive the free gift.



Please desist from this practice forthwith, as your continual cancellation of these orders demonstrates you have no intention of honouring these subscriptions. Continued abuse of these offers by you will leave us no alternative, but to take further action.



Yours sincerely,



MRS D Plummer
Customer Services Manager"


This is totally untrue, the only magazines I have ordered with Free gifts are 2 computer ones for my DH (He didn't like either of them but I did it try them out), Junior with a train set (I didn't like as it's not much practical advice), Elle with the Pixi Lip Set (Is it just me or is this full of adverts?), & a craft magazine with a project bag. I have recently ordered the Easy Living for the L'Oreal set but I only did this the other day & I haven't heard anything about it yet.

I have FOURTEEN other subscriptions on the go but none of them had any free gifts with them so I don't see why I have got this email?

I have been doing some of the 3 for £1 deals so I have a few magazines to look at over the next few months then when I go into hospital in August I was going to chose which I liked & take out a yearly subscrption to whichever it is. What is wrong with that? I cancelled the DD's straight after they have come out because I didn't want to forget about them, but like I said I was going to chose one or two to take full time subs out to.

Anyone else had one like this? No idea which company it's from as there is no details with it other than the name at the bottom & a phone number which I haven't copied here.

What should I do now?

leaann

Hi
I subscribed two copies of RED to give to friends as birthday presents back in February.
The first edition finally arrived yesterday without the free Declor products.
When I rang Red on 0870 830 4961 option 2 they advised due to huge demand my friends would have to wait another week or two for their Declor gifts.
We will wait and see, but still RED is worth the read :-)

appleblossom

Yvonne - thats terrible - I believe someone else had a similar email but not sure if it's on this thread or the old one. I have taken out subs similiar to you, not just for the freebies, in fact, most have been the 3 for a £1 "try before you buy" - I too cancel them incase I forget. What action do they intend taking against you?? they place an offer, you accept it, you cancel it which you are well within your rights to do so - not sure what they can do about it really - it is their loophole for having the offers. I would prob. give them a ring though to ask what company they are calling from.

lovebug_rita

hI is anyone else still waiting on their free project bags for the craft magazines that were 3 for £1 ? I took out 2 subs and have the mags but no gifts :-s

Goodersuk

lovebug_rita wrote:

hI is anyone else still waiting on their free project bags for the craft magazines that were 3 for £1 ? I took out 2 subs and have the mags but no gifts :-s

Still waiting for mine, had one magazine but nothing else! Do you know who I should contact?

princessmoneysaver

Still waiting for my project bag too, on enquiring last week I got this email back from them.

Thank you for your recent email.

Please allow until 05/05/06 for delivery of all gifts.

hilary1

JB2006 wrote:

I think you are right that it takes 3 days to cancel a direct debit. I think this is a very unfair offer and I would contact the magazine publishers and tell them that the offer was misleading and that all you wanted to do was "try" the magazine to see if you liked it and that you didn't expect to get tied into a further subscription. You never know they may cancel this for you!

I'm with the co-op bank and when I go on-line I can cancel any dd before 8 oclock and it wont get paid:T great for mag subs.

bj-sailaway

Thanks for the tip off about the Future deal 3 for £1, for Simply Knitting. Anyone know where the link is? Thanks.

princessmoneysaver

julieblake wrote:

Yvonne - thats terrible - I believe someone else had a similar email but not sure if it's on this thread or the old one. I have taken out subs similiar to you, not just for the freebies, in fact, most have been the 3 for a £1 "try before you buy" - I too cancel them incase I forget. What action do they intend taking against you?? they place an offer, you accept it, you cancel it which you are well within your rights to do so - not sure what they can do about it really - it is their loophole for having the offers. I would prob. give them a ring though to ask what company they are calling from.

I have calmed down a little now but have spoken to DH about it & he thinks it would be best to email them back as I tend to argue when I'm on the phone especially if I know that I'm right!

Can anyone advise how to word the email? I'm useless at that kind of thing

boufje

Nasty emails - FAO Yvonne Crossland

I read your post with considerable sympathy.

First I would ask this lady to set out which company she is from and to clarify which offers she is referring to.

Then point out that you have 14 other subscriptions at the moment and that none of them had any free gifts with them, if you have the subscription details to hand, fine, otherwise yo can let her check this out for herself. Point out that as such you are a valuable customer and it would be in her employer's interests to desist from sending you threatening emails, particularly when they have no legal remedy. You are perfectly entitled to cancel your direct debits. I would also refer her to the direct debit guarantee which states that you are entitled to cancel at any time.

I hope that the above assists you, but if you would like me to draft something for you, please feel free to pm me ( have posted here in case this can help anyone else) - my day to day job involves writing snotty letters to people - it is now second nature:rolleyes:

My personal feeling is that some people do abuse these offers, which means then that they get withdrawn/ numbers are limited, which ruins the fun of genuine subscribers, but they are however within their legal rights to do this.

The WHOLE POINT of these try 3 issues for £1 promotions is surely to let you try the magazine and see if you like it, most of these offers state that there is no obligation to continue beyond the 1st 3 issues either.

I would also add, don't let them upset you, I don't know how their systems work, but I imagine it is automated and they haven't even considered the numer of other subscriptions..

Legally there is nothing they can do if you have not breached the terms of the contract also.