Magazine subscription cancellation and claim

br1anstorm

I can't find another forum more suitable to post this query, so here goes.

Several years ago, I arranged a subscription to a magazine (PC Advisor) through a firm called "The Magazine Service" based in Ringwood Hampshire BH24 1HD.

This firm - and there are others like iSubscribe - is an agent or intermediary which offers to supply a wide choice of magazines. They offer a discounted price off the retail price for each issue, and charge the cost of each monthly issue to a credit card account - which I guess means that when I signed up I agreed a Continuous Payment Authority, although I don't think it was labelled as such.

All has worked well for years. But about six months ago the magazines ceased to arrive (the last issue I got was Nov 2012). Nevertheless the monthly amount continued to be debited to my card account.

Six weeks ago I phoned The Magazine Service customer services, to ask what had happened. I was told there had been a number of enquiries about non-delivery of PC Advisor: there had been a problem with the magazine's distributors (IDG), and I should call the magazine's offices. This I did. They had problems tracing my subscription details, but promised to send the next few issues free of charge.

Since then I have had no further magazines. But The Magazine Service continues to debit my card account each month. Two weeks ago I emailed both PC Advisor and The Magazine Service. PCA replied saying they were looking into the problem. TMS have not replied.

I began to smell a rat. So I have been looking online. It appears that The Magazine Service website (magazineservice.co.uk) no longer exists. The Magazine Service is a subsidiary, or trading name, of ADL Partner UK Ltd, registered office 18B Somerset House Westside View Waterlooville PO7 7SG. This in turn seems to be a UK subsidiary of a French company called France Abonnements. But the patchy evidence online suggests that ADL Partner UK Ltd has been "dissolved".

If that is so, then who is still debiting my credit card account and where is the money going?

I have written formally to The Magazine Service to terminate my subscription and instruct them to cease charging my card account. I have also written to the card issuer to request them not to accept any further charges from The Magazine Service and to request them to recover via chargeback the amounts debited in respect of magazines which have not been delivered.

I wat to see what happens. But in the meantime, I wonder if anyone else knows of, or can shed any light on, The Magazine Service?

gb12345

br1anstorm wrote: »

ADL Partner UK Ltd, registered office 18B Somerset House Westside View Waterlooville PO7 7SG. This in turn seems to be a UK subsidiary of a French company called France Abonnements. But the patchy evidence online suggests that ADL Partner UK Ltd has been "dissolved".

ADL Partner UK Ltd was dissolved in 2009 according to the Companies House website.

It would appear that it was previously 100% owned by a company called ADL Partner SA.

br1anstorm

The plot thickens.....

I've been doing some more detective work. The address and phone numbers of The Magazine Service are also those of an operation called Data Base Factory, whose website is here. This seems to be a respectable call-centre/outsourcing operation. Its website claims that one of the services it provides is subscription-management:
"DBF UK was set-up in 2000 specifically to look after subscribers to partwork magazines. For over 10 years now we have delivered a “cradle to grave” service that looks after each customer at every step of their journey. We have taken hundreds of thousands of calls/email/letters, directly banked millions of pounds and helped to despatch millions of magazines all within tight and transparent Service Levels, where the customer experience is everything."

Hmm. Maybe they are now managing what used to be The Magazine Service. We shall see what sort of experience they deliver to this customer!

gb12345

br1anstorm wrote: »

This seems to be a respectable call-centre/outsourcing operation.

They do look legitimate - trading since 2000 as per Companies House. From a quick look, their profits and assets have fallen over the last 7 or 8 years, but they are still worth just under £1mil according to their last accounts.

The only odd thing is their ownership - 80%ish of their shares are apparently owned by 2 other Ltd companies, but I couldn't get their details to come up.

pinkshoes

I've just cancelled a magazine subscription myself, and you have to write to them to say you are cancelling, then cancel the direct debit YOURSELF!

Speak to your bank and cancel it ASAP.

br1anstorm

pinkshoes wrote: »

I've just cancelled a magazine subscription myself, and you have to write to them to say you are cancelling, then cancel the direct debit YOURSELF!

Speak to your bank and cancel it ASAP.

Thanks for these thoughts, but just to clarify my original post, and because it is important that readers should not be confused between Direct Debits and Continuous Payment Authorities....

• I have phoned, emailed and written to the firm concerned, both to enquire about the non-delivery and to cancel the subscription. The absence of any response has made me wonder if they are still trading;
• the monthly payment is not made by direct debit, but by CPA (charge to my credit card);
• so there's no reason to speak to my bank;
• but I have written to my credit card issuer to instruct them to accept no further charges in relation to this magazine subscription.

We wait to see what happens next....

dalesrider

br1anstorm wrote: »

it is important that readers should not be confused between Direct Debits and Continuous Payment Authorities....

• I have phoned, emailed and written to the firm concerned, both to enquire about the non-delivery and to cancel the subscription. The absence of any response has made me wonder if they are still trading;
• the monthly payment is not made by direct debit, but by CPA (charge to my credit card);
• so there's no reason to speak to my bank;
• but I have written to my credit card issuer to instruct them to accept no further charges in relation to this magazine subscription.

We wait to see what happens next....

Well if you have not received goods then you have a chargeback right for the debits in the last 120 days.
A retailer has 15 days to deliver the goods. After that, you have a chargeback right to reclaim the money.

Under PSD (payment services directive) you can now contact bank/card provider and cancel with them.

While you can contact the bank/card provider to advise not to pay, the only people who can actually stop the payment is the company taking it.
Your bank/card provider may have to let the transactions debit and then refund you. Then return the payments to the retailer on the basis it is cancelled.

Seems strange that people think the co is no longer trading.... If that is the case how do they take the funds... As their bank will have closed ALL their accounts

gb12345

dalesrider wrote: »

Seems strange that people think the co is no longer trading.... If that is the case how do they take the funds... As their bank will have closed ALL their accounts

ADL Partner UK Ltd is definitely no longer trading - but that doesn't mean that their subsidiary wasn't sold off before they closed down (assuming that they were actually the parent company in the first place).

br1anstorm

Still haven't quite got to the bottom of this. I called the Customer Service number I have for The Magazine Service (0870 264 7087 or 0800 542 5895). The person answering said they were "MDU Magazine Service". They appear to have the details of my subscription, and a customer reference for me. They promised a refund "this week" (to my credit card account) for the undelivered magazines.

We shall see if it arrives.....

Just for interest I have searched online for "MDU Magazine Service". Haven't managed to find anything at all!

[Deleted User]

I'm just wondering why you went six months without receiving your magazine before it actually galvanised you into action?

br1anstorm

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

I'm just wondering why you went six months without receiving your magazine before it actually galvanised you into action?

Not sure if that question is relevant to the substantive point of this thread.

But for the record - PC Advisor is not a topical news mag which goes out of date rapidly. It is a technical/consumer publication - and one of several that I receive. So I tend to read the magazines in my spare time when the mood takes me, not devour them in one sitting the day or two after they arrive. Thus I'm usually a month or more behind, and usually have one or two unread mags lying around anyway. It so happens that I have also been away a lot in recent months, so had not immediately realised that the last few issues had not arrived.

Now maybe the thread can return to the main point - which is to explore whether the supplying firm is still trading, to discover whether it makes good on the promise of a refund, and (most important) to see if any other forum readers have had comparable experiences.