Reader voices: subscription scams

Magazine subscriptions have always been something of a racket, but they seem to getting worse both in scope and in the depth of their sheer fraudulent nastiness. But does the blame for this sorry state of affairs belong to the magazine publishers themselves, or does it perhaps lie elsewhere?

The magazine publisher we've heard the most

By Ed Foster

Magazine subscriptions have always been something of a racket, but they seem to getting worse both in scope and in the depth of their sheer fraudulent nastiness. But does the blame for this sorry state of affairs belong to the magazine publishers themselves, or does it perhaps lie elsewhere?

The magazine publisher we've heard the most about here -- the Eli Journals/New Hill tech publishing outfit with its threatening invoices to people who often never subscribed in the first place -- is still generating lots of gripes from readers. "Some time ago, I got an e-mail inviting me to subscribe to the 'Inside Adobe InDesign' publication from Eli Journals for tips and tricks," one reader wrote recently. "The offer was for a trial issue, after which I could pay for the full subscription or cancel. I accepted, and before too long an invoice appeared in my mailbox for $147, but no trial issue. I let it ride, thinking that the invoice was just faster than their trial issue. I did finally get the publication, and decided not to continue, writing unsubscribe/cancel on the invoice and sending it back. Since then I have gotten two more invoices from New Hill Services, telling me I am seriously past due. Today I tried calling the number they have listed on their invoice, was given a variety of numbers to press, but none of which got me anywhere. Even the number to leave a message, just routed me back to the main cue. After fifteen minutes of holding on the line, the call was cut off."

The reader has continued to get invoices, some for $147, some for $47, some for other various "discounted" amounts. As with others who've received the Eli/New Hill invoices, she's worried the company will report this false debt to the credit agencies. (I can say that, in spite of all these gripes, I have yet to hear from anyone who has actually discovered a New Hill claim in their credit report -- if you have, please let me know about it.) "I wonder if every time I send back the invoice with "Cancel/Unsubscribe" it generates another demand for payment letter?" the reader wrote again after receiving yet another invoice. "Since there is no way to communicate with them to stop, I guess I'll just ignore their correspondence from here on."

Of course, Eli Journals is hardly the only culprit. "This has been going on for years," wrote another reader. "I've gotten third-party invoices for car mags, science fiction mags, etc. Now I don't even open them, but just trash them. If it's not from the publisher, just throw them out. You can't be sure any of the money will get to the real publisher, and even if it does, you've encouraged the third-party leeches."