Consumer Reports Bogus Invoices Yonkers New York
On May 1, 2006 I paid Consumer Reports for a 5 year subscription to their magazine. This would make my subscription good until April of the year 2011. Shortly less than two months after making this payment I get a second invoice from Consumer Reports telling me to pay my membership dues. I wrote on this invoice requesting what the payment was for since I had a 5 year subscription that was still active. Another month goes by and I get a 3rd invoice for payment to maintain my membership. I did not respond. Then after another month I get a 4th request for payment of my yearly membership dues of $26.00 on an invoice claiming my payment is past due.
I appreciate most of what Consumer Reports publishes but their deceptive billing practices diminish their credibility.
Occasionally, they do injustice to a product without sufficiently justifying it. I have the Olympus Evolt E500 camera. They show where it is questionable on settings above 400 ISO. They do not mention if any of the other cameras are doing noise cancellation prior to export from the camera. There are very many significant areas of evaluation to determine the quality of an SLR camera. I don't know why they mention one item without justification and go no further. A web site called dpreview.com does proper evaluations and comparisons.
Jerry
Austin, Texas
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Jerry
Austin,Texas,
U.S.A.
Addendum
#3Author of original report
Mon, September 25, 2006
The single payment to Consumer Reports was for a full 5 years.
I do not accept that a written request regarding this issue is insufficient.
One department or one company hiding behind another might be the big business way of generating more money but I do not accept it as a valid excuse.
Robert
Wallingford,Connecticut,
U.S.A.
A question and a suggestion.
#3Consumer Suggestion
Sat, September 23, 2006
First the question. Was the payment you sent in for the full amount of the 5 year subscription or was it the first in a series of payments over several months?
Next the suggestion. Try calling them directly. Most often the invoices are sent to a company that simply processes payments. Anything writen on the invoices or any notes enclosed are general ignored or discarded. There should be a contact number listed on the inside (usually index page) of the magazine that you can use to call concerning billing problems.
Most magazine subscription and billing are handled by a company other than the publisher of the magazine.