Complaint Review: North Shore Agency

A 1-year subscription to Travel + Leisure magazine was entered and paid for by us in July, 2001. We lost interest in the magazine, did not request a renewal of this subscription, and did not respond to requests for renewal in any form.

In December, 2002 we received a notice from North Shore Agency in Westbury stating they were a collection agency and demanded immediate payment of $43 for an additional 12 issues.

Per New York law, we immediately notified them that we had not renewed the subscription, and asked that they notify us that this collection effort would be discontinued. It is now 8 weeks, and we have heard nothing.

We called the telephone number on the notice and it gave no opportunity to speak to someone - only 3 or 4 alternative choices. Interestingly, one of the choices was "I did not subscribe to this publication".

I am sure many people receiving such a notice would be frightened into paying for something they did not order to avoid any bad marks on their credit report.

This appears to be a misleading way of obtaining subscriptions, and should be brought to the public's attention.

Daniel
Glen Cove, New York
U.S.A.