Prevention Magazine, North Shore Agency ripoff! Fraudulent billing! Georgtown Ontario
I saw this ad in a magazine for the Prevention magazine in Aug./03. It stated "May we send you 10 special Prevention reports and a free trial issue of Prevention magazine. There is nothing to buy now or ever. It's an old-fasioned Free offer-with no strings attached!"
I sent in the card, received the reports and a trial magazine. I decided that I would not subscibe to it now, but there was nothing to send back to state this.
I received a bill that I owed them $26.94 in Oct/03. Then months past and I received another. It stated that the will be forced to notify the credit agency being North Shore Collection Agency. They demanded I pay my bill.
I thought Prevention was a reputable magazine company, but not any more. I had considered to a subsciption in the future, but not any more.
This is threating way of obtaining subsciptions, and many people probably pay in order to keep their credit rating in good standing. The public should be made aware of the practices of magazine companies and North Shore Agency.
Sylvia Irene
Sarnia, Ontario
Canada
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Madconsumer
Unknown City,California,
U.S.A.
North Shore is impatient it seems...
#5Consumer Comment
Sun, December 23, 2007
With regard to your comment, "It only goes to collection after six months where it hasn't EITHER been paid, or CANCELLED." , this does not seem to always be the case. My mother just recently let her subscription to Prevention Magazine lapse as she felt it was not a good value. Less then two months went by and she recieved the "threat" of collection by North Shore Agency,Inc.. So it would seem they are not quite as patient as you suggest.
Also, I always thought that when a subscriber lets a subscription lapse by not renewing and or sending in additional funds to further the subscription that THAT would be a sign to the publisher to no longer continue sending the publication???
In some states, if a party sends items through the mail that are not ordered, it is considered to be a gift and no compensation is required. If Prevention magazine sends out unsolicited magazines, maybe they should rethink thier business model by not making assumptions that the reciever of such magazines will automatically desire thier publication?? Just a thought.
This is obviously a ploy by Prevention Magazine to use scare tactics on a vulnerable target audience, the elderly. You can rest assured I will make contact with any of my state's agencys with regard to these scare tactics. Perhaps on a larger scale, the Postmater General might also be interested in this.
Madconsumer
Unknown City,California,
U.S.A.
North Shore is impatient it seems...
#5Consumer Comment
Sun, December 23, 2007
With regard to your comment, "It only goes to collection after six months where it hasn't EITHER been paid, or CANCELLED." , this does not seem to always be the case. My mother just recently let her subscription to Prevention Magazine lapse as she felt it was not a good value. Less then two months went by and she recieved the "threat" of collection by North Shore Agency,Inc.. So it would seem they are not quite as patient as you suggest.
Also, I always thought that when a subscriber lets a subscription lapse by not renewing and or sending in additional funds to further the subscription that THAT would be a sign to the publisher to no longer continue sending the publication???
In some states, if a party sends items through the mail that are not ordered, it is considered to be a gift and no compensation is required. If Prevention magazine sends out unsolicited magazines, maybe they should rethink thier business model by not making assumptions that the reciever of such magazines will automatically desire thier publication?? Just a thought.
This is obviously a ploy by Prevention Magazine to use scare tactics on a vulnerable target audience, the elderly. You can rest assured I will make contact with any of my state's agencys with regard to these scare tactics. Perhaps on a larger scale, the Postmater General might also be interested in this.
Madconsumer
Unknown City,California,
U.S.A.
North Shore is impatient it seems...
#5Consumer Comment
Sun, December 23, 2007
With regard to your comment, "It only goes to collection after six months where it hasn't EITHER been paid, or CANCELLED." , this does not seem to always be the case. My mother just recently let her subscription to Prevention Magazine lapse as she felt it was not a good value. Less then two months went by and she recieved the "threat" of collection by North Shore Agency,Inc.. So it would seem they are not quite as patient as you suggest.
Also, I always thought that when a subscriber lets a subscription lapse by not renewing and or sending in additional funds to further the subscription that THAT would be a sign to the publisher to no longer continue sending the publication???
In some states, if a party sends items through the mail that are not ordered, it is considered to be a gift and no compensation is required. If Prevention magazine sends out unsolicited magazines, maybe they should rethink thier business model by not making assumptions that the reciever of such magazines will automatically desire thier publication?? Just a thought.
This is obviously a ploy by Prevention Magazine to use scare tactics on a vulnerable target audience, the elderly. You can rest assured I will make contact with any of my state's agencys with regard to these scare tactics. Perhaps on a larger scale, the Postmater General might also be interested in this.
Rita
Shenandoah,Iowa,
U.S.A.
offering an explanation and solution
#5UPDATE Employee
Fri, June 17, 2005
Ok, I don't work for Prevention. I work for a company that works for Prevention. I work with this mail all the time. Yes, the mail DOES say, no strings attached, free issue, etc etc. On the little card that you write your address on in order to get your magazine, in the fine print below, it says clearly that you agree to a trial subscription where they will send you a bill. If you don't like it, all you have to do is write "cancel" on the bill and send it back.
Normally you receive about two bills after that because we pre-print things. However, if you receive a third bill, send it back marked cancel again or try to find the phone number to call. However, their phone is almost always too busy to get someone that way. I know it costs 37 cents for a stamp, but it will solve this problem eventually. It only goes to collection after six months where it hasn't EITHER been paid, or CANCELLED. This problem is also easily solved.
First off, they don't have your Social Security Number, therefore it can never be valid on your credit report. They CAN'T PROVE it's YOU.
Second, if you let the magazine publishing company know that this went to collection (the people who handle the mail have no idea whether it has or not unless somebody lets them know) they will send a pre printed letter to the collection agency letting them know that it has been cancelled and to stop sending mail and take you off their list. Things do get lost in the mail, so PLEASE try to be patient.
The magazine gets truckloads of mail a day. When you sign up for a free trial, the computer doesn't know any better than to keep billing you unless it is told otherwise, and that takes your cooperation.
The customer service section of these companies DO exist, just state plainly what you want and they will try to do the best they can to serve.
As an employee I try to go above and beyond what I have to do to please customers, and I know that even though you might have a bad experience with a customer service rep, that most of us out there are not out to get you-stop being paranoid and just try to be patient and understanding that you are not the only person out there with needs whose mail or phone call is being handled that day.