Complaint Review: Subco Inc.

I just received the Feb & Mar 2011 issues of Maxim Magazine in the mail but had not requested a subscription.  When I contact Maxim's Subscription Dept at 386-447-6312 to question and cancel this order, they say 'So sorry, but this was generated by Subco Inc. so you must contact them at 800-258-3350 to cancel.'  I find it interesting that Maxim cannot cancel a subscription that they themselves are mailing out to a customer.

A call to Subco in Fresno, CA, receives a response that this order was generated by Millenium Marketing as a free trial offer.  Subco will cancel the subscription if I like, but 'I may continue to receive issues for a short time because the mailing labels are all preprinted.'  That's an interesting statement since my mailing address is printed directly on the front of the magazine.  I did request a cancellation and will be watching closely to see if I receive additional issues and a resulting bill for this unsolicited subscription.  I'm wondering how long it will be before I also start getting calls in an attempt to collect on this bill when it is never paid.

Based upon other complaints I've been able to locate, I am of the opinion that the magazine publishers, Millenium Marketing, and Subco Inc. are all in collusion to generate unsolicited subscriptions and make the 'cancellation process' multi-tiered in the hopes that an unsuspecting or preoccupied 'customer' will just pay the subscription invoice to make a prospective problem go away.  This is consumer fraud.