Complaint Review: TWX Magazine - Internet

First of all I do represent the company our consumers know as TWX Magazine. To be correct, the name of our company is Synapse Group Inc, based out of Stamford, CT and our processing center is in Salt Lake City, UT. We are a 3rd party magazine vendor and our orders come through internet providers, credit card companies, in store promotions (i.e. FYE or Circuit City) and also informercials that you see on TV (i.e. Kevin Trudeau). To be brutally honest, I have seen every offer that we do send out to consumers in the mail and every single one has terms and conditions customers must agree to. If they do not read the terms, this is not our fault, it is written in plain English and just because you see the word "FREE" doesnt mean free, what do you know of that is free now a days? Every single internet offer that a consumer agrees to (i.e. Bizrate, ccs.com, Adam and Even.com, etc) also has written terms and conditions that you actually have to agree to twice by clicking yes on the icon, then you have to provide your name and credit card number. Now comes the cancellation part, when you agree to an offer whether its from your credit card company, an internet provider or a in-store promotion the cancellation information you need is given to you or mailed to you and if even when you accept on an infomercial they mail you the written terms and conditions when they send you the product you ordered, with the phone number also provided to cancel. We also always sent our reminder postcards so that you have a chance to cancel before the magazines do automatically renew, which we do work on a continous service (see terms and conditions) and again our phone number is provided on them as well ( those are ALWAYS sent out 2 weeks prior to being billed) Most times customer do not know these are the reminder postcards because they do have our company name on them (i.e. Synapse, Magazine Direct, NewSub Services) Lots of customer become confused when they see the company name because as I said we are the 3rd party so most times those postcards get trashed, but again not our fault, it is important to look at every piece of mail, as most people do. When you do have our phone number and do call to cancel...yes, you are going to get an annoying automated system. Nothing I can do about changing this, I know its annoying...but simply keep hitting 'zero' and you will get to a live operator like myself. Keep in mind my job is to get you to keep your magazines, thats what they pay me for but please just be polite to our reps and you will get outstanding service and you will get your refund. Now most times if you have a charge that is a few months old you have had plenty of time to cancel so yes you will receive only a partial refund because my company has continued to send you magazines even after your free offer. Now, here is something that confuses people, when you do cancel we tell you it can take up to '72 business hours' before you get your refund...this means 3-9 business days, because there are 8 business hours in 1 day. Also keep in mind that the refund will be back to your account physically within that 3-9 day period but it does take the bank/credit card company 1-2 statements before you see it on there. Also at the end of the call we tell you that you will receive 1-2 complimentary issues, which means yes the magazines are cancelled, but notice of that cancellation takes some time to get back to the publisher so they will send a couple more out even though you cancelled but you wont be charged anything. So anyways I hope this helps people and sheds light on how this all works. If you dont agree, you dont have to, this is the way it works and if you didnt read the terms when you ordered this again is not our fault. But stay calm, keep hitting that zero in the automated system and we will make every effort to help you out!