A Big Customer Service No No

Call it the bait and switch or possibly the how to lose a customer super fast strategy. Whatever.

I'm talking about automatic magazine renewals. I subscribed to Harper's Bazaar. I would typically read about 2 articles and basically enjoy the pretty pictures. I first subscribed because it was/is super cheap! Eight buckaroos for 1 year. And the entertainment value slightly exceeds that of going to the movies...

So my last issue comes with a "we're going to renew you unless we hear otherwise notice". So I'm thinking, well okay as long as it's still super cheap. But then I get an invoice for $15!! Now, to the magazine's credit, maybe they are renewing me for 2 years, but it does NOT say that.

So I go online (as suggested by the notice) to rectify the situation. HA! It's a nightmare. Not only do I have to click through some random add, but there is really no way to fix the problem. So what to do? I cancelled my subscription. I couldn't find another option.

This was after my very negative experience with the O at Home Magazine. I signed up over a year ago and received 2 issues over the course of more than a year. I contacted the magazine on two occasions and the automatic response simply promised to extend my subscription. A lot of good that did for me. I still did not receive any issues. And now they've folded. Or, how about when I renewed my subscription for Child Magazine and then read a week later (yes ONE WEEK) that they were going under. Clearly they knew things weren't so hot when they solicited subscribers for their cash!

And publishers wonder why they can't seem to survive...A little communication and competent customer service goes a long, long ways.

Here at Athletic-Minded Traveler, we offer three different subscription options for our all original healthy travel portal that covers over a 100 destinations (in addition to a number of FREE services).

$2.95/month with automatic renewal (which we state very clearly.)
$4.95 temporary 21-day subscription
$19.95 annual subscription which will also automatically renew.

We strive to update and add content on a daily basis and we can easily be reached by customers. Customer service is something ANY company should strive to excel at and improve upon.