Usacomplaints.com » Miscellaneous » Complaint / Review: Country Magazine - Reiman Publishing, Reiman Media Group, RDA, Reader s Digest Deceptive Marketing, Won t Stop Junk Mail, Won t Cancel Subscription. #559048

Complaint / Review
Country Magazine
Reiman Publishing, Reiman Media Group, RDA, Reader's Digest Deceptive Marketing, Won't Stop Junk Mail, Won't Cancel Subscription

Country Magazine used to be one of the finest publications out there. Only a few in-house promo ads, great content and photos, really interesting. Good customer service, fair price, etc.

But since they've been bought by Reader's Digest they share their subscription lists so that subscribers get all kinds of junk mail starting when they subscribe.

Worse, immediately upon subscribing the renewal notices start. Many of them are deceptively marked to look like checks, refunds, collection notices, etc. A lot of them also look like invoices for services already provided. Some of these notices are for magazines that look like the original (For example, Country Extra has a logo that looks just like the Country magazine logo only with the word "Extra" across it like it was a promotional blaze instead of the name of a different magazine.)

My grandmother was deceived into subscribing to several of these magazines by these fake invoices and "renewal" notices for what were new subscriptions! She also renewed Country Magazine itself multiple times in the course of a year thinking that each "bill" was a legitimate renewal for the next year. On top of that, whenever she would get a mailing with "Final Notice" on it she was worried that she was late on a bill. Unfortunately it was NEVER the final notice—just the first in a long line of Final Notices to be followed by some other scammy notice.

I tried to get them to stop sending the mailings. When I called I always got someone in India or somewhere offshore. Sometimes they would promise to stop sending them (which they have never done—it's been two years now and the mailings are still coming). Sometimes they would say that they were sorry but couldn't stop sending them. We finally canceled all the subscriptions but to my knowledge my grandmother never got a dime back from the cancellations! (Or if she did she might have thrown away the bill because it looked like a deceptive subscription notice.)

Even after the cancellations, one of the subscriptions keeps coming and coming. Now Grandma thinks she has to pay the invoices because they sent her the magazines after we canceled the subscriptions. I can't convince her that it's Reiman's choice to keep doing that because it boosts their circulation numbers.

To this day we are getting all of these notices and flyers—now we're also getting them from other magazines from other publishers!

Interestingly, Reiman Publishing still has top marks on the Better Business Bureau site—I believe that's because the BBB doesn't have any way of objecting to business practices that don't actually result in loss of service. Customers who may be a little confused and get ripped off don't know to report it or don't think it's worth reporting for only $10. Yet another case where the BBB rating doesn't mean a thing.


Offender: Country Magazine

Country: USA   State: Wisconsin   City: Greendale
Address: 5400 S. 60th St
Phone: 4144233955
Site:

Category: Miscellaneous

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