rfl@oddjob.UChicago.EDU (Bob Loewenstein) (06/05/87)
I had the misfortune to have subscribed to both MacUser and MacWorld. Last fall I decided to quit subscribing to MacUser, my subscription would run out in October. Naturally I was besieged from their subscription department to renew. I held steadfast for months...until they offered me the Power User's Manual. Ok, I said, I'll subscribe again. I said bill my credit card. For the next two months I'm getting notes saying to pay my bill. Also, I'm getting two copies of each month. I write and say I did pay my bill by credit card and to please send me only one copy, not two. They ignore that. I haven't seen the invoice on my statement, so I figure, ok, I'll send in another of their billing postcards and state make sure they don't bill me twice. Next I get a notice saying they're cancelling my subscription due to non-payment. I find an 800 number for them. I call and finally seem to straighten things out. I'm told they're sorry, but they (the company in Denver) have just taken over the MacUser account and things are a mess (understatement). I get the Power User's Manual, a back issue I had requested (from when they terminated my subscription) and things are back to normal. Not quite. At tax time I notice that I was charged twice on my credit card for MACWORLD. I also notice that somehow I, totally wacko, wrote a check to MacWorld at the end of the year. This meant I had paid MacWorld 3 times for my next year's subscription! How has this happened?? I write MacWorld including copies of the invoices on my card. One month later I get a post card from them thanking me for my request about subscription rates and telling me that the rate for one year is something like $30, not the $23.97 advertised forever in their magazine. I send this card back with a copy of my original letter and a few other paragraphs in italics and Bold saying they obviously didn't even read my last letter, to read it this time, and send me a refund. Another month passes and no word. I finally find an 800 number for these guys. I call and sure enough, the lady on the line says, yes, you did pay three times. We'll apply it to a 3 years' subscription. No, I say, send me a refund. No, she says, since your subscription's almost up for this year, and we'll just have to send you another bill, we'll use one payment for next year and send you a refund for the third. No, I say, If you apply it to next year, I'll take the 2 year rate of $37.90, not $47.94, and you send me the remaining $34.01! No, she says....... Yes, I say....... Finally, she agrees..it'll take 6-8 weeks to get my money. Now here's the point..... Today I figure out how this mess happened. These guys are the same company as MacUser's subscription people. I get TWO postcards in response to my second letter. One from MacUser saying a "duplicate [ not triplicate] payment was applied toward...extended subscription..." The second card was from MACWORLD saying they "are unable to locate a second order."!!!!!!! So, just as my letters made the rounds there, so did my payments to MacUser, apparently being applied to MacWorld. The check was made out to MacWorld; I guess during the billing war with MacUser I was sent something (wrongly) from MacWorld or thought I was, and not wanting to let that subscription run out, wrote the check. I don't know. I just hope that in 6-8 weeks I get my refund...