About one year ago, I signed up for a “free trial” of BYO magazine. I received one addition and decided I did not want to subscribe. I already receive Zymurgy and that is currently enough for me at this time.
Every few months I received a letter asking me to subscribe for $29.99. I didn’t respond because I didn’t want to subscribe.
Today I received a pretty nasty letter from Brad Ring (the publisher) stating that my account is “delinquent” and that I need to stop wasting his people’s time. Further it states that I need “to do my part” and send him $29.99.
Is this a scam? It’s not like they’ve been sending me the magazine for a year and I didn’t pay. I only received one copy which I assumed was the “free trial” addition. I tried to upload a picture of the letter but it’s not allowing me to do so.
That’s crazy…even if you did owe that’s no way to handle it. I enjoyed the magazine and actually just signed up for it through a group buy in my homebrew club…hopefully this isn’t the norm!
The normal BYO offer is for one free trial and it automatically starts a year subscription unless you write then to cancel after the first issue. My understanding is that they would continue sending issues to you. If you only received one issue then you have no responsibility to pay for more.
I definitely don’t want to subscribe to BYO after hearing about that. It sounds like they’re in dire straits financially and he’s lashing out at people he perceives as being responsible for that.
Just being the Devil’s Advocate here. I’ve had a subscription to BYO for more years than I can remember and haven’t ever had a problem with them. I have seen the same thing with other “Free” trials though. Typically, it’s the first free issue is the start of our subscription. It sounds like they held any additional issues until they received payment or notice of cancellation. the step they left out, apparently is the automatic drop rule after X# of months.
It is unfortunate to see them handle your situation that way but it can probably be cleared up with a phone call or an email.
YMMV/IMHO/Package contents may settle during shipment.
It’s been years since I was a subscriber, but I was for many many years with no problems. At one point, I had received two subscriptions for Christmas and they were sending me two copies of the mag. I called and they changed it to a two year subscription with no hassle.
I’d give them the benefit of the doubt. But I also haven’t seen the letter.
I got something like this from Outside magazine when I let my subscription lapse. After about a year of monthly pleadings to resubscribe, I got a pseudo-collections letter from them that I also tossed in the recycling.
