Steer clear of "All In" Magazine

[Etaipo]

Ugh.

If I recall correctly, I stumbled across a "buy it here" ad when doing some pre-christmas shopping on Amazon back in...mid October?

I followed the link by clicking on Ben Affleck's ugly face, and, sight unseen, ordered a 2 year subscription for 27.95.

Well, that was a mistake.

Come late November, I realize, hey, I still haven't received that magazine! So I google search, find their website, and dig up their customer service number.

Of course, their customer service is worthless. "We can't help you with that, but I will take a message and someone will get back with you."

A week later, and still no word, so, like an idiot, I call them again, hoping things will turn out differently.

Needless to say, the exercise in futility repeated itself.

Enough was enough, I was going to take ACTION damnit!

Sooo.....I e-mailed their customer service. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[ QUOTE ]
I placed my order for a 2 year subscription to your magazine several months ago. I have YET to receive a SINGLE ISSUE!

I have called your 800 number twice to complain. Both times they claimed to take a message to give to customer service, and that they would get back to me. Neither time have I received a call back.

This is pretty ridiculous, and in my eyes, pathetic customer service.

I expect to receive a reply to this email OR a phone call explaining to me what in the world is taking so long to get the product that I have already paid for to my doorstep, no later than end of business on Friday, December 17th. If I have not received a response at that time, I will be calling back and demanding a refund. At that point, you can expect me to recommend CARDPLAYER magazine, rather than All-In for my poker buddies to subscribe to, and I will be using my refund to get myself a subscription to that magazine as well.

I have been patient, but my patience has run out.

[/ QUOTE ]

And, of course, their reply was immediate!!!!

[ QUOTE ]

We have received your inquiry and we are in the process of reviewing your e-mail. We will get back to you shortly.

Best regards,
ALL IN Magazine

[/ QUOTE ]

Of course, that was the last I heard from them. This was last week.

Today, I tried calling them again, only to receive a tone that sounds like either a disconnection, or an off the hook. Either way, none too encouraging.

So, I did what any real man would do....I sent off another email!

[ QUOTE ]

ALL IN Magazine wrote:

> We have received your inquiry and we are in the process of reviewing your e-mail. We will get back to you shortly.
> Best regards,
> ALL IN Magazine
>
>

Yeah, right.

This was sent to you last Wednesday:

>cut out the original letter for this posting<

Of course, I never got a response. Today, I try calling your 800 number again, and it appears to be out of service.

I have absolutely no confidence left in your company.

Please IMMEDIATELY refund my 2 years subscription.
Something tells me I won't be getting a response. So the question becomes what my next step to take will be...

[/ QUOTE ]

And, terrified as they are of me, they sent me a reply instantly!

[ QUOTE ]

We have received your inquiry and we are in the process of reviewing your e-mail. We will get back to you shortly.
Best regards,
ALL IN Magazine

[/ QUOTE ]

So, my question to you folks is, what the hell do I do now? I'm out 27.95 and have nothing to show for it. I doubt the credit card company will do anything about it, since the charge was in October, and it's now almost January.

Any help would be appreciated.

P.S. don't try to buy this damn magazine, obviously.

[Warior]

If you paid using a credit card you should be able to get the charge reversed with very little work. Try it.

[CardMinger]

Yes...try calling the CC company...despite your intuition I find they are pretty good about things like this...let us know how it goes!

[gusly]

Hmmm... I went to their website and saw this:

[Refunds & Customer Service: You may cancel your subscription at any time and receive a refund for all unmailed issues at the time of your request. For change of address, refund requests, gift subscriptions, and other issues, call 1-800-95-ALLIN or e-mail Service@allinmagazine.com]

Sounds like they're reasonable folks. Considering that the magazine is published every two months, and you ordered about two months ago, and right now we're in the middle of the xmas holiday season... maybe you're being a little too hard on them? Maybe the first issue got "lost"?

Certain magazines are more susceptible to "misdelivery." By way of personal experience, I receive Roundel (a pretty slick BMW Car Club magazine) once a month, and each year 2 to 3 issues are not delivered to me. I call up the BMWCCA, and they send me a replacement, no fuss, no muss.

I don't mean to minimize your bad customer service experience. Believe me, I've been to the bowels of customer service hell myself. And you should have no trouble getting your charge reversed. Just thought I'd throw in my two cents. Good luck, however you decide to handle it.

[theprophe]

I had a problem subscribing with them, for some reason, there was a visa card/address mismatch, anyways, they took down my particulars and said they would contact me back, of course after a week they didn't so i phone them again said the same stuff, and again they took down the info and said they wuld call me back. I think you know the answer, of course they didn't, so no subscription to them!! There Customer service sucks bigtime

[Luv2DriveTT]

Etaipo:

I work in the magazine publishing industry, so I can tell you a few things about the management and business practices of All In Magazine from what I have witnessed, as well as your (and others) experiences.

All In is in the launch stage of their lifecycle. Many things can go wrong with a startup; you are experiencing one of the most critical failures from the point of view of the reader. The Publisher's first priority is oddly not the reader however during the early critical days, its on things that should be seamless to the reader such as advertising revenue (which is often the only place the magazine turns a profit), newsstand distribution (which is surprisingly very tough, and is usually a loss leader), marketing, and finding ways to pay the print bill on time. The needs of the early subscribers are often overlooked, because they are often compensated for their troubles when the publisher automatically extends their subscription by another year (sometimes without even asking) to keep the magazines circulation figures high - and the advertisers happy.

In short although I agree that your CS experience is horrible, be patient because there is publishing industry buzz around All In, and it looks as if you will see another copy sent to you very soon. They probably don't even have a staff member looking into subscriber complaints yet since that is an expense that cannot be afforded by many startups.

I would advise writing a letter to the publisher, which is almost guaranteed to be read. Good luck, I hope you find an amicable solution to you dilemma.

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[Etaipo]

[ QUOTE ]

I would advise writing a letter to the publisher, which is almost guaranteed to be read. Good luck, I hope you find an amicable solution to you dilemma.

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

I will give it a shot.

Honestly, I wouldn't be upset, if it weren't for this critical line on their subscription page:

[ QUOTE ]
Subscription Information: ALL IN Magazine is published 6 times a year and will be delivered via U.S. mail approximately once every 2 months. Your first issue of ALL IN Magazine will be shipped immediately

[/ QUOTE ]

[Submarine123]

[ QUOTE ]
Subscription Information: ALL IN Magazine is published 6 times a year and will be delivered via U.S. mail approximately once every 2 months. Your first issue of ALL IN Magazine will be shipped immediately

[/ QUOTE ]

I noticed the same thing when I subscribed.

I sent and email for clarification and got the same auto responder but no follow up reply.

I decided to call and got a hold of a rep on the phone. I asked her if I could expect immediate deliver like the website says or the 6 weeks delivery. She told me that the first issue I would receive would be in 6-8 weeks. One of the reasons I subscribed was to read the issue they are showing now and she was telling me my subscription would start with the next issue.

I decided to go to buy a copy at B&N and just wait it out for the initial issue to make it to me in Feb/Mar. If I did get a duplicate....[img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

FWIW I like the magazine so far and for me it will be well worth the $17. If it would have sucked I might have cancelled due to the confusion but I'm going to keep it.

[fnord_too]

I am pretty sure you cannot bill a credit card prior to 30 days of shipping an order for merchandise. I think things get a little tricky with subscriptions, but I think if they have billed you but not shipped in 2 months, they are probably in violation of the law. At any rate, you CC company should cancel the charge, if they give you any run around, drop them.

Here is another thing you can do: if the publishing company is public, you can get a list of their corportate officers and write them directly. This usually at least inflicts equal pain on the other side (unless of course you are writing to Best Buy, whose officers will reply with a denial that their customer service sucks and alienate a customer who probably would have spent several thousand dollars a year there over something that would have cost them literally NOTHING to fix, but I digress.) If they are not public, you may be able to find who runs the show anyway and write them.

Thanks for the warning, btw. I will add All-In to the long list of companies products and services I will not do business with.

[RowdyZ]

I already have a subscription to Allin thier delivery of the magazine leaves alot to be desired, they always seem to be running behind. Perfect example I was in my local Books A Million tonight and noticed the lastest issue (with Chris Ferguson) was out. I have not yet recieved that issue. Every other magazine I can think of ever subscribing to my issue always arrived in advance of seeing it in stores.

RZ