Backpacker Magazine Sucks

“Backpacker Magazine sucks, thebackpacker.com forever!”

“Sorry I'm in a weird mood tonight.
Bored very bored”

“Congratulations. You have successfully used the search feature. You get a gold star!”

“Search Feature?”

“he did NOT use it.

this is a whole new thread.”

“Sarcasm is difficult to convey in print.”

“no, it is not, you cheeky monkey.”

“Thpppppt ¦ P
.”

“Backpacker magazine continues sending me issues even after my subscription expired. I never agreed to renew so I don't know what's up with them. I sent them an email just now to tell them to stop.”

“Didn't someone say the same thing happened to them and Backpacker turned it over to a collection agency?”

“That doesn't sound right since I didn't ask to extend my subscription. Is it legal to just send the magazine and make you responsible for something you didn't ask for? It sounds crooked to me.”

“it does sound crooked. i got a bill in the mail the other day.... telling me it was time to renew my subscription (which i'm not going to do). i hope they don't turn me over to collections.

rich, where did you send your email to? i might have to send them one myself just in case.”

“On their website under the subscription heading. So far they only sent me two magazines. I didn't know what to make of the one they sent last month until I got a new one today and figured something must be up.”

“I'd rather read Oprah than Backpacker Magazine.”

“I remember seeing that in order to cancel your subscription you had to write them a letter...
Rodale, Inc., is the publisher of the magazine. And once again, if memory serves me correctly, within the contract of most all subscriptions is a continuing serves agreement... And you must submit in writing your request to terminate sevice.

Ken”

“That's new to me and I had a few different magazines over the last several years and they didn't operate that way. I hope they accept my email for what it is, a cancellation.”

“richb, rodale press has a new policy that when you are mailed a renewal it says something like "if you dont respond by checking this miniscule box we will assume that you want a renewal" and you get an auto renewal. Its crap. I have cancelled all my rodale subscription and advise everyone else to do the same. I called em and told em that their policy amounts to fraud and thievery. I was taken to collections by them for not paying an auto renewal on organic gardener, geuss who didnt end up paying after I explained what occured (hint it was me!)”

“Thanks birch. Nice to know my memory isn't gone all the way. ;-)”

“Happened to me and I just wrote PLEASE CANCEL across teh bill in big letters and sent it back in the envelope they provided. Havn't heard a peep out of them since.”

“Thanks for that info Birch. I agree that it is fraud and thievery to run an operation like that. I'll see what they say in response to my email. Now I really see why Backpacker Magazine really does suck!”

“I signed up for Backpacker's "free issue" a couple years ago, and when I didn't send them money, they turned the account over to a collector even though I had received no further issues.”

“Happened to me and I just wrote PLEASE CANCEL across teh bill in big letters and sent it back in the envelope they provided. Havn't heard a peep out of them since.”
Roam Around
8:39:37 PM
4/11/05

Roam, I did the same thing. Gues what I got in the mail this weekend. The new issue of the magazine with an expiration date of MAY 06 on it”

“I got one Saturday myself with an expiration of May 06. I contacted them last month via phone and asked they end my subscription...they said they'd make a note of it. YEah Right”

“so is it the service that people dont like, or the magazine all together? would you still buy it off the shelf since you wouldnt be subscribed to it?”

“they will continue to send magazines until you notify them in writing, and charge you”

“As I understand it, if you do not request to have something sent to you and a company does so despite your actions to cancel, I do not think you are obligated to pay for what you asked to cancel.

i.e. if you receive something unsolicited in the mail, and didn't request it, you are not obligated to pay anything.

Just to make sure, when you send your cancellation, you could do it with a return receipt requested... (or make a copy of the "cancellation notice" that you give to them...


I try not to use services that require a credit card to renew--I try to pay by check, therefore, when the subscription expires, they shouldn't be able to automatically withdraw the money from my accounts!”

“pinkbubelz... You are correct about the unsolicited mail. Unfortunately the Subscription agreement we all agreed to, even the Free issue agreement, allows them to send issues... I have my original agreement and will post it. If you go to the BackPacker Mag website there is no "full" Subscription agreement posted, that I can Find.
Ken”

“I should lurk here more often.
You guys are SO full of crap!”

“soco7y7, the mag content is okay (I will read it if I see it around) but the policy just plain sux and I wont support it.

Toejam, HuH?”

“Are there any other good hiking/backpacking magazines out there?”

“I'm with Birch and will not support crap like this. Once this thing is settled Backpacker Magazine saw the last of me.”

“Do what I did.

I sent the issue back with a letter "Not only did I not subcribe to this, but I don't even want the piece of #&%!$ in my house".

Never got another one.”

“I signed up for a "free" issue and they sent me one 2 months old!
Then they sent me the current issue which I already had and sent me a threatening letter that if I didn't pay up they would send it to a collection agency. I sent them a note explaining what happened and that I would not pay for past issues even if I halfway liked their rag of a mag. I still buy it off the rack, every now and then there is something interesting in it. But I would never subscribe to it again after that.”

“well duh.”

“I wonder if there has ever been a class action lawsuit filed against Rodale regarding this. Could there be? Seems like there are a good number of people who might fall into the class status. We're talking about negatively affecting people's credit here.”

“Watch out, Ruby, the Rodale Secret Hit Squad might show up and your doorstep...”

“LOL

Well, when my Backpacker mag arrives in the mail, it's usually been torn up before it gets to me. lol”

“

“Didn't someone say the same thing happened to them and Backpacker turned it over to a collection agency?”
StoveStomper

“I signed up for Backpacker's "free issue" a couple years ago, and when I didn't send them money, they turned the account over to a collector even though I had received no further issues.”
bitpusher

“I wonder if there has ever been a class action lawsuit filed against Rodale regarding this. Could there be? Seems like there are a good number of people who might fall into the class status. We're talking about negatively affecting people's credit here.”
Ruby

Yes! I received a bill before the free gift and two sample copies. I finally had to write and threaten legal action.”

“It's pretty bad when you have to intimidate people to keep your magazine in circulation.”

“A few years back I ordered a 1 yr suscription to backpacker. A month later i got 3 mags in the mail - the crrent edition that had been on the racks for several weeks and the prevous 2 editions. My subscription expired 9 moths from that date.

I called them and they squared it away, but it still sucked that they tried to pull that crap.”

“All the mags seem to pull that one when you first subscribe though.”

“Hyway - I had the same thing, and they did extend the subscription after I called to complain about receiving past issues in lieu of current ones. At the end of the year, I cancelled my subscription when they switched to the policy of automatically renewing unless you specifically told them not to. It can be a convenience, if you forget to renew on time and you know that you will continue to get the magazine for years, but if you aren't sure whether you want to renew, it is frustrating. When I know that I will be traveling a lot, I don't want to have any magazines coming in, so I usually subscribe on a year to year basis. On the other hand, one of the things that used to irritate me about Bper was that they would start sending renewal notices after about 3 issues - at least six months before the subscription was due to expire and then would send them every month until I finally resubscribed a month or two prior to he expiration. I'm sure it cost them a lot of money sending out reminders.”

“Yep, Ginny. I know what you're talking about. I resubscribed a few months ago, right around Christmas in fact. Yesterday I received a hurry-and-renew-before-it's-too-late-or-you'll-miss-a-jam-packed-informative-issue renewal notice. My subscription apparently expires in October according to the notice. I tossed it. I won't renew this time, even though I'll miss understanding Nigal's monthly rants.”

“I think all magazines do the "Renew!" after three months thing. I subscribe to a couple of scifi mags. I used to do year-to-year, then I decided to go to two-year subscriptions just so I wouldn't get the darn "Renew Now!" mail about three months after I re-upped.

I think they do it because they know that sometimes older people can't remember whether they've re-upped or not, and will just pay the bill every time it comes in. Heck that happened to me once. I started checking the dates on my last magazine to see how close it was to the end of my subscription. But I know somewhere out there, there's an old lady with 50 years worth of Southern Living on her account.”

“I got the re-subscribe notice with the latest mag the other day. I wrote "Cancel" on the bill and sent it back to them. We'll see what happens.”

“One mag I subscribe to did something even more evil. About 2 months after I resubscribed, I got a "bill" in the mail, which wasn't a bill, it was a renewal offer. Ignored it, since it doesn't expire until December. Then last month I got an "overdue bill" notice, which of course wasn't a bill at all again. Could have fooled anybody that wasn't on their toes. I almost wrote back with a nasty letter, but it wouldn't have done much good. If I get another one like that I'm going to send it in to Consumer Reports' "Selling It" column.”

“bit, that is what I did but still got the new issue with a new exp date...lol
I sent them an email yesterday telling them about it. No response other than saying they got my email”

“My subscription isn't up until October, so I'm hoping I have better luck than that. Also, I'm pretty sure my wife didn't use her credit card when she got the subscription, so they can't automatically charge the next year to it.”

“I just received an email from Bacpacker Magazine stating that my subscription has been cancelled and to disregard any further invoices I receive. It's the first magazine subscription that I ever had this problem with so I'll watch out for it if I ever subscribe to another magazine. Thanks for all the help and good advice.”