Outdoor Life magazine using extortion

[shtur]

My subscription to Outdoor Life was ending and I received a renewal notification. I sent it back to CANCEL it. I received a letter to pay for another year, because I had "renewed". I then received a renewal letter every month for a year. After a year was over, a collection company sent me a letter to pay my "debt to Outdoor Life".

I Never received a magazine after my subscription expired, yet Outdoor Life says I "owe them". Outdoor Life is desperate to have subscribers. I'll never read Outdoor Life again, never did like it much since JOC stopped writing for them, the reason I canceled my subscription in the first place.

[NSB]

I believe you, sad but true. I will not subscribe to any magazines any more because of this type of BS. They're all doing it. I know many people who have had similar expereinces with other magazines.

[Tackleberry41]

I have found that if I want to read a magazine, its best to pay the extra and just go buy the issue you want at a newstand or book store.

Was a time I had a subscription to national geographic, they would send the renewal notice a little earlier every year. First it was at the 11mo mark, then 10, soon they were pushing to renew my 1 year subscription at 6mo.

And at one time it was satellite radio. I had gone and paid for a unit to put in my car, paid for a year. Only the unit quit at the 9mo mark. They sent letter after letter wanting me to renew, yea except it doesn't work, and only applies to the one unit. I did the math, the $10 a mo seemed good, but once you factored in a new radio ea year it was $20 a mo. They pestered me for several years to renew. Makes you wonder how much postage they wasted.

[Hannibal]

I suppose the biggest complaint I have with magazines is that seldom is an article written about a subject in general. Almost always the article is written in an apparent attempt to convince the reader to go out and buy something or other. Not all magazines are like that, but from what I see, the vast majority are. I see no reason to pay for a magazine full of nothing but advertising.
Others may like to know about new stuff on the market. That's fine and dandy, but I don't appreciate it.

[M-Tecs]

I had the same issue with another magazine. I contacted the States Attorney General. This type of thing is what they do and it is free. When it was all settled I received a letter of apology from the mag and 3 years free.

[rockrat]

I feel the same way about Shooting Times. Used to be my favorite. Haven't looked at one in 15 years

[10-x]

Lost interest in most since Elmer Keith quit writing, that's been a while and I feel like the rest of you all. Most magazines are " pimps" for some product.

[JSnover]

I suppose the biggest complaint I have with magazines is that seldom is an article written about a subject in general. Almost always the article is written in an apparent attempt to convince the reader to go out and buy something or other. Not all magazines are like that, but from what I see, the vast majority are.
^That.
Once in a while I'd buy a special edition if it looked relevant but even that didn't pan out most of the time. Now I flip through them (yeah, I'm that guy) to find out if they contain anything worth paying for.

[wv109323]

Sad to say but most gun magazines are written for the inexperienced novice. Very seldom is there an article that the seasoned veteran can glean from.
Plus they must cater to their advertisers. All new guns are the best ever.

[xs11jack]

My local library gets G&A and outdoor life. I go read them for free. Try yours.
Ole Jack

[leeggen]

I had that problem with a couple magazines I used to receive. I sent the notice in with cancel my subscription written across the front. next month received another renewel, did the same thing, this went on for 6 months. A collection agency called me to collect for the magazines and I told them about the deal. Theyrequested copies so I sent them and never heard from them again. You must keep a copy of the cancelation.
CD

[Baja_Traveler]

Only magazine I subscribe to now is the digital edition of "Handloader". I get the digital editions of "Rifle" and "Successful Hunter" for free with it as a bonus. I think it worth it for this particular magazine.
Way back in the day my favorite magazine was Sports Afield, but after 10 years I started seeing them re-run articles, and the advertising got out of hand, so I dumped it.

[Wolfer]

Sad to say but most gun magazines are written for the inexperienced novice. Very seldom is there an article that the seasoned veteran can glean from.
Plus they must cater to their advertisers. All new guns are the best ever.

Like most here I no longer get any magazines. When I was young and inexperienced I found them very interesting. As I got older and more experienced I could see through most of the stuff.
I suspect a good many of the people on this site come under that seasoned veteran title.

[mcdaniel.mac]

Like most here I no longer get any magazines. When I was young and inexperienced I found them very interesting. As I got older and more experienced I could see through most of the stuff.
I suspect a good many of the people on this site come under that seasoned veteran title.
Magazines were good to have when I was younger, filled my head full of silly myths about AR15s and the sound of a pump shotgun as burglar deterrent. These days the Internet has better pictures, and if someone says something wrong the cavalry are always ready to lead the charge.

Strangely, the myth that took the longest to bust, if y'all will let me tell a tale, was the one about pointy bullets in a tube magazine. In the end, it took an Internet argument to spur one fellow to pore through enough magazines to find someone who had tested j-word spitzer bullets in a tube magazine under simulated recoil to prove that a chain fire was unlikely to occur even if recoil set off a primer in a tube magazine.

Truly the Internet is a miracle, managing to accomplish through wounded ego what years of magazine subscriptions and library reading could not!

[marlin39a]

Today's gun magazines are filled with hashed up rewrites from the past, and excessive advertisements. When they do review a new product they reap praise on it even it it is junk. Anything I need to know I can usually find here.

[bedbugbilly]

M-Tecs has the same advice I was going to give - contact your state's Attorney General's Office and file a complaint. This seems to be the MO of a lot of magazines and others. If a person doesn't "renew" then they didn't "renew" and the subscription is "done".

I had the same problem with our county newspaper a few years ago. We subscribed to it for a number of years and it was delivered daily to a box out at the road. The paper was "sold out" and it quickly went down hill. I decided I no longer wanted it so when the next quarterly statement came to re-new, I just wrote "cancel" across it with a black felt pen and mailed it back. At the time, I was extremely busy as my mother was near death and my out look on it was that a returned statement with "CANCEL" written on it was sufficient. And I will note that you paid in advance for three months just like garbage service, etc..

They kept delivering it for a couple of week and I just left it in the box - when that got full, I put them on the ground next to the post the box was on. They finally called and got real nasty with me. I politely explained to them that I had sent the statement back with CANCEL written across it. They got nastier and said that I owed for the papers that were delivered after the end of my subscription - the ones that had been piling up in the box that the delivery person was not smart enough to figure out or check with the subscription department - or they had never been notified by the subscription department.

I went on to explain that I owed them nothing. I had canceled and they should have stopped delivering it on the final day of what I had paid for. I told the lady that what she was trying to do was not unlike if I delivered a sofa to her house and put it on her porch - a sofa that she didn't order - and then billed her for it. Would she pay for it?

She still didn't get it. So I then gave them 48 hours to remove "their post and box" form my property or I would be "billing them" for rent for the post and box. Funny . . the box and post got pulled in a day and no more threats form them.

As big ov a PIA as it is, when I get anything like what the OP is talking about, I make a copy of the paperwork sent back that is marked "cancel" just in case something like this comes up. I no longer subscribe to any magazines - the wife does to a couple but we've never had an problem with them. The one that used to drive me nuts was Reader's Digest . . . phone calls about subscriptions that we didn't even have, etc.

[Mica_Hiebert]

Buck Masters Magazine use to call you and tell you that you won a bunch of hunting gear and a year subscribe to their magazine, well I was young and dumb and I gave them my address and all I got was a pair of mittens and a dollar store pocket knife and a bill for a 3 year subscription that they turned over to collections after they called harassing me for payment 3 times a week for 3 months.

[Don Purcell]

The gun magazines I used to buy nearly every month are mere shadows of what they once were. Guns and Ammo was a favorite with Elmer still there and later when Ross Seyfried started with them but now I rarely if ever even pick it up to browse through the contents. Ditto Shooting Times. Occasionally I may pick up a Handloader.

[Mica_Hiebert]

I pick up Handloader at the grocery store and I would like to save money by getting a subscription but I dont trust magazines business ethics enough to go through the head ache.

[RayinNH]

I get American Rifleman like I suspect most of you do. I also get Handloader. A person needs terlit reading material :lol:.

[Geezer in NH]

I do it the easy way and just let the subscription expire. renewal notices go thru the shredder.

Sending anything back on the notice I will bet is done by machine that does not read your written cancel on it so it renews as you sent it back.