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Make Magazine customer service problems
The billing service operations for Make Magazine are causing me no end of frustration:
1) The billing system has no concept of a gift subscription. When I receive a renewal invoice in the mail, it does not have the recipient address on it, so I have no idea which subscription I am renewing.
2) The e-mail customer service reps are pathetic. When first renewal information on my gift subscriptions (I had at the time two gift subscriptions) I first received information only on my own account, instead of the gifts. When I repeated my question, I received information on my own account again plus only one of the two gift subscriptions, despite me clearly stating I had two gift subscriptions. A phone call was necessary just to get my account numbers and sub expiration dates.
3) The phone reps aren't any better than the e-mail reps. The first time I called to change the address for my own sub, and the billing address for my gift subs, the phone rep changed the delivery address for all three gift subs to my address, so I ended up getting four copies in my mailbox, which I had to re-deliver to the recipients. On call two I gave the rep the correct addresses again. That worked for two of three gift subs. I just had to call a THIRD time to fix one of the gift subs AGAIN. I guess I'll have to wait for the next issue to see if it actually worked this time.
For a magazine running $30 a year, you should be able to afford a fulfillment company that can do it right the first time.
Barring that, an address on the website for escalating issues to ORA directly when the readerservices people are not doing their job would be nice.
1) The billing system has no concept of a gift subscription. When I receive a renewal invoice in the mail, it does not have the recipient address on it, so I have no idea which subscription I am renewing.
2) The e-mail customer service reps are pathetic. When first renewal information on my gift subscriptions (I had at the time two gift subscriptions) I first received information only on my own account, instead of the gifts. When I repeated my question, I received information on my own account again plus only one of the two gift subscriptions, despite me clearly stating I had two gift subscriptions. A phone call was necessary just to get my account numbers and sub expiration dates.
3) The phone reps aren't any better than the e-mail reps. The first time I called to change the address for my own sub, and the billing address for my gift subs, the phone rep changed the delivery address for all three gift subs to my address, so I ended up getting four copies in my mailbox, which I had to re-deliver to the recipients. On call two I gave the rep the correct addresses again. That worked for two of three gift subs. I just had to call a THIRD time to fix one of the gift subs AGAIN. I guess I'll have to wait for the next issue to see if it actually worked this time.
For a magazine running $30 a year, you should be able to afford a fulfillment company that can do it right the first time.
Barring that, an address on the website for escalating issues to ORA directly when the readerservices people are not doing their job would be nice.
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Inappropriate?SirWired,
My profuse apologies. I don't blame you at all for being ticked. It ought to be a hell of a lot easier to renew a subscription to our magazine. I'm not sure why everything fell apart so badly in your case, but I do promise to follow-up immediately if you'd care to email me your particulars.
We publish my email in the magazine for just such escalation. In fact, in my Maker's Corner column, I make a point to invitie dissatisfied readers to write me with peeves, complaints or concerns. You're right, perhaps we should post my email more prominently on makezine.com as well.
You can reach me at dan@oreilly.com, and I promise to make it right.
Again, my apologies.
Dan
Dan Woods
Associate Publisher,
Make:
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