Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!sharkey!atanasoff!deimos.cis.ksu.edu!kuhub.cc.ukans.edu!optical
From: optical@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: PC Tech Journal Dies
Message-ID: <3948@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
Date: 2 Mar 89 05:41:39 GMT
References: <1826@valhalla.ee.rochester.edu> <377@dvnspc1.Dev.Unisys.COM> <52322@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services
Lines: 49

In article <52322@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>, root@yale.UUCP (Celray Stalk) writes:
> It's sounding a lot like snake oil to me.  I recall now that when I
> started my subscription (about a year ago) I got two issues back to back and
> about a week later got a "renew now and save" letter!  I wonder if even
> back then they were planning to kill the mag and were trying to get
> all they could before then.
> 
> Just yesterday the last issue in my subscription (lucked out!), with a
> big red cover page warning me that this was my last issue and I'd better
> send in my renewal now or I wouldn't receive any more issues.  In light
> of the fact that they don't give refunds for unused portions of subscriptions
> if the magazine goes under, I'd say that it might be time for all folks
> being ripped of by Ziff Davis to get together for a class action suit.  They
> are apparently knowingly conducting fraudulant business practices.
> Anyone out there have a lawyer in the family?!
> 
> I have (or at least had) nothing against Ziff Davis (they _are_ the
> publisher, aren't they?...I don't have an issue here).  I think PC Mag
> and PC Week are very good magazines.  It's too bad they're quickly
> gettings themselves a bad reputation.
> 
> 					      --Peter
> 
> ------------------------------------------    --------------------------------
> Peter Baer Galvin       		      (203)432-1254
> Senior Systems Programmer, Yale Univ. C.S.    galvin-peter@cs.yale.edu
> 51 Prospect St, P.O.Box 2158, Yale Station    ucbvax!decvax!yale!galvin-peter
> New Haven, Ct   06457			      galvin-peter@yalecs.bitnet

I am not a subscriber, but I have seen and heard enough about this kind
of rip-off. We should do something about it.

Last Oct. I received a notice from a magazine called COMPUTE!, and it
said that I did not pay for my subscription. I had never heard this
publication before, and certainly never received one either. I then
wrote a letter ( a polite one) to them, and told them the situation.
They never responded at all. In early January, I received a notice
from a collection agency stated that I owe COMPUTE! $12.97 and if I
don't pay, they will track me down and bring legal actions against
me.  I wrote back to both this collection agency and COMPUTE! ( this
time, it was not a nice letter) telling them to BUZZ OFF. Then I never
heard from them again ( at least till now).

Has any one encoutered this kind of problem? I think they have gone
too far trying to rip people off (maybe in their word, it should be
a strategy of making money).

Qiwu Liu
University of Kansas