Action News Troubleshooters: Subscription renewals

If you get a renewal notice for a service or a subscription, your knee-jerk reaction might be to send it in immediately with payment.

That's what Janis Leiberum did when she received what looked like a subscription renewal notice for her favorite magazine Women's World.

Leiberum responded and sent in $79.95. Then she waited... and waited... and waited.

"I was very frustrated because of having sent the money to them and getting nothing in return," she said.

Leiberum told the Troubleshooters she sent her money to Atlantic Publishers Group LLC and while she never got any Women's World magazines, she did get more renewal notices for other magazines.

"I tried calling them to get my money back and they said, 'We don't give money back,'" said Leiberum.

Atlantic Publishers Group in Colorado has an "F" rating with the Better Business Bureau.

And buyer beware: Leiberum has received renewal notices from other subscription companies with F ratings, like NP National Processing and Pacific Magazine Billing.

"Who knows how many people they are doing this to," she said.

The managing editor of Women's World tells us: "All three of those companies (Atlantic Publishing, National Processing, & Pacific Magazine Billing) are what we consider fraudulent subscription agencies - they send out solicitations for magazine subscriptions, often charge a much higher price than is typical, and customers who send them payment usually don't ever receive any copies of the magazine. They're not affiliated with us in any way and we don't provide them with our subscribers' names, so all we can do is advise subscribers to ignore these fraudulent notices and not to send any payment to these companies. In this case, since it sounds like this subscriber did already send in payment to Atlantic Publishing, she can try and contact the company or her bank to get her money back. All three of those companies (Atlantic Publishing, National Processing, and Pacific Magazine Billing) are what we consider fraudulent subscription agencies. They often charge a much higher price than is typical, and customers usually don't ever receive the magazine. They're not affiliated with us in any way and we don't provide them with our subscribers' names."

Action News did reach out to those magazine subscription companies and never received a response.

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