"engineman" wrote in message
...
The other day I got a letter from someplace called "Readers Payment
Service".
They sent me an invoice for a year's subscription to Popular Mechanics
magazine.
I have a subscripton and I renewed it in December.
Why are they sending me this bill?
I have received similar letters in the past and have sent them money
without checking to see when I renewed.The money was applied to my
subscription but it meant having more money tied up in the
subscription than I wanted.
I have even received letters from them or someone similar asking for
more money than the subscription price directly to the magazine.
How many of you have had this experience?
Is there someone I can complain to about this?
I could complain to Popular Mechanics but this would do no good for
the other magazines I've gotten invoices for.
Some of them were for magazines I don't even subscribe to.
Engineman

It's been a popular scam for years. It's perfectly legal; they act as agents
for the publishers. Publishers usually hate it.

_Harper's_ magazine has had enough trouble with it that they publish a
little fractional-page warning to their subscribers in every issue.

The best way to handle it is not to pay for subscriptions except direct to
the publisher. That is, unless you're paying through some Boy Scout or kid's
sport-team drive, or you're trying to boost your chances with Publishers'
Clearing House. g

--
Ed Huntress