GeoCacher Magazine - Update 21st March 2011
Since my last post on the dubious practices of the publisher of this magazine I have since received my monies back from my Credit Card Company.
Paypal only allow the buyer to raise a dispute within 45 days of the original transaction. This is flawed if like me you use paypal to order a quarterly magazine !
However after waiting over 5 months I called my Credit Card Company (as used to fund my PayPal account) and asked them to instigate a 'chargeback'. This is procedure where the seller is guilty until proven innocent and they provide evidence of goods shipment / receipt etc. Because PayPal was the the company that charged my Credit Card, they received the chargeback, then putting the problem on them to recoup the monies from the seller.
If of course the seller proved to PayPal the goods had been shipped / received, PayPal would of course look to me to refund the monies.
Anyway, not content to just get my money back, and taint his reputation with PayPal, I decided after some suggestions on the geocaching.com forums to register a complaint to the Better Business Bureau a very appropriate organisation the publisher could learn a lot from when it comes to integrity and trust in it's relationship with customers.
The complaint (BBB CASE#: 11018232) was registered on the 25th February 2011, reviewed by BBB and prompty passed to the publisher for comment. The text of the complaint is :
Mis-representing the availability of a long standing magazine and taking chargeable subsciptions for a magazine that has yet to be published
Subscription by Paypal on 1st October 2010 for a qtly magazine.
Website www.geocachermagazine.com promotes a long-standing publication since 2008 when actually only 1 copy ever produced.
The magazine has taken many subscriptions during that time without providing said magazine.
He continually advertises "another edition on the way" on facebook ( http://www.facebook.com/GeocacherMagazine),
and on a public forum (http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=208409&pid=4630553&st=100&#entry4630553),
where most subscribers haven given up on their money or ever recieving a magazine, if not deleted from his communication pages because they complain. He hides bad news to protect the fact he is taking monies for something he has yet to produce.
He does not portray a customer focused attitude instead treating them with contempt becuase they want to know when they get what they paid for.
The Resulting action i wished on my complaint was :-
I want my subscription back.
I want him to be honest with his customers and stop falsifying the situation as he has for 4 years apparently.
I have no confidence that he is genuine or will ever produce or survive in business to produce a magazine that will last for the duration of my subscription.
So far the Publisher has ignored the BBB just as he ignores his customers. On Tuesday 15th March 2011 a reminder was sent by BBB to the Publisher.
In the interim this Publisher continues to take subscriptions for a magazine he has as yet failed to produce in the last 4 years, contrary to many promises.
