Preventing Prevention Magazine

I used to subscribe to a lot of magazines. Now I don't have a single magazine subscription. For a couple months I've been finding letters from Prevention magazine in my P.O. Box. I assumed they were junk mail, because, well they were junk mail, and tossed the letters in the trash.

Then today there was a letter in the P.O. Box that had no indication who it was from, just a return address of Westbury, NY.

I opened the letter to find a REQUEST FOR PAYMENT from something called the North Shore Agency, Inc. for a subscription to Prevention magazine that I never subscribed to.

The letter demanded $17.94 be paid immediately, claiming multiple billings had been sent for a magazine I don't think I've received. If one showed up at my P.O. Box I would have just thrown it away, deeming it to be junk mail, just like their bills.

Near as I can tell the gist of Prevention magazine is info to help you get or stay healthy. I'm already there. Why would I want this magazine. That and it's a Rodale Publication. I've long known to stay away from Rodale Publications.

The collection agency had a web address at www.prevention.com where I could pay my "bill." So, I went there hoping to find some place to complain. It was fairly easy to access my "account" to a subscription I did not subscribe to. I found a Customer Service email option.

So, I wrote the following...

"I did not subscribe to Prevention Magazine. I did not open any mail from Prevention until today when an envelope arrived that did not indicate who it was from. Inside was a dunning notice from a collection agency for a magazine I did not subscribe to. I don't think I have received any magazines. Had I found one in my PO Box I would have assumed it was junk mail and tossed it."

When I clicked to submit the message, the page would refresh, the message would still be there, with no feedback that the message had been sent. I hit the submit button at least 5 times.

Then I looked at my "account" again. I saw a "cancel subscription" option. If clicked that and then clicked "cancel subscription' figuring even though I did not subscribe maybe this would put an end to this nightmare. When I hit the submit button on the cancel option, that worked.

So, we'll see where this goes now. Likely it'll just get loonier and loonier, just like that whole Dallas Morning News Boondoggle.