Focus magazine subscription

[thomas_hardy1]

I see this thread is still going. My question is when are we to receive the April issue?

[michael_dingley]

I see this thread is still going. My question is when am I to receive any issue since my subscription last December? Why isn't anyone taking legal action. I would be more than willing to be part of it. Living in Australia and so far away doesn't help matters. I'm so frustrated with all the lies. If I get a response regarding this 'no lies' statement then answer this.......... what has happened to all of the issues that I have not received. It doesn't take a genius to work out that newsagents have been getting these issues so whay not me or others? Has spivak lost the subscribers list of names and addresses and won't tell us? Mike.

[robertfarnham]

For me, it's been well over a year and nothing nada zilch zip zero in my mailbox. <br><br>

 

I forwarded a copy of my Paypal payment to the big black hole in NYC and wasn't acknowledged. All the excuses

about e-mail problems don't fly with me. Like, seriously, use Hotmail for christsake, if you're having that many

problems. This isn't 1995. These types of tech issues don't exist any more. It's just bad customer service,

plain and simple. Have someone on the other end with a computer plugging in canned responses - it can be a five

year old - it's not that difficult or expensive. Really. It's not.

<br> <br>

And all the pass the buck excuses about the mail service...again, please spare us..this ain't the pony

express...I received a MacBookPro from Shanghai in a day and a half (that's in a country called "China", btw), I

think the USPS can get a mag out to an exotic, out of the way location like "Canada" quite easily - they just

need to actually get their hands on it to be able to get it here. (All this time I thought Newfoundland was in

the western hemisphere, but tonight I have read that it's actually in Europe. And that getting stuff to Europe

takes an unusually long time. Fascinating. I heard they have mail delivery there, too, even though they don't

speak American...and that planes fly there almost every day.)

<br><br>

Now, OK, $60 isn't a big deal to me. I'm just sad not to receive a magazine that will put Jock Sturges on the

cover.

<br><br>

David, you're obviously better at designing a magazine than at business. Hire someone to do it for you. I hear

there are a lot of ex-Bear Stearns employees who need work in NYC. If the magazine is as successful as you say,

just hire someone to run it for you. Stick to obsessing over the print process.

<br> <br>

As of 10:34 tonight, July 2nd, 2008. I don't give a flying f#ck. Keep my money. Buy yourself something pretty.

Or a book that can teach you about customer service. (I bet Amazon can deliver via USPS in about three days...)

<br><br>

Enjoy your July 4th. I know I could use a holiday.

<br> <br>

..Robert

[scott_jones2]

This may help:

 

Better Business Bureau Serving Metropolitan New York

(New York, NY)

257 Park Avenue South

New York, NY 10010-7384

Phone: (212)533-6200

Fax: (212)477-4912

Email: inquiry@newyork.bbb.org

Web: http://www.newyork.bbb.org

Has online ability to submit complaints

 

and

 

FTC (Federal Trade Commission) consumer complaint process

https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

[jim_meisenbach2]

Since Spivak hasn't jumped in here for a while, can we assume he is out hand delivering our subscritions? Robert, I think you may have hit on something: I too think his computer crashed and he has lost all the subscriber's adresses. If I interpret this right, our April issues should be mailed out sometime this m onth, probably after the June issue hits the stands. Maybe I will get my June issue as a birthday present in September.

 

I have written off my $56.00 as money down the pooper. I really don't expect to receive any more issues. Maybe he has pulled a Jeff Dunas on us, and gone out of business. I wonder if this is the same guy who used to run a trade magazine that was dedicated to corrective/fashion eyewear. hmm.

[pawel1]

Let me add my name to the disgruntled list of potential subscribers listed above. I ordered a subscription (buy 2 yrs,

get one free - sound familiar?) in early Feb. Here is is late July, and multiple emails have not been answered. I tried

getting my money back via PayPal but my appeal was "too late". Lesson learned.

 

Any lawyer-photogs out there that can advise on what our options are?

[david_spivak2]

Hello all. I see a great number of you are upset - with good reason to be. I also see a lot of you have been extremely patient and are running out of patience.

 

Let me just tell you all that I have made a deal with a company to handle my subscriptions from now on. It's been my mistake to try to do too many things at once and unfortunately, I've suffered the consequences, health wise of putting too much stress on myself.

 

This outside company will be handling ALL subscription operations on Monday, July 21. Right now all of the subscription copies - April and August 2008 are located in Exton, PA with my printer. My distributor will be picking them up either Monday or Tuesday and preparing both issues for mailing this week. I feel confident that all foreign and domestic subscriptions for both the April 2008 and August 2008 issues should be sent out by Friday of this week. I've been working with this company for over 3 years and they have much better resources and manpower than I have. This is going to lighten the load for me quite a bit and allow, hopefully, for me to get Focus back on a regular schedule.

 

As I said above many many times ago - everyone's subscription was extended one year if you subscribed before March 1, 2008.

 

Once again, issue #14, the December 2007 issue was a newsstand only issue.

 

Issue #15 was sent out to all subscribers months ago.

 

I owe you all issues #16 and #17. 17 just came off the bindery last week and will be shipping to my distribution company along with 16 Monday or Tuesday.

 

We're going to be using a new class of mail - that is less expensive and takes about the same amount of time to arrive at their destinations domestically. Foreign subscriptions will be freighted to a distribution center in Europe and mailed via postage there to all foreign subscribers, except Canada and Mexico. Those subscriptions will be mailed from the US facility via Int'l Priority Mail, I believe. I'm not 100% sure about that yet. In the meantime, I have setup an e-mail account that I and the distribution company will both have access to. This e-mail account has been setup specifically to deal with subscription problems. The E-Mail address is: subprob@focusmag.info. I urge all of you who have problems with your subscription to send an e-mail to that account, unless you received the February 2008 issue in the mail. If you received the February 2008 issue - then you're on the list and will receive both issues as they arrive to you in the mail.

 

If you have not received the February 2008 issue - please send us an e-mail with the following information:

 

Your name, address, city, state/province, zip code, country (if not USA).

 

If you paid via PayPal, please provide your PayPal receipt number. If you paid via check, please provide us with the check number and the date the check was cashed.

 

Now the bad news. If you missed the February 2008 for whatever reason, I have less than 10 copies left. I am taking it off of the website as an orderable back issue as soon as I can get onto my server and access my individual pages. If the last issue you received was the Jock Sturges issue (August 2007) then I will extend your subscription by one year and one issue. We have an ample amount of copies of the August 2008 and April 2008 issues and will go to all subscribers before they go to anyone else.

 

This is priority number one for me right now. I cannot ask any of you to understand the reasons why this has been delayed yet again, and I won't make any excuses. Excuses are irrelevant - what is the most important thing for all of you to know is that I have dedicated a great deal of time to this problem and it should be fixed by the end of this week. We don't want to do this the wrong way and dis-organized and if the distribution company tells me next week, then I'll tell all of you next week.

 

As for the future, Focus Magazine is running strong. Our newsstand sales are crushing the competition - we have sell through rates in the high 60s and low 70s. We continue to dedicate an enormous amount of thought-provoking editorial to each issue and ensure that every single article is written and edited to the highest level. The printing and reproduction of Focus Magazine has improved yet again -- we just switched to a European sheet that allows a much higher level of detail to included in every reproduction. You'll see the difference when you look at the April issue and the August issue. Both magazines are wonderfully produced - and really, it's splitting hairs, but I want to provide absolutely no possibility of us being beaten by any other magazine on newsstands today in that department. Our sheetfed printer who uses a hybrid linescreen technology that gives us over a 300 linescreen reproduction, combined with the new paper, I hope will really gain us additional recognition. All subscriptions, from now on, will be handled with this company and they pride themselves on ensuring all subscribers are given royal treatment. Subscriptions may even arrive at your home before they arrive on newsstands as this is the same company that is responsible for 90% of our domestic newsstand distribution.

 

I will update you all on this periodically this week. I thank each of you for your loyalty and patience. I repeat, this is PRIORITY #1 for me.

[dmarks]

How many more times will you tell us that you have a new company handling the subscriptions?Frankly,this is getting old.You keep blaming others for your f@#k up.Why don't you just give the people back their money that request it?Seems the right thing to do seeing that you keep screwing up.

[carrie_rettew]

Wow. I could kick myself for not researching this, but who would think you would have to?! I saw a beautifully put-together magazine in Barnes& Noble in December 2007. I then gave a subscription to my father for Christmas. I sent in a subscription card(same deal as many of you have mentioned--buy two years, get one free) with a check the first week of January 2008 and it promptly cleared on January 30th(David Spivak apparently has no problems cashing checks).

 

My father has never received a copy and I'm out 54.95. I emailed info@focusmag last week with no response and so I googled "focus magazine subsciption" to try to find a phone number(interestingly it is not ANYWHERE on the magazine website) and stumbled upon this thread. I cannot believe this conversation has been going on for 8 months! I do not have time for this! I do not have time to follow up every few months for the next 3 years to ensure my father gets his subscription! And from what I've read in this thread, that is exactly what is required. So, never mind. I want my money back!

 

David, if you read this(which I assume is the case, since I see a response from you on the 19th) I REPEAT: SEND ME MY MONEY BACK. You have my email, and you have my phone number. CONTACT ME. I have no desire to trash you, or this magazine, but I will NOT tolerate you taking my money and not delivering the goods.

 

Thanks to all of you who have posted, it has helped me understand that this is not a one time problem, but a systemic issue that does not show much promise of being rectified. Next Christmas, I'll just renew my Dad's subscription to Lenswork.

[a_baan]

So far have been waiting three months for first issue to arrive. Unfortunately nothing yet. For such a goodlooking

magazine it is a shame that on the subscriptionpart of the business everything seems to fail. Tried to call them,

asking when I could expect the first issue to arrive. Not very friendly man on the phone. Reluctant to answer any

questions and the other line simply hang up on me. Now I know of the excellent customer service the US companies

normaly provide. This does not seem to be one of them. I am a subscriber to several US magazine on various topics

for over 20 years. I must say never had any problems so far. All (other) magazine are received in good order and

quickly. Being a professional independent publisher myself I simpy do not understand why Focus Magazine has a

problem handling subscriptions. It seems like I am out of the 60 euros (95 US$). Hope for the best in the near

future....... (to be continued?)

[david_spivak2]

Excellent news: The wait is over.

 

The contract with the subscription fulfillment center has been finalized and all magazines are being picked up as we speak. Due to the relatively large number of subscriptions that there are, the order will take a little longer (as I warned) to process. All domestic subscriptions for the April 2008 and August 2008 issues will be sent out by next week. All foreign subscriptions will be air shipped to a distribution center in Europe next week and sent out from there.

[jeremy brotherton]

David I've emailed you many times in the last two weeks and you've never responded to any of them. I know you read this so GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK! my Paypal email is <b></b> I'm sick of the BS.

<p>

<i><b>Admin edit:</b> People, please do not post your email in photo.net threads. Six months from now you are just going to come complaining to me that you have gotten thousands of spam messages because of it. Then I'm going to have to spend time chasing the thread down and deleting your email.</i>

[david_spivak2]

There is no BS, Jeremy. We've already sent you numerous copies of FOCUS, plus a charge to overnight you a copy

of the magazine via UPS. We've spent over $70 on your $54.95 subscription.

 

I will hope that you will be patient with the receipt of your magazines. As I said, I will update everyone on here as to

the exact date of their mailing at the post office. You, along with everyone else, will receive the April 2008 issue and

the August 2008 issue.

 

I understand this is frustrating for you -- it is even more frustrating for me. But this problem has been resolved on my

end and now we all just have to wait for everyone to do their jobs next week. There will not be any additional delays

whatsoever. None.

[jeremy brotherton]

You've sent me 2 copies 2! 2 copies in one year might I add. Because YOU sent them over night due to them not being sent right the first time does not mean I should be charged for your poor ability to run your magazine. I'm giving you one more chance then I will expect my money back!

[dmarks]

BS,BS,BS.............................

 

"I've been working with this company for over 3 years and they have much better resources and manpower than I have. This is going to lighten the load for me quite a bit and allow, hopefully, for me to get Focus back on a regular schedule."

 

If this is the company you've been working with for the last 3 years then I guess nobody will ever get a mag again.You and they have a poor track record if that's the case.

[david_spivak2]

*sigh*

 

Clarification: This is the first time I've worked with this company on subscriptions. Up until now, I've always had my printer handle subscriptions - they didn't have the manpower to do it but were doing me a favor. It finally got to the point where I needed to hire an outside company to do this for me - little did I realize that the company in charge of distribution of my magazine, also handles subscriptions. As I have mentioned, this was something that we've both JUST agreed to.

 

As I have said numerous times in the past week, all domestic subscriptions will be mailed next week.

[jeremy brotherton]

And then it will be the week after that and then next month and then the month after that. Just give us our money back!

[david_spivak2]

The April 2008 issue has been mailed out via bound and printed matter domestically and airmail internationally. Unfortunately, postage regulations forbid mailing out two different issues of the same magazine at the same time within a 5 day period. So the August 2008 issue will be mailed out next week.

 

So, if you subscribed prior to March 25, you will be receiving the April 2008 issue very soon. If you subscribed after March 25, you will be receiving the August 2008 issue soon... just not as soon as I'd like. The magazines are labeled and ready to go -- we just have to wait until next Friday August 8. I don't know if I mentioned this before or not, but if you'd like to view the August 2008 issue online, you can. http://www.focusmag.info/August2008.pdf. Hopefully that will tide some of you over until the actual print copies arrive.

 

Also on the good news front, whenever a new issue comes to my distributor, that issue will be sent out to subscribers a week to two weeks before it reaches newsstands.

 

So all in all, this was something I knew that was going to take time to figure out, it's been going on, admittedly for 8 months now and your patience has allowed me to do what needed to be done. All subscribers who subscribed before March 25 are getting this year for free on their subscription as I have mentioned earlier.

 

When the August 2008 issue is sent out to subscribers, I will let everyone here know. Should be by friday.

[david_spivak2]

Everything was mailed today for the August issue -- foreign and international. Thank you once again, everyone for all of your paitence.

 

Now the test is to see how well it worked. All foreign copies of the April issue were sent int'l priority mail which takes 6-10 business days. So within the next week, most of the international subscribers should have their copies of the April issue.

[david_spivak2]

Just a quick update - I've begun to receive reports from subscribers on the East Coast that they've received their copies. Anyone here from the East Coast? Can anyone else confirm?

[james_sedwick]

I received the April issue #16 here in Western NY state and look forward to the August issue. How are others' doing with their subscriptions? I hope the mailing problems have been resolved. This is a well-done magazine.

[david_spivak2]

ALL international subscribers that were on the list received the April 2008 issue, including those who canceled their subscription. Interestingly enough, Don Marks has been silent, even though I know for a fact he's received his copy. I guess I was right about Don, his only purpose in this little thread was to be negative -- to complain just for the sake of complaining.

 

Mr Sedwick, I appreciate your compliment. You should be receiving #17 this week if my math is right. Thanks to the help of this company I'm contracted with for the subscription services for Focus, ALL subscription issues have been resolved and we're hard at work on issue #18. That issue should go to print within 2-3 weeks from now and mail out in early October.

[dmarks]

Well,I guess you know it all David.Just for your info,I haven't received anything from you other than the Dec 07 and

Feb 08 issues.You obviously have been wrong about me receiving anything else from you.I guess you're also wrong

about me complaining just for the sake of complaining.David,how do you know for a fact I received the April issue?

Did I sign for it?Did you send it to Europe again?

 

You know nothing David.

[dmarks]

I'm sorry David.I was wrong in my last post to you.Please forgive me.It was the August 07 and the Dec 07 issues.Feb didn't arrive.

[david_spivak2]

I expected nothing less from you, Don.