matt_thompson1

I also have now received the August issue. So I'm up to date, and will keep my fingers crossed that the next issue goes smoothly. I did use the e-mail address David posted, and he did reply to me almost immediately.

I received the April issue on Friday, still waiting on the August issue, though. David did respond quickly to the e-mail he posted. So hopefully the subscription issues are improving.

Do you make a habbit of insulting your subscribers? I tried to be patient and polite for many months, and you have been short and rude, or not replied at all. My wife and I both tried e-mailing you in late May/early June when I requested your e-mail address from other people in this blog (see May 30). You never replied to those e-mails, and clearly, if you were reading the blog, you knew I was trying to reach you, and yet you never directly addressed me. If it pains you so much to have such stupid subscribers, why not just give my wife/me a refund and be done with our stupidity? Yes, I was in error that it was my name on the subscription, and I hadn't realized that my wife's maiden name was on the subscription, but you made no attempt to "research" the situation for nearly 6 months. I LOVED your magazine up until this debacle, and you made no effort to contact your subscribers to let them know that there were obscene delays in when they would get their magazine. Now I get angry every time I see it on the newsstand. If our magazines really are in the mail, fine, I won't post another message on this blog, and you'll never hear another word from me. I've grown tired of dealing with you and trading barbs on this stupid blog. We just want our magazines or our money back, not excuses. If I have not received magazines by the end of August, will you promise to give us a refund? Despite what you might think about Fargo, N.D. we do have running water, electricity, and a real live post office system. You are not mailing the magazine to the little house on the prairie.

A new Focus magazine is on the newstands....and still, no magazine in my mailbox since February. I have contacted the Better Business Bureau in NY in an attempt to get our money back since Mr. Spivak has completely ignored our previous phone calls and e-mails. Do you enjoy screwing people out of money? Either give us our money back, cooperate with the Better Business Bureau (and give us our money back!) or send us your &^@&^@^! magazine! Anything less is THEFT pure and simple. We payed for a product you are still not delivering. It doesn't matter how great the quality of your magazine is if we never get it.

Clearly Mr. Spivach, you read this blog, so one would be led to believe that you probably check and ignore your e-mail. My wife and I have tried no less than 5 times by phone and e-mail to contact you, initially wondering about the delay in our subscription, and now demanding a refund. We have had enough. We don't want any more excuses about printers, or how the mail is at fault for failing to deliver our magazine. We have not received a magazine since February, and that was a duplicate of the magazine we received in late December. WE WANT A REFUND! And We want a full refund, because I think the magazine you sent (twice) is not even enough compensation for the failure to deliver your product. We are reasonable, undemanding, "Minnesota Nice" people, but when we pay for something, we expect to receive it, or at least receive an explanation for why it is delayed. Had I not found this blog, I would be totally in the dark about the status of your magazine. You may consider yourself an artist, and you do indeed have a very appealing magazine, but even a great artist working on a commission knows he must DELIVER the work, or his skill means nothing. Please reply to my wife's e-mail and give us our money back, we dont' want to deal with you or this situation any more.

Can anyone give me David Spivach's e-mail so I can contact him to cancel my subscription? We tried the e-mail on the website and got no reply. I still haven't received the issue that hit the shelves at Barnes and Noble on April 1, and I don't want to wait any longer for a magazine that seems to make customers its last priority.

You can add me to the list of subscribers unhappy with their service, though we have only been involved in the headaches for a few months. So far, I received the same issue twice (the Feb. 08 issue) and not the April issue at all. When someone signs up to receive a magazine, it is generally expected that it should arrive in a timely fashion, or at least the magazine would make an effort to alert subscribers that there is a problem with the shipping of an issue. My wife and I have e-mailed 3 times and called once and received no response to our inquiries concerning the April issue. Judging by the problems others seem to be having with their subscriptions, I think I'd rather take my chances buying the magazine off the newstand or not at all, as opposed to waiting many months for a product that may or may not show up. I expect better customer service than what I've seen, and would like info on how to cancel our subscription and receive a refund for all but the first issue of Focus we received (and I'm not paying for that one twice!)