Heads up, folks! A while back, I recommended e.l.f. for their inexpensive cosmetics and their special sales. I didn’t know at the time, but they subscribed me to a magazine. I guess it said somewhere in the fine print that orders over a certain amount came with a free subscription, but I wasn’t looking for that fine print, because who expects to get signed up for a magazine when they buy makeup online?
So I get this magazine, People StyleWatch, with my name on it, and I start to worry. Did someone steal my information and charge one of my accounts? Which account got charged for this? Money’s tight at the moment because of an unexpected electric bill, so even a magazine sub is enough to cause panic.
I try to login to the magazine account using the account number on the shipping label, but that account, as far as People is concerned, doesn’t exist. I sent a customer support ticket, and the next day they responded. They don’t handle the shipping, but they could tell me that the order was placed through ValueMags.
There were a number of complaints on ValueMags sending unordered subscriptions, but I found something interesting as I scrolled down. One customer warned, “If you have purchased anything from e.l.f., that’s probably how you got signed up. I didn’t order $50 worth of stuff, but they subscribed me anyway. There’s a way to opt out, but I didn’t think I needed to, because I wasn’t spending enough money.”
I did some more research on the subject, and apparently instead of getting the magazines, you can get a $14.95 rebate on your purchase within 30 days of ordering. The magazines don’t start shipping for 6-9 weeks, so by the time you get one and realize you’ve been signed up, it’s too late to get that rebate. I think they hide that info in fine print, because they know most people would just rather have the money.
Anyway, so now I’m subscribed to this magazine, but may only get a couple more issues, because I told them I didn’t sub to begin with. They said it would take time to cancel, so I’m not sure if that’s been initiated or not. Either way, the sub is included in the purchase and has no auto-renewal, so if this happens to you, just enjoy the magazines and breathe easy.