Synapse Group / Magazine Customer Service review: magazine renewal 65

I got my subscription from FANDANGO.com, it says so on my business reply mail.

SynapseConnect entices you with amazing magazine pricing, but I assumed I would renew at their special price. NAHHHHHHHH, not gonna happen.

Anyways I am so happy that I decided to read the business reply mail even though I did not know what SynapseConnect was.

When you call the automated 800 number, [protected])

You can cancel your subscription, One at a time. BUT you have to listen carefully, they try to entice you again to try the magazine for a trial period at a significant discount, mine were 6 and 9 issues at $5.98. If you says no, they try to get you on a different magazine, you have to says no to that one as well.

You have to go through this song and dance for every magazine. So far as I can tell I have canceled them all.

Good Luck.

Very painful to subscribe...funny, I actually liked the magazines, but would never do business with a company that would operate this way. I plan to let the actual magazine publishers know this. There the ones who are hurt by it in the long run.
These tactics are wrong and they should know. Join me in reporting your experiences to the publishers of the magazines you have had issues with (no pun intended)
Robin

Try this:
http://www.synapsegroupinc.com/contactus.html

I called to cancel and they did not have my magazines listed in their system, although they were on my credit card bill. I called my credit card company and they got them on the line by pressing 0 over and over again until they got a live representative. This is a really shady way to do business. I won't go for it again and I don't think magazines are doing themselves any credit by being affilitated with them. Mags are now cancelled.
Hope that helps someone!

I went to magcustomerservice.com, entered my subscription ID, and was able to cancel (it's tricky, keep saying No until the last one that says 'Do you want to cancel billing?'.

i just called 1.877.294.1093 and some one answered the phone luckily..without any voice prompts.
i spoke with them and cancelled the subscription. They said it would take 72 business hours or one to two billing cycles to credit my account back. waiting for it with full hope.

SynapseConnect is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Time Warner (which publishes many of these magazines):

http://www.synapsegroupinc.com/timeline.html

SynapseConnect = Very Shady Business! Surprised to learn that Time Warner owns them. I was shocked to see renewal charges (over $100) on my credit card. Because I have never received the "renewal notice" in the fine print when I signed up a year ago. Their phone system and website is set-up to trick and entice people to buy. They are only trying to get as much $$ from you as they can. At the most, the phone system and website only get you refund of mags not yet in queue to be mailed out to you. Be sure to call the toll free number, hit "0" to speak with customer service rep, and his/her supervisor to get the FULL refund. Don't let them get away with even a penny of yours! BTW, the billing dep lady is a b**ch!

I am extremely annoyed with this! My credit card expired this year and I received a new one with different details, the subscription people managed to arrange a payment with my old details, this is considered theft in my eyes. Also the last of the 3 options is horibble. I selected the wrong option by stating yes, since it says it will cancell your subscription after this payment. I corrected this with the other 3 magazines but as scaly as all their activities are I am not able to go back again and cancel it with immediate effect! Also I am phoning from abroad and can thus not use the toll free line! No working e-mail address... I can now see why the states is the country with the most amount of fraud and scams... This is just unacceptable. Also did not get a confirmation letter or authorisation request. Anybody has a international te number that I can use to contact them?
Thank you for making me aware and providing info as to where I can do some of the cancellations etc... But I'm sad to say that I most probably will need to cut my losses since they do not accommodate enquiries outside the USA. Scaly [censor]!

Ordered 6 issue subscription thru recycle web site. Continued to receive issues after 6. Just researched how to find who was charging me.
Charged 6 times amount for renewal. Never asked or sent any notification, just charged my card. Says refund pending but still paid way too much for issues received. what a major rip-off. Do not subscribe to trial subscriptions. Say they will ask permission to renew, but they don't.

Sorry to rain on most everybody's parade, but the system works as it is supposed to and is of great benefit to an alert subscriber. It's not a rip-off, it's a promotional offer: if Time-Warner did not want it to continue they would discontinue the offer. You receive an EXTREMELY inexpensive one-year subscription, possibly even at a loss to Time-Warner. SynapseConnect sends a postcard 11 months later giving your the chance to cancel an almost full-price renewal. You call the number, give them the ID#, and say "no" to their other questions (unless you are canceling more than one magazine). I've never had any muss nor fuss at cancellation. I then do a Biz-Rate survey to renew the Sunset subscription I've just canceled, and enjoy Sunset for another year for a just a few dollars. I do need to find a site where I can change the address on an existing subscription to Bon Appetit, though.

I never received a postcard notifying me that the magazines I ordered were up for renewal, or I would have cancelled. As it was, I just happened to find my original purchase confirmation, noted the date, and called to cancel, only to find out that they had already charged my card. I fell for the "cancel at the end of the billing cycle" option, and didn't realize until 3 weeks later (after no refund appeared) that I was not going to get a refund. I was also charged for an additional renewal, which I had been told had already been cancelled. I had to call back and be very firm with a real live person that they WERE going to refund my money for all three subscriptions, and they said that they would (minus costs for already mailed issues - hah!). We'll see in 10 days if the refunds are actually credited back to me.

Here is a website I found to contact Synapse Connect online...www.magcustomerservice.com
Hope this helps for anyone that needs further service other than an automated voice system...all you need is your Subscription ID to locate your records.

I received a stupid post card but when you call you can not speak to anyone and the automated thing says yes even when you say no. I re-enrolled me and I said no. I got charged the very next day and now I can not cancel. This gimmick stinks!

I got an Exclusive Offer from http://www.freebizmag.com whom I have found to be very reliable. However the offer is the Following:

Noise Canceling Headphones
Lightweight and comfortable headphones provide up to 15db of active noise cancellation, reducing the ambient sounds around you.
Enjoy your music without having to turn up the volume to overcome the roar of engines or road noise. Padded headband and ear-cups provide comfort for hours of wear and the in-line controller allows for easy volume adjustment. Batteries not included.
Yours FREE Just pay $2.99 s&h

The CATCH:
"The account you provide will be charged the amount shown. Please allow six to eight weeks for delivery. The name, address, email and account information you provide will be collected by Gift Services, Inc. to process and fulfill your selection. "

WHOIS Gift Services, Inc.?
Gift Services, Inc. and SynapseConnect, Inc., 225 High Ridge Road, East Building, Stamford, CT 06905, are the vendors for this offer.

FORGET ABOUT IT!
***Thank's everyone! I will not get sucked into this scam

I accept my responsibility of being less diligent, however I strongly agree that the company's method is "shady" in employing tactics to trap the less careful or diligent person. I agree perhaps we had not been diligent. But I can't even remember how we got the "free" magazines - it was addressed to my husband who doesn't read magazines, especially Martha Stewart's Living. In any case, we'd never dealt with SynapseConnect before. So when SynapseConnect mailer arrived the first year, we must have thrown it away. Again I don't remember receiving a notice. This is our second year "subscription" and I happened to read the content. Out of curiosity, I logged online to figure out how they ended up managing our subscription. That's how I came across all the complaints. I took prompt action. Sure enough when I rang to cancel our "subscription", the pauses bet the automatic prompts were abnormally long that I thought I was being cut off. I almost hung up until I heard the prompt to confirm if I'd said no. Obviously it didn't end there. There were a couple more enticing offers which I had to say no and again waited for the long pauses. SynapseConnect was deliberate in employing such repetitive delay tactics and hoping your less diligent self will allow them to keep charging. SynapseConnect had no intention to make it easy for anyone to cancel. THAT is obviously not an honest company.

Hello All:
I recalled some months later when I signed up for 4 magazines that the magazines would auto renew - I just couldn't remember when. So I used my magazine subcription label and went online to Subscription Services for each magazine. I canceled via each site AND called Synapse (the magazines provided the contact info. I did this on May 12. 2 days ago, I recieved a postcard notifying me that I needed to cancel by June 24 or be charged the renewal fees for the magazines. I called the number and cancelled each magazine one at a time - again. I was in their sytem as having cancelled on May 12the but wanted to be certain. I also visited the website to ensure that I will not be charged (www.magcustomerservice.com). It was a bit of a pain, but it can be done!

You have to listen very closely and say no or no thanks and GET A CANCELLATION CONFIRMATION number at the end or call back and go through it again saying no until you get that CANCELLATION CONFIRMATION number!

to cancel online for synape connect go to this site https://www.magcustomerservice.com/wss/home.do#top

I went online to www.magcustomerservice.com and was apparently able to cancel from the website. (I say apparently because it's too soon to tell for sure.) NOTE: read the questions carefully! The first question I saw was "It this the correct magazine." That's the only one I answered "Yes" to. I had to answer "No" to all three of the next questions, including the last misleading one: "Would you like to cancel the upcoming billing for [name of magazine]? You would still receive the issues that you are entitled to receive, but you would never be charged again." The answer here is "No." The next screen should say "A cancellation for [name of magazine] has been processed. Your confirmation number is XXXXXXXXXX."

Hope this helps.

I got a charge on my credit card for $57 and didn't know what it was for. I called the 800 # listed on my credit card online info and got a completely automated system where I was advised that I would receive advance notice of a subscription continuation. I never received such notice. After trying several phone numbers and only getting automated responses (one such call said press 0 for assistance and all I got was more automated nonsense) I finally got to a "live" person who was able to verify my cancellation and who told me that my credit card would be credited within 72 hours but it might take 1 or 2 billing cycles for the credit to show up. I originally subscribed through Fandango Movie Service. Clearly I will never do that again. I have serious misgivings about the honesty and integrity of a company called Synapse Connections, Inc.

The real problem comes when you have multiple "free" (low-cost) subscriptions that came from filling out surveys like I did on Biz-rate. I received 9 months or so of two mags, then got new free subscriptions for the same two mags "that would take 6 to 8 weeks to process". A notation with the 2nd deal said to cancel auto-renewals by some upcoming date, but then I received cards in the mail regarding cancellation of my automatic renewal [which I believe is for the original deal---that I had originally cancelled any auto-renewal---so i shouldn't be receiving cancel cards for that deal].
I have no doubt I will be receiving overlapping subscriptions of the same magazine [something like this happened 8 years ago], but what I really don't want is to receive THREE of each, while being charged full-price for one of them, and trying to get my $ back.
I found at least 9 phone #s for this place, and they all give the same woman robot (Is that you "Rachel--from cardholder services" ?) Some things you need to be able to TALK to a human about.
P.S. while I was typing this, on hold with [protected], I actually got thru after pressing a few zeros and a long wait !

This is a sham! I never ordered free magazines, just innocently ordered mags in the usual way. One of these was a gift from a friend and even that one was on the list. I called several numbers, none of which I was able to speak to a person. I would have been able to cancel the one's I already paid for, but I did not want to do that either. I finally found a number that worked and they say everything is back to normal. The # is 1.877.294.1093. Hope this helps someone else.

I received a card from you some time ago advising me that you were renewing my Country Living sub. for $36.00 if I didn't call you by Oct. 2. I didn't read the card at the time- just today read it because of the $36.00 charge on my Discover bill. I had renewed my sub. for $12.00 thru CL. & certainly don't want to pay $36.00 for it. I've notified Discover that I don't owe this. Please withdraw your charge with Discover. I'm sorry I didn't notify you by Oct. 2, but from the amount of trouble I have had this morning trying to reach you by phone it wouldn't have made any difference because talking to a real person in your company is impossible. Thanks Delsia Hankins

Heads up! Here is the phone number to SynapseConnect to cancel your supposed subscriptions! [protected] (here is the catch, you must hit 0, 0, 0 when they start talking). When you here the auto talk just hit 0, wait a moment and do it again, then again. You will get a person then. Get their NAME, Location (Most likely Costa Rica), and the Reference number for cancelling. We got caught up with them when we started a cheap subscription with Smithsonian. I verified that Smithsonian does business with them and the card is not a scam and was told "they are a very reputable business). We NEVER authorized them to re-up our magazine let alone charge our card. I am awaiting a call from a Manager from the Smithsonian and will turn this over to the Oregon Dept of Justice.

if you want to cancel mags, and they were done through synapseconnect, ic c/o processing center po box 30468 salt lake city, ut 84130 or misc company, you can bing/search engine the exact address it takes you to their site the ph # is [protected] it will take you to automated (susan) or whatever automated with list of menu items but that only helps if have sub # otherwise dial # above and hit zero it will give live operator he/she will in turn tell you same junk as automated be firm say cancel, cancel cancel this also good word to use with automated but they will trick you and say want refund and cancel in same sentence dont say no or yes say cancel, you should recieve refund on statement within 1-3 days. hope this helpful to some.

I missed cancelling a subscription for "Sports Illustrated" by two days of the annual deadline and got a $51.00 renewal charge on my debit card, but no refund of my remaining issues was listed - as it should have been since I used the automated service to cancel. I wanted to speak to a live person to ask why my refund (which should be about $48 or $49) was not listed. You won't get to a live person using any of their many toll-free numbers for automated service.
I took a shot that one of the older posts on this page was correct and just called [protected]. A woman named Odette answered the phone after just one minute, and without any voice prompts. I explained the situation with my magazine subscription. While she didn't explain why I wasn't granted a refund yet, she said I should be getting $48.27 credited back within a few days. I will be watching my bank statement to ensure that I get my money back.
I suggest anyone dealing with this company call [protected].

After purchasing from Bumble and Bumble, I was prompted with a "take a short survey and receive a gift of up to $100". I thought I would be given up to $100, cold cash. No, that was too good to be true.

Took survey and was then given option to choose 4 magazines, 1 year subscription each for only $8, "a $100 value!" (so that's what they meant). I liked some of the magazines they had available and so decided to give it a try.

BAD DECISION. My Mom was so ticked when she found out. Obviously, she has had to deal with this kind of crap before (and survived, with many wounds to remind her).

1 year later I got a postcard in the mail (from SynapseConnect, Inc. C/O Processing Center PO Box 30468 Salt Lake City, UT 84130) saying my subscription was going to end, but for "my convenience" they would continue my service because I signed-up for their "open-ended, customer-friendly" subscription method. (Bunch of malarky!) They gave a # [protected]) to cancel if I wanted to. I called immediately.

An automated voice-command service was all I got - no human.

Here's where it get's bad.

I hit #1, the "I want to cancel" option. First they loaded me with some of their "new, special discount deals", and then gave me two options, 1) "say yes, if you want to cancel your current subscription and start your new 15 month special for just "blankly-blank" dollars" OR 2) "say no if you want to continue with your subscription". I didn't know what to say! I didn't want to say yes, but I didn't want to say no either!

I was silent. She said, "I'm sorry, I didn't hear that. Please say yes or no or repeat." I decided to say no. She then said, "I'm sorry you no longer wish to continue with your subscription, no further charges will be made to your account." I liked the sound of it, plus she gave me a reference #, but I had a funny feeling something was still afoot.

1 week later...

I get another postcard in the mail saying my 4 magazines were going to start their new terms because I said I wanted to continue. I tallied up the price of each new subscription, a whopping $122! They said if I wanted to cancel to call [protected]. (I was surprised to see a different number, but called anyway). Same voice/command and same options. I accidentally pressed a key and was given a new # [protected] and told to call that number if I wanted any further help. Holy crap! Another number?

I called it. Same old, same old. Nothing was working. I couldn't cancel anything because I had already canceled my subscription, and my new term was about to begin (though it hadn't started yet).

I found this forum after entering on google the keywords "synapseconnect customer service".

tripoley1966, thank you, thank you, thank you! The gods must have smiled down upon you, because the number you gave [protected]) really did have another human being on the other side!

I spoke with Andrew, who was pleasant, and told him I wanted to cancel my subscription. Gave him some personal info, which he asked for, and then he told me everything was canceled. I explained to him the trouble I had gotten into by not knowing whether to answer "yes" or "no". He understood and apologized for the trouble and said nothing would be charged, everything was canceled, AND the magazine company would like to send me 1-3 free magazines to say "sorry". I asked if it was possible NOT to get any of those free magazines. He basically said no, reaffirming I wouldn't be charged for them, but that I could do whatever I wanted with them once I got them. I have a few good ideas...

I asked for a confirmation #. He gave it to me. I feel satisfied, or at least, slightly safe from getting my money stolen from me.

I hope nothing more will come of this.

Here are some things I learned:

1) Never get sapped into offers online for special magazine offers (or other $$ offers) for taking surveys or doing anything else
2) If you happen to get suckered into one of these magazine ploys, get out of it NOW!
3) When you have ended your "free" subscription, or whatever it is, IMMEDIATELY begin to call and get out it - if I had waited another 2 weeks, I would've been charged and would've had MORE trouble. Don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today.
4) Every time I was given a reference# or confirmation# I took it down & put the date next to it, so I remembered what day I did everything. I put all those papers in a place I would remember (behind my calendar) and that I could get to quickly.

I hope this helps some of you out!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who this happened to! I got my "super duper offer" of 4 mags for $8 from RecycleBank. I kept the date of expiration printout handy on the great filing place - the fridge. Was waiting expectantly to get the cancellation notices. What I got was a 5x7 postcard with very tiny print that included only 2 of the magazines and the [protected] # to call. Did so, went through the aggravating "NO" "NO" "NO" which takes almost 9 min. Continued waiting for the notice to cancel the other 2. Never came.

Went to my online banking to check my balance. There were the charges for the other 2 magazines. I never agreed to them! There are many automated #'s to go to, but the one that's been used by others here does still work and has a live human. [protected] I spoke with a young man who answered like you would expect a poor soul with that job to do, with dread. Like momma said, you can catch more flies with honey. He was actually very nice when treated kindly. Within 72 hours my money should be back in my account, apparently one issue of Mens Journal has been sent, so out $2. I guess I can live with that.

You live and learn. I will be letting RecycleBank know what a stain these people are. SynapseConnect, Inc are shady, scamming, thieves and still doing their thing!

I want to cancel my Entertainment Weekly magazine and called your phone number.
The automated person isn't intelligent enough to understand that yes, I did cancel a subscription in April but have another one (the 2 were combined) that I need to cancel; am moving and will not have an address for a while. The sub # is [protected]. I am frustrated that I couldn't get hold of a real person that could understand what I needed and not a stupid programmed woman.

I received a card in the mail today and it indicated that if I do not call to cancel by Sept 14, I will be charged for 4 mags that I tried. Following the suggestion by some, I went to the website "www.magcustomerservice.com". After entering your name and address and magazine title, and after clicking "No Thanks" twice, you come to the last page that tells that your request has been processed. I would advise you to take screen shot every step of the way as a proof you have done this correctly. After I have cancelled all 4 of them, I went back to check the status. At least for now, they all showed "active, no renewal", which is what I wanted. This is relatively easy, for now.

On this date, 1 November 2014, I have paid through Pay Pal $25.00 to cancel the magazines, US Weekly and People. After reading many complaints about your service I will also ask my bank not to pay any bill that comes from you. It would seem from the complaints I have read about your service that this service is not above board. I would like an email informing me that my account is cancelled. Subscription ID #[protected]

When I discovered 4 odd charges totaling $103 my credit card, I called the synapse connect and they told me it was an auto renew for some magazines I had ordered 4 yrs ago. However, they somehow had my new credit card number that is only a couple of months old. I called Capital One and their fraud specialist did a 3 way call with Synapse. When I asked them where they got my new credit card number, their new story was that I had filled out a survey at bizrate.com and this was my " reward". I absolutely did not. The rep said he would remove the charges. We' ll see. I still have no answer on how they got my number. Was it stolen, or did another merchant give it to them?

I DID NOT ORDER THESE MAGIZINES, TIME, COSMOPOLITIN, BLUMBURG BUSINESS AND I DO NOT WANT THEM. I TRIED TO CANCEL ALL OF THEM BUT I AM STILL RECEIVING THEM

I'm With You! I'm glad this board has been created to bring awareness to the shadiness that is still going on. Today, Mar. 16th, I to had the same HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE as the majority of you. It's apparent that they have been conning for years. My cancellations were not working prior to getting my institution involved (remains-to-be-seen), it's a pity I HAD to have them on the phone with me; they're probably debiting me while doing this write-up. I guess I should have known the initial offer was 'to-good-to-be-true'. There NO POSITIVE EXPERIENCES HERE. But there was a very positive write-up for them on page one, which means they're either the founder, spouse, or child. Who else would have such high acclaim for swindling but a benefactor. Now, Time-Warner - not the greatest cable company, strong dislike for them as well. I hope this reads as 'THUMBS DOWN'.

OK, here's my story about SynapseConnect. Same as mentioned above, I got free magazines for a year last May for completing some survey, well, I did pay $2 as processing fees. I did get all the magazines, which is good. And I received a renewal notice yesterday, saying the same thing as some of you have seen, "If you wish to discontinue, call [protected]" by some date and no charge will appear". So I called, and the automated system used the same trick, I heard something like "Do you want to cancel this subscription with blahblahblah". So I said Yes, and I heard "Great! You have agreed to continue receiving this order". I feel being tricked and used. And luckily I found this forum. Thanks to whoever set up this forum. Following you guys' advice, I called that number again and kept pressing 0, despite that the automated system kept requesting information. I got to speak to a representative, and I was told that it won't be automatically renewed and I would not be charged. OK, good. However, I think I will call my credit card company as a preventive move.
I do agree with someone on this forum who says that this kind of company has to live by playing these tricks to fool people. OK, that's fair. However, we shared our stories on this forum so that we can finally cancel the subscriptions.