Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!ubvax!lll-winken!uunet!mcvax!unido!materna!fdc From: fdc@materna.uucp (Frank D. Cringle) Newsgroups: comp.sys.misc Subject: Re: Byte Magazine flame from FIDOnet Summary: Not an anomaly Message-ID: <368@materna.uucp> Date: 3 Jul 88 11:14:57 GMT References: <6862@cup.portal.com> <362@faui44.informatik.uni-erlangen.de> Reply-To: fdc@materna.UUCP (Frank D. Cringle) Organization: Dr.Materna GmbH, Dortmund Lines: 24 I have recently experienced similar problems to those of Dirk Husemann and Matthew Franckiewicz. For a few years now Byte has sent out subscription renewal notices to us Europeans 6 months before the due date. I object to providing McGraw-Hill with a free loan, so I don't send the renewal until 2 months ahead of time. Last October I sent them my credit card number to renew a subscription expiring in December, and they promptly debited my account. The renewal demands kept on coming. I wrote to remind them that I had renewed. The January issue didn't arrive. I phoned their UK offices, wrote threating letters, etc. etc. Then to further complicate matters I moved from Scotland to W.Germany. The current status is that I get 2 copies per month, both routed via Edinburgh and the Isle of Man to Dortmund. Every month I fill out the change of address form on the mailer and send it to their redistribution centre in Holland, to no discernable effect. I particularly liked the letter of apology from their customer service department in the States that reached me some weeks ago. It was sent to Scotland with enough postage for 2nd class internal US mail. In summary: Byte/McGraw-Hill's subscription department is a mess, and must be costing them a fortune. -- Frank D. Cringle | Tel. +49 231 519 08 17 Dr. Materna GmbH | fdc@materna.uucp Vosskuhle 38 D-4600 Dortmund 1