Comments regarding Horticulture

I signed up for a subscription to Horticulture on the internet for $14.97. I then received an invoice for $4.98 in the mail. When I called customer service, they said the subscription that I signed up for was $19.95. I explained that it said $14.97, and that is what I paid by credit card - why would I make a partial payment? I told them to cancel the whole order, and then they said they would honor the $14.97 price. This whole transaction seemed very fishy. I hope it was just an honest mistake.

A few years ago, I responded to a postcard offering a free sample issue - if I didn't want to subscribe, the instructions were to write "cancel" on the bill and owe nothing. I looked at the sample issue and decided I didn't care for it. (Personal preference - the articles just weren't that useful to me, but others might find them interesting). The reason I rate them as neutral is that it took much more than "write cancel on the bill" to get them to stop sending the magazine. I started by writing "Please cancel. I tried the sample issue and prefer not to subscribe" on the first bill. They continued sending bills and I continued sending them back with handwritten notes/ explanations. After a few months of this, I finally got them to stop by writing them a formal letter explaining the situation. To their credit, they did then stop sending both the magazine and the bills.