Publishers Elite

All subscriptions have been verified to continue until and second refund check has been mailed with tracking numberCustomer has not answered or returned phone calls for tracking number as of now Thank you

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:i wanted to reopen #*** I did get the refund check but have not got the second magazine it was *** but I switched it to *** because I couid not get the *** so I switch at the endd of oct and now this month im not getting anything I was getting *** before just fine but this month all has stop thank you Regards,
*** ***

Hello Mrs***,I have reviewed your complaint and your orderIt appears you signed up for a 2yrs service for yourself and a 2yr gift subscriptionAs seen in the attachment The Week magazine is online direct for $a yearHowever, you received it for just $a year for a total of years between the two subscriptionsPer the payments of $for your orderA customer service agent will be in contact with you to further go over options to insure your satisfaction as the confirmation letter and the rep would have notified you of our cancelation policy

Lionstone Holdings Group ("Lionstone") is in receipt of the complaint referenced aboveThank you forgiving us the opportunity to respond to this matter L ionstone is a debt collector who contacted Ms*** seeking to collect on a personal loan in her nameThe *** personal loan taken out in
August, has an account number ending in *** originated in December 2014, and placed with our office in June, Our agent was contacting Ms*** in an attempt to verify her location information as we are required to send a letter by federal law.We believe that Ms*** mis characterized what took placeWe did speak with Mr*** on July20, This, again, was in an attempt to locate Ms*** and send her the proper correspondence in writing via mailShortly afterwards, we received a written cease and desist from Ms*** and no further contact was made on the accountWe apologize that this information was misconstrued and we have sent the agent back for additional training to better communicate with consumers.Please contact the undersigned if we can be of any additional help in this matter

Dear ***:Lionstone Holdings Group, LLC (“Lionstone”) is in receipt of the complaint referenced above and we appreciate the opportunity to respondLionstone is a collection agency and the current creditor of a personal loan Ms*** took out in January, The personal loan which Lionstone
purchased the rights to in June, originated with ***The last four account number digits are We are attaching the verification of debt letter with our response for Ms***’s convenienceThis letter was not sent as Ms*** had set up payments with Lionstone on June 12, As stated above, Ms*** set up a series of payments with Lionstone on June 12, However,she called back in to Lionstone on June 16, to state that she read online that we were a “fraud” and canceled all paymentsWe are unsure where Ms*** read that Lionstone is a “fraud.” Lionstone is not a“fraud” and is in fact registered with the Secretary of State as a legitimate companyIt is unfortunate that anyone can write anything on the internetFurther, this complaint was brought to the attention of Lionstone’s representative and we believe Ms*** is misguided in her understanding of the conversationOur representative states that her allegations are a misstatementIn any event, the representative has had a note placed in their file and appropriatesupervision will be given to them as well as re-trainingWe will treat Ms***’s complaint as a cease and desist and no longer contact her regarding this account unless Ms*** calls back in to LionstonePlease contact the undersigned if we can be of any additional help in this matterSincerely, Authorized Representative of Lionstone Holdings Group

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me
Regards,
*** ***

We have reviewed Ms*** follow up to our response and are happy to address her concerns
When we originally spoke with Ms***, she was unable to provide us with the name of the other
company she had been sending payments to, so we couldn’t verify with them what the confusion wasWe
appreciate her informing us who the company was and have since contacted them and resolved her concerns
All of her payments have been received and her account has been updated accordinglyWe encourage Ms*** if she is to continue paying *** directly, to also send us confirmation of payments so we can continue to
update her account without issueFor Ms*** convenience, she can email them to our address at
***
Please contact the undersigned if we can be of any additional help in this matter

The order was canceled per the customer’s request *** *** Director of Sales and Business Development Publishers Elite Subscription Division *** * *** ** *** ***
*** *** ***

I REJECT the business response from Publishers Elite due to
the fact that I AM NOT a COMMERCIAL customer. My number is a RESIDENTIAL
number, NOT a business number and I have never purchased any magazines for
business reasonsI have never done business with PUBLISHERS ELITE in any form
so their phone calls to my residential number, which is on the DO NOT CALL
LIST, is a violation of the DNC and will therefore, be reported as such.
This business response has the appearance of a typical form letter and does not
include any type of proof of a relationship between myself and them. If
they have proof, I would love to see it; however, none exists so there will be
no response from Publishers Elite.Lastly, I want to point out to what I said in my initial
complaint submitted on February 6, 2016, although I verbally told Publishers
Elite on January 8, that my number is a RESIDENTIAL number and to NOT CALL
anymore, Publishers Elite disregarded the terms of the DNC and repeatedly
called

They customer received a refund LAST year as the order was placed on 7/18/he should check his bank because it was CASHEDThe original magazine *** was switched over to ***The clearing houses all confirm that the magazines were ordered and or being deliveredUpon the customers request we have reordered the magazines several times as you can see provided by us and the clearing houses

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because: I have been with them for and renew it in for years and for years so I have these magazines till and there is no mention of the *** that I should be getting when I file the first complaint in oct they told me it would be to weeks at the first of nov and I have still not got a single issue of *** so I should be getting both *** and *** and im not I did get a refund check of 30.00
Regards,
*** ***

Mr. [redacted]s account was made with us on July 18, 2015 for his magazine subscriptions. We sent him a refund check in October 2016. We have also spoken to Mr. [redacted] earlier this week, on February 8, 2017, in regards to a service check that was performed for his [redacted] and [redacted] magazines. The results of that service check is [redacted] ---started with the FEB issue resent should rcv 2-3 weeks MARCH issue should be ther eno later than FEB 24TH.   [redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
The arrangement with Publishers Elite was not for 2 years for each subscription.  It was suppose to be one year for our subscription and one year for a gift subscription.  The total for both together was $55.00.  The Week...

magazine directly offers the two together at the rate of $79.00, so it stands to reason that I would not accept an offer that would require me to pay $55.00 for each and I would not have agreed to a 2 year arrangement.  Please continue with this complaint because I feel like they are trying to cheat elderly people.  Thank you.  [redacted] Regards,
[redacted]

I have filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission [redacted]), New York Revdex.com ([redacted]) on 9/4/2016 and Arizona Attorney General Office ([redacted]) ON 9/18/2016. I received a restricted phone call on or about 03/25/2016 from a person telling me to call [redacted], that I better be home to...

get papers because I was being sued. I did call back and spoke with a Joseph [redacted] at LionStone Holding Group, LLC. at extension [redacted]. He identified himself as member of a law firm, which is a misrepresentation. He was a debt collector, that's all. He began threatening me in this phone call. He alone, threatened me about or at least three times and has continued He also has harassed me. I do not remember anything about this " supposed debt". He told me that something happened on or about 12/21/2010, but wouldn't tell me what. I state that they are scamming me. He wouldn't tell me if it was a loan or payday loan. I don't know. Supposedly, the original creditor is [redacted] with account number [redacted] their no. [redacted].Lionstone will not provide validation of this "supposed debt". I have asked numerous times for validation of this and even wrote a letter to the address on the email notice from Lionstone 4/12/2016 email letter to me . I wrote them a letter dated 08/18/2016 and asked for validation of this " supposed debt". I know they got this letter, as it has not been returned back to me. Lionstone Holding Group, LLC, and Joseph [redacted] have violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The 4/12/2016 letter from Lionstone, did not state how much was owed, fees, dates, etc. It just had the payment due dates, amount of payments, but no total amount owed, fees, or other pertinent information. And was not given to me within 30 days. I was told by the NYRevdex.com to stop paying them, because they have failed to provide this information to me. I have paid to Lionstone beginning on 04/15/2016, $ 114 dollars a month for a total of $ 570 dollars I have placed a "stop " ACH on my bank account.Refund of $ 570 dollars the amount of monies paid with penalties for violating my rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. No contact from LIONSTONE HOLDING GROUP, LLC. This manner resolved. LIONSTONE and Joseph [redacted] should know the laws under Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and not impersonate a lawyer or lawyers office nor threaten me.

Revdex.com:I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
I did not receive any written correspondence from this company as they stated  they were coming to my home to have me sign for papers.So they had to know where I lived, right?  No the information that they have is not accurate and they are going to any means necessary to obtain personal information.   They asked for personal information from someone who was not me. Including my social security number verification. How did they know this was even my husband?  The tactics used by this company are harassing and they have made absolutely no attempts to contact me by mail since I sent the cease and decist letter.  This all started in July.  I recorded the entire conversation left on my answering machine and the conversation with my husband should you wish to listen to it.  It will clearly show that they knew exactly what they were doing and the manner in which they attempted to get my personal information. Until they provide me the appropriate letters, signatures, and proof of debt, I will not deal with them.  I have an attorney and reported them to the ftc as well.  I filed a police report with my local department that they were stating they were coming into my property.  Once again they claim they were attempting to locate me, but they in the same breath stated to make myself available that they would be at my home to get my signature. So, they contradicted what was stated to the Revdex.com.  This company is not legit.  
Regards,
[redacted]

Revdex.com:I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.  Regards, [redacted]

I had to enter this rejection choice in order to attach a pdf file showing our transactions with this company.  It shows their receipt where we paid as well as our phone call to their employee who told us - essentially tuff biscuit.  The attached 3 pages show they clearly know who we are and refused to honor our purchase for the past year. I hope there are no other people done this way and decided to follow their suggestion to file it and hope it stops this practice.   I do not wish to argue that matter though - no reason to do so. I am happy that they will send the two subscriptions to Cook-Children's hospital in my wife Anthea Stroman RN  name with cc to us.  On receipt of our purchased products being sent to Cooks hospital, we will check to be sure the Cook hospital children get the magazines.  All will be happy once more!I appreciate the Tarrant Revdex.com helping with this unusual matter!

They have called from [redacted]. One voicemail was from Kevin [redacted] at extension [redacted]. A call from a "blocked" number that same night from Kevin [redacted] (this was his third threatening call) stating he was coming to deliver "Notice to Appear" summons from the local court, and to call [redacted] if we did not want him to show up at MY house (he even stated my address on that call). He stated that WHEN he shows up we "better have a valid state ID" to give him. Mr. [redacted] called a total of 3 times, each time becoming more threatening. When I called the number Mr. [redacted] left, it is Lionstone.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
Regards,
[redacted]

Publishers Elite contacts all long time subscribers of over 4,000 magazine titles nationwide.  We contact them of subscriber lists that are provided by various clients of ours, however that information does not include information such as Gender, Age, or Ethnicity.  The only information we...

have is what appears on the address lines of the magazine label.  We maintain that we would never misuse or target elderly customers, including a courtesy cancellation policy for children of elderly parents within reason (a mutually beneficial agreement between the customer and the company.  Since the orders are pre-paid to the publishers from us, we cannot issue full refunds, but we are okay settling orders to ensure that the customer is not overbilled), and a quality assurance division and policy that any customer over the age of 80 that informs us of their age can only be renewed one year at a time (vice the normal 3 year subscriptions), and it is put into their account to ensure that at no time in the future they are renewed out multiple years.   Regarding this particular account, we spoke with Mr. [redacted] about his customer service etiquette and performed an emergency retraining while also recording his calls for two weeks to ensure proper etiquette is being maintained.  Regarding Mr. [redacted]'s personal account, he has been a long time subscriber through our company.  We recently changed CRM's (Customer Resource Managers) to help us better track our increasing consumer base, and in the process there were some minor errors in the export process for magazine ordering.  Due to this, all orders were cleared (ordered) for one year at a time in order to prevent duplicate issues or errors from occurring, and Mr. [redacted] was no exception.  He is currently owed two years, however if he has a Power of Attorney or would like to call himself to cancel at a pro-rated amount, we would have no problem taking care of this for him.  He is after all a long time subscriber who has the ability to do this at any time.  Due to the sensitive nature of credit card and checking account information, only power of attorney's and authorized users of the payment method can request a refund and cancellation, to avoid potential misuse of information.   Finally, regarding the price of the subscription, all our customers are encouraged to send us lower and discounted rates on their magazines so we can price match.  The rate we sell the publications at is strictly monitored by the publishers, as to avoid any direct competition (which is why we are not only authorized, but encouraged to sell 3 year subscriptions, as at that point there is no competition across a majority of publications), and we have both an over and under price we are not allowed to exceed or fall below without direct authorization or a competing price in hand (we do have a price match guarantee when dealing with the publishers direct). We made one attempt to re-contact the customer, however there was no answer.  We would love to help Mr. [redacted] resolve his issues.  We do ask them to keep in mind that Amazon, like us, is an authorized 3rd party company that can sell National Geographic, and their agreement with the publishers is both confidential and different than our agreement/authorization, however if Mr. [redacted] wants to cancel and go through another agency such as Amazon, we have no problem cancelling our his remaining two years and issuing a prorated refund, however, 4 months after the order was placed, and the service has begun, we cannot issue a refund for the first year of service on the account (which would total $34.95, our standard subscription price), however the remaining two years could be cancelled and refunded for a total of 69.90. At this point we have put a temporary courtesy DNS/DNR (do not sell, do not renew) hold on Mr. [redacted]'s account, however adding him to the DNC list before a resolution is had would prevent any outbound attempts/return calls from being possible.  Upon completion and settlement of this issue we have annotated the customers request to be on the internal DNC list.  Alternatively, I highly recommend that the customer contacts the National DNC registry to add their name to the national list in order to prevent further phone calls for products and services not actively being received.