Essence Communications, Inc.

Review: In January 2015, via a special offer by Essence Communications Inc., I renewed my then current subscription to the Essence Magazine periodical for an extension of 36 issues at the price of $11.00. The offer included a free gift subscription, for which I specified Lynona A[redacted] at [redacted], as recipient.

Subscription renewals can be a junk-mail nightmare as they arrive from every periodical publisher that one might subscribe to as frequently as two to four times during a current subscription. Sometimes subscription renewal offers from a publisher will arrive with single or multiple subscription offer forms for periodicals other than their own. It can become quite confusing as to when and for how long a consumer is actually subscribed to a particular periodical. Which is why in March 2015 when I began to receive 36 issues renewal offers from Essence, I decided to extend the 36 issues to 92 issues, as I enjoy Essence very much and at the time felt that I would always be a subscriber. However, I was surprised when in April 2015, while ordering the latest Essence renewal offer I had received, I discovered that this renewal was to begin in Sept 2015 and continue for a total of 36 issues.

So at that time it was apparent that my renewal in January 2015 was not in effect. So I cancelled the April renewal offer and contacted the customer service department at Essence Communications Inc. I spoke with a very polite individual named Brian who asked me to fax to him the documentation of my January 2015 subscription renewal and that he would take care of it. That evening I did fax to Brian the documentation (please see attachments), with a note recapping our conversation using the fax number he provided me.

As of today, 3 months later, I have not received any correspondence/communication from Brian, or anyone else at Essence Communications Inc.Desired Settlement: Actually process my January 2015 subscription renewal to extend 36 issues from August 2015, begin my gift subscription to Lynona A[redacted] at [redacted] and bill me $11.00.

Consumer

Response:

At this time, I have not been contacted by Essence Communications, Inc. regarding complaint ID [redacted]. Strangely, I received a September 2015 issue of the magazine although they sent me notices that my subscription was set to end this month August 2015. This does not represent a resolution of my complaint. As stated in the complaint a resolution would be extending my subscription 3 years from August 2015 to August 2018 and establishing a one year gift subscription to Ms. Lynona A[redacted] as it was documented to have already been processed.Sincerely,[redacted]