Unsolicited Subscriptions? - Orchid Board

RJSquirrel · #1 07-25-2010, 08:15 PM

I'm curious has anyone else from here received any Unsolicited Subscriptions and then bills for them from GardenGate.com magazine? hmmmm yes seems one has been digging thru orchid and garden board website forums and sending people bills for magazines they did not order. I never give out my FULL address for anything unless its a bill. Then I can tell the difference in a stack of bills from a real bill to a "bogus" bill like this one...just curious...no harm done but I don't like it one bit that many may not be able to tell and pay these people for their online scammery.

Swamper · #2 07-25-2010, 08:17 PM

No problems here. Sorry to hear that.

Gin · #3 07-25-2010, 08:48 PM

This may have nothing to do with it but today a spammer that was banned a couple of days ago wholesale.. something was digging around in the index on the forum .

Swamper · #4 07-25-2010, 08:54 PM

I did see that Gin, I didn't know he was banned but did notice it was a spammer and I thought I saw him today replying to an older thread. With more spam of course.

Ray · #5 07-27-2010, 10:04 AM

No fear anyway. By law in the US, if something is sent to you without you requesting it, it is yours to keep with no obligation. Enjoy the magazine and throw the invoices away.

lambelkip · #6 07-27-2010, 07:57 PM

Ray's right, the magazine is yours to keep.
but you should never, under any circumstance, throw away a bill without paying it. make a copy of it for your records, then return it with "I did not order this, and will not pay for it" or something similar written on it.
If this gets sent to a collection agency, you could have some serious problems, and may even need to go to court to avoid paying it.

RJSquirrel · #7 08-05-2010, 04:37 AM

yeah im already getting PAYMENT due notices now and you are right the next step is them sending it to some collection agency..what a pile of human compost..I see lots of spammers here but I found out where this came from...when I posted a pic at gardengate.com I must have agreed unwillingly and unknowingly to accept a subscription of the magazine...so beware and read the print that is unreadable without an electron microscope...

RosieC · #8 08-05-2010, 01:10 PM

Hmm... they shouldn't have got ANY of your address from OB, we don't even store your postal address, only the 'Location' of Houston and the country flag. We don't even have your real name stored.

Even if spammers/hackers had broken in to our database they would not have got this info because we quite simply don't store it.

I suspect it has come through some other place your address was given to. In the UK there are companies you might give your details to (for example when you register an item you have purchased from them) who then go on to sell those details to anyone who wants to buy them. It is law in the UK that when you sign up to something with address details there has to be a box for you to tick to say you DON'T want them to do that and then they are not allowed... otherwise if you don't tick the box it's perfectly legal.

The more scrupulous companies do the box the other way around 'if you are happy for us to share you details tick the box' which makes it harder for you to forget it. In fact the big boys just say they may share it within their organisation and won't sell it to third parties at all. Not sure what goes on like that in the USA.

MuscleGirl'sHobby · #9 08-05-2010, 01:45 PM

Yes, I got the same thing from Garden Gate maybe a year ago... possibly longer. Apparently I had been signed up for a free 1 issue trial. I got a bill in the mail and called immediately. They were kind of snotty with me. The woman said I had accepted an offer for a free trial, and they were now billing me for the subscription to continue the magazine since I had not cancelled. I explained that I had subscribed to no such magazine, and had not even received a magazine anyhow. She said the billing dept sometimes runs faster than circulations. I did get the magazine a few weeks later.

It is a legitimate magazine, but they are using some pretty underhanded way to get subscribers. I've had subscriptions to other gardening magazines, so suspect they just bought my info from somewhere. Since their "agreement" is supposedly for 1 free issue, and the you get billed if you don't cancel, I'd certainly make sure you contact them.