My company has a gift program for their associates serviced by Carlson Marketing Worldwide (CMW). I received the voucher prior to Thanksgiving week in November 2008. After indicating my selections, I mailed it the very next day. After two months no magazines had been received so I contacted CMW and the associate explained that they handle the mailing of the vouchers and referred me to Magazine Yellow Pages (MYP) to check the status of the order.

So I e-mailed MYP on January 16, 2009. Melissa Goodlick, Fulfillment & Circulation Director, responded on January 20, saying that she could find no record of my order. She took my order again and said that she would submit it immediately and it would take 10-12 weeks to receive my first issues.

On April 7, the 11th week, I still had not received a single issue so I contacted the magazines directly. Each one told me that they did not have my information on file. I filed a complaint with the BBB and contacted MYP again to ask “If I am to receive my first issues within a ten to twelve week period as you stated in your January 20 e-mail how is it that none of these companies even have my information in the eleventh week?” By this time I had been waiting nearly five months for what was supposed to be a Christmas gift.

Cathy Miller Beers, CEO for MYP responded to my inquiry on April 8, apologizing and stating that the delay was due to a hold for duplicate orders. Keep in mind that Melissa had told me eleven weeks earlier that my initial order had not been received so how my order was duplicated is beyond me. Ms. Miller Beers went on to say that she contacted the processing bureau herself and would have my file straightened out the following day and that my order be expedited so it would start right away. She also stated: “In the meantime, I am sending current issues of the magazines to you immediately.”

I decided to watch my mail and see if I would begin to receive issues of the magazines I had selected. Today is April 24; it has now been over two weeks since Ms. Miller Beers made that commitment and I have not received a single issue. I believe that two weeks is ample time to send anything from Illinois, where MYP is located to Florida, where I live. I checked the status of my BBB complaint and MYP responded on April 22: Magazine Yellow Pages did receive and process the order for Ms. **** on 1/20/09. Unknown to MYP, there was a file glitch and several orders were not received by the publisher. All of the orders have been resubmitted and subscription issues should start in about 4 weeks depending on the title ordered. MYP has since installed alerts in our system to let us know if there is ever this type of problem again. We apologize for the delay.

I have chosen not to accept their response for the following reasons:

This company has given me at total of three different reasons (first they did not receive the order stated on January 20; second there was a supposed hold for duplicate orders, stated on April 8; thirdly there was a system “glitch” as stated on April 22) for their failure to deliver, which indicates to me that they either have no idea what the real problem is, or, they dropped the ball and don't want to admit guilt.

I am also not accepting this response because Ms. Miller Beers stated in her e-mail that she would send current issues to me immediately. It has been two weeks since that response, which is ample time to send anything from Illinois to Florida.

Finally, I am not accepting this response because I placed this order in November 2008 and even if I do get these magazines "in about 4 weeks" (I’m not holding my breath) this will mean that I have had to wait six months. That is a ridiculous wait-time for a readily available product such as a magazine.