I think I would call, talk to a real person. There is probably a number near the place you found the email address. Be prepared to sit on hold, but wait for a real person to help you. Obviously you are not making sensible progress with the emails. Maybe you could ask the email lady for an 800 number to call, to talk to a subscription representative? Get to the bottom of the $8.37 charge.

I have had fair luck with problem correction when I deal with the real people.

The number on their website is 1-800-258-0929. Hope this helps!

Sometime back between 2001 and 2006 Horticulture Magazine sent me bills and even threatened to refer me to a collection agency. I was not a subscriber and I was receiving not the magazine.

After about a year of this I marked it as "obscene - return" and it was discontinued.

Goodhors,
Thanks for the advice. I've got Monday off, I'll call then. Hopefully I'll get a live person quickly.

Wendy,
Thanks for the number.

Albert,
Lol, makes my goofy problem seem not so bad!
Remy

Horticulture Mag. is OK. I've never subscribed but I buy it at news stands about once a year or so. I don't think it's as good as it was in the late 80s to the mid 90s. I have some from that time that an old gardening do gave me.

I do wish we could get "The Garden" here for a reasonable price. It is the official publication of the Royal Horticultural Society. It blows any other gardening magazine out of the water.

ñ

n with a tilde. Spanish for older woman.

David,
Now you make me want to see a copy of the RHS mag.
About Horticulture, I used to subscribe in the early 90s and then by the late 90s I stopped. I didn't like it much anymore. I did have a subscription to Organic Gardening when Mike McGrath was the editor, but it went down hill when he left so I stopped getting it. I also used to have a subscription to Country Living Gardener. I loved the photos in that one, but they stopped publishing it.
So I went back to a subscription at Horticulture because it did seem better than it used to be. Maybe it could be better, but it is still better than all those BH&G publications out there.
Remy

Hmmm, I was just called by Horticulture mag to renew my subscription. DH answered the phone and said yes. My sub expires in May of 08, also. Maybe we should have declined, if they're that disorganized.

My experience with Horticulture magazine was being totally ignored,...TWICE!
Several years ago, I received one of their cards in a mass mailing, soliciting subscriptions. Filled it out and mailed it. No response. A couple of years later, another card arrived, filled it out and posted it, again no response.
I concluded that they really didn't want my business and I'm totally willing to abide by that! :-(

Horticulture magazine sure helps me get through the winter. I've subscribed to it and to Fine Gardening for years, and like them both. The trick is to keep your expectations low - they are just magazines, after all.

I've also tried Garden Design, which frankly is nothing but pretty pictures (mostly of very large gardens, often with unidentified plants), and Gardens Illustrated, which has some interesting gardens in it but not much useful information. G.I. started getting a little too focused on Style - i.e. the boots, gloves, and trugs used by the rock stars of the gardening world - so I let my subscription lapse.

Now, what to do with these boxes of old Horticulture magazines... there are way too many to keep pretending I'll ever go through them.

I keep my old magazines and stack them by the 4 different seasons. All of the years are mixed together. I don't like seeing a summer magazine in the dead of winter so this way I don't have to. The stacks are getting bigger and someday I will have to reduce them :(

Better to subscribe through a reputable agency rather than direct through the publisher. You pay the same prices, you get better customer service, you can consolidate all your renewals and when there are problems they take care of them for you.

Hi All,
I got busy with Christmas and never called. I finally called today. The customer service rep was originally from here, less than a couple miles from me, so that was a good start to the conversation. I explained the goofy email exchange. She giggled at what I had written in my second letter.
The dates she had on her computer were wrong. I had the last check I wrote for the correct amount. Thank goodness I didn't throw out 05 checks yet. She then knew something was truly incorrect. Someone had to of hit a wrong key on a computer or something, and she agreed. So the amount is wiped clean, and I'll be getting mags again. : )
Remy

Congratulations Remy! Your perserverance paid off.
Leslie

You can sell old magazines on Ebay. Lots of people are looking for back issues of various magazines. Or donate them to your local public library book sale. Again, people are looking for them. I know--I buy old magazines online tho I get Horticulture so don't need that one.

Actually, none of the garden magazines are as good as they used to be. I guess I like Fine Gardening best of what's out there. Publishers keep dumbing them down--less and less info.

Ginny I have long felt the magazines were getting more and more simplistic and now only get one, which is part of a gardening society. In truth I think it is your growth in gardening knowledge that makes it look like the articles in the magazines are "dumbing down". Al

It is true, Calistoga, that experienced gardeners see a lot of repeated basic info in garden magazines. However, I have been getting garden magazines for over 30 years and the diminishing quantity and quality of info is startling. This is true of magazines--and newspapers--and even TV channels--in other subject areas as well.

I cut out useful articles and file them by subject. I have done this for years and have over 50 subject areas in the garden field. It's easy to compare articles from magazines even ten years ago, never mind 20 or 30. The over-simplification is very obvious.

The reasons are complex--cost of publishing, editors who don't know anything about gardening, people who just don't have time to read--or are too busy watching TV. And of course the internet. The internet has been fantastic for gardeners--I love it--but not so good for garden magazines and books. End of rant!

David,
Don't know if your out there lurking, but I helped out my chapter of NARGS at the Cornell Cooperative Extension Plant Society Sale in Rochester. The Extension was having a garage sale themselves and I picked up 5 copies of the Royal Horticulture mag from 1998(I would bought more, but that's all they had.) because of what you wrote earlier in this thread.
They are excellent!!!, and they only cost me $1 for all 5. : )
Remy

I'm going to start a new thread about the American Hort Society rather than hijack this one...