US Airways Grand Slam Magazine Subscription Service Gone Wrong
I much rather be spending my time looking for hot deals to earn and redeem airlines miles than writing this article. However, there comes a time when there is so much frustration in dealing with these rouge airline companies, that I can understand why most consumers turn a blind eye, and do not bother dealing with reward programs in general. When the system goes wrong, and I have done practically everything I can do on my end, it gets frustrating, and I have no where to turn but to write a disgruntled article to help spread the word.
The whole issue started back in September and October of 2011, during the US Airways Grand Slam promotion. Here are some quick facts of the case.
On 9/15/11, I placed an order to redeem 400 US Airways Dividend airlines miles for a Sunset magazine subscription through their magazine subscription provider. I presume at this point the magazine vendor, even though they bill themselves as associated with US Airways, is actually a third party vendor, and has nothing to do with US Airways. This sounds like we have another dreaded third party vendor similar to Cartera and others.
Subsequently, 400 miles were deducted from my account on the same day. I later went on to earn bonus miles in the Grand Slam promotion, since redeeming miles for a subscription was one method of earning a hit.
On 10/11/11, we placed an order for Lucky magazine using 500 miles from my wife’s US Airways account. As you can start to see, screen shots throughout the process can prove invaluable in trying to prove your case at a later date.
Again, the miles were instantly deducted from my wife’s account on the same day. You will see a little later in this article why this becomes important.
So now that all the orders were placed, I sat and waited for our magazines to arrive. However, by the time 2012 came along, it was an irregular amount of time for the magazines to have not shown up. According to MilePoint, one could check the status of their magazine subscription using this link. I was always slightly skeptical though because the site had no resemblance to the US Airways magazine ordering system. Sure enough, neither of our orders could ever be located in the system. So using the Contact Us page, I sent them a message about our issue.
No response. So I messaged them again. No response. Finally, on 1/31/12, I called the US Airways Magazine customer service line (1-800-586-9632) to try and talk with someone directly. Again, they could not locate any of our information. They in turn directed me back to US Airways, so I called 1-800-428-4322. After talking with an agent, they had me file a complaint at the following link within the US Airways partner program to try and rectify the situation. The agent requested that I group both my wife and my account issues together in one form, as well as place a phone number telling them to call me directly to resolve the issue.
After submitting the form, now is where the “fun” begins.
On 2/6/12, I received two separate emails stating there were no orders placed for magazines using the US Airways system.
Dear ________,
Thank you for contacting our Magazines for Miles Customer Service Center. This is in response to your message.
We apologize for any inconvenience, but we were unable to locate an order for this title(s) with the information you provided.
Is it possible that the order was placed using another last name and/or zip code? If so, please provide us further information to help us locate your order.
Thank you for your participation in the Magazines for Miles Program.
Sincerely,
Customer Service
On 2/7/12, I responded back with the screenshots from above (only with pertinent account information shown) for both transactions showing we did place orders for the stated magazines. The screenshot also verified our Dividend account numbers, as well as the address where each magazine was to be sent.
On 2/15/12, I received the following message from a completely different person.
Dear _______________,
Thank you for contacting our Magazines for Miles Customer Service Center. This is in response to your message.
We have received your recent inquiry regarding your Delta Airline miles and have submitted to your airline to reinstate the expired miles. We ask that you allow 7 to 10 business days for us to receive a response from the airline. As soon as a response is received, we will be back in contact with you.
We appreciate your patience and understanding and look forward to serving you.
Thank you for your participation in the Magazines for Miles Program.
Sincerely,
Customer Service
(Emphasis mine) Ok so that was a good start to getting the issue resolved, except…this issue had nothing to do with Delta miles, but rather US Airways Dividend Miles. Did anyone even bother to review any history or the attachments to my account? So I respond back with:
Thanks, but for clarification, this issue had to do with our US Airways miles, not our Delta accounts. Please confirm the miles will get credited to the appropriate US Airways accounts AND not effect the bonus miles we received from the Grand Slam promotion.
Thanks,
Justin
Keep in mind up until this point, all emails have been through csa@magazineoutlet.com, who I assume US Airways contacted and said to be in touch with me. So it now seems we are at least on the right path towards rectifying the situation.
Then on 2/17/12, I receive an email directly from US Airways with the following response:
Dear Mr. and Ms. _______,
Thank you for contacting US Airways.
We have contacted our Magazines for Miles partner liaison and they have
processed both of your magazine orders. Please allow 4-8 weeks for
delivery.Please contact the Magazine for Miles customer service number directly
at 877-813-3200, if you require further assistance.Thank you for being a member of our Dividend Miles program. We look
forward to assisting you with any future needs.Sincerely,
US Airways Dividend Miles
Ok, so now maybe we will actually receive the magazines, which I am still fine with as an alternative to getting back the miles…
..until the next email arrived 2/23/12. Keep in mind this email was in response to my original response back on 2/7/12, thereby, the person responding has yet again seen nothing of the previous discussions.
Dear ___________,
Thank you for contacting our Magazines for Miles Customer Service Center. This is in response to your message.
We have received notification from your airline that no miles were deducted from your account for the magazines you ordered. We apologize for any inconvenience that you have experienced.
Thank you for your participation in the Magazines for Miles Program.
Sincerely,
Customer Service
What? Now we have completely back stepped and have no record of even the miles being deducted from our accounts. Surely, they must be trying to still look in our Delta accounts. So I send off another email with screen shots of not only our orders, but also matching US Airways Dividend Miles screenshots showing the miles being deducted on the same exact dates.
So here we are, months after the initial order, and we are out miles with no magazines. I can see where the average consumer just gives up and says screw it for a couple hundred miles. However, companies need to held accountable for their actions. If US Airways and other airlines want to plaster their brand all over these third party vendors, they need to be held accountable.
Fast forward to the past couple of weeks, and now both magazines have started to show up, and I received a refund for both magazine orders with the miles being credited back to our accounts. I just wanted one or the other, but because apparently there was no coordination between all the parties involved, we get the best of both worlds.
Be persistent people and make companies accountable!
I had exactly the same issue on 2 out of 4 accounts from Grand Slam 2011. I ordered something with higher miles requirements instead of the min 400 (or 500) miles ones. Thought I’d get some magazines that we’d actually enjoy. At the end, it’s a total disappointment and time consuming to deal with different CSR. I’ve given up and learned my lesson for the next GS, if there’s one for 2012.
@Ed: Thanks for the feedback! I thought maybe we were the only ones having to deal with this after I asked people on MilePoint, and everyone else seemed to receive theirs with no problem.
I’ve had the opposite problem from you in that I can’t get a magazine to stop coming. I signed up for a 16 week trial offer about seven years ago, and I’ve never paid a cent, but the magazines keep coming. I’ve tried calling them and emailing them, but nobody seems to be able to turn off the subscription. I’ve even moved once, and didn’t give them my new address, yet the magazines seem to have found me again. I wonder if it’s just magazine companies that have to make life difficult for everybody.
@Steve: That is too funny about your rogue magazine experience! I have signed us up for so many free magazines over the years, some of them also just keep coming despite us moving too. I now get some magazines that I never even signed up for, but I can always find a good use for them by donating them to some worthy soul. Interested in me reassigning my Poodle Lovers magazine subscription to your house?
I rarely use my Alaska Air miles account and had about a few thousand miles sitting there about to expire. I got one of those miles for magazines offers in the mail so my wife and I got a few subscriptions.. they say it can take 6-8 weeks to see the magazines in the mail.. its been 5 months and they said they are on their way! Its been more of a hassle than what its worth. Its true.. they try to make life difficult for everyone.
I’ve got a similar experience with Steve.. Food and Wine won’t stop following me. I even called them, they said it was canceled. I moved from Washington to Alaska and a few weeks later I check my PO Box and guess what, it followed me 2400 miles away from where I used to live! I feel stalked.
@Derek: Somehow legitimate mail never seems to get forwarded to the new address, but those magazines automatically find their way, don’t they? When we moved, I placed a huge pile of magazines in front of me to call and have the addresses changed. Almost all of them already had our new address on file, via the Postal Service. I was surprised how efficient the forwarding system actually worked. At least Food & Wine can have some valuable content. Try figuring out what to gain from Horse Whisperer Digest.