TME*40N5WW*COOKLGH 855-226-0431 NY

This is a magazine continuity subscription service. You get magazines at low cost or for airline miles from a source such as your credit card company. Anyway they have your number and after a year, because you did not read the fine print they automatically charge you, a lot, for continuing the subscriptions. To get a refund is time consuming plus they do it thru an automated teller service. You have to listen to the questions VERY carefully. If you agree not to renew they will not give you a refund. You must say NO when they ask you if you want to cancel the renewal. NO means cancel with a refund. YES means cancel next year but not this year. Its a clever trick; If you say you don't want to renew, thinking you are getting a refund the charge stays on you card and you continue receiving magazines you don't want for another year. I had to say "representative" at least a dozen times before the auto service put me thru to a live person. I think they are barely skirting the law.

Many thanks to the person who mentioned Synapse (203-595-8255)! I had already checked online and confirmed that I canceled my Entertainment Weekly subscription at the end of last month. Then I called Time Inc. (the owners of EW) and had the customer service person check the subscription for me. Yep, my subscription was definitely canceled. Finally, I looked up the phone number on that unexpected $59 automated withdrawal from my bank account (855-226-0431), and landed here.

After reading other people's notes about the automated service and how much trouble it was, I went to the source. Less than a minute later, I was talking with a nice lady at Synapse. She had a heavy accent and the connection was weak, sounding very far away, so unfortunately I had to ask her to repeat several times, but I took everyone's advice here and just kept saying that I wanted to cancel the subscription and receive a full refund. She offered the $2 deal for another year, but I said I didn't like the magazine and didn't want any more issues. (I didn't bring up the fact that I had already canceled my subscription, and what the heck were they doing charging me for a renewal? Didn't think that direction would take me anywhere helpful.)

Finally the CSR said that my money should be refunded within 24 hours, but it might take as long as 72 hours to show up in my account. At least, I think that's what she said. The customer service people are so used to repeating these statements that they fly through them, forgetting that the person on the other end of the line isn't used to hearing them. (I've also heard that services like this limit call times, and the poor person with that job gets dinged for longer calls - in addition to not convincing the caller to keep subscribing.) If the money doesn't show up as expected, I'll return here and edit this note or add another.

Short version: I recommend calling Synapse (203-595-8255) directly, rather than wasting time with the automated service (855-226-0431).

Calling their 855 number, the recording points to a website magcustomer.com. Its even less helpful. My suggestion- call the number, and just keep repeating "representative" until the machine gives up (it took about a minute) and connects you to a human. Then the fun starts.

It is a magazine company in NY.