Living Well Magazine Advertising – Customer Complaints

Beware Advertising in Living Well Magazine

When browsing the internet today, I came across a site showing multiple complaints from customers regarding their Living Well Magazine advertising proposal. Many customers are calling it fraud due to their deceptive business practices. Most of these customers that are approached with advertising are start up businesses that are in a hurry to increase exposure to their new business.

Living Well Magazine – Deceptive Business Practices

Their deceptive business practice works like this. Business owners are often contacted by a sales agent offering advertising space in the Living Well magazine for a great price. They will often offer a full page ad in the Living Well magazine for under $200/mo. Most new business owners will jump at the opportunity due to the high costs of advertising. Other magazines will charge twice that or more for a very small ad block. These business owners are asked to meet face to face with a sales rep. from Living Well magazine where they provide payment and sign an empty box on a contract. If they are like most people, they will most likely take a quick glance at the contract and sign the box. They have already been baited in by the promise of a full page ad at a cost that most will not refuse.

Living Well Magazine – The “Contract”

So, whats the big deal. Full page ad in Living Well Magazine. Low price. Why would anyone be upset. Well, that contract that was signed contains a clause saying that advertisers cannot cancel their advertising campaign. Not too much of a problem right? Just don’t make your payment and you are good to go…right? Nope, the contract also contains a statement saying that if payment is not received within 30 days, Living Well Magazine can take the payments from your account or your credit card. When I was reading though the details, one lady advised that she had went through the process of contacting other advertisers who had placed ads in Living Well Magazine to see if they were happy with the results. Just about ever person she had contacted said that they were extremely unhappy. They had signed up to Advertise with Living Well Magazine only to find out that money was being taken from their account, ATM or credit card without their permission.

Living Well Magazine – Can you Cancel?

So, is there a way out from the Living Well Advertising contract? Well, somewhat. The FTC allows a “Cool Down” period that will allow you to cancel within 3 days. I looked into that aspect and found that some customers have tried to use this cool down period as a legal means to get out of the contract. Guess what? In most cases, there is little to no success. One story states that a lady had called Living Well Magazine and requested to cancel. She was told right away that she could not cancel. She told them that under FTC regulations she has 3 days and faxed over her cancellation letter. She has proof that the fax was sent in and of course, Living Well Magazine stated that they did not receive it. She ended up cancelling her bank account and starting a new one to avoid future charges. After closing her account, she got a letter from the legal department at Living Well Magazine stating that she had to send a certified letter in order to cancel and that the fax was not valid. She is now afraid that she runs the risk of further action from the Living Well Magazine legal department.

If you have had an issue such as this, please leave a comment on this blog as other customers would love to hear your stories.

If you would like to read the full complaints, more can be found here.