Boycott Hot Rod Magazine

**bodyman5000** · 04-07-2008, 10:34 PM

So, a while back I got some stupid DVD in the mail from HOT ROD. It wanted me to watch it and pay for it or send it back. I wouldn't spend one second of effort sending something I didn't ask for back. I just threw it away as it was a bodywork video of some sort.

Yeah, help me HOT ROD you and Fagburger sure is expeeerts at that there bodywork!!

Anyway, I haven't renewed my subscription because the magazine is almost unreadable these days.

Last week I got what looked like a collections letter in the mail. IT was from Hot Rod, here is most of what it said.

.................................................. ................................................

Dear me

After repeated invoices, we still have not heard from you. This is your last chance to send payment before we cancel your subscription and take further action on your account.

To avoid that, simply return your payment with the invoice below. Please send the amount due today!

Sincerely, J. Kim for Hot Rod Magazine

P.S. This is the FINAL notice you will receive. We must hear from you soon!

.................................................. ...............................................

The exclamation points and FINAL are as written on the "invoice"

Is this a joke? If this isn't illegal, it should be.

I will not pay for another Hot Rod magazine as long as I live unless they apologize and send EVERYONE they sent this letter to a year's subscription free. I used to buy this magazine at the newstand when it was good. NOT again.

I am still trying to figure out what further action they are going to take on my account. Do they want the old issues back? They are in the bathroom right now, I should probably package them all up and let them sit in the sun for a while to incubate before I send them back. Are they going to sue me for 12 dollars that they say that I owe them?

Oh yeah, these repeated invoices that I never got must not have been in big bold collection letters like this one. I am sure the mailman thought it funny that I was getting collection letters sent to my house.

PLEASE JOIN ME IN MY BOYCOTT. Hot Rod used to be an all American mag, now it is showing that it is as unAmerican as you can get.

**jimmybling31** · 04-07-2008, 10:49 PM

that is stupid. I can't believe that are doing that.

**MaxPlusTen** · 04-08-2008, 04:08 AM

yea i will agree that hot rod has certainly gone to shit. The content and quality of the articals are just boring. I dont know about you guys but i dont want to read a 4 page artical about a million dollar showcar thats never hit the pavement in its life and was built in a shop and trailered home. Thats why I still read Car Craft... its about real people, real cars, and they still give a rats ass about high performance. I dont know about you guys but about a year ago when Hot Rod decided to get into the import thing i was ready to disown them then. Thankfully they got away from that but the content has gone severely downhill... Ill stick to my Car Craft, GM High Tech, Super Chevy, and Pontiac Hi-Performance... oh and the ocasional Hustler

Fucks to Hot Rod

**hoss 2000 z-28** · 04-08-2008, 04:11 AM

Prior to reading this thread I really had no opinion of Hot Rod Magazine. But now I have stepped onto the STFU Hot Rod Magazine bandwagon! Boycott is on!

I still love GM High Tech though...

**Spaz** · 04-08-2008, 04:38 AM

sorry but they can't do shit... send them back a letter stating what happened and order them to stop any further attempts at collecting money or you will sue them... what they did was send a "gift"... if they coninue get a lawyer and sue thtem for $500,000.00 due to the credit damage they have cause among the many other health related issues caused by this stress...

**2MuchFun** · 04-08-2008, 04:43 AM

gm high tech is awsome!

**67CamaroRSSS** · 04-08-2008, 08:43 AM

Actually, when they sent those out (last year for me) they had (in itty-bitty lettering) a proviso that you could send it back in the original container at their charge and you wouldn't be charged, i.e., it was a "free preview" but they didn't mention it so obviously. Instead they made it appear as if it was a "gift".

You can thank "Primedia" (the parent company that gobbled up everything but Hemmings) for these tactics.

In my case, although I threw away the original packaging, I kept the dvd thinking it was a gift. I got the same BS in the mail as the OP. I called and told them that I thought it was a gift and would return it but didn't know what to put it in, where to mail it to, ect. They sent me a postage paid envelope that I returned the item in and I haven't heard from them since.

I don't condone what they did but you gotta read the fine print these days.

**Nhra Firebird** · 04-08-2008, 08:53 AM

Originally Posted by 67CamaroRSSS

Actually, when they sent those out (last year for me) they had (in itty-bitty lettering) a proviso that you could send it back in the original container at their charge and you wouldn't be charged, i.e., it was a "free preview" but they didn't mention it so obviously. Instead they made it appear as if it was a "gift".

You can thank "Primedia" (the parent company that gobbled up everything but Hemmings) for these tactics.

In my case, although I threw away the original packaging, I kept the dvd thinking it was a gift. I got the same BS in the mail as the OP. I called and told them that I thought it was a gift and would return it but didn't know what to put it in, where to mail it to, ect. They sent me a postage paid envelope that I returned the item in and I haven't heard from them since.

I don't condone what they did but you gotta read the fine print these days.

why should you have to waste your time sending back something you didn't order. I would have told them to come pick it up if they want it.

**Spaz** · 04-08-2008, 09:12 AM

Originally Posted by 67CamaroRSSS

Actually, when they sent those out (last year for me) they had (in itty-bitty lettering) a proviso that you could send it back in the original container at their charge and you wouldn't be charged, i.e., it was a "free preview" but they didn't mention it so obviously. Instead they made it appear as if it was a "gift".

You can thank "Primedia" (the parent company that gobbled up everything but Hemmings) for these tactics.

In my case, although I threw away the original packaging, I kept the dvd thinking it was a gift. I got the same BS in the mail as the OP. I called and told them that I thought it was a gift and would return it but didn't know what to put it in, where to mail it to, ect. They sent me a postage paid envelope that I returned the item in and I haven't heard from them since.

I don't condone what they did but you gotta read the fine print these days.

either way they can not do that... it's illegal... it's called entrapment... they will lose thier ass off in court...

**1MileCrash** · 04-08-2008, 10:12 AM

we've gotten some of those things at my house as well...not from HRM but from other places...i can't recall where. they sent us a cook book or something like that...we didn't order it...hell we hadn't even heard of this company. so we just kinda toss it in the corner. they sent us a collections notice. well in the mean time my dad had opened the package and looked at the book. so we close the thing back up and put "return to sender on it." the postman refused to take it saying that it was "too big to carry." bullshit dipwad! you dropped it off at my house now you take the damn thing!

so we dropped it in the mailbox at the post office instead. we get it back with a stamp on it that says "insufficient postage." like hell...i put "return to sender on it" as i never ordered the damn thing.

so we call the place and they tell us that they had just sent out a final notice of collection for failure to pay for the fuckin book that we never ordered. told them we didn't want the damn thing and they said that's fine then just send it back. alrighty that's fine. of course they wanted us to pay for S&H back and we said hell no piss off you sent it here when we didn't want it and so now you'll pay to have it brought back.

long and short of it is that we still have the book because they refused to pay to send it back to themselves and we told them that we weren't paying it as we never ordered it and we haven't heard anything from them nor have we had any issues with anything related to credit.

**SexOnWheels** · 04-08-2008, 10:42 AM

Originally Posted by 2MuchFun

gm high tech is awsome!

Get this mag instead!

**Spaz** · 04-08-2008, 10:46 AM

Originally Posted by Spaz

either way they can not do that... it's illegal... it's called entrapment... they will lose thier ass off in court...

*cough*

**fluke** · 04-08-2008, 01:13 PM

I just buy my magazines at the newstand - except: Car and Driver, Street Thunder, and a friend sends me my Ward's Auto World.

**310stanger** · 04-08-2008, 03:56 PM

Hot rod has sucked ass for a long time. Theres nothing of real value in that magazine. Its just pictures of super expensive street rods, and old memorabilia. The occasional exotic engine buildup that costs 6 figures and is completely impractical for a street car is about as "tech" as it gets for gear heads in that rag. I read the following

1. muscle mustangs and fast fords
2. Gmhightech
3. Road and Track
4. Car and driver

**9t8z28** · 04-08-2008, 05:23 PM

I like GM High Tech but they did the same B.S. to me. I subscribed to the magazine, paid the one year subscription, and everytime I would get it, at least 10 pages were missing. After the subscription was up, I never re-ordered and they fed me the same B.S.

I haven't heard anything for 6 months.

**bodyman5000** · 04-08-2008, 05:25 PM

It is crap that is for sure. I don't think this "invoice" was for the DVD. It said they would cancel my subscription if I didn't pay them 12 dollars. I believe that meant the magazine which I did not renew. My friend at work buys them so I get to read them free.

I would still get a sub if it were a decent magazine but it isn't.

I don't recall ever getting anything about the DVD. If I did I threw it away as it is junk mail.

I think I am just going to get out the phone book and send random people bills for things they never bought. Sounds good to me.

**bodyman5000** · 04-08-2008, 05:26 PM

Originally Posted by 9t8z28

I like GM High Tech but they did the same B.S. to me. I subscribed to the magazine, paid the one year subscription, and everytime I would get it, at least 10 pages were missing. After the subscription was up, I never re-ordered and they fed me the same B.S.

I haven't heard anything for 6 months.

I went to the primedia website and as someone said above they own damn near every magazine printed.

I just surf the net and get way more info than you get from these mags anyway.

**9t8z28** · 04-08-2008, 05:29 PM

Originally Posted by bodyman5000

I went to the primedia website and as someone said above they own damn near every magazine printed.

I just surf the net and get way more info than you get from these mags anyway.

True, but I like magazines.

**fluke** · 04-08-2008, 05:30 PM

I stopped getting most magaine through the mail because for a while I would get magazines LITERALLY ripped in half through the vertical portion. So I would just have the spline and half of each page... postal service kept stamping "MAY HAVE BEEN DAMAGED IN SHIPPING" on it. MAY?! That' B/S pissed me off so badly I stopped getting anything mailed for a while. That was USPS's fault though. I only have the few I mentioned now.

**Spaz** · 04-08-2008, 05:33 PM

Originally Posted by bodyman5000

I went to the primedia website and as someone said above they own damn near every magazine printed.

I just surf the net and get way more info than you get from these mags anyway.

not every one can surf thenet while they are on the shitter...