Rolling Stone has been a favorite magazine of mine for a long time now.  I’ve been a subscriber since at least my early teens, which means I’ve been a steady subscriber for about 15 years now.   I’m a loyal customer and depend on the magazine to keep me up to date no new music, good movies and more.  Definitely one of my top choices for pop culture information.

However, they are ruining my love for the magazine with one poor customer service effort.  Their 1,000 issue recently came out and I never received it in the mail.  Maybe it was stolen, maybe it was lost in the mail… who knows?  Point is, that after 15 years of subscribing, the first issue I don’t receive is one that I was really looking forward to.  It was a disappointment, but I was confident that they would set things right and send me a replacement issue.

So I hop on their web site and quickly discover that there is no way to reach a person – you need to do customer service through a web-based form.   So I shoot off a polite email explaining the situation and instead of getting resolution, I get this insulting piece of cookie-cutter response:

Thank you for contacting Rolling Stone Magazine.

We are sorry to inform you that the issue you requested is no longer 
available.

We have extended your subscription one issue for each issue requested.  
The new expiration date will appear on your address label in the near 
future.

Thank you
Rolling Stone Magazine
csf

Obviously, not only did they NOT resolve the problem in the way requested – by sending a replacement copy of the issue – but they extended the subscription by one issue, not two, which would have been more appropriate, since it was a double issue.

I send back a more terse email and they come back with an offer to extend the subscription by TWO issues.  Still no replacement issue and still saying that the issue isn’t available, which struck me as strange, to say the least.  Turns out it is indeed a farce, since if you follow this link, you’ll see that they are still selling it. 

So I can’t get a free replacement issue, though I’ve done nothing but dutifully pay my subscription every year for over a decade, never complaining or asking anything more of them, BUT, if I want to give them an ADDITIONAL $20, I can certainly have a copy of the magazine that I never received. 

It really is enough to make you wonder if this a scam… I’m sure that this would fall under FTC wire fraud or USPS mail fraud regulation.   I’m not even going get into the "spirit of Rolling Stone" and how they are betraying their roots of the 60’s and hippie-dom by screwing over a long-time subscriber.

I’m going to go do some deep breathing exercises now.