O, The Oprah Magazine (1-year auto-renewal)

Product Details

• Format: Magazine
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• Publisher: Hearst Magazines
• ASIN: B001THPA4Y
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (329 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42 in Magazines (See Top 100 in Magazines)
  • #11 in Magazines > Lifestyle & Cultures > Women's Interest
This magazine subscription is provided by Hearst Magazines

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

232 of 259 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Dishonest Subscription Renewal Process, August 31, 2009

By 

MC - See all my reviews

This review is from: O, The Oprah Magazine (1-year) (Magazine)

I purchased a one year subscription online last year for both myself and my mom for the Oprah magazine. I paid online for both at the time of purchase and have an email to prove it. Now that the subscription is expiring, my mom and I both have gotten at least 3 threatening letters each. Each is entitled "INVOICING BUREAU" in red. The letter states " when you entered into an agreement to be billed later, we believed you would send your renewal payment upon receipt of you invoice. Now that your subscription is coming to an end, we still have not received your payment. You can resolve this matter quickly by returning the subscription invoice with your payment in the enclosed envelope." This letter does not include a phone number and uses a lot of red to emphasize how urgent it is to pay. It is purposefully misleading, I never led on that I wanted to renew. I went to the website and there is no way to contact them, by email, etc. after a lot of searching, I did find the cancel my subscription button.

52 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This One Is Worth Keeping., January 22, 2008

By 

Truthful History-You Are All Writing Using Th... (The Unknown Realms.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: O, The Oprah Magazine (1-year) (Magazine)

The magazine like Oprah's show covers topics about the real world that infuences our daily lives. It is also geared to middle aged women like myself. You won't find Madison Avenue's obsession with youth, beauty, & nearly nude models spread all over the pages. There are plenty of fascinating articles throughout. Such as: "Is Fear Limiting Your Life?" "Yes I Can Diet," "Sex In The Middle Ages," "Cancer-Spot, It Treat It, Beat It," etc. I also like how the magazine is organized by departments. "Special, Features, O-zone, Advice,etc. Style, Health, Books, Connections, & In Every Issue." The latter section has a Calendar with quotes on the days, O to go, Love That!, Breathing Space, Shop Guide, Food, Beauty, Something To Think About, & what I know for sure by Oprah. You can also get financial tips from Suze Orman & advice from Dr. Phil like answering a question from a working mom. The only negatives are those that truly can't be helped. Advertisiments are heavy throughout even the smallest magazines, which keeps them in business. It still deserves five solid stars.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Oprah / Hearst invoicing scam? Or lousy business practices?, November 5, 2011

By 

Vancouver couple - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: O, The Oprah Magazine (2-year) (Magazine)

I've purchased a lot of products on Amazon and have subscribed to Oprah's magazine for many years. I have read a lot of negative comments about Oprah's auto-renewal process over the years, so I have always intentionally purchased the one-time, one- or two-year subscription terms on Amazon, making certain not to select the auto-renewal options. And I have purchased this magazine as a gift for others multiple times too. I've never had a problem with the magazine, the subscriptions, the invoicing, or the delivery...until now.

In December, 2010, I purchased another 2-year term subscription to 'O, The Oprah Magazine' for my wife, same as I'd done in prior years. I paid for it with my American Express. The rate was $24.00 for two years. With (WA state) sales tax, it came up to $25.85 and showed up on my January statement, which was paid in full. The subscription is paid up through January, 2013.

After a few months, I started receiving renewal notices for a one-year ($18.00 per year) subscription, directly from the Oprah publisher. This is something that the Oprah magazine or their publisher has done frequently over the years, so I just ignored the renewal notices, as I've always done (seems kind of a waste of resources to solicit people who aren't scheduled to renew for another 20 months...but, if that's the way they want to run their business, whatever). Obviously, I wasn't interested in renewing again, so I recycled the solicitations. By the way, the renewal solicitation did show the 2013 expiration date right on the document, so I knew it wasn't for a prior iteration of the subscription.

Yesterday I received a collection notice from Sunrise Credit Services, Inc. for an account balance of $18.00. Yes, you read that right. They have forwarded my account to a collection agency for the non-payment of a subscription solicitation! FOR AN UNPAID SOLICITATION, not for an actual subscription or for something that I actually ordered! Amazing, but true. Either the Oprah magazine and Hearst (the publisher) have exceptionally poor records / databases, or they're running some kind of little scam that they hope enough people will fall for that it will more than pay for the cost of all those renewal solicitations they send out.

Whatever the case may be, I have to say, Oprah and Hearst, that I'm extremely disappointed in your business practices. Now I'll be wasting more time responding back to Sunrise Credit Services with all the details and trying to get them off my back. Irritated doesn't even begin to cover what I feel about your business and the fact that you've unnecessarily put this collection company on my credit history. All for a measly little $18.00 and because of your inability to keep proper records...or because of a poor attempt at a subscription scam. And if it goes beyond that, I'll be forwarding this to the office of the Washington State Attorney General.

Come on, Oprah and Hearst, why don't you spend a tiny portion of your multi-billion dollar profits on updating your records and I.T. systems, so people don't have to write horrible reviews like this?

By the way, this is the first review of any kind that I've written on any site, but I felt compelled to do so, so that others may avoid going through the same nonsense or, at least, be aware of what's potentially going on when they start seeing those renewal notices start showing up in their mail. It's a good magazine and quite often a good price through Amazon; just horrifically inept business practices on the part of the publisher.

What an absolutely unnecessary waste of my time and other peoples' time reading things like this when you could just as easily clean up and refine your subscription systems and databases.