I have contacted customer service for the second time about my subscription to Model Railroader. I have checked my billing address along with my mailing address. Both are correct. So where is my magazine? I subscribed to model railroader around the 14 of march, it is now the 10th of April and I still have not received my copy of my magazine. They billed my bank on the 14th of march. What gives?
It takes a little time to get your first subscription. Once you do it comes on time each month. Hang in there.
This is my third subscription to MR. The first two subscriptions they had two magazines at my address with in the first week. I dropped my subscription to MR after the second one because MR got rather dull. But as I have keep my nose in the forums here I felt that a new subscription to MR was in order. As I am now retired and getting back into the hobby full time. I do feel that a three week time frame is a little off with it being the end of the first week of the month and no MR in my mailbox.
Hang in there… I felt the same about when i subscribed to Trains… it took forever to get my first issue but then it came and was soon followed by the next months and then after that they all come on time.
Most magazines used to, and may still, say your first subscription issue can take 6 to 8 weeks to arrive. It’s probably something about getting new subs into the production and mailing schedules. But in this day of computers I cannot see why it should take quite that long.
I subscribed to another non model railroad magazine last November, got my first copy a few weeks ago. Of course it is a quarterly publication.
Patience is what is needed, I cannot imagine them getting you your first issue in less than one month.
Model railroader does not print it themselves. They have a printer who prints and mails the magazine out for them. So there can be a delay between you when you sign up for a subscription to when the printer sends it out. Also they send it us postal service.
Sometimes i get it the last week of the month before and sometimes the mag does not come until half way through the month. I live 2-3 hours away from milwaukee so i should get it right away. I do not blame model railroader i blame the us postal service for the inconsisities in the arival days.
Aggravating ain’t it. MR is not alone when it comes to that and I don’t understand why. Like was said before, in the days of computers, it should come as soon as the next month to ship. I guess it depends on when the magazines are actually labeled, sorted and stacked to ship whether the 14th of March was early enough to be included. BUT, even if it were not, if I call MR (and this happened only once so far) and said I did not recieve my copy, within a week I had one. So they can send you a copy outside the normal slug that goes out and quickly.
Now, you’d think these magazine companies would cater to the new subscriber by getting them their first issue out quick. Get it in their hand. Sooner they get the issue, the sooner they get to resubscribe. Like if you subscribe before the 15th or the 20th of the month of March, you get the May issue. Maybe on time, maybe a bit late, but you get it.
Yah, hand packed with a piece of paper or flyer of sorts put in the plastic sleeve signed by the editor, maybe signed by all the folks at the magazine (could be a copy I guess). Big letters on the paper “You’re First Issue is Here!!! Thanks for subscribing, we’re glad to have you as a…” oh I don’t know, “…friend!” Make it look like when someone subscribed to the magazine the company was glad to have their new business and took the time to hand pick their first issue and put a little thank you note in there. Some magazine I’ve subscribed to in the past did just that. “You’re first issue is here!!” Come to think of it though, I don’t think I felt any endearment towards them because of that, but it at least made me say “alriiiiight!!”
Just a thought.
Never the less, Model Railroad is not the only one that takes a bit to get you’re first issue to you.
Probably holdovers from the old days that make dumb things happen. Like paper checks (or cheques if that’s the preferred spelling). If you write a check at a store, its considered an authorization to do an electronic funds transfer and the money is gone instantly from your accounts. Awesome, technology at work. But if you deposit a check at the bank, it still has to clear the old fashioned way. Why isn’t that an EFT?
I, too, am awaiting the first issue after resubbing. But I have other things to worry about than where my magazine is. I spend upwards of 45 seconds caring when the mail comes and its not there. Then I move on.
Patience, grasshopper!
It takes time to get you into the system and the issues mailed out to you.It also depends on where they are in their shipping cycle you are added.
When I first started a subscription 5 years ago {after having been out of the hobby for many years}, I had to wait almost 2 months for the first issue to arrive, and I was about to contact them and complain as I knew my check had cleared the bank about a month back when it appeared in my mailbox!
I let the subscription lapse as I felt the value VS. Cost wasn’t there, as many have complained of recently.
Then I got a “We Want You Back” Offer and added the extra for a 2 year subscription as I thought it a bargain I would perhaps not get again for the 2 years. This time when I renewed within 2.5 weeks of sending it out, I had the last mag and the next mag in my mailbox.
Now, like before my mag shows up with Trains and Classic Trains on or aobut the first of the month like clockwork.
All other considerations aside, I feel it is “not right” to bill the customer until the product has been shipped. It is both morally suspect and very bad publicity. I like the suggestion above about special handling for new customers. Wouldn’t hurt for renewals either.
Scroll up to the top of this page, and look on the right side, under where it says “Welcome Back.” Right below that, it tells you the month of the last issue in your subscription. Since the May issue is already out, this should say “April” if your first issue is in the mail, or it should say “May” if your first delivered issue will be the June one that comes out next.
In any case, they’ll send you 12 issues. The magazines start showing up in mailboxes the last week of the month, so you probably missed the cutoff for the current issue.
Time is passing so fast now it seems like a MR magazine shows up in my mailbox every couple of weeks.