Here is a what has transpired regarding the April/May issue of ACD.

My email using their form on their website...


Original Message:
From: [email protected]
Sent: 5/26/2009
To: ACDG Customer Service <[email protected]>
Subject: Missing Issue

The following was sent from (ACDG) website at www.kable.com:

This is an automated message.

MatchCD: 78133PNE220FU00
Name: ANGELA PINEDA
Address:


Issue: April/May 2009

Message: I am tired of the apologies, May is all but over and no magazine again. Your customer service and lack of professionalism is appauling, you would do better to just send everyone their money back and close shop rather than continue in your inept ability to publish a magazine. Your company is a joke. I will be reporting you to the BBB.



Their response 2 days later...
--- On Thu, 5/28/09, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:


From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Missing Issue [<AD2347298>]
To: [email protected]
Date: Thursday, May 28, 2009, 2:37 AM


Dear Ms. Pineda,

A review of your account shows that the April/May 2009 issue is currently en route to you. You should receive the April/May 2009 issue by June 26, 2009.

Thank you for subscribing to American Cake Decorating.

Sincerely,

Cindy Joseph
Email Customer Service.

*When contacting us, please include all the previous emails*
_____________________________

My response back...

Do you see how ludicrous your statement is? I am receiving a magazine I was suppose to receive in APRIL at the tail end of JUNE! You people are a horrible excuse for a company. I am still reporting you to the BBB, AND this lovely little email proves your inadequacy.

Angela Pineda

I'm sorry but If I ran my cake biz like these people run their magazine I would be out of business! And so should they!

Yes - they are a little out of it. I think you just have to decide if it's worth the wait. If so, then wait. And if not, get your money back and forget about them. =o)

cakesdivine.. i am sorry that you are having such trouble with them.. i have been subscribing for 12 years.. never. never. had a problem.. don,t understand what is going on with you.. i can understand , that you are up set.. i have all my magazines for 12 years.

You should contact, the editor in chief or someone else, instead of customer service. I had problems once and the customer service rep gave me the # for brenda Johnson I think that is her last name she is in charge of circulation, and she took care of it and sent me the magazines that they told me I would not recieve, because of the time they processed my payment, when I sent them my check a whole month ahead of time, and since then no issues.

Sorry I do not have her # anymore or I would have forwarded it to you

They won't give your money back? Now that is pretty dumb, especially when you're that upset!

Sorry about all the other customer service issues as well.

I subscribed in early November of 2008, (Nov. 2 to be exact) I received my first copy on April 26, 2009 which was the Feb/Mar issue. Now I am being told I won't receive my second copy until which is the April/May issue until June 26, 2009.

Icer101, there is no way you have received these in a timely manner. I am NOT alone in this. There are many other cakers here that are having issues with receiving their ACD magazines when they are suppose to receive them.

I subscribed to Food Network mag and received my first copy within 2 weeks of ordering it! So not sure why ACD has SO much trouble sending out the very thin magazine they publish. And don't give me this, "Well FN is a big corporation" crap. If you are in the publishing biz then do what you are suppose to do when you are suppose to do it. What if an advertiser has a time sensative ad in their mag? Then they and the comsumer lose out. I am sure it isn't just the customers but the advertisers too who have issues about the very late release dates of the magazines. How much you want to bet that there is at least one Easter related topic/design in the Apr/May issue since Easter was in April this year. In June I should be getting my June/July issue that has July 4th ideas, but do you really think we will see any of that before July 4? I doubt it.

It really irks me to see people standing up for ACD's practices when they are clearly a problematic company. All I know is that if a client pays me, and I miss their delivery date, I would get sued, and of course have to give all the money back on the order and maybe punative damages as well. Granted not receiving a magazine is not of this level of damage, it is merely an inconvenience, but for some reason people today just don't seem to give a rat's patootie about work ethic and keeping promises to your customers. A subscription is a promise, and to have only received 1 issue in 6 months is rediculous!

Don't get me wrong I love the magazine content and look forward to getting my next one, It is just we shouldn't have to wait so long for something that is promised every 2 months, and I bet the moment my subscription is up in November I will not get another one. So I might actually get 3 if I am lucky in my first year of subscribing, when I paid for 6. And another thing that ticked me off was 3 weeks after I originally subscribed I received a notice in the mail from them that my subscription was almost up and to renew for next year so I won't miss any issues...I was thinking WTF?!!! I hadn't even received my first issue and I had paid 3 months prior, how on God's green Earth is my subscription about to expire?

It takes a lot to get me angry, but when you do I hold no punches. I am a firm believer that when you own a business and you say you are going to do something then By God DO IT!

I cancel my subscription because I was tired of getting turned around. I subscribed December 18, 2008 and HAVE YET to recieved my first copy. ACD keep wanting to extend my subscritption, who care, I want my first copy. I got fed up and cancel on May 5. They said my refund in on its way (yeah right I dont believe that). If they can't sent a magazine on time who say my refund will be recieved on time. I will be pestering them until I get my money back.

I'm canceling mine too. Still haven't received anything and I subscribed in Jan.

I wonder if they are having time keeping up with the popularity of cake shows the demand on their mag is too great.

Still cancelling........

I subscribed to ACD about a year ago. I had received all of the issues in a very timely manner....that is until the Feb/march issue of this year which is MIA. I contacted them about this and they just extended my subscription one issue....ok so I'm ok with that, but would have still liked to of had the issue that I never received...but again ok. Well now it's the end of May and I have yet to receive the Apr/may issue...I have sent them another contact stating my concern and will wait for a reply. I have never had any issues with ACD until just reciently....I wonder what is going on?? Just venting

I live in Canada. I started a subscription to ACD 5yrs ago. I too waited and waited and did not get my first issue.
After many emails and finally a phone call, I was told my payment had never gone through, I was not in their records. I had to send them a photograph of my MC statement showing that the payment was made to ACD before they would send an issue out.

It was another two months before I saw that issue. Since I started subscribing, I have never received the mag on time. It was always a month or two late and sometimes never. Whenever I questioned where my copy was, the excuse was border problems, production problems, and so on.

I let my subscription run out this year. As much as I love the magazine, I got fed up with getting so many issues past the occassion. ie, Valentines, Halloween, etc.

About a month after letting it run out, I received a lovely letter from ACD with the following: ( I'm not kidding here)

GOODBYE! Since you subscribed to American Cake Decorating ( which I didn't, I let it run out) and have not paid, your subscription is cancelled!

Hows THAT for customer service??!!!

A hint for you.. One thing I did learn dealing with ACD. Emailing won't get you far.. Phoning ACD and talking to an actual person usually will..

So I've e-mailed them this in regards to my Apr/May issue, and the following was the response.
Hi, I have contacted you in the past in regards to a missing feb/march issue, and received a response extending my subscription for another issue. Thank you for that. At this time, however, I have not received the Apr/May issue yet. I was curious as to the release date for this. In the past I have always received the magazines in a timely manner after the release date so I am starting to get concerned. Again, if I could just find out the release date for this issue, as it is already the end of May so that I can know to expect it very soon or if I now have yet another issue not sent to me. Any help in this manner is greatly appreciated as I would like to continue to subscribe to ACD as long as the issues keep comming. Thanks again for your timely response.

This is a Missing issue

Dear Linea Harris,

A review of your account shows that the April/May 2009 issue is currently en route to you. You should receive the April/May 2009 issue by June 26, 2009.

Thank you for subscribing to American Cake Decorating.

Sincerely,

Cindy Joseph
Email Customer Service.

*When contacting us, please include all the previous emails*

The funny thing is that they never answered my question as to when it was released. Again, bare with me, because this is the first time that I've encountered any problems with them. And, I have in the past received the issues in a timely manner, before holidays that the issue is about etc.
We will see. If by June 26 th there is still no issue, they will be getting a phone call, and I will mention that I do know of others that this has become an issue with as well. I think I might just make that call abit earlier, just to see when the actual issue dates are...cuz why would they issue for apr/may at the end of May...If anything that should be the release date for the June/July.....so should I technically be expecting 2 issues around the same time as there has never in the past been such a long time frame difference from the release date to the date that it arrives at my home...venting....just a thought.

I suspect that the company is in financial trouble and is dealing with that. I seem to remember that they were bought by another company a few years back, and the problems started around then. That's just my speculation...

My problem with it isn't so much the delivery times, although I do get the issues late. It's that the magazines are so useless I hardly ever get anything out of them. If you're at any level past beginner there isn't a whole lot of useful information in them.

I was curious so checked out ACD on the US BBB website. I also checked out a few other magazines as I wasn't sure how the BBB rating for magazines and service worked. Took a look at Taste of Home, MS living, O Oprah mag, and ACD.
There was reports on all the mags except ACD and the publishers.
The reports show the # of complaints filed on each, plus how many have been resolved or not resolved.
It seems no one has filed a complaint about ACD and their poor service. Me included.

Perhaps the solution to this whole thing would be to do as cakesdevine is doing. File your complaint with the BBB.
We complain to each other here about the crappy service, but how many of us have ever followed through and filed our complaint where it counts the most?
I think if that was done, then ACD, aka GraceMcNamaraInc, would have to sit up and take notice.

I'm very curious. icer101, did you get all your issues all time?

I just wonder if it's only a problem with subscriptions started after a certain time. I'm not making excuses, I'm just wondering.

I did like the magazine (I've received one issue), but I could have spent the money DH spent on it (it was a Christmas gift) on a few very nice cake-decorating books!

I cancelled mine yesterday after I got the reply to where my April/May issue was going to arrive sometime in July

Their sending me a credit note (which I will cash immediately incase they are in $$ trouble)

My husband tried to get me a subscription to ACD a few years ago, and i never got an issue! After several months of calling, he made them give us our money back. They tried to give us a free year, but that seems rediculous when i couldn't even get the issues that i had paid for.

http://www.americancakedecorating.com/cs/CSrvPg/delivery.htm


Wow.

http://www.americancakedecorating.com/cs/CSrvPg/CServEmailScr/publisherform.php

Here....send the damn PUBLISHER a link to this page. I want ACD too, but no way in hell will they get my $$ when I keep reading threads like this. Unexcuseable, I agree cakesdivine!

8-10 wks my a$$! I'm going on weeks 15-16. No other problems from other American mags coming to Canada. I get Wakeboarding Mag on time all the time.

Maybe I should publish my own Canadian Cake Decorating Mag.......

hmmmm.......thinking now............smell the smoke??

I am being contacted by the publisher via email or phone call shortly....I want this magazine, I really do.

I wonder if Michaels sells it? They usually have mags from the US that we don't have here.

cakes, to this day, after going in and out Michaels I don't know how many times (Joann's too), faithfully scan the rack of mags....no luck yet. Maybe asking them to start carrying it would be an idea...hmmmm.

I still haven't seen my first issue either and no reply to my e-mail complaints.

I get a monthly bird publication from England faster than a US publication.

If I ever reach someone I'm going to try to get my money refunded too.

Maybe American Michaels don't carry it cause it is more readily available to you guys.

I'd like the Mag, but I can get just as much info here or online and it's not worth the hassle. I have zero patience anyway!!!

I just received a call from the publisher's assistant. Very nice lady, informed me that this is a recent problem that started in December of this year, and due to layoffs and whatnot, issues have definitely not been arriving on time. I thanked her for her time, and expressed my concern over ordering a subscription due to the number of threads I see like this over and over again. She assures me this is going to be resolved soon, and is forwarding me a copy of the April/May issue now.

But I will not be subscribing......yet.

UPDATE: Former publisher, Susan called...she apologizes for the incorrect info on ACD website, she is no longer publisher there, but still receives the emails. Whoops!

Score! _Jamie_ one "free" April/May issue that will arrive on your doorstep in ............????

Can you imagine the number of calls she must get a day regarding this issue? She must have sore, dry chapped lips from all that a$$ kissing!!!

Question: IF she isn't the publisher there, how can she send you a copy of the mag? Oh wait........she is sending you HER copy!! lol!!!