Don't Bother With Cycle World...
 

...magazine, unless you want to receive a notice from a collection agency after allowing your paid subscription to expire. Completely unsolicited, CW sent a thirteenth issue with an updated expiration date of one year later.

Then the subscription stops...and you receive monthly renewal notices. After four or five of those, your collection notice arrives. Then, when you call the agency, the completely automated system for "North Shore Agency" has menu options "to inform the publisher" that you did not renew the subscription. A clearly deceptive scheme, IMO.

Big thumbs down to Cycle World publisher, Hachette Filipacchi Media, for baiting and switching.

I'm gonna go read Sport Rider now, then burn CW to ash...

I had my own personal issues with CW that included kick ass magazine turning into mush about 7 years ago. But didn't have any financial goon types coming after me ... guess that's new :rolleyes:

They have been trying to tempt me back with all kinds of offers but honestly, the mag got really lame and catered way too much to the manufacturers. I kinda like mags to maintain a bit of independence. But these guys suck a mean, er, um, well you know, if it's a manufacturer. Damn whores :mad:

CW is o.k. but last time I bought one they seemed to cater for the squidly crowd. Big feature on stuffing a 1400cc into a 600 frame ... c'mon, is it just me?

Update:

Some magazines use an automatic renewal service. You may think you've only paid for one year...but the publisher automatically renews your subscription and bills you for it. When you don't pay to renew...the account goes to "collection."

North Shore Agency, the "collector" that sent me a bogus "notice" today, has undergone several class-action lawsuits, yet still squirms its way into thousands of mailboxes. Don't be fooled into paying anything...

Bastards

Like stretch said, CW got pretty lame regardless. I still get sportrider and motorcyclist, got a years sub for both for a total of 17 bucks, not so bad for a years worth of bathroom reading. Both mags are still a decent, if ad filled, read for the most part. Although some of the ads are better than some of the articles, a few by icon come to mind, heh.