Auto Enthusiast Magazine

[Peter J.]

Re: Auto Enthusiast Magazine

Charlie,
I feel the same way about the publisher if John Hinkley had not given us a heads up on this board I would have been one of those guys who just renewed. I posted that I got my renewal just a couple of days after getting the news and thought that was a little dishonest of them.
After twenty-eight years in the USPS I can tell you print mailers are a dieing breed. We watched our revenue disappear almost on a daily basis from magazines publishers folding. I understand the desire to keep your baby a float but your integrity has to be more important in life than paddling a sinking boat.
Pete

[Larry S.]

Re: Auto Enthusiast Magazine

AE is pure advertising junk with no meat for cars. There's about 10 pages of pics of cars in a junkyard not even good enough for parts cars. Every article about a car concludes with plugs for vendors. The honorable thing would be for them to refund the subscription price.

[Walter G.]

Re: Auto Enthusiast Magazine

I had let my subscription to CE run out about a year ago as I was receiving too many 'Vette mags with overlapping info. They sent me a comp copy with a subscription offer in August right before it was dropped and I ignored it, but did receive the premier issue of AE to fill out my subscription to the also defunct Cars & Parts mag. There is no mention of longtime editor/contributor Bob Stevens who I had met on several occasions and seemed to be a genuine enthusiast. I know there was mention of a kind of 'farewell tour' for him and his cars but that probably went down with the rest of the mags. I would be surprised if AE survives...

[Mark W.]

Re: Auto Enthusiast Magazine

Andy, with all due respect what is the point in calling customer service? Many of us wanted refunds and were flat out told "no". In my opinion, their refusal to give refunds to CE subscribers not wanting their new AE is nothing more than theft. Over the last few days I've traded e-mails with Mrs Jamie Allen (her e-mail address in case anyone else wants to let them know what you think jallen@amospress.com ) from their customer service dept and the only replies I get are " We do not offer any refunds on subscriptions as this is stated in each issue of our magazines. I understand you are upset about the change, but we do not offer refunds." Great customer service wouldn't you all agree?

[Mark W.]

Re: Auto Enthusiast Magazine

Forgot to add that if you go to the Amos web site, they still have Corvette Enthusiast advertised.

[Chris E.]

Re: Auto Enthusiast Magazine

If the last few issues before my subscription runs out are as lean with respect to content as the first one was, I too will let my subscription lapse and never renew.

[Joe R.]

Re: Auto Enthusiast Magazine

I may be wrong but the above falls under, "Class Action Lawsuit". It doesn't look like it would be very hard to prove fraud. At least the courts would force them to refund subscriptions taken when they knew the rag was going under.
And yes, the adminstration had to know!

JR

PS. How would Hinkley know before Carlisle if all this were not true?

[John H.]

Re: Auto Enthusiast Magazine

PS. How would Hinkley know before Carlisle if all this were not true?

JR -

I didn't know about it prior to Carlisle, and neither did Andy or the contract staff in the booth selling subscriptions. The decision was made at Amos corporate in Ohio, and the first word any of us had was an e-mail from Larry Jewett (Editor of the new mag) on September 3rd announcing the change.

[Joe R.]

Re: Auto Enthusiast Magazine

John,

I drew my conclusions from what Stu and Peter said above.

Who was it that alerted the NCRS members (months) ago. Guess a couple of months is ago!

I certainly did not want to imply that you or anyone else on this forum would repeat rummors and try to destroy someones reputation.

My apologies if I stepped on anyone's feet!

JR

[Loren L.]

Re: Auto Enthusiast Magazine

Where in Tibet is their "Customer Service" office located?

[John H.]

Re: Auto Enthusiast Magazine

Where in Tibet is their "Customer Service" office located?

Loren -

The Amos Publishing corporate advertising/sales/administrative offices are in Sidney, Ohio; they used to have the editorial offices for their automotive titles in Florida, but they closed them a couple of years ago and the magazine staffs have worked from their homes since then.

[Loren L.]

Re: Auto Enthusiast Magazine

Jojm. is there any possibility that the tsunami of advertising in the first AE was prepaid ads where the $$ was in the bank and we had to creat a mag to print them, instead of refunds?

[John H.]

Re: Auto Enthusiast Magazine

Jojm. is there any possibility that the tsunami of advertising in the first AE was prepaid ads where the $$ was in the bank and we had to creat a mag to print them, instead of refunds?

Loren -

This whole thing started when the "suits" at Amos consolidated a number of their non-automotive titles a couple of years ago that dealt separately with things like coins, stamps, crafts, etc. into one mag, and in that case it was a roaring success; circulation of the consolidated mag exceeded that of the sum of all the previous individual titles, with lower costs.

That's the logic they applied to consolidation of all of their automotive titles, and there was quite a scramble of advertisers who wanted to be in the premiere issue (resulting in the most advertising-heavy magazine in the history of publishing, I think), representing the entire spectrum of the automotive hobby. If you noticed the classified section at the back, Apple Hydraulics has no less than (37) ads in that section alone, and they were not a CE advertiser.

I don't think the same consolidation logic will work for automotive like it did for coins, stamps and crafts, but what do I know about publishing?

[Mark W.]

Re: Auto Enthusiast Magazine

I wonder how the other auto forums (Camaro, Mustang, Mopar) are taking the unannounced magazine consolidation and forced subscription? I hope their members are raising cain with Amos the same as the Corvette members are doing.

[Pat F.]

Re: Auto Enthusiast Magazine

Mark, the bottom line is that they have stuffed this magazine down our throat and do not care what we say.
We as individuals are not big enough and do not have deep pockets to go after our subscription money. I lost my $25.00 because of their method of doing business and I will not forget it.
Our payback will come when the forced subscriptions are up for renewal.
I will advise them in no uncertain terms about a renewal. I hope management will enjoy the way they treated their customers when the subscription renewals do not come in.