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I filled out a form to enter one of their sweepstakes. After I put in all of my information, I hit enter,then I got a notice saying that I signed up for their magazine subscription at $18.00.

and they would send me a bill. I have no intention of paying this bill and will turn them in to Consumers Protection Agency. At no time did they say I was signing up for a Magazine Subscription. I would never have done that,I was only entering one of their contests.

All consumers need to be aware of this scam, and pass on entering any of their contests. I always thought they were a reputable company.

BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE

Monetary Loss: $18.

Location: Greensboro, North Carolina

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Guest

I did not even enter the sweepstakes and still was magically subscribed to the very last magazine on the planet I would order: HGTV Magazine. (Okay, okay, that's extreme.

Klan Kountry, Miss Skinhead Monthly and The Catheter Review are even less appealing!) I called and got it cancelled but she had no answer how this happened except "you've subscribed to other Hearst Publications" in the past. Uh, yeah? So what's the point? Since I read Car & Driver (no more, btw) and Esquire (also no more) somehow that's an okay for automatic subscriptions to their other mags?

No. It. Is. Not.

And it's pretty slick that they did this because I read about the (un-entered) contest via click through from my email, which is how they knew who I was and my home address.

Naturally the outcome of this is I'll never subscribe to any Hearst publication. I'll never enter another HGTV contest. And since there's not much anymore on HGTV itself worth watching (used to be but now it's all just another form of advertising, mostly.

Sad.) I can easily live without watching the channel. Furthermore, I've taken dozens of people to Hearst Castle in my life and even though it's a public property owned by the state of California, I cannot imagine going to anything named Hearst ever again.

This was a pure scam which should come as no surprise considering papa Hearst was not the most honest of guys, why would his company be any different? And to those of you making excuses for them or blaming those who missed unclicking a button...I will repeat this: I did not enter the contest!

I did not agree to anything (accidentally or otherwise) because I did not enter the contest! However(!) and here's the scam: I DID CLICK ON THE CONTEST PAGE VIA EMAIL AND READ ABOUT IT (ONLY!) That alone was enough for them to try and con me out of $15. I would cheerfully pay $15 for a magazine I want but this is not one of them (see list above for other examples of mags that are also no chance) From now on I'll read their publications @ the dentist. No more Hearst magazines in my home unless someone gives it to me.

Good thinking Hearst Communications if your goal was to lose as many customers as possible. Cheers.

Guest

Yup happened to me too!!

Guest

Yep,the same thing happened to me.

Guest

This happened to me too. I'm already a short term subscriber and at the end of entering the "contest" it said thanks for subscribing you will be billed.

Guest

Yep, Got me too!

Thought I was entering a chance to win money. Two hours later I get an email "confirming my subscription" to a mag I didn't order. Oh yeah,by the way, the subscription is an autopay.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-885087

Just got a bill. I will cancel as I never intentionally subscribed to the magazine. This is a scam and should be stopped.

Guest

I have entered the HGTV home giveaway often. There is clearly a checkbox offering you a subscription to the magazine and all you have to do is decline or accept the subscritpion before you enter the contest.

Also, someone mentioned the autorefill feature not working.

I have not tried it lately, so I don't know, but it could be in one of the later security updates, a setting was changed. You might want to go through your settings and see if something was added/changed that you need to allow autofill to work in all forms or on certain or all sites.

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