lfi LFI subscription issue

[sonica]

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LFI is telling me that I owe payment for the last three years of my subscription as my credit card payments did not go through due to a techinic error on their end. I never received notices except in 2018 where they told me explicitly to not worry about it. Now three years later they claim they sent me messages, they did not as I keep EVERY Leica-related email I receive. However after each payment I did received a notice of what they are now calling a data receipt, not payment receipt. I no longer have the credit cards and cc history of those cards. They kept sending me issues and now claim I owe hundreds of Euros to them. I've never had this experience with any other publication. So apparently they have had technical issues for at least three years.
 

I'm just wondering if anyone else is experiencing this, especially U.S. subscribers. I don't need anyone to tell me to just suck it up and pay it, I want to hear only from anyone else who have had this issue and how you dealt with it. 
Thank you. 

Edited May 6, 2021 by sonica
fixed a spelling error

[pedaes]

Welcome to the Forum. Sorry your first post is about a problem.

I have just had this exact issue, except it was two years (UK subscriber).

Like you, couldn't be assed to go back through all the statements so let it go and paid what they said I owed.. Seems pretty amazing that they would send mags through for two or three years without chasing payment.

[tamas]

Sonica hello,

Yes I too experienced this very same issue a few months back when I paid my subscription for this year.  I found my credit card being additionally billed for the previous two years subscriptions, with the same answer as you received when I queried it with LFI.  I am really surprised it took them so long to wake up to the problem.  As I am in the habit of retaining all my statements - bank and credit card , I was able to check and true enough found that my previous two online payments had not appeared on any statement for the years' 2019+2020.

So I was happy to let the deductions stand. Also a bi t embarrassed that I failed to notice the omissions myself.

Tamas   UK Subscriber

 

[HighlandLeica]

This is an interesting thread to find as I have had the same experience this spring here in the UK. Something clearly awry.

[masjah]

It seems that it is only recently that they've managed to get their credit card systems to work. My latest payment actually went through, somewhat to my surprise. The two years previously they acknowledged receipt of my card details, but never took payment. I eventually emailed them and they apologetically acknowledged they still had problems, so I paid the bank fees and made two years payment by transfer. I suspect that the OP does owe for the arrears, even though it is galling.

[digger1914]

I had exactly the same problem in Australia.  I tried to pay and it didn't work.  They sent me a letter threatening legal action and I fired up.  They quickly apologised and said it was their fault.  Sadly, I will never deal with them again.

[rjans]

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I've had a comparable problem in Belgium earlier this year. Suddenly an amount was visible on my credit card. I asked information by mail but the reply was not very clear for me. I checked my bank account/credit card for the whole previous year and indeed they had not taken the money during the previous year.. Presume they changed their system. Recently the LFI App was also updated because the store for buying accessories etc is gone now.

Best

[jaapv]

On 5/6/2021 at 8:25 PM, sonica said:

LFI is telling me that I owe payment for the last three years of my subscription as my credit card payments did not go through due to a techinic error on their end. I never received notices except in 2018 where they told me explicitly to not worry about it. Now three years later they claim they sent me messages, they did not as I keep EVERY Leica-related email I receive. However after each payment I did received a notice of what they are now calling a data receipt, not payment receipt. I no longer have the credit cards and cc history of those cards. They kept sending me issues and now claim I owe hundreds of Euros to them. I've never had this experience with any other publication. So apparently they have had technical issues for at least three years.
 

I'm just wondering if anyone else is experiencing this, especially U.S. subscribers. I don't need anyone to tell me to just suck it up and pay it, I want to hear only from anyone else who have had this issue and how you dealt with it. 
Thank you. 

You can request your CC data from the CC company.

[zeitz]

You would think using the electronic subscription and content would solve the problems.  But when I first subscribed in 2020 and when I renewed this year, I had to contact LFI by e-mail with my purchase information before I could get to the magazine issues.  They must assume that paying for the magazine does not mean you actually want the magazine.  You have to ask for the magazine separately from paying for the magazine.

[Louis]

I had almost the opposite issue with LFI. I received a free one year subscription for the online magazine, for whatever the reason was. But the problem was that I could never open any issue and take advantage of my one year free subscription!... lol