(1)
Date:         Wed, 25 Oct 1995 16:29:30 -0600
From: Leah Norris <norris@MACALSTR.EDU>
Subject:      Neighborhood Periodicals

Our library does not use EBSCO, we use Faxon as our primary vendor.

We also had trouble with receiving about a half-dozen "gift
subscriptions" through Neighborhood Periodicals. I called the
subscription offices of the magazines themselves (Snow Country, Skin
Diver, etc...) to confirm that the subscriptions had been placed by
Neighborhood.

One was able to tell me that Neighborhood was located in Chicago, IL, -
their number is listed, though I have since thrown it away.

This office in Chicago will try to convince you to call another office in
Cleveland (I believe), but this is not true. The person to talk to is Ms.
Rivera in Chicago. She was adamant that nothing could be done about the
subscriptions (which we regarded as annoying unsolicited mail) and was
rather miffed that we were less than grateful.

The Chicago Better Business Bureau advised us to write a letter to the IL
Attorney General's office, as the unsolicited "gifts" could be considered
harassing. I called Ms. Rivera and offered to NOT write this letter if
she could find some way to stop the "gifts" from being showered upon us.

Less than 1/2 hour after this conversation, I received a message that the
gifts had been stopped, and we would no longer be on their lists.

Haven't gotten any Neighborhood Periodicals ever since.

--Leah Norris
Periodicals Assistant
Macalester College Library
St. Paul, MN
----------
(2)
Date:         Wed, 25 Oct 1995 17:02:16 -0500
From: Di Neumeister <drneumei@LCAC1.LORAS.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Neighborhood Periodical List (Steve Thompson)

I first heard of Neighborhood this summer when we started to recieve 8
subscriptions to popular magazines that just appeared out of the blue and
had subscription end dates 1 1/2 - 3 in the future.  I finally tracked them
all down to Neighborhood, but it took a long time: called the publishers;
called the only phone number the publishers had, which was just a
distribution center; called the number the distribution center gave me,
which was for Neighborhood. After 2 additional phone calls to Neighborhood,
I was eventually able to get the subs. we really couldn't use (we kept 2
of the 8) stopped, but the people at Neighborhood were unable to locate our
subscriptions AT ALL at first. The customer service rep. I talked to was
always polite and was helpful in the end, but the whole process was
time-consuming and VERY frustrating!

While our budget is tight and we usually appreciate donations, we would
much rather have donations of additional academic journals which we can't
currently afford to provide.  Failing that, there are certainly more
appropriate popular journals for a midwestern college library than the
journal for senior citizens or the surfing and diving journal which were
included in the gift subscriptions.  We could easily have provided a wish
list if they'd only asked.....

BTW, as far as I know, this place was NOT connected with Ebsco.  We were
never asked if we wanted to participate in this program and we received no
plastic magazine covers as those people participating in the Ebsco
program apparently do.

Diane Neumeister        e-mail: drneumei@lcac1.loras.edu
Serials Asst.                   (NOTE: That's LCAC1)
Wahlert Memorial Library
Loras College, Dubuque, IA 52004-0178

On Tue, 24 Oct 1995, Marcia Tuttle wrote:

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Tue, 24 Oct 1995 08:51:30 EDT
> From: Steve E. Thompson <AP201002@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
> Subject: Neighborhood Periodical List
>
> We recently began receiving unsolicited gift subscriptions to 8 popular
> magazines (e.g. Road & Track, Snow Country, etc.).  The subscriptions run
> from 2-3 years in length.  With some help from EBSCO, we have discovered that
> the subscriptions are from an unknown donor through the Neighborhood
> Periodical Club.  Has anyone else had a similar experience?  Can anyone shed
> any light on the Neighborhood Periodical Club?  Thanks.
>
> Steve Thompson
> Head, Serials Dept.
> Brown University
>