Just a little public shaming for Adorama.com
I recently made a purchase on Adorama.com (a laser printer) for a customer. She needed a new printer, and despite costing more upfront, I always highly recommend people go with laser because they last so much longer and they're much cheaper to operate in the long run. I also love that they're actually still made to be repaired unlike virtually all inkjet printers. Anyways... After checking out I was presented with an offer to fill out a survey for "$100 in FREE gifts!!" Obviously nobody is going to give me $100 worth of anything for a quick survey, but Adorama is a legit website, so I was slightly curious as to what this offer would be. I filled it out and was presented with an "opportunity" to pick 4 magazines, and they would send out 12 months of each for "FREE!" Riiiiight...
I noticed the offer was coming from mags.com so I did a quick search and found they're basically a bait and switch company. It doesn't inspire great confidence when you start typing mags.com into Google and the first recommended search is "mags.com cancel" with "mags.com scam" not far behind. They ask for a mere $2 for "processing", save your payment info, and use it to automatically renew all 4 subscriptions at above market rates, then make it as hard as possible to cancel. They're unquestionably a sleazy, scammy company. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if that explains how all these physical magazines are saying in business in 2021.
Big deal though, right? "You found a company with questionable ethics, do you want a gold star?" You might be saying. My problem isn't that websites like mags.com still exist, my problem is that Adorama is knowingly putting the weight and credibility of their own website and company behind mags.com when they allow them to advertise on their site. And this isn't just a little banner ad, this is a full page, in your face ad that's presented after you make your purchase as if it's related to Adorama. I understand it's a competitive market and they need to make every penny possible, and I'm sure these "survey" companies pay Adorama to present ads to their customers, but do they have to partner with people as sleazy as mags.com? is it really worth trashing their own reputation? Is it worth knowing they're helping scams like that propagate? I sent a message to Adorama with these findings, but I may as well have written an angry letter and thrown it into the wind.
You're better than this Adorama! Please sever your ties with them and find some other survey to dish up after people make a purchase. If you agree, reach out to Adorama and let them know: https://www.adorama.com/help/contactus