Never again in certain magazines!

Where has the honor gone?

I know there are going to be a few people upset with this blurb blog but I only post this to illustrate my experience and my views on certain people and businesses.

I don’t think for a second that a company that has been around for years necessarily makes it a good company and I also don’t think a company that’s popped up overnight necessarily is a bad or untrustworthy company. Haven of Horrors started as mentioned before as a passion and love for all things horror and sci-fi and a place where you can buy items from both of these amazing genres without having the crappy POP items that many stores and online businesses sell along with these genres.

Before, years ago I loved to buy my items from niche shops that were not commercialised or ran by big corporations like HMV or Spencers. I enjoyed spending time looking in the small independent stores to find horror characters and collectables. So when I started Haven of Horrors I decided to try to carry on this style of store. I’m sure many people like myself, if you want to buy any horror or sci-fi items you don’t want to have to sift through “Big Bang Theory” or “Justin Bieber” merchandise to find a Freddy or Michael Myers figure.

So after deciding to start Haven of Horrors I know I needed to advertise, and to my displeasure after doing research and getting feedback from certain people I decided to advertise in a very popular magazine. Now when you decide to advertise in certain magazines they give you all these various “offers” for example, advertise online via their website or in the magazine or at a convention. Whichever you choose there is also another option which is how big do you want to go. So I decided to advertise in a physical magazine called Rue Morgue, this was a big mistake. After emailing back and forth and phone calls regarding what I wanted, I was promised certain things like a free copy of every magazine the business was advertised in, of which I received non, and because I like to think and I do run an organised business I wanted statements each month for my taxes and sure enough I very, very rarely got these and when I did I had to chase them down to send them. Now after committing and signings a year contract I honoured that and made the payments without delay even though I wasn’t getting what was promised. All I thought was “What a 2 Bit Company” and knew I would not be advertising with them again. So after that year was up, I decided to do some more research and find a better more professional magazine. So I ended up finding to my now also displeasure Horrorhound. Again, I opted for in the physical magazine, and even though they were a few bucks cheaper than Rue Morgue it was not the price but the popularity that made me go with them. So again after being told what I will receive a copy of the magazine (which I didn’t receive anything) I knew that many of these so called great horror magazines are nothing more than a few people doing this as a hobby (At least that what it looked and felt like). Again I committed to a year and honoured this, only to make it a point on how unhappy I was and to then be told by the “rep” that they were going through changes and they had lost a few people and employed some new people that were getting used to how it works!

Sorry this is a business right?

I know if I do anything wrong it is my JOB and the company’s reputation on the line. Customers need to be reassured you are doing EVERYTHNG you can to appease them. When you are running a business that is based on customer sales or advertising then you need to bring you’re “A” game.

Even though I paid and advertised in these magazines, and after letting Rue Morgue know how crappy they are and how they could improve their customer service I was contacted by someone at Rue Morgue and asked to remove there logo from my banner that shows and states advertised in Rue Morgue and Horrorhound at which point I was advertised in these magazine. So as a real businessman I removed the Rue Morgue logo. Needless to say I don’t support nor recommend anyone to advertise in any magazine that doesn’t know how to run a business or stand by their words. There unfortunately are too many of these “Established” companies that literally are nothing more than money hungry, false advertising, newsletters that feel they can do what they like.

My closing on this, is that I would never do business with such low companies and that there is more reason than technology ruling out physical magazines, from my experience it’s to actual workers at the magazines that don’t know how to run them that is destroying them.