My Experience with Cosplay Culture Magazine

1:00 pm HelenLJohnson 4 Comments

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Disclaimer:
All the issues I have had with Cosplay Culture Magazine have now been resolved. I am not encouraging anyone to cancel subscriptions or unfollow their social media if they enjoy the content produced. This blogpost is simply to describe what happened to me. As I suggest below, I wasn’t angry at the company, rather I was disappointed in them because I was very much looking forward to receiving copies of the magazine.

In August 2015, I decided to finally take the plunge and subscribe to Cosplay Culture Magazine. What tipped me over the edge was the beautiful Heartseeker Ashe Yaya Han cover and interview that would be inside. As I live in the UK, rather than paying separately for each issue, I decided it would probably be more economical to buy a yearly subscription for $48, around £33. A substantial amount and a similar price to my Elle Magazine subscription. There are a few cosplay magazines popping up now and Cosplay Culture appeared to be the most professional one with recognisable cosplayers contributing and print options available. As much as I love my technology, I’m the kind of person who would pick a hard copy of anything up, even if that option is more expensive! So that was a big plus for me.

I bought my subscription; and waited…and waited. The Yaya issue was replaced by the next and I got in contact with Cosplay Culture via Twitter asking where my subscription was up to. I assumed I would be a few weeks behind because of international shipping, however we were now approaching the latter end of October. I was informed by one of their representatives that my subscription would start with the next issue, so not to worry. I was a little annoyed that I wasn’t informed which issue I would have started with, a common practice in publication, but I had failed to check myself so I wrote it off as a miscommunication and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

I sent a few more Twitter DMs to Cosplay Culture Magazine asking where my first magazine was as the Riddle cover made way for the LeAnna Vamp Star Wars themed one. As mentioned previously, all very well known cosplayers were cover models who participated in, what appeared to be, specific shoots for the magazine. It was coming up to Christmas, I had lost my job and had no problems if Cosplay Culture intended to send magazines as I had bought the subscription in greater affluent times. However I was growing tired of the back and forth with no answers of any great substance. So by mid December I asked for my money back if they were no longer intending on sending me any of the publications. I was disappointed rather than angry; I was very much looking forward to reading quality articles about my favourite hobby.

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Cosplay Culture Magazine informed me that I needed to contact their subscription provider, something else I wasn’t aware of until now. I contacted the subscription provider via email in addition to Cosplay Culture, again! Both did not respond. It was now the week before Christmas and I just wanted my money back. I sent Cosplay Culture one final message requesting my money back on my behalf from the subscription provider, or I would contact my bank. By this time, it had been four months since I started my subscription with no magazines of cosplay goodness popping through my letter box. They didn’t respond again, so I took the issue to my bank and they escalated it to the fraud team.

Unfortunately, I didn’t pay on my credit card, which would have been a lot easier to get money back from undelivered items. I had also left it too long to get anything back via my debit card which is why it was escalated to the fraud team, however I would have to write full statement of why I had left it beyond six weeks. It was never any guarantee I would get my money back. I informed Cosplay Culture of my actions and waited.

Thankfully, this time the fact that a bank was now involved seemed to pushed them forward to resolving the issue. By the end of the first week in January the £33 was back in my account. I never had to send off my fraud form.

As previously stated, I was more disappointed than anything. I felt I was being reasonable, especially being an international customer I expect delays. However the way in which it was dealt with by Cosplay Culture was at times clinical and prolonged unnecessarily. I wasn’t offered any form of compensation, be it they’d send me copies of the magazine that I had missed or extended my subscription to cover missed time. If Cosplay Culture could have honestly told me they would ensure I would get my subscription, I would have been more than happy to keep it. Would I have renewed my subscription? Probably not; the fact of the matter is I wanted the magazine that I paid for not so much the money. However Cosplay Culture left me with no other option.

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What I felt rather strange was that I felt this might just be a problem with my subscription. I searched high and low on the internet to see if anyone else had the same issues as I had with the publication. I couldn’t find a one. This is the main reason for writing this blog post, so if anyone else finds themselves in this situation. They know what to do.

So to end this post, I just want to say, please don’t take my experience to stop you investing in niche publications and projects. They need our help more than ever but be careful and wise in your choosing as even the most professional looking project can hide some nasties below.
As always you can reach me on Twitter and Facebook or the comment section below.



I promise, it will be a cheerier post next time!