National Home Gardening Club I joined the lifetime membership for $200. in 2005. Got a magazine for a couple years but nothing else they promised. Haven't even gotten the magazine for two years Have not heard a thing from them for two years Minneapolis Minnesota

Home Gardening Club; sounds good. I joined in 2008; they sent me a packet of info and a chance to test garden products, they promise to send you Fiskar Pruning Shears and a kneeling mat. Yay, you think. Then they ask if you'd like their magazine, on subscription, for 24 bucks for two years. Not a bad deal. Its glossy, it's got some interesting articles, the pictures are pretty; not a lot of depth, but I've got  some good info out of them although nothing startling.

However. After a month or so  I received a positively breathless letter from them, saying that I had been selected (one of only a few aha) for a chance at Lifetime Membership. Free, by golly. Yep, that's what they said. To that end they were rebating my magazine subscription price and there was the check at the top of the letter to prove it--and here is the catch--you had to send the check back to THEM, and they would put it toward the Lifetime Membership fee.

Um. Fee? Now it turns out you 'only' had to pony up $18 a month instead of the usual $24 a month for a year, and your lifetime membership will be all paid up. Forever. If you do the math on that, a Lifetime Membership costs $288 (full price) or $216 (if you figure in the 'discount') and since the only thing you are paying for is a magazine subscription, that's 24 years of magazine and not much else. At the time I was 62; that means that by the time I'm 86 i would  be riding free with Home Gardening Club. wowzie. 

I still haven't received my kneeling cushion or Fiskar Shears, either.

I turned them down, sent back the books they had sent me (unsolicited, btw) and havent heard from them since. Possibly because I also left a thoughtful comment in their comment section, which basically said rip off all over it.  Two people ressponded, equally thoughtfully, and perhaps the company realized I was rocking the boat a bit too hard...

Im amazed this is still going on.