From Kristin Godsey at Writer's Digest
This just in... the 2002 PA ad was before Kristin was hired as the editor-in-chief, and she had actually asked the ad team to be sure PA hadn't advertised with them. Apparently the ad was no longer in their records, so she didn't know they ever had. Here's the note she sent back (and agreed to let me post here):
--
Thanks. I'll look into it over here. It's VERY important to me that we don't
include unscrupulous advertisers, but they seem to be getting craftier and
sometimes slip by. That's also why we try to educate our readers on what to
look for before signing up for ANY service, so they can judge for themselves
and not rely on ad copy.
FYI, following is what I tell readers when we get complaints about
advertisers:
Before a company advertises with us, we verify that the company is solvent
and that it delivers the services it promises. We revet advertisers
periodically, but can't do so for each advertiser every issue. We take
reader complaints very seriously, and there have been cases when an
advertiser was prohibited from advertising with us when we found that reader
complaints were justified and that the advertiser made insufficient effort
to correct the problem. Frequently, the complaints result from a
misunderstanding on the reader's part, expecting more than the advertiser
promised to deliver. Our editorial copy often discusses red flags and
outright scams and things that writers should look out for before agreeing
to pay for any editorial service. And while we do evaluate advertisers on
the criteria discussed above, beyond that, we trust our readers to use their
own judgment based on their understanding of the market. We will, however,
look into this matter further to satisfy ourselves about the company's
claims.