After Stream of Library Complaints, EVA Subscription Services Finally Responds

Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 12/4/2008

• Librarians say subscriptions unfulfilled, phone messages unanswered
• Company owner admits dropping the ball, pledges restitution
• Libraries say they’ll wait for proof

For months, more than a dozen library customers of EVA Subscription Services, based in Shrewsbury, MA, have expressed enormous frustration after not receiving periodicals ordered and finding that their calls and emails to EVA went unreturned. One customer even filed a complaint with the local Better Business Bureau (BBB), which closed the case as “unanswered,” Two filed complaints with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s (AG) office and several expressed concerns on library electronic mailing lists.

LJ, after being alerted to libraries’ concerns, contacted EVA, whose president Mary Cohen, was deeply apologetic, even if her explanation for why the company dropped the ball likely won’t convince certain customers. 

(Editorial illustration is an adaptation of EVA's logo.)

EVA, founded in 1996, began to grow about five years ago, but hit hard times, laying people off last year and beginning to fall behind in customer service last December, according to Cohen. It now has only two people to serve about 115 customers, mostly smaller public libraries but some academic ones as well.

“EVA has had problems due to growing too fast to soon and I take full responsibility for not managing my company properly,” Cohen told LJ. “I have let go employees and downscaled the company and plan to fulfill my customers’ orders. I lose sleep over this but have all intentions of fulfilling orders or refunding customers.” She said she was considering putting her house up for sale if needed to raise necessary funds.

Significant delays
LJ forwarded Cohen the names of three librarians with complaints, including Issac Pulver, director of the Saratoga Springs Public Library, NY, whose library had not received certain periodicals since early 2007. “I was not aware of Saratoga's problems although I should have been,” Cohen told LJ. “I am sure they called and I let it slip by.” 

Pulver, who forwarded critical comments about EVA from another dozen libraries and posted his concerns on electronic mailing lists, sent LJ a chronology which noted that a Saratoga Springs staff member contacted EVA on January 10 and tried again on March 14; a response was received by an EVA staffer on March 19, but with no resumption of subscriptions. A library staffer contacted EVA on May 7 and got a response a week later saying EVA would check on the titles. No response was forthcoming, nor did the library get a response from any follow-up communications.

Pulver told LJ he called EVA dozens, if not hundreds, of times, with the number on speed-dial: “Very curious that our case is unknown to EVA, since we've not only endlessly tried to contact them directly, but when that failed, the BBB attempted contact on our behalf, and that communication also went unanswered.” The BBB closed the case as “unanswered” on June 24. He also filed a complaint with the Massachusetts AG’s office, which told LJ it has received two complaints but otherwise could not confirm or deny any investigation. (Complaints may be filed here under “File a Consumer Complaint.”)

Pulver, who has since paid another vendor to renew titles, has asked EVA for a refund of some $4300. He said Cohen told him she’d look into the records and refund what was not renewed. “My feeling is the only reasons we got any response is because you [LJ] contacted her,” he said. “We’re skeptical until we have the check in hand.”

A “fan” demurs
A page on the EVA web site labeled Fan Mail quotes a staffer at the Ridgefield Library, CT as saying, "Thanks, Mary. Working with you and your group is such a pleasure!"

Ridgefield Library Director Christina Nolan, however, is not a fan, telling LJ that, after renewing the contract with EVA last spring, staffers belatedly realized they were not getting many of the subscriptions ordered, some as far back as the summer of 2007. “So I sent them a scathing letter, certified, in May, and demanded our money back,” Nolan said, identifying the amount in arrears as less than $15,000.

She said she had a brief conversation with Cohen at the time but, when told to call back, found the voice mail repeatedly full or that the phone would just keep ringing. Ultimately, she said, “I gave up and went about finding a reliable vendor who could deliver the goods."

Nolan, whose library had recommended EVA to other libraries during the first years they did business, says she told Cohen in the spring that she wanted Ridgefield’s endorsement pulled from the EVA web site. That did not happen. However, Cohen told LJ today that “I will get on that.” (Update: She also told LJ that she disputes that the amount in arrears approaches $15,000,)

Cohen said that she would try to resolve things with Nolan and others. “I do realize the seriousness of this matter, and I do plan to fulfill any subscription or refund,” Cohen said, regarding the array of pending complaints, acknowledging it could take at least a few months.

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