OK It is obvious to me that they are taking advantage of myself a small business owner Here is the Federal Trade Commission #202-326-2222 and e-mail http://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/bureaus-offices/bureau-consumer-protection They will take your complaint but do not look into just a individuals complaint but if we all put in our complaints it will make a difference! read more

My experience is the same. Do not buy from this company. Scammed me out of $1,000+ which is embarrassing to say but maybe it will help others. Stay away! read more

Again, another person contacting ne telling me they were rippid off by this rag, heakthy & happy living. Pkease anyone who feels the same please contact me. Jerrymeyerson@aol.com read more

This is a SCAM!!!! Their sales person tells you that he is offering TV adds, magazine add space and a high circulation rate! All lies, we can't get anyone to call us back, no TV adds and no prints anywhere!!! DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THESE PEOPLE! read more

So 5 years later the company has responded to my review. The single page contract is misleading and the team members that represent the business all read from a generic script. The business is designed to suck money from the customer without offering any useful services. They may offer a magazine and/or post your company information to a website but the catch is: NOBODY GOES TO THE WEBSITE AND NOBODY READS THE MAGAZINE. The company is a scam. Hopefully the new owner can do a better job of actually supporting a customer struggling with marketing/advertising. I wish I could have my money back because I literally received zero customers and wasted hours of time. read more

I run a Chamber of Commerce in No. County San Diego. One of our members was sold advertising by this company. The gentleman purported that our Chamber highly recommended their product (which we did not) She was told that her article/ad would be in a magazine that would be placed in our Whole Foods Market (ie upscale people go there). She along with a few other (non chamber member) businesses were also sold this bill of goods. I spoke to Olivia in their legal department. It is really hard for me to believe what she told me. They hire sub-contractors to peddle their advertisements..ie they really have no clue what their professional standards are or what they might say to get the person to sign on the dotted line...so much so that supposedly in their contracts there is a line to the extent of " You are signing this contract based on what is in the contract and not what the sales person has said to you" .. SERIOUSLY!? Also in their contract they supposedly explain that they use a third party distribution company who gets their distribution locations where ever they can...ie don't count on it being Whole Foods." When I asked where our member did have her distribution to, I was told our local Ralphs and one of our Vons. I went to these markets to verify. Vons had a rack inside with various newspapers and magazines and indeed there was a tag for Healthy,Happy Living...but it was rather raggy and no magazines were there and another paper was in its place. Upon going to Ralphs there was no tag and no Healthy, Happy Living. So buyer beware. NO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE would send a stranger to your business to solicit you unless you knew about it before hand. These types of sales people will SAY ANYTHING to get you to sign. You may indeed end up with an ad (I have yet to see this one) but it might just be inside the ratty liquor store rather than Whole Foods Market. read more

To any advertiser considering using Healthy Happy Living, I would advise to spend your hard earned dollars else where. My experience with them has been nothing short of feeling like I am dealing with a Scam company. READ your contract!!! It specifically says "advertiser...has not relied upon any promises, statements or representations other than as contained herein...." My Sales guy Jack Wilson promised numerous things in person that he conveniently didn't write in the contract. As I read/skimmed the contract he says "that just puts everything into writing that we just talked about." Out of trust, and lack of time, I signed. I've never been lied to on a professional level before, and it hurts. And the people on the phone???.... they specifically point out that very line in the contract above, and continue to not give in at all. They are proud of that line and boast about it each time I call. Every time I am transferred to management it goes strait to voice mail and the management has NEVER returned my phone call. Date of Sale: 11-20-2013 Things that were promised from Sales Guy (in person): 1. The ad would start in January 2014 and would run for a year. 2. Payments would not start until March after the ad started and would be billed in Quarters. 3. My ad would run in both HEB locations in my town 4. They would run a TV ad with a Voice-Over and I would be able to script what was said. 5. My ad would run on pg. 5 underneath the Sodoku game. 6. I would approve all ADS before they ran. Things that actually happened: 1. My ad didn't start until February, and 10 days late....... February 10, 2014. 2. They billed me in December 2013, expecting a payment on January 1, 2014 and 4 back to back monthly payments. 3. My ad only ran in one HEB location, (the farthest from my business location) 4. They have never contacted me for a TV ad, I'd be surprised if it even ran 5. Once the printed AD finally ran, My AD was pushed to pg. 15 on the inside of the very back page!! 6. They also didn't even run my revised ad!!! I submitted a revised proof and they published the old one! In Summary, I will NEVER do business with this company again, and I only wish that potential advertisers are aware of what they are getting themselves into. To date I have received 0 new clients from using Healthy Happy Living and I will continue to update that number the rest of the year. **UPDATE** 3/10/2014 - Still no new business from this ad. **UPDATE** 4/24/2015 - Nope not one ad coupon came in my door the whole year. What an awful waste of money. read more

I am so glad I read these reviews. They mailed me my invoice and I wouldn't have been able to pay on because how late they mailed it. So I called. They called back earlier this evening for payment. After reading the reviews, I canceled my card before the payment processed. Jack said I would be in contact with someone with in 10-12 business days from our meeting (mid November) about a tv ad. Haven't heard about that, it's early January. They only contact you for money. They only got $200 from me to do the "art work", which is high school level. I am a young business owner and I feel deceived, along with everyone else. But thank you, HHL, you've opened my eyes to scan artists like yourselves. read more

Received an F from the BBB. Falsely sells add space in their magazine and calmed to distribute to local markets. Never had contracts with the markets they claimed it would be at. read more

WHY OH WHY didn't I look at Yelp before I did business with these people? I have so little money...and the man that contacted me had such a high pressure sales technique that I felt like if I didn't act right then, I would miss out on this high quality circulation. A LOT of good businesses in my community did the same. Now we are all out over $1000 each, and we cannot get in touch with this magazine. We need to get our money back and get these people out of business for good! read more

This company TOTALLY ripped me off!!!!! They promised me one thing and gave me something totally different and when I contacted them for breach of contract they where super rude and said they would give me a refund but they won't return my emails or phone calls anymore. Worst Company I have EVER worked with!!!!!!!!!! read more

As Lindsay and others have said - why oh why didnt I check these people out before acting? I went against my better judgment and bought in, even paid upfront to get the discount, all for NOTHING. I was promised exclusivity (only one vendor with my business), as were many others, while HHL had no intentions of honoring that. THey promised distribution at 2 high end locations, the WHole Foods in Encinitas and the one in Del Mar, IN THE STORE, telling us they had negotiated an exclusive contract with their distributor to be on a prominently diplayed rack. THe managers of both stores told be they never heard of the magazine, never had it in the stores and never will. Stay away. As far as I can tell, these folks are intentionally scamming people. Not simply a poorly managed but well-intentioned company that is screwing up. read more

I feel like a fool for believing this company would do as promised. They are a complete scam ! I refuse to do any business with this company any longer. PLEASE BEWARE, and do NOT sign anything and do not give this company a single dime. read more

The worst advertise way ! Magazines are not worth to invest any money ! Stay away from spending any money is a ripoff !

We are writing this review on behalf of our company yoga80, so other companies don't make the same mistake we did in trusting Happy & Healthy Living Magazine. The Healthy & Happy Living Magazine rep completely misrepresented how the magazine would be distributed. Their pitch is an exclusive rack inside Whole Foods Stores. That is a complete lie. We made the mistake of thinking this company was honest, but after the fact when I realized the magazine was not at Whole Foods, I read the contract with more attention. Always read your contract first before signing. If we had read this one line in the small print we never would have signed it "(B) Advertiser acknowledges upon signing this contract that he/she has read this contract and has not relied upon any promises, statements or representations other than as contained herein and hereby acknowledges receipt os a NCR copy of this agreement". In other words, whatever their rep told us meant nothing because the contract says otherwise. Do not conduct any business with this company, because they are very good at hiding their fraudulent business practice and you will waste your money as we did. If you have questions our contact information is info@yoga80.com. read more

UNBELIEVABLE!!! Don't do business with this advertising company. The person in charge of billing, Pam, is incompetent. She will not sign you up for auto pay, after she states she will. She will double bill your credit card, twice in the same month, and she will not answer the phone. I have left 4 voicemails in the past 10 days, and she did not return 1. I called her AGAIN today, and was told my whole balance was due TODAY. I told her I would hold for a confirmation #, she tried to run the card with an expiration date that was 2 months ago, instead of the one I gave her. These people and this company are not worth doing business with. I will ALWAYS look up advertising companies online for customer reviews going forward, lesson learned. read more

There are several negative reviews here and I completely agree. Before I begin...This company is a scam! Don't give them your money. You will be asked to sign an exclusive contract for advertising and will be told they only offer this to a small amount of businesses in the same field. The salesman will tell you to choose which page you want it to appear on and that it will be distributed at your local grocery store every month for 12 months. No, my ad wasn't on the page that was promised. No, my ad wasn't delivered every month for 12 months. (only 2 months) Yes, they took my money. They might put one or two issues out to justify you being charged up front, but then they stop with new issues out. The old ones sit there until they are destroyed by weather and get tossed. Then, when you call or email they don't respond. Unless you block your number and act like you are a new customer looking for the sales department. After getting through and complaining they said they would give me a free ad online. Interesting thing is that their website doesn't have ads on it!! So that was just another blow off. They will take your money but won't give you the product you pay for. Their response to me was "Sorry, but our records show they were delivered, we don't offer refunds". When I asked them to send me the printed copies, they didn't do that either. Again....This company is a scam! Don't give them your money. read more

All Reviews are legit. This company is a scam, they are basically a collection agency that wants you to sign a contract that states, the client must return the forms in timely manner. Funny thing is they (Healthy Happy Living) Never send the proofs so naturally I cancelled. This whole thing is a big scam for them to NOT print, proof or reply and scare you with collection process. I used to work in collections and this is very typical. They even promised more advertising in outside states, which makes no sense eh. Avoid them at all costs read more

I am an MD in Palm Desert, CA. I have purchased advertising and high end equipment for 15 years, and dealt with countless vendors and their sales reps. HHL Print Media is the worst I have met. The essence of the scam is promised distribution in Whole Foods. In my case, I was to share the cover of the magazine, Healthy and Happy Living, for one year, in six consecutive bimonthly publications. My written contract indicated placement in Jensens Market in Palm Desert. Steve Davis, the sales rep, specifically told me the SAME MAGAZINE was to be placed in a second location, a new Whole Foods in Palm Desert, about one mile away from Jensens. Couldn't put it in writing because it was a free bonus. Sound familiar? Very simple for me -- if I was not promised Whole Foods, I would not have signed. No confusion. Eight months later and countless calls later, no magazine and no ad in Whole Foods. So today, I spoke with OLIVIA IN THE LEGAL DEPARTMENT. (red flag -- what magazine advertising company has a legal department extension on their automated phone menu??). Rather than repeating my insanely frustrating experience, I have cut and pasted from another recent review below. No sense in being redundant. Olivia told me the sales reps are independent and therefore not employees of the company. I asked her if she would be willing to somehow remedy this situation. Her answer - since my written contract only read Jensens for distribution, they had fulfilled their obligation. What about what the rep told me face to face in my office? Not their problem. "Why would you sign a contract that you had not read?" , was her helpful reply. Obviously, I am not the first person to have this experience with their company. A charming caveat to all of this; I told Olivia that I would make it a mission of mine to share my negative experiences with as many persons as possible. Her reply? "Go for it. This is slander. I will go to your practice's website and write negative reviews, and see how you like it." 1. All the above events occurred. Not slander. 2. I'm pretty sure that since Olivia is not a patient of mine, that if she indeed fabricated negative reviews of my practice and posted them, that she might have a slander problem. As well as her employers, who might be interested in her customer service skills. I'll talk to HHL publications tomorrow after talking to some friends. ---------------------------------------------------------- (5 paragraphs below taken from another post) ---------------------------------------------------------- ""The Healthy & Happy Living Magazine rep completely misrepresented how the magazine would be distributed. Their pitch is an exclusive rack inside Whole Foods Stores. That is a complete lie. We made the mistake of thinking this company was honest, but after the fact when I realized the magazine was not at Whole Foods, I read the contract with more attention. Always read your contract first before signing. If we had read this one line in the small print we never would have signed it "(B) Advertiser acknowledges upon signing this contract that he/she has read this contract and has not relied upon any promises, statements or representations other than as contained herein and hereby acknowledges receipt os a NCR copy of this agreement". In other words, whatever their rep told us meant nothing because the contract says otherwise. Do not conduct any business with this company, because they are very good at hiding their fraudulent business practice and you will waste your money as we did."" __________________ __________________ I notice in the other reviews that there are 3 similar posts since 8/26/2015 -- todays date is 9/8/15. I signed my contract in October 2014. Sorry I did not post sooner. I did not actually believe that a company would knowingly operate in such a misleading, deceptive, and repeatedly dishonest manner. I imagined it had to be a bookkeeping or records mistake that they would be anxious to remedy. Shame on me. read more

Scammers! Lied about everything! Very calculated crooks, going from city to city ripping businesses off! Lesson learned to do a background check on every advertising company and never believe any sales person's word. Got my credit card to reverse the charges and block any future charges. Some lady called me harassing me for payment. . I said I wanted to talk to the guy who showed up to my office the day I signed the contract. . She said, "That's Never Going To Happen." So I replied, "Well Then A Payment is Not Going To Happen. A promise for a promise and until you keep yours you won't be getting any payment from me!" 3 HUGE LIES: 1. They called saying they were the representatives of the Whole foods Grocery store. Whole foods had never heard of this company. 2. Told me I'd be the only business in my field of work. That was not the case when the magazine came out. 3. Told me I'd be on pg.4... I was NOT on pg.4, but somewhere in the Teens. These were the same 3 lies they told to all of the businesses in the magazine! My clientele are customers from Whole foods. Supposedly the magazine is at a Ralphs and it's been over 4 months and I haven't received even 1 phone call from a customer inquiry providing proof my future clients don't shop at Ralphs. They need to be shut down immediately. I'm shocked that they have gotten away with this for as long as they have! read more

If I didn't have to check a star, it would have been a big fat zero! total rip off company, buyer beware! This is a scam - attorney general type of scam. Don't do it! Don't buy into it and don't give them your money! read more

The biggest scammers around, so rude on the phone, I guess they are used to customers being upset when they call they call the magazine. They never delivered my add, the salesman promised the world and delivered nothing I wish authorities would punish scammers like them ( there must be a law against what they are doing)!!!. read more

This magazine is fraudulent. Several business owners purchased ads. We were told the magazine was going to be in our grocery store in December. Still not there. They are scam artists read more

I wish I would have done my research before signing a contract with this company. They did a nice add, but I never saw the publication at the Walmart in Oxnard as in the contract! I called the company and they said they have proof from the distribution company that delivers the publication to the Walmart in Oxnard but of course you can only leave a message with no return phone call. I question if they ever had a contract with Walmart, I will definitely call Walmart to inquire as I intend to take legal action towards not delivering a service that I paid for. I will also be sharing their rating with the Better Business Bureau which is a D-, on every social media avenue I can. Here is the link to their rating http://www.bbb.org/losangelessiliconvalley/business-reviews/publishers-magazine/healthy-and-happy-living-in-woodland-hills-ca-1021430 I hope this review prevents more consumers from doing business with this company! Also note in the contract that you are authorizing them to take electronic payments if you don't send in payment in 38 days. read more

This is a total SCAM. As of today there are 7 reports, including mine, with the BBB of Central CA stating the same thing. The sales representative uses bait and switch tactics to sell advertising with Healthy and Happy Living Magazine, with the understanding that you will be receiving TV commercial voice over ads, multi level marketing, LocalLess Advertising and other social media promotions. I looked at the LocalLess website and it lists businesses that have been out of commission for the past 3 years. I signed in Jan. 2014 and as of July 2014 I have never appeared in a TV ad, posted onto LocalLess nor have I been contacted for SEO and metatag information. If you try and look around the internet, you won't find anything on them because they are obviously paying to have all the negative remarks removed from the internet. Spent several hours on the phone trying to get them to stop debiting my account and refund my money for services not rendered. My June/July 2014 publication, not a magazine because it's only 4 pages front to back, was put out on the shelves on July 13, 2014. I sent them a certified letter to cancel my contract, filed a BBB complaint and filed a complaint with the Texas Attorney General's Office. Next steps for me is to file in CA where they are located. If you have any more next steps for legal process please post for all to see. They must be stopped. read more

Received a call from salesman named Larry last week. Had him come to my office to discuss. I asked him a few questions I thought were relevant and he became very defensive and blurted out "you don't like me"! He was right. He was very evasive and tried to make me feel guilty for asking questions. WHAT A SCAM! Thank goodness Larry was so transparent I didn't get hooked. BE CAREFUL! read more

This place is running a fraud business.They lie about the ad location placement, they do not return your call messages.Keep on transferring to others This is a fraud business, they cheat and lie. Its a scam. We decided to advertise in this magazine under the promise that we would be on first page in the issue. We later found out that we were on the last page instead of the first page. After we tried contacting, calling and telling them about the situation, they ended up transferring one person to another which there were no answer, we left many voice mail messages and hardly ever got a call back, and if we did get a call back we would tell them about our problem and they would transfer to a another person who we got voicemail again, left messages and no response. After two months going back and forth without a resolution i tried calling back again today, asking for a manager to speak to, instead they handed up on me. I called back again asking to speak to a manager, was told that person is not in, i asked can i have their name so when i call back i can directly ask for her. I was told no we can not give that information out. read more

Im very disapointed with this company, please don't sign any contract. Now they Are billing me for thousands of dls, i think they are lying To a lot of peaple. And withdraw your acount right away read more

All I can say is what a mistake to do business with this company. Will not return my calls. I paid to advertise on the back page of their magazine, I was placed on the back page for the first cycle but not the second time. I have called multiple times, left multiple messages with no call back. They have my website address wrong in the ad and still they have not corrected it or return my call or emails. What a scam! Do not do business with these people. read more

I am another business who has been scammed. I signed up to be in Walmart in 3 locations. The sales guy was a very hard sell, ready to walk out. I should have let him walk. They gave me what I thought was a deal and then started charging my credit card every month. Walmart never heard of them and the manager of one of the Walmart's said they don't allow any such publication on the premises. I've tried to get a proof of publication with my ad, but they never send it. I had a new business when I signed up with them and all I got was Zip, Zero. I'm thinking of filing suit, but I think there will be a long line. I am seriously thinking of contacting the state attorneys office for these guys. Otherwise they will continue to scam other businesses. Why can't a company just do what they say they are going to do? It's hard enough starting a new business and these guys scam you out of money. read more

This company should be out of business!! Someone needs to put a STOP to them! I was also scammed out of money I paid to HHL Magazine and they never ran my AD. I was told my ad would be on the front cover and displayed at Walmart. I had a bad feeling so decided to check Walmart and there wasn't any HHL Magazines there. So I called HHL and got the run around finally they called me back and said the magazines weren't dropped off yet to wait til Monday. So I checked again on Monday the mag was there but my AD wasn't in it. The quality of the mag was poor, nothing like the Sales Rep showed me. Since my AD didn't come out I decided not to send my next installment payment, HHL mag decided they would create a check based on the last one I sent them and ran it through my bank!!! I will never do business with a company without looking them up, wish I would've seen these reviews first. Also their address is no good, tried to file a complaint with BBB and they couldn't because the letters were being returned. read more

I got offered to be in the happy healthy living magazine they told me it wold be the price of $199 dollars and that we can put whatever we want in the ad. So that's what we did and they said they would send us the rough draft for a approval. Well nothing like that happened they put their own stuff in our ad they misspelled words they put coupons in there that was not approved by us our logo was not what it should have been. So I called and talked with them and said why is all of this put in without my knowledge you guys put out an ad that I didn't approve and now are charging me more money that no one told me about they didn't go over their contract nothing. When I asked if I can cancel with them they said no and they didn't want to work with me at all read more

TOTAL Scam! Wish I would have read these reviews before. I was lied to through the entire process. I cancelled the card they were using so I only ended up paying the first of four payments however I am being pursued by their attorneys now. I notified the BBB and they took the complaint but then were unable to resolve it. Does anyone know what step to take next? This company needs to be STOPPED! read more

This company is a complete scam. They charged me but were never actually able to show me my ad. Asked what stores i could find the magazine at, but when i went to the stores no magazine! scam scam scam. read more

this is the worst possible magazine to spend money on. the gentleman that found me came and made me an offer i could not refuse so i signed up. i got one full page ad that was supposed to be for a year. i got one magazine!!! he is a complete rip off. he promises so many different things and delivered on none of those promises. DO NOT GET HOOKED UP WITH THESE CROOKS!!!! YOU WILL NOT BE HAPPY!!! IF I COULD GIVE IT 0 STARS I WOULD!!!! read more