I am a reader of National Geographic magazine and really enjoy reading it from cover to cover. However, whenever I try to send a gift subscription to my friends or relatives it never goes through. The first time I sent a gift to my family in India, and when the magazine did not reach them even after 3 months I called customer service every once a month to find out about the order. They would keep me on hold for a long time and then tell me it takes 8 to 10 weeks. Finally I after 6 months of waiting I had to call and cancel the gift order. I paid $45 and got back only part of that amount $37 for a gift subscription that never reached the recipient.
Now I have sent one to a friend in DC. The order was completed in January and it is already March my friend has not received a single copy of national Geographic. When I called customer service they said that the recipient should have been getting the magazine from January and they will replace the missing issues. I am not sure how many more times I am going to have to call NGS for this.
I am not sure why NGS is so inefficient at gift subscriptions, because when it comes to renewing they are very prompt in sending notices .

So placed an order online for a new subscription of National Geographic magazines back in August of 2010 for $15. First issue was suppose to arrive in the first week of October 2010. After asking many times, via email, where the hell my subscriptions were, they cancelled me. So I reorder, they say they are going to send me the pending issues, October and November, and send me a bill for $12.50. Here we are November, and still no magazines. And no credit either for the $15 previously charged. How long does it take to get a magazine in the mail? I subscribed to Reader's Digest, paid $10, and received September, October, and November issues last week. Now that is service!!!