[image from we heart it, edited by me]

So, this is going to be a rant post.  There is absolutely no doubt about that.  Way back in August (about three months ago now), I got in touch with More Magazine to get involved in their Anatomy of a Room Feature.  They were really interested in photographing my room, so then came the long slog of emails to try and get it organised.  It was a bit of a nightmare, because they were coming to photograph another Scottish room and mine, so they had to find a day that we were both available and a day that they could send the photographer.  Eventually a day was set and I was really excited.  But, a few days before the photographer was due to come, I received an email telling me that the other room had fallen through and that they needed to have two or more rooms to photograph to make it worth sending the photographer (I forgot Scotland is practically Siberia to some people).  So my choice was, find someone else's room to photograph or not have mine featured at all.  The only person I could think of was my sister, because her room is lovely too, just very different to mine.  She was in Ibiza though, so I took photos of her room and sent them off to see if they would like to include it.  Eventually they got back to me and said they would, so another date had to be organised for when she would be back from Ibiza and not at work.  It already wasn't the fun experience I was expecting it to be, surely it shouldn't have been as stressful as that for me.  And I'm not entirely sure why it was then my responsibility to find them another room.  That's pretty unprofessional if you ask me.

The day before the shoot, I was contacted by the photographer to say that, he'd be there at about half eight in the morning and we'd need to be really fast because he was due for another all day shoot.  So basically More Magazine had double booked this guy and we were unceremoniously squeezed in and rushed to get photos taken.  And because the instructions for the shoot were to have all of your things all over the place we had to dismantle our rooms the night before and try and sleep in amongst the chaos.  So the photographer came the next morning and, would you believe he was Scottish?  At the time I didn't really think anything of it but, if I could now I would've asked him if he was based in Scotland.  Not exactly a tough effort he is based in Scotland.  He was in and out in less than an hour on both rooms, and that was that.  We waited on more magazine getting in touch because we knew the next stage was interviews about the stuff in our rooms and about us.  Almost two weeks later I was contacted by someone from more that I'd never spoken to before, who was going to interview us.  So my sister and I sat in my room on the phone with this woman while she asked us questions.  She said thanks, hung up the phone and we were left to wonder what would happen next - she hadn't even given us a chance to ask when the features may be in the magazine.  A week or so later I was emailed asking for our bank details, as you get £50 for taking part in the feature.  Since they were paying us we thought it was sure to be soon that we would be in the magazine.  But, that wasn't the case.

Another few weeks passed with no contact when, randomly my phone rang while I was out with my mum and my sister.  It was another woman from more magazine that neither of us had ever spoke to, looking for my sister to clarify some questions she was asked about her room.  We thought it had to be soon they were putting it in the magazine because it sounded like they were putting the finishing touches on my sisters feature.   The magazine that came out that tuesday, didn't have my sister in it though, but we kept checking.  It was either the next tuesday or even the one after that that my mum and I randomly checked the magazine to see if either of us were in it - and to our enormous surprise, my sister was.  What struck me as strange was that they didn't contact us to let us know that she would definitely be in it.  Perhaps they assumed that without a doubt we bought more every week? Well I don't and I never have.  It's not my favourite magazine, and I can't always afford to buy more than one every week - especially when most of the stories are the same (I wont be buying it at all any more now though).  So we were all happy and excited for her, and everyone went out and bought it, like my Aunts and even my Grandparents (seriously why else would they buy that rag?).  We thought I would have to be soon because our rooms were photographed at the same time.  But, nope.  A couple more weeks passed and I still hadn't seen my room in the magazine.  So I tried to email the last woman I spoke to, as the first had told me she no longer dealt with the Anatomy of a Room feature.  I emailed about five separate times, and I also took to twitter to try and get some answers.  But, I was being completely ignored.  It wasn't until yesterday, that I was talking to Louise about it on twitter, and had tagged more in the tweets did they finally take notice of me.  Obviously a few tweets one right after the other, and getting someone else involved was the only way to do it.

They apologised and said they hadn't meant to ignore me (not sure if I believed that, after all, the saying goes if you ignore a problem it'll go away - but I certainly wont!) and as soon as the person that was dealing with it was in the office they'd get them right on to it.  Queue the ridiculous email I received this morning!  The email was from the first woman I had ever spoke to - which struck me as odd, considering she supposedly doesn't deal with the feature any more.  Basically she told me that, they had absolutely no intention of ever featuring my room in the magazine, the photos hadn't turned out right and as I should understand everything needs to be "perfect" for a magazine - hmm...like the upskirt shots of "celebrities" you have frequently featured??  She lamely apologised for no one getting in touch with me, asking who it was I had been trying to contact; worded in an accusatory way of 'I think you're lying about trying to contact us' way - which I wasn't of course.  And, basically said I had received my money, so I shouldn't really be bothered about it.  This has made me so angry and disgusted with more magazine.  I'm sure that it does happen quite frequently that things can't be put in a magazine, but for no one out of the many people I spoke to to have the decency to tell me that it wouldn't be in the magazine is inexcusable.  I have been waiting for months, excited about it, being disappointed every week when it's not in it - only to be told it was never going to be.  I also have no idea why I was interviewed about my room.  The woman told us 'I have your photos in front of me right now, so I'm just going to ask you a few questions'.  They'd seen the photos, which to me says they'd have already decided whether it was going in the magazine or not, so it seems like they never wanted to tell me that I wouldn't be in the magazine.  Maybe because I'd be annoyed that my sisters was in it when I'd done all of the organising like some personal assistant?  Yes I am annoyed but not at my sister - I'm annoyed at them for not having simple common courtesy to not have me waiting for something that was never going to come.  It is unbelievable rudeness - something which I cannot stand.  Not that it'll matter to them, as they manage to make sales of their magazine (god only knows why, in my opinion it is the worst of all celeb rag-mags - and that was the opinion I had before all of this by the way!) but, I will never in my life buy their magazine again.