I just finished reading a fellow rip-off about Lucid Magazine based out of L.A./San Diego and had the EXACT same experience. They sent me two sample issues which looked fine enough plus a writer's contract which I faxed back. After completing two stories for the publication, I never heard back from Shane Padamada again. Even more embarrassing, I had the publicist's follow up with both me and Shane regarding the stories and had no answers. It's completely shady. I don't live in the area so don't even know if the stories ran or not but now that I've read the other poster's complaints am quite sure that the entire operation was so shady. I wasted time on the stories, and the opportunity to pitch them to another publication as I waited to hear back from them. STAY AWAY from this magazine.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
I too was cheated from this magazine. I wrote some articles for the LA issue and my first check was weeks late and I never got my final check, I called and called, emailed and got no response back. I went on called each number from the list of numbers in the media kit, and spoke to a Jeff and he was just as in the dark as I was about what was going on, I also spoke to a gabe who too was clueless, both told me that magazine is looking to be a scam. I asked around town and found another writer who was also scammed by this so called magazine. The magazine may look pretty but this is a scam folks. I agree with the above poster, STAY AWAY for sure.
I got ripped off as well--wrote 2 stories for LUCID and all I got was excuses.
Let this be a lesson to all of us--never sign a contract with a new magazine--always insist on money up front--at least half down. If we do sign, strike out any clauses that say "to be paid on publication"---becuase chances are, they'll never get published, which leaves us writers with aboslutely no legal recourse.