admitting overcharging readers of a British newspaper magazine for four years.

Subscribers to The Sunday Times magazine will receive a credit in the amount of $1.50 per copy, back dated to the time the error first occurred.

In addition, the company has volunteered to donate $7,500 to the Salvation Army on behalf of cash customers the firm cannot identify.

This is being done "to ensure that any benefit we realised from this error is passed on to a worthwhile cause'', said Phoenix Stores president Mr. Reid Young.

The firm will also provide 150 copies per week of The Sunday Times magazine, free of freight charges, and insert them into The Sunday Times newspaper up to the issue of June 27, 1993.

Mr. Young is writing to every subscriber of the magazine who has an account with his firm to apologise for the error, which resulted in the firm charging extra for a magazine they received free of charge.

"Our customers are important to us and, while we realise that businesses need to make a profit, this should not be attained unfairly,'' Mr. Young states in the letter.

"We recognise that our error has brought this question to the fore.'' A direct system of communication has been set up to answer customers' questions in a "timely and thorough manner'', says Mr. Young.

"Any future questions as to pricing should be directed to Darnette Adams,'' he says. "You have my personal guarantee that all inquiries will be investigated.

"I would like to ask for your understanding in this matter and sincerely hope that our actions will meet with your approval.'' Despite his actions, some customers were still seething yesterday, including one businessman who called The Royal Gazette to complain.

"The whole thing is obviously a transparent rip off, in crude terms,'' said the man, who gave his name but did not want to be identified in a story.

"There is no reason why British newspapers and magazines should cost substantially more in Bermuda than they do in somewhere like New York.

"If anything, you would think there would be a greater cost in New York because there's a much broader base of distribution.'' He even disputed Mr. Young's claim that it cost between $1.30 and $1.75 to import each magazine.

"I think this is greatly inflated,'' he said. "It's more like 20 or 30 cents per copy, given the total volume of everything they bring in.'' When The Sunday Times magazine was put up in price several months ago, customers were told that it was due to an increase in the price being charged to the Phoenix Stores by its supplier, said the man.

"How can this be when they were never being charged for it in the first place?'' he added.

But Mr. Young said yesterday: "If the increase he is referring to was one earlier this year, it was made because of a rise in freight costs.''