Earlier this year, I pitted PopSci for harassing me about renewing a long dormant subscription. For several weeks during two different time periods (about six months apart), they would call week after week trying to get me to renew. I would tell them no and ask that my name be removed from their lists. They would agree to do so and a week later, start all over again. I would remind them that “<insert fake telemarketer name here>” promised that I would receive no more calls. Of course, the new caller had no record of this and I would have to do it again. After 7 or 8 weeks, I finally got a “supervisor” to stop the calls.
I even went to their website and complained. They promised they would remove my name from their database.
So, what did I get in the mail today? An invoice thanking me for ordering a three-year subscription!
I wrote a note on the back warning them that I would seek legal action against them if they did not stop harassing me. I went to the website and sent an email stating the same thing.
Can they be in such dire straits that they can’t survive without my money?
I pity the first agent who calls me. I’m going to make somebody wish they’d never been born, much less taken a job as a telemarketer.
It is very likely that a telemarketing ‘3rd party’ subscription firm purchased your name and information from PS as a list sale. Happens all the time and is why there’s so much junk mail out there (disclaimer: I both purchase and sell lists as part of my daily activities).
What these third party firms do is purchase lists of ‘expires’ and then attempt to get them to resubscribe and then send the subscriptions that result to the publisher for a percentage. You’d be surprised how well it works for the 3rd party. Typically the publisher actually takes a loss on the subscription for the first year and hopes to make it up in year 2 and 3 as the subscriber renews.
And, let me say, some of the less…scrupulous…agents will simply mark you as a renewal and start sending you bills asking you to pay up even though you’d never requested a renewal.
BIG HONKING NOTE: I am not accusing PS or any firm involved in this discussion of the above practice. I’m merely pointing out that some firms do use such marketing approaches.
I went ahead and called the magazine’s subscription department today. Apparently, this is why my name came up on this company’s list. I gave them the name of the 3rd party and they had never heard of them. I asked the magazine rep to remove my name from their database.
Now I must wait for the coming barrage of phone calls from the 3rd party company. I will not be nice to anyone.