Signed up for US News and World Report, subscription ended sometime last fall. They sent me 3 notices saying my subscription was up soon, I didn’t reply, since I didn’t want to renew. I thought everything would end when my subsciption ran out.
Nope. Got 2 more letters in the mail, at least 2 phone calls, hell, TODAY I got something from an independent collection agency (or something), telling me I could save 75% (!!!) off the cover price if I renewed my subscription. ARGGGG!!
Also, on the subject, last night I get a call from someone asking if I enjoyed my Maxim magazine, which I love. So, he said something about the newsstand price going up like 45 cents an issue, and I could lock-in the current rate now for up to 3 more years, for like $100 (rattling off from my head, I was literally half-asleep, don’t remember the exact amount, but it was some fairly pricey figure). Finally said no, and hung up. Trust me, if I want to renew, I’ll go through the magazine, or wait for THEIR re-subscription stuff, not sign-up through some independent agency.
Since this is the Pit, I’ll let someone else cuss for me.
This tactic’s even better: I have never subscribed to Guns & Ammo. Nevertheless, an issue arrived in December with a mailing label all made out to me. The kicker: it arrived in a bag with a “This is your LAST ISSUE! Renew today!” flyer. A few days later, I received two “renewal” notices for Guns & Ammo: “don’t miss a single issue! Renew your subscription now!”
How fucking stupid do they think I am? Do they think I just automatically send a check to any outfit that claims I need to “renew” something? Sheesh…
And I’m not even gonna discuss how many times Writer’s Digest called me about renewing, even after telling them that I actually wanted to let my subscription lapse.
My hubby got a “bill” at work awhile back, to renew his subscription to a magazine called Telecom Analysts Outlook Newsletter , in the amount of $2,495.00. Yes, that’s damned near twenty five hundred dollars, for a magazine he has never received, and has no interest in. And no, he doesn’t make enough that he would have blindly paid the bill, either. Sheesh. The scam must be working, though, or they wouldn’t be trying it.
When you say he got it at work, do you mena it wasn’t addressed to him personally, but to the position that he holds? If someone’s spending the company money, they often won’t check to see if the bill is legitimate.
I recieve three consecutive issues of Spin labeled “last issue.” They urged me to renew right away to get the lowest price. The problem is that I have no desire to renew my subscription because the magazine is a piece of shit, and has been since Bob Guccione, Jr. stepped down as publisher.
A couple of years ago, I responded to an offer for three free issues of Rolling Stone. I used to read it some years back and figured what the heck, I’ll give it another try. I discovered after reading those free issues that the magazine now sucks, so I didn’t pay for a subscription.
Once upon a time, if you didn’t pay when they billed you, they would stop sending you the magazine and that would be the end of it. Well I guess they’ve decided they weren’t making enough money that way, so they have changed their tactics. I kept getting bills from them–though they did stop sending magazines to me–and eventually started getting dunning letters from a collection agency. That just got me irritated, because I think that is a pretty shitty way to go about trying to get people to subscribe to their magazine, by trying to frighten them into paying. While I don’t know whether they genuinely had any legal recourse to force me to pay, I figured since I didn’t get anything I didn’t pay for that wasn’t part of the free offer, their case was probably shaky, and I wasn’t about to be bullied.
Here is the letter I sent to the collection agency after getting a letter saying something along the lines of “Now be realistic. You don’t get something for nothing, so send us some money.”:
Ah yes, the dreaded North Shore Agency. I wonder if that same type letter you sent them about your magazines will work for CD’s from Columbia House. They have been sending me threatening letters now for about 2 1/2 years. I just keep throwing them in the trash because I will not pay for something I haven’t yet received. If the jerks want me to pay for the 3 remaining CD’s on my “contract” then they can send them to me first. Then and only then will I pay for them, not before.
You know, I don’t even bother to send back those cards for Columbia House or similar clubs anymore. When they send me something I don’t want, I write “REFUSED” on the package and drop it right back in the mailbox. They usually follow up with a nastygram about “if you don’t want a shipment, send in the card.” My attitude: go fuck yerselves. You set up your clubs this way in the hopes that people will just go ahead and pay for whatever crap you’re pushing that month. You wanna cancel my membership and never make any money from me again, you go right ahead. But it’s YOUR choice, Oh So Great CD Club, to ship this crap to me without my go-ahead, so you can damn well pay to take it back again.
I have subscribed to GAMES magazine for years. Lately they have been really annoying me. It is a bi-monthly magazine. The month after I send my renewal card in and pay for one year I get a renewal card and bill for the next year. Of course I don’t pay, I can see where this is going; me paying for a year’s subscription every other month. I get the same renewal notice at least every other month of the year. I just get in the habit of tossing them until I get the nasty note that I haven’t paid for my subscription, which comes the same month my previous subscription expired.
Other magazines I get just give me one notice, one chance to renew and one chance to pay, much easier to take care of and easier to remember to do on time.
If I didn’t have to drive 15 miles to get a GAMES I would cancel, if they would let me, I’m sure it would be an ordeal.
Has anyone ever talked to those telemarketers who want you to choolse 18 magazines a month for some ridiculously small charge? I always say that I don’t want any. Then they ask me to pick which magazine I would pick if I did want them. I spend about 20 minutes choosing, say I really don’t want them and listen to them rant about how I wasted their time. hehe
