Why is it that when you subscribe to a (weekly) magazine, you seem to always have to wait 6-8 weeks for the first issue? WTF is going on during that time? It would seem to me that once you phone up to subscribe, your information could be entered into the active subscriber database within a few days (I am being generous, really all they need to do is verify your billing information). If you are dealing with a subscription agency, I could see how it would take a little longer to update the database, assuming they have to forward the information to the magazine database and cannot enter it directly. However, 1 week would seem like a sufficient time to do this. Once the information is in the database, the appropriate address label can be printed for the printing run of the next issue, and the issue should be received in the mail within 1 week. Maximum total time (worst case): 1 week to update database, 1 week wait for next issue to be printed, 1 week wait for delivery = 3 weeks. What am I missing?
You may have noticed that when you subscribed to the magazine and provided your 5 digit zip code, the magazine was delivered with a 9 digit zip. Some extra time is spent verifying the zip9 with the USPO database. And you know how speedy the USPO is…
That’s a good point, but…actually there is a website: http://www.usps.com/ncsc/lookups/lookup_zip+4.html
that immediately provides the 9 digit zip code when you enter any US address. Maybe the subscription people don’t know about it?
I think if they wanted to, they could easily send you the first issue within 3 weeks. There must be some advantage to waiting an extra month, but I can’t figure out what it would be. I mean, they still have to send you 52 issues, so it’s not like it costs them less to shift this into the future by a month.
It’s been my experience that the first issue arrives a lot more quickly than that. I think the “4-6 weeks” or “6-8 weeks” is just a holdover from the pre-computer days.
What really bugs me is their sneaky way of sliding in last month’s issue – which they couldn’t give away – as your first issue.
Another reason to pick the “Bill me later” option. This helps to see if they magazine will deliver promptly and if your neighbors will steal it 