# Six free magazines for five years! Wow, what a bargain. There's just one little thing **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 21, 2002, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-free-magazines-for-five-years-wow-what-a-bargain-theres-just-one-little-thing/138031 "2002-11-21T21:45:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2002, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-free-magazines-for-five-years-wow-what-a-bargain-theres-just-one-little-thing/138031/1 "2002-11-21T21:45:47Z")
I got a phone call from a solicitor the other day that offered me the bargain of any six magazines free for the next five years. Sounds great! I was all ready to do it, until…they said that all they needed was a bit of a shipping and processing fee of a mere $3.45 a week. Ooh, only $3.45 a week? Why that’s less than $0.50 per magazine. Surely that would be a great bargain, if I had the math skills of a monkey. For those disinclined to pull out the calculators, it came to $179.40, or $29.90 per magazine per year. Yep, those six “free” magazines would’ve cost more than most yearly subscriptions. I really wish he’d tried to convince me what a great deal it was when I said no thanks, but he just said okay and hung up. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2002, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-free-magazines-for-five-years-wow-what-a-bargain-theres-just-one-little-thing/138031/2 "2002-11-21T22:01:33Z")
Jeezum crow, man! You were considering buying something from a telemarketer? You know, I really don’t feel much anger toward telemarketers. Instead, I find that I get pissed off at the _root_ of the problem: the people who _buy things from telemarketers_ and make _calling people on the phone and harassing them_ a viable business practice. I don’t care if you thought they were offering you a good deal. I don’t care if they were offering to drive to your house and hand you a briefcase full of money. You say, “ThankyouI’mnotinterestedpleaseremovemefromyourlist,” and you _hang the hell up._. If _everybody_ just did that, dammit, they would _stop calling_! ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2002, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-free-magazines-for-five-years-wow-what-a-bargain-theres-just-one-little-thing/138031/3 "2002-11-21T22:08:52Z")
It wasn’t just a random telemarketing call. It was from someone I signed up to receive additional info from. I’ve never bought something from a telemarketer, and I’m on the Texas DNC list. And I’m not a man. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2002, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-free-magazines-for-five-years-wow-what-a-bargain-theres-just-one-little-thing/138031/4 "2002-11-21T22:11:28Z")
Oh, okay, that’s a relief. 🙂 (And sorry about the man bit.) ---
**Author:** ![WSLer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@WSLer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WSLer)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2002, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-free-magazines-for-five-years-wow-what-a-bargain-theres-just-one-little-thing/138031/5 "2002-11-21T23:02:19Z")
I got sucked into just this sort of thing about 8 years ago. I ended up with subscriptions to _Car & Driver, Automobile, Road & Track_ and _Motor Trend._ Sense a pattern there:p? They kept calling and trying to bully me into subsribing to even more magazines. It was actually amusing listening to the female telemarketer trying to get me to subscribe to **Club, Hustler** & **Penthouse.** Eventually I started getting _Boating_ magazine, which while it might not be the last magazine on earth that I would read, let alone subscribe to, it’s pretty close to the top. And I had never asked to receive it. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2002, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-free-magazines-for-five-years-wow-what-a-bargain-theres-just-one-little-thing/138031/6 "2002-11-21T23:50:51Z")
I called a magazine publishing company to complain that my friend never received a magazine subscription that I had bought her for her birthday 12 weeks prior. After resolving the matter (by finding out that the freaking magazine is no longer being published), the CSR had the audacity to give me the spiel mentioned in the OP. Uh, gee, thanks for the offer but no thanks. Geesh. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2002, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-free-magazines-for-five-years-wow-what-a-bargain-theres-just-one-little-thing/138031/7 "2002-11-21T23:55:56Z")
That was you? [sub]No foolin’. I’ve done all sorts of magazine work.[/sub]