I live in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The state has a large hunting culture, but it’s not as common in the cities and I didn’t come from a hunting family. I’ve never gone hunting. I’ve fired a gun exactly once.
Why, then, did an issue of Field and Stream appear in my mailbox with my name and address on it? My dad is fond of giving me magazine subscriptions as gifts, and my birthday wasn’t too long ago, but Dad says he’s not the responsible party. Likewise my friend Desi, who owns the one gun I’ve ever shot and has a wicked sense of humor. My boyfriend says it wasn’t him. Not Mom, not my brother, not any of the friends or family I’ve asked so far. There’s nothing to suggest it’s a free issue they sent to convince me to subscribe. They’d be pretty foolish to target Cambridge for subscribers, anyway.
I’m not upset, I’m just befuddled. Who did this, and why?
Honestly, the most confusing part is that I am interested in possibly becoming a deer hunter after I move to Illinois, so I’m actually glad to have the subscription, but I haven’t mentioned my secret lust for fresh venison to anyone. Someone is reading my mind and buying me annonymous magazine subscriptions!
I’ve had that happen to me in the past with a couple different magazines. Last time it happened, I looked up the magazine’s customer service number and called. They said they had sent out magazines to some number of random people as some kind of promotion. They said I would receive one more but that would be it. No bill or subscription notice would come with the magazines.
I had been freaking out a littie; I thought someone had gotten my name and address and ordered a bunch of magazines in my name.
No answer to your question, but if Pat McManus is still/again writing humor for Field and Stream, the subscription is definitely worth it! And that’s in in my sub-urban, non-hunting/fishing, IN-doorsy opinion.
I found out the hard way that if you make campground reservations on http://www.recreation.gov, unless you uncheck the (very hard to find) opt-out box they will send you “free” subscriptions for outdoor-type magazines. Perhaps you have ordered something online that has a similar consequence.
Look in the magazine and find the 800 number for subscription service. They can not only cancel your subscription, but can tell you how it came to be ordered.
Did any of your other subscriptions suddenly go tits-up? When Premiere magazine ceased publication, the publishing company switched the unused portion of our subscription to Us magazine. Needless to say, we declined to renew.
On occasion, when a magazine goes under it, another magazine will purchase the subscriber list and will continue the subscription with their magazine as a substitute. Running Times did that when they went under with Runner. As did Running. I was writing for both Running Times and Running (thus getting free subscriptions) at the time and I was subscribing to Runner. At one time I was getting three copies of Runner every month in the mail. It was fortunate that Runner and Runner’s World didn’t consolodate for a couple more years or I would have been getting four.
I ended up getting some wine tasting magazine the same way. I can’t remember what the going out of business magazine was, but it had nothing to do with wine and cheese, but there the wine magazine was one day and every quarter for a couple of years.
At one point in college, I spontaneously started receiving a subscription to Field and Stream, Sports Illustrated, Mother Jones, and something else I don’t remember. I never found out why. Mother Jones lasted for a few issues, Field and Stream lasted for about a year, and Sports Illustrated kept coming for at least 2 years. For all I know, it’s still being delivered to my college address. I didn’t forward it because I never read it (although my roommates were happy to have it).
Out of the blue, I too started getting free subscriptions to two magazines. One is Miller McCune, a magazine of the research policy institute of the same name. They send it to me in affiliation with a npo I was involved with over 3 years ago. That list is making the rounds! This months cover highlights the city sanctioned sterile and clean doping centers in Vancouver BC. I am intrigued enough so I did sign up for more free issues.
The other sub is to this pretentious useless little magazine for yuppie Moms called Cookie. It’s mostly filled with clothing ads for kids with prices that beat my monthly mortgage! I actually do enjoy looking through it since its free, but i wont reup the free sub if its offered.
IIRC Money used keep sending mags after my sub would run out, and there were 1 or 2 family type subs that would continue for a year free just trying to get you to resubscribe. But I found they recycle a lot of content in those mags.
Over the past few years I’ve gotten several mystery subscriptions. I got Car & Driver for 3 years, Rolling Stone for a 6 months, then a gap of a year or so and it was back for another year. Lately, I have started receiving Ladies’ Home Journal, though, since I got a card thanking me for my paid up subscription, I think it might be a gift from someone. I’ve also gotten several free subscriptions to specialty magazines that are basically advertising mags, not real magazines. I don’t even count those.
Many years ago I began to receive Sword of the Lord, a Evangelical paper I had no desire to get or read that confused me. It turns out that a “friend”(who’s name must never be mentioned) thought that I needed religion, that was before he decided that being a mass murderer was the way to go
Heh. I drive right by the building where this is published about once a week or so. I haven’t read it in decades, though. The Rices are well thought of locally, and roads have been named for them.
I also started to get Entertainment Weekly delivered to me, out of the blue. I have no interest in its fluff content, but occ. they have something reasonably worthwhile (like the recent article on the Star Trek reboot).
I few years ago I got TV Guide. If I watched TV I might have been grateful for it. When I moved I didn’t forward the subscription. I hope the new tenants enjoyed it.
Evidence that the folks at Field and Stream have some sort of thought-mining capabilities, and are poised to take over the world. Do you have any tin foil handy?
Bing bing bing! We have a winner. I made two camping reservations this summer. The second was in late August, and I probably overlooked that little box. When you say “free,” what do you mean? Should I be expecting a bill if I don’t cancel?
I had a similar weird subscription, Road and Track or something like that - a car mag. I did not subscribe and I don’t know anyone who would think I would want it. It just started showing up one day.
The same thing happened to me just a few months ago: suddenly I was getting Field & Stream every month! Unlike the OP, however, I was not at all happy to get it. I have absolutely no interest in hunting, and am against it except when it’s necessary as a food source. I’ve never gone camping or anything, so I must be the lucky recipient of a random limited subscription. It goes right in the recycling bin when it arrives, and I get annoyed at the waste of paper and resources every time. I had no real opinion of Field & Stream before, but that kind of untargeted waste makes me think a little less of them.*
The strange things, though, are that a) it came to an address I’d only had for a month or two, and b) my first name is cut off on the label (“Jennif” instead of “Jennifer”). Makes me wonder where they got my info.
*Calling to stop the subscription frankly never occurred to me; my own form of waste, I know. I’ll do that the next time a mag arrives.
Who did this, and why?