RugerForum.com

The wife hands me a subscription renewal notice today for her magazines. It says, in big bold about 75 point all caps font "IMPORTANT - PLEASE RESPOND IMMEDIATELY! YOUR SUBSCRIPTION WILL EXPIRE SOON. Reply by 7/19/11"

So, instead of just paying it I decide to check Quicken and see when I paid it last, because, #1- I could swear it hasn't been too long ago I paid this, and #2 - I've had a few other "panic" notices lately that say a subscription is about to expire and it was actually about 6+ months away from actually expiring. Of course, on the notice, there is absolutely no indication of when the subscription actually expires. So, I check this one and I paid it 2/15/11....5 months ago on a 1 year subscription. Guess I better panic and send in my money 7 months early! This seems to be happening more and more. I just wonder how much money they make by getting millions of subscriptions to renew early and putting the money in the bank to earn interest.

Let's see...1,000,000 early subscriptions x $15 subscription price = $15,000,000 x 3% annual interest / 2 (to assume they're getting these subscriptions 1/2 a year early) = $225,000. Nice! $225,000 for free. Pretty smart actually but it still ticks me off.....

_________________
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you. -- Gen.9:3

This is why I ignore them and keep track personally of when things expire. I get them all of the time for my AMA and NRA memberships also.

_________________
--==+Tim+==--
SR40 / Mossberg 500 / Rossi 30-30

Dang it, it works the other way too. Judy has a subscription to Star??, I kept getting these same notices month after month and I kept blowing it off because "I knew they were full of it".

Well, kinda of like the boy that cried Wolf, they sort of screwed themselves. I blew them off so many times that it did expire (oh darn). Well now Judy isn't getting to do her puzzles and read the national smut so I have to hear about it. So now Star has pissed me off multiple times. Not the way to do business IMO. BTW, it is a horrible rag.

Karl

Yep, stopped getting magazine subscriptions long ago because of this kind of BS.

We have had problems with dentist cashing payments and not recording the receipt in their books. I stormed up there with cancelled checks in hand and a BIG TIME attitude. Not only had they been over billing me, the were screwing up my kids teeth as well. Since we changed dentist the kids have almost no cavities. It really miffs them when you get very loud in the office for all the other customers to hear your having billing problems and have all the evidence to show it is their fault. I'm sure the other patience went home and check their records as well.

Now the same issues are coming up with the orthodontist. Past due bills and BS. We are going up there with the cancelled checks and the payment book.

I don't mind paying for work done or a item purchased, but don't screw up and start over charging me.

APEXDUCK

Kinda like when you join the NRA, pay your dues and then immediately start getting renewal notices each week and the phone calls.

_________________
Sometimes you're the bug, sometimes you're the windshield. More people need to start being the bug.

An easier way to check subscrition ending date is on the mailing label, it has it printed on there. Just look for a future date, you'll find it.

_________________
They'll have to pry it from my cold dead hand!

BlkHawk73: Not if you do a lifetime. They will prod you then for a benficiary but you will never get a renewel notice. Just a note. It's not terribly expensive and it works. Proof is in the "you still have firearms".

Sorry, not going to make this about gun rights/NRA.

Karl

That's why you should get a life membership.

_________________
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you. -- Gen.9:3

Another thing to watch is the super duper price break that they give you as a valued subscriber. If you check the price on their website you'll usually find a LOWER price for new subscribers than your renewal. When that happens I call them up and ask for a supervisor and give them a piece of my mind (small piece not much left) and tell them if I get anymore bogus prices that I'll cancel and never return. They usually say that the notices are computer generated and that there is nothing that they can do but I don't get the notices anymore.

I always read my daughter's "Field & Stream", about a week ago, she told me that she let the subscription run out about 2 years ago; but it keeps coming every month and she has never gotten a renewal notice. Very odd!

_________________
Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.
~Robert Brault

I have the same thing with field and stream. It got a promotional deal through my Cabelas credit card for it. Well it's a long story but Cabelas screwed me around on the credit card so I told them to shove it closed the credit card and told them to never send me another catalog again. Well three years later I am still getting field and stream. Checked my credit report cabelas card is closed and no balance. So don't know why I am still getting field and stream. Never received a bill. As soon as I get a bill I will not renew as field and stream is the last magazine I would pay for.

I received my "last issue" of Outdoor life over a year ago. Today, I received the new issue, just as I have received them since that "last issue" memo.

I like free stuff...

_________________
"The only ones left to protect gun rights live on the left, as the right has been largely discredited for living inside the bubble." - CDFingers

Are you gonna cowboy up, or just lay there and bleed?

I had about 4 gun mags I read and decided that they were all the same and more opinion then I care for so I deiced not to renew any of them. I just throw the important “renew now, last time, Urgent” in the burn pile. The other day I got a phone call from one of them and they wanted to give me 3 years for 10 dollars, it was a very good deal, but I still said no. I think magazines might be having a hard time these days.

_________________
P-3 Navy 86-06 Coldwar, Desert Storm/Shield, OEF/OIF.

I have noticed magazines have started having comments like "Read more and see more pictures on our website." Some have little blocks which can allegedly be scanned with some smart phone app to provide links for more information - and no doubt more ads. I have tried to go to some of the websites and run into grief about "membership" being needed to log into them, for an additional fee. It irks me to buy a magazine, and then be told the article isn't complete and I have to go look up the rest of it.

_________________
"Serious problems cannot be solved at the level of thinking that created them." - Albert Einstein

Two years ago I finally got fed up with the gun magazines. I know its a struggle to come up with new and interesting material every month. But they couldn't do it. It was all boring advertising. Too many amateurs were writing the articles. Magazines were even trading stories back and forth. They would just change the photos.

_________________
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.