The "Subscription Renewal Sucker" Story

It was an ordinary day. Another renewal warning in the mail. Matter of fact it covered the entire magazine. This is Your Last Issue! Act Now! Act Fast! You can get two years for the price of one! I instantly checked my checkbook and found I had already renewed for two years. And .... they had already cashed the check! A quick call to their base in Florida proved me to be correct. A couple of times I got suckered into renewing because of the notices. One time I was offered a free carry-on bag if I renewed "Islands" magazine for 3 years. THREE YEARS! I had only taken out the subscription 4 months earlier and after seeing a few copies of the magazine had decided to rethink another year. Yeah, I got suckered! The bag I got was vinyl and not too bad, but not worth renewing a magazine that I found marginal for another three years. Should have known better. My wife's father was more a sucker than me for the renewal notices. When he died in the early 80s he had a subscription for "Consumer's Report" that ran for almost 7 years. Kept renewing and adding more years onto his subscription because of their constant notices. Ever notice how hard it is to understand the label that comes on your magazine. And then, to top that off, they put it on a plastic wrapper that you throw away and when the renewal notice arrives the week after, you can't find the plastic cover with the label on it so that you can check your expiration date. Think they plan it that way? Well, last week Carol got her third "Wired" magazine in the mail. We knew we didn't order it and after the first one came I emailed the company and told them we wouldn't pay any bill that came, since we hadn't ordered it. After the third one arrived, I called! "The magazine is complimentary, courtesy of Home Shopping Club," the young girl told me. "You must have purchased something electronic from them and you get a year's subscription to the magazine for free." OK, but did you ever try to understand "Wired"? Way above my wife and I. She has purchased a small compact Kodak digital camcorder for a Christmas gift for me, but the magazine is geared toward people who probably MADE my camcorder. Kind of a waste of paper as far as our household is concerned. I have it on my new year's resolutions list to stop renewing magazines until I stop getting the magazine. We'll see how well I keep that resolution. One resolution that I usually break when the first scary notice comes in the mail. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.