As part of my ongoing effort to bring you interesting and informative personal-finance information, I subscribe to several magazines, including Smart Money. Smart Money isn’t my favorite money magazine, but it has some useful articles.
In 2005, I paid $20 to subscribe to Smart Money for two years. In 2007, I paid $20 to subscribe for another two years. Today I received my latest issue, which included this wrap-around “cover” announcing that “as part of our Continuous Service program, your subscription will be automatically renewed unless you tell us to stop”:
This is annoying, but it’s an annoyance I can live with. Some periodicals (especially newspapers) automatically renew subscriptions. For a variety of reasons, people are more likely to accept the state in which they are required to do nothing. If the default is “the subscription will expire if you do nothing”, people will generally let the subscription expire. But if the default is “your subscription will automatically continue if you do nothing”, people will generally let the subscription renew.
Dumb money
As I say, this is annoying, but I can deal with it. What made me cranky, however, was this bit at the bottom of the renewal notice:
Smart Money wants to automatically renew my subscription for one year at $20. But I was previously paying $20 for a two-year subscription. They want to use this automatic renewal to double my rate. This is bullshit.
I did some research to see if subscription rates have increased since 2007. They have not. At the official Smart Money subscription page, I found the following deals:
- One year for $12
- Two years for $18
Apparently my reward for being a “preferred subscriber” is that I will pay more for one year of the magazine than new subscribers pay for two years. That sounds like dumb money to me. It gets worse. Using Google, I found an even better deal, also from the official page:
- One year for $11
- Two years for $18
- Three years for $24
And Amazon has an even better price: 24 issues for just $14!
Out of the frying pan
Armed with this info, I prepared to unleash my righteous indignation on a customer service rep. I dialed the phone number on the wraparound cover. But I couldn’t reach customer service — only an automated answering system, which offered two choices:
- Stay in the “continuous service” program and renew the subscription.
- Be removed from the “continuous service” program and cancel the subscription.
I didn’t want either one. I wanted option three: give me back my lower rate. I gave up and tried the web.
Smart Money actually has a website that purports to let you manage your account. Fine. I clicked on the link to renew my subscription and saw this:
This clearly says: “Fill in the form below to access your subscription account.” I understood this to mean: “When you enter your information, you will be able to perform various actions on your account.” But no. That’s not what it really means. I entered my account number and was greeted with this screen:
That’s it. A blank page with the command: “renew your subscription”. Can any of you tell me what this means? Checking a different page on the site revealed that by entering my account number, I had actually agreed to renew the subscription.
I hate crap like this. I hate it when businesses treat me like a commodity. Usually when these things happen, a business loses me as a customer forever. (No joke.) But I can’t just pretend Smart Money doesn’t exist; it’s an important part of the financial media. Argh!
Free magazines!
How much does this bother me? So much that I’ve spent an hour processing images and writing this post. So much that I cancelled my subscription — and then re-subscribed for two years for $14 through Amazon. And so much that I’m going to give away free subscriptions to GRS readers — for Smart Money‘s competitors.
Six commenters on this article (chosen at random) will receive a one-year subscription to the personal-finance magazine of their choice from those reviewed in these two articles:
The only caveat is that if you win, you cannot choose Smart Money. To qualify, all you have to do is share your own tale of financial frustration in the discussion on this post. (Contest ends at 12:01 am Tuesday morning.)
This article is about Books, Odds and Ends, Real-Life
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This happens all the time. Almost with anything that you are subscribed to, the company will have more interest in gaining NEW customers than it has in keeping the existing ones. When I tried to replace my water-logged cell phone with my mobile provider, my “loyal customer for 4 years” allowed my to purchase a replacement phone for $150. But if I signed on as a new customer, I received the SAME phone for free. And both carried a 2-year agreement? The customer service agent could not answer my question why the company she was representing was going to reward a “loyal 4-year customer” who paid every one of his bills on time by charging $150 for the phone whereas a new customer with no billing history would receive the phone for free. She transferred me to a supervisor. What’s funny, is that when I said that I would leave and going to another company, because the mobile phone business is set up to acquire new customers rather than keep existing ones, the supervisor said that I would be giving up my loyal customer status – I laughed at his argument because the only thing that my loyal customer status got me was the chance to pay $150 MORE than a brand new customer. Some loyalty I explained. I eventually received the phone for $19.
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My tale of financial frustration:
A Time Warner cable salesman was going door to door in my neighborhood. When he came to my house he wanted me to upgrade my plan. I used Time Warner Cable for cable and internet services and was paying $110 for both. He claimed that by adding their phone service I would lower my total bill to $100 a month. I questioned him over and over saying it didn’t seem right that I could add another service and lower my bill. But he guaranteed me it was true and put it in writing so I signed up.
A month later I receive my first bill and it’s for $142. I immediately call Time Warner and tell the lady I enrolled in a package that costs $100 a month, not $142 a month. She says no way that is possible they would never offer me a deal like that. I say would you like me to fax you the paper work? She says no, theres just now way I got that deal and that the deal I have is their best offer and a great one.
So I ask for a supervisor and he pretty much says the same thing. I should be happy with the $142 I’m paying because it’s a great deal. At this point I’m screaming at the guy, but he still refuses to budge.
So the next day I go to their offices and tell them I want to cancel everything. She asks why and I explain the situation and this time am able to show her the guys paper work. She makes a few calls and gets me the rate I signed up for and knocks $10 off for my inconvienance. Why couldn’t they do that from the start? Because they suck.
I hate Time Warner. I have nothing but problems with them. Unfortunately they basically have a monopoloy in my area.
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Here’s my most recent tale of financial frustration, written as an “open letter” to AT&T:
Dear Valued AT&T High Speed Internet Service Equipment Processing Center:
I am formally begging you, for the love of God, to stop to the onslaught of declined rebate notices in my mailbox. Wouldn’t you agree you’ve made your point, now that I can repeat verbatim the five reasons why my rebate for the purchase of high-speed internet equipment was declined? (Not that I initiated this rebate in the first place—it was you who tracked me down with the offer. But that’s beside the point.)
Apparently also beside the point is the fact that not one of the five reasons actually applies to me. Now don’t get me wrong. You had already convinced me that resistance was futile with the first notice. Sure, I would have preferred to receive a check, but does anyone honestly think they have a better than 50/50 chance of receiving rebates to which they are entitled these days? I’ll give you credit for at least trying to justify this petty bait-and-switch scheme by turning the blame on your customers.
Your second and third rejection notices, while annoying, didn’t concern me unduly. Mailing errors happen. Notices four and five even elicited a chuckle. Rolled eyes and derisive snorts ensued after notices six and seven. Over the past several months, however, I have become increasingly disturbed and perplexed by the apparently vindictive recurrence of this cockroach-like mailing.
So please, forget I ever asked. Purge my rebate request from your database. Shred my correctly completed, dated, and signed request form. Incinerate my original proof of purchase. I’ve learned my lesson. For the good of rainforests everywhere, won’t you end the madness?
Signed,
Valued (and Broken) AT&T Customer
P.S. I must point out that the day you reach 54 postcards sent (which appears inexorable, unless a miracle occurs and this humble request is heeded), you will have spent more money on postage informing me of my denied rebate than the actual rebate was worth. Now how does that feel?
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This week I received a $200 tax refund and like all government checks, it was deposited directly to my checking account.
My bank’s system seemed to think it was a paycheck. Since I automatically withdraw $200 per paycheck for my retirement savings, the computer automatically slapped the entire refund into my retirement savings, when I was planning to put it in my emergency fund.
I called the bank to complain and learned that a computer error — made in just a microsecond — would take a human five business days to fix.
I’m still trying to figure out if the computer is dumber or smarter than the human working on correcting the mistake!
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Geez, this must be an annoying new practice magazines are doing!! I also subscribe to SM but haven’t had to renew it yet. I did have the same experience as yours, though with Country Living, a nice home mag I’ve gotten for a few years. Same as you, they automatically renewed at a much higher rate. I searched endlessly for a way to contact them (e-mail, phone) but ended up only being able to return the bill with an ad for 12 issues for $10, not the $20 they wanted to charge. They sent me back a letter stating I could only renew at $20. I cancelled!!! Haven’t renewed it yet, don’t know if I will.
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I’m going through one right now. Check this out: Six months ago my bank hits me with a $5 account fee. I call and ask why as the description is vague: net service fee.
They said it was for too many ETFs. All right, I bought that, I had done several that month. So I reorganized my accounts to do just one a month.
For two months after, no fee. Thought I was good to go. Then suddenly at month 4, fee again!
I called and asked why since it’s only one ETF a month. They said then it was for low balance. Flustered, I asked which was it, balance or ETFs? They said balance. I said are you sure. They said yes.
Month 5, kept the balance in the account where they said to keep it. Did two ETFs as apparently this wasn’t the problem. Got hit with the fee AGAIN. And this time it blamed on, guess what, doing more than one ETF.
Month 6, higher balance, only one ETF this month. I wonder what’s going to happen!
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That is terrible. Its great that you took the time to write this article and bring this up to make people aware. You know that here a thousands of people out there that just don’t pay attention and fall into this trap.
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That’s crazy, J.D., but not unlike my experience with Everyday Food Magazine that I have subscribe to since its inception. The difference is that I get e-mails from the company telling me I can get the magazine for $10 per year, but when I click the link it takes me to my account, where “loyal” subscribers pay nearly double for a one year renewal. Reminds me of an old joke my father used to tell where the punchline began, “Such a deal I have for you . . .”
I eventually reached a customer service rep (a real live person based in America!) who finally gave me a slightly better deal since I was renewing gifts as well.
Thanks, American Ingenuity in Marketing. Way to tick off your most loyal customers.
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JD – You can send me a subscription to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. I actually read all of these at the local library but as long as you are giving one away, I would like to have it.
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I hate this also. Though I have never caught it with a magazine subscription before. Comcast is the bane of my existence, giving intro rates and then jacking them up by over 300%. Why yes, I love to pay $60+ for something that for the past 6months I have only had to pay $20 for. Thank you so much Comcast. Oh, and when your service goes down and I can’t get on the internet for a week, don’t bother to credit me that would be detrimental to your profits.
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For subscription services I use a credit card with “ShopSafe”.
This allows me to set the charge amount and how many months the card can be billed.
This eliminates the auto-subscription problem for me.
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Heh, alright, I’ll give it a go and I think I have a pretty good ‘lesson’ story. Back in December I was offered a long term IT contract job in a different city and the job market being what it is I moved and took the job. About a month and a half in I found it was not as long term as I thought and in fact was only a 6 month contract, I was rather upset I was lied to but I need the job so I just took the hit and kept working. Three weeks ago they cut my pay, something I didn’t know considering I singed a contract, and this last week Monday myself and another guy were given our two weeks notice, another think I was not aware of considering I signed a contract. Anyway, this being my last week of employment there I am spending the weekend looking for jobs and looking into how to file for unemployment if I need it as I have never done it before.
So, financial frustration, pay cut and job loss…I guess I learned something new with this experience and am wiser for it.
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Wow this is lame. And as you mentioned, Smart Money is not exactly the best PF mag out there. I used to subcribe to Entertainment Weekly. One time they called and tried to sell me a big book about movies. I was not interested. The Rep got nasty with me. I cancelled EW that day.
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I can agree with the article from a similar experience. I was out of the country for a few months and during that time, my local cable company introduced some new TV channels.
Part of the promotion was that everyone would get these channels but you had to cancel before the first month preview ended or would pay an additional $15/mth for this package.
Being away, I did not find out until my monthly bill was in its 4th month. It took a lot of calls to the “no-customer-service” department at which point I finally just cancelled my entire service out of frustration and went with another company.
Never understood their reverse billing strategy from a business standpoint as many people did leave this cable company also.
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My husband and I recently subscribed to a marriage magazine that we had been previously enjoying online. The online version didn’t have all the articles and we were reading it enough that we felt we should support it. Two issues into our subscription the editorial was a teary eyed farewell to the print version of the magazine. They asked us to continue reading on-line and replaced the balance of our subscription with their women’s magazine. We didn’t want the women’s magazine. That’s why we didn’t subscribe to it in the first place. Why would a company who knew they were pulling a magazine out of print still accept subscriptions that they had no intention of honouring? If they were backed into the corner with this, why were subscribers not given the option of receiving their money back OR having the remainder of their subscription filled with one of their 14 other magazines. Pre-selecting the women’s magazine as our replacement makes a bold statement regarding their perceived readership and perhaps why they went out of business in the first place. We had also given a subscription to another couple as a wedding present. It’s just frankly embarrassing to have that gift turn into something else. It’s like we gave them a toaster and two months later it spontaneously turned into a potted plant. Still maybe useful, but not what we had in mind.
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Must be a trend! I just got a letter yesterday from Kiplinger’s to let me know that if I do nothing, my subscription to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance will auto renew at the “discounted price” of $19.95 for 12 issues. Their current offer on the web site is $12 for 12 issues (and possibly cheaper elsewhere).
I looked back through my receipts and I paid $12 for 12 issues the past two years and there has never been an auto-renew letter. I put the letter aside out of disgust figuring I would cancel over the weekend and resubscribe after it stops showing up in the mail.
I can see why they do it – it makes them money, but treating repeat customers like idiots doesn’t earn them anymore respect than they are showing us.
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I like to take advantage of free trials of magazines, rather than shelling out several bucks at the newsstand or committing to a year’s subscription. This is a good deal for me, except that the bills and dunning letters start pouring in long before the “free” issue ever arrives. “By now, you’ve surely enjoyed our fine magazine at our expense, you freeloading deadbeat. Now, do the right thing and pay up, loser.” The Atlantic was the most recent culprit.
Even if I had been favorably inclined toward the magazine, by the time it arrives I’m annoyed and peevish.
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I called up American Express the other day to pay off my bill. It’s phone system tells you how much you owe, so I paid that off. Two weeks later I get a bill for about four dollars, which supposedly constitutes accrued interest during the month. If I call up to pay off the bill, I don’t expect to be hit with some residual interest after the fact.
My friend went to Baltimore over the weekend. I went with her. Apparently she lost or had her Key bank card stolen. Somebody rung up a few hundred dollars worth of stuff on the card in a Whole Foods. This put her balance in the red buy about twenty dollars. She discovered that day she lost the card, and canceled it over the Internet. When she got back home to Michigan, she was surprised to learn that somebody had emptied her account and Key Bank has charging her $60 a day in late fees. The Bank expected her to blindly pay this without providing her any accounting of fraudulent charges that were made. Worst, they called her up cussing at her days after this happened to pay. She eventually cleared the matter up at the local branch and didn’t have to pay anything. However, she canceled the account with a very bitter taste in her mouth for the Bank.
Finally, I am a bankruptcy attorney. One of the stupidest things I see credit card companies do is raise the interest rates of customers who 1) are in good standing, but have fallen behind on payments to other merchants, or 2) raise the interest rates for being late (that is what a late penalty is for). These things more then anything else force many folks into bankruptcy, causing the companies a complete loss to people who otherwise probably would have paid off the debt if given time.
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Great post, JD. I’m with you on “Usually when these things happen, a business loses me as a customer forever. (No joke.)” The Internet seems to be exacerbating this trend, as do endless voicemail prompts on “customer service” phone lines. The more I’m treated like a numerical entity instead of a person, the less I am inclined to participate at all. Which might not be a bad thing!
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I belonged to a gym that decided to raise rates, but they were not just going up in price every September there would be an additional equipment fee. All they would say is that the equipment fee was going to be the same as the monthly fee or slightly higher. I have feeling that meant always higher.
I should thank them I have found some great hiking/ snowshoeing trails nearby. I never have a reaction to chemicals when I take a swim in the lake.
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That’s ridiculous JD, and I’m glad you canceled the subscription and renewed through your usual method. Personally I only subscribe to a few magazines, and I ignore ever single email/snail mail they send me, even if it means that my subscription at some point gets canceled. If I really enjoy the magazine I will go onto Amazon.com to re-subscribe (best prices around). Letting the subscription fail forces me to evaluate whether I really need/want the various magazines.
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These phone menus that go nowhere frustrate all of us. The situation worsens when you’re in a time critical mode trying to find out coverage for an emergency medical procedure, and no matter what menu item you choose, you can’t make contact with a live person.
Another maddening item are voice commands that don’t work.
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Consumer Reports automatically renewed my online subscription one year. I didn’t know about it until I received an email after the fact. I was a bit upset but went ahead and took the second year subscription (no I didn’t complain). I ended up keeping an eye on it and canceled right before the end of the second year. I’ve since received ‘we want you back’ emails. I suppose I should let them know that of all consumer magazines, I’m surprised that they would take part in this practice.
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Arggh — I hate this stuff too. Call me old fashioned but I always thought that companies who really wanted to do well in the long run had to work to keep their customers happy, not try and slip things by them, especially in this economic environment. In fact I just finished fighting with my credit card company who had decided to raise my interest rate despite my sterling history with them — ridiculous! I honestly think that if companies were up front about things, and treated their customers more respectfully and earned their trust, they’d probably do a lot better. But alas, that doesn’t seem to be the case these days. Anyway, thanks for writing this up and putting it out there. Hopefully that will teach them not to try and pull stuff like this!
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I stopped reading Money magazine for a different reason – all the families they profiled as having these big money problems always made over $150k a year. Now, I realize there are some people out there like that, but how about some variety! It got old reading every month how Dick & Jane can’t make it on their 6-figure incomes.
I get all my info off the web now – it’s cheaper and I don’t have a bunch of old magazines sitting around. How green of me!
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I cancelled my subscription to Smart Money last year. I never saw the “Smart” in it. It dealt a lot with funds investing (which I don’t do) and it featured high end items like articles on Cadillacs, very expensive watches, and overpriced vacations. Some people may find these items as money savers, but I knew this magazine just didn’t appeal to me and what I wanted from life.
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J.D.,
Nice move you’re making with this give-away. I hope you’ve also forwarded this post to Smart Money!
I agree with your assessment of this magazine … I received a subscription as a gift, but found nothing of interest to me in the issues. Like you said, the magazine’s focus seems to be geared towards high income individuals who want to spend and be seen.
My tale of financial frustration deals with DirecTV. The reception of some channels on ONE of our two TVs was severely degraded. Calling “customer service” I learned I’d need to pay a $20 service fee for a repair person to come out. I asked to speak to a supervisor (wanting to ask for a no fee visit), only to be told the fee would be $80!!
I ended the call, and called several days later, and this time was told it would be $35!!!
My husband and I had been throwing around the idea of getting rid of our TV service anyway, and this was the impetus we needed. We cancelled our service and have been saving $69.78 every month since last July!!
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Well, I don’t want the magazines. But what a creative way to go about things. I hope this has effect.
My latest similar experience was a month trial of audible. I was expecting to cancel before the month was up, but poor tech support and a “stuff you, just pay up” approach made quite sure of it. Also that I won’t be trying them again in the next several years.
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I used to subscribe to a magazine that one of my professional organizations put out. It was a great magazine but cost about $100 a year so after a while I wanted to drop it. I couldn’t find a phone number to call to do it and their web page didn’t have a means for canceling it. I did enjoy the magazine so I didn’t try beyond that, after two more years the expiration date on the credit card they were charging changed, so I figured I would stop getting it, I still got it for 6-8 months after that before the magazine called me to asked for the new expiration date. I had a very hard time explaining to the caller that I didn’t want the magazine but still wanted my membership in the organization. Now, when I subscribe to things that auto renew, I use which ever credit card is going to expire first.
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My frustration came when I wanted to purchase a hybrid bike from Target. It was on sale for $199 down from $229 (about a 10% discount). Of course when I got there, they were sold out of them. The impulse shopper in me wanted to take a bike home that day so I spotted a very similar one on the rack. It’s price was $249 but not on sale. I asked the manager of the department if they could give me 10% off the bike that was in stock and she said no very quickly and walked away. I thought is was a fair trade but I guess they just did not want my money that day!
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To anyone who wins, I recommend subscribing to Portfolio, great magazine with terrific articles.
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I have not had a problem with magazines, but have had problems with my newspaper. I chose to let my newspaper subscription lapse, but did they ever stop sending me the newspaper? No! They continued to send the newspaper, that I never read and then tried to charge me an enormous amount for a service I no longer wanted. I tried to cancel the newspaper three times but they never got the hint. Now, finally I get only the Sunday paper at an extremely discounted rate.
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I have business and personal accounts with a credit union. If my personal checking account gets too low to clear a check, it automatically pulls from savings. I was told the same applied to my business accounts — until it didn’t happen. I double checked and was told they had corrected it.
Then my check to the IRS bounced in January (with about double the amount due in my savings). The IRS tried twice, and the CU never e-mailed or called but mailed notices that I received 9 days after the fact. I know this is common BANK practice, but my CU said it wasn’t the case. I waited, but IRS didn’t re-present the check. I called the IRS and was told all is fine. I waited some more, with the money now in checking (despite assurances that NOW my accounts are set to transfer). I had to pay $50 in NSF fees to the credit union (though it came from their mistake/misinformation). The IRS finally sent me a form that I had to pay via certified check (can’t blame them) — and I owe penalties for the payment now being late. I wrote a letter explaining my reasonable cause of why I should not owe penalties, so we’ll see what the verdict is. I’m hoping this won’t put me on an audit list!
Re: your frustration, sometimes you can find a way to reach a person via phone at http://www.gethuman.com. I don’t see Smart Money on there, but The Wall Street Journal is listed.
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I’m interested in the homesteading journals. I was thinking about a subscription to one of them already, so a free one would be awesome.
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This just happened yesterday…we recently refinanced with Bank of America (BoA). Our first payment is due on April 1. I went on their website to see how I can pay my mortgage online. After browsing their website for half an hour, I wasn’t able to find the way. I decided to call the customer service. This is when the disaster begins. The rep somehow hung up on me the first try (after inputing numerous information like account number, zip code, etc.) The second call, I was transferred to one department, back to same department that tranferred me, transferred back (this time I made the customer service rep walk through with me). She actually sighed audibly couple of times! hahahaha! transferred to two more departments before I got a simple question answered 45 minutes later.
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I had a somewhat similar surprise when I got my latest statement from the Chicago Tribune. I pay via automatic payment from my checking account so all I get is a notice of the impending deduction. The latest one added $8 to the subscription price, not only for the upcoming period but for the last one (already paid for), as well. I got on the phone and let the Trib know that I wasn’t going to pay a retroactive price increase. After a bit of fiddling with the telephone rep I got the charge removed, and also got a lower weekly delivery rate to boot.
I wonder how many people called to complain? In these times it makes sense to read each and every bill that comes to make sure you’re only paying for what you get.
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DH is a AAA member. I hadn’t renewed it for him last year as early as usual so they gave him a call, or at least he thought it was AAA calling. It was actually a AAA reseller. He renewed AND signed me up, without telling me. I didn’t know until the cards arrived in the mail. He was charged more than the regular membership fee for my dues – it was cheaper on the AAA web site. Plus, I already have roadside assistance through my car warranty so I don’t need AAA. I called to cancel and spent half and hour arguing with them, they kept telling me there were no refunds. Finally I told them I would dispute it with my credit card company and they relented. But they prorated my refund and kept the amount for the first 15 or so days – those days that I didn’t even know I was a AAA member. I should have disputed that amount. I know I will never deal with them again, sheesh.
If I had to pick from the list of your best financial mags I’d pick Consumer Reports (already get Kiplingers,it was a free promotion), and Backwoods Home for a self-sufficient one, as we already get Mother Earth News (luvin’ that one). I’d love to have a couple more to page through each month…
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I ditched Smart Money after an entire article about how you should TRY to pay off your car in a couple years when you’re in your 30s.
Idiots.
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This seems like a relatively new phenomenon. I don’t remember ever dealing with this before.
Entertainment Weekly just did this to me. I never noticed the “auto renewal” thing they sent me or ignored it. Then they started sending me bills for $45 with late notices and saying the were going to start charging me interest!
I finally called them and they change my account balance to $0. I probably won’t subscribe again soon.
Also, I just went with Verizon FIOS. They had a deal where you got HBO/SHO/Etc for free for 1 month (I swore they told me 3 months, but whatever). Instead of just removing your access to those channels after one month, they auto-subscribe you after 30 days and charge you for it!!
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Where I live this is called “negative billing” and it is illegal. It became controversial here about 10-15 years ago when cable companies started adding new channels to subscribers’ cable line-ups and billed subscribers unless they called to cancel the new channel within 30 days.
It caused a huge uproar and backlash and we now have legislation preventing this practice.
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Spot on JD… give’em hell!
My favorite magazine – Sports Illustrated – recent did this crap to me on a gift subscription I gave to my nephew last year.
Fortune ran a similiarly crappy deal… I had subscribed for about 15 years and they started sending me urgent renewal 2nd and 3r notices a full 6 months before my last subscription elapsed.
Nutty behavior and NOT full service.
Thanks for sharing and riling us up as well!
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My husband and I recently realized that we spend a crapload on phone, internet, and tv cable that could be greatly reduced if we combined all three. We’re in Canada and have two real choices: phone company or cable company.
Because we don’t want to deal with changing our email addresses and because we like the cable company better than the phone company we’d like to use the cable company. BUT their bundle for the equivalent is $20 a month more than the phone company.
So we call to have them price match. They run around saying that the service isn’t equivalent if we have more than one tv (nope) or don’t like the phone company’s one year contract (don’t mind) or want their local cable channel (nope) or need a service call (I’d better not be paying $20 a month for service calls).
They won’t directly match the bundle pricing but then they start saying they can throw in all this stuff for free (digital cable-that I don’t want) or more tv channels or faster internet (we’re pretty light users so that doesn’t appeal either).
I counter-offer that I’ll downgrade my package to light speed and basic cable and he can give me a free upgrade to high speed and classic cable (which is what we have now). No dice.
He then or offers me the phone for $15 a month.
At that point, I realize that with the phone at $15 a month our monthly rate will jump to ABOVE their own bundle rate. ARGH.
I said point blank to the guy “I’m a loyal customer who is going to cancel this service if you don’t do this and you’re telling me you can do nothing for me?”
It’s still not resolved. I’m going to get my husband to call today to see if he has better luck and, if not, we’ll cancel and go with the phone company. I really didn’t want to but for $20 a month we have to.
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A few years ago, I signed up for Billpay online at Wachovia.com. I had been a faithful customer of Wachovia for over ten years. The bill pay service was pretty user-friendly, and things were smooth sailing. I got to control when, where, and how the bills were paid. One month after paying my utility bill, out of the blue, I get a returned check from another county’s utility company. My local utility, never received payment, even though I had manual entered the correct utility’s mailing address. I was slapped with a fine by my utility for late payment, and Wachovia just shrugged their shoulders at the mistake. So long to Wachovia Billpay. I’ll pay my bills the old fashioned way.
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This is pretty much Standard Operating Procedure in the magazine world. Many years ago I had a similar thing happen with AutoWeek. I would subscribe for a year for $10 or something, and then a year later they’d want me to re-up for $20. After a few years I just began letting the subscription lapse every year and then waiting for the phone calls asking me to resubscribe at a “special rate”, which I would do. I’d miss a few issues, but so what.
I never understood the magazine industry’s penchant for punishing existing subscribers with higher rates.
By the way, while I appreciate the free magazine offer, I don’t have time to read the ones I get now, if you happen to randomly choose my name, feel free to pick someone else instead. Thanks!
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I love the outrage. What is outrageous to me is that, most likely, at the corp offices of smart money, people devised this and someone signed off on it. Not so “Smart”.
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This didn’t fit in the original post, but I can remember the first time this happened to me. About 15 years ago, I subscribed to the Portland newspaper. At that time, I also subscribed to the paper for the small town in which I lived.
I had subscribed to many magazines and newspapers in the past, and they all worked the same way: When your subscription term was up, you received renewal notices and then the publication ceased to come.
Well, The Oregonian used this “auto-renewal” method. I couldn’t afford to re-subscribe (I was in debt!), so I just let my subscription lapse. Or so I thought. But the paper just kept coming. Then I got a bill for it. I called the paper to complain, and the CS rep was very brusque, explaining that because I hadn’t canceled, it was assumed that I wanted to keep on going. This baffled me at the time. That’s not how any of my other subscriptions had ever worked. That was more like the payment model for electricity or gas.
Anyhow, this made me cranky, so I canceled the newspaper and vowed never to re-subscribe. (A vow I’ve kept.) Since then, this practice has become more common. Since I’m aware of it, it’s just an annoyance. But when they use it as a way to raise rates? Beyond annoying and into slimy-land.
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Our firm been charged a fee for over 2 years that wasn’t supposed to be charged for one of our pieces of equiment. My boss was on the phone for 2 hours trying to get this straightened out. He was persistant to say the least but he ended up getting the charges reversed and credited to our account, saving the company over $2,000.
I used to get Mother Earth News in the 80′s and 90′s, but now only pick an issue if I happen to think about it.
I’ve always enjoyed Consumer Reports too and have bought a couple of issues of Shop Smart that were equally good.
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Sounds like quite an ordeal….i wonder how much Smart Money has to pay Amazon for the referral?? And how much its costing them vs. if they had just kept you paying $20 every 2 years!
My biggest frustrating with magazines is when they send you the renewal forms even when you are not due for referral…but don’t tell you how many months you have already paid for, thereby giving the impression that you need to renew! The one that i’ve noticed does this the most is “Parents”.
However my favorite personal finance magazine is probably Forbes.
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I am just SO relieved I am not the only person who finds this stuff incredibly galling and who goes through the trouble of calling around and checking ebay/magazine websites/amazon for cheaper prices. (BTW, magazines.com has good rates usually and if you use Fatwallet you currently get 5% back in a rebate check, sometimes they have 30% rebates.)
I have had this happen with several subscriptions and have always been able to beat the price online then call the company and get them to match the lower price. It’s ridiculous they don’t offer their repeat subscribers the best deal in the first place–nothing like punishment for being a loyal reader!
Pretty soon all the glossies will be kaput just like our local newspaper the Seattle PI. RIP.
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How clever of them…take more of your money to keep you in a state of less money, which makes you want to read their magazine to learn how to keep more of your money. Personally, I’d take a homesteading magazine.
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