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.)
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I also would like to add that this may hold true for other services such all cell-phone service.
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I got burned by renewing my Vanity Fair subsription through some third party, Publisher’s something or other. I get bombarded with renewal notices long before the subcription is set to expire. To avoid overpaying or paying too soon, I ignore them. Then about 4 months before the expiration date I renewed using one of renewal forms I got in the mail. Meanwhile Vanity Fair started sending me dire warnings that my subscription was about to lapse. They even called me to ask about renewal and told them I had already renewed and paid $57 for two or three years. Well, come February I stopped receiving any issues. When I tried to call the third pary biller, a voice message says they are busy and to “Call at another time”. Then I had to email and call Vanity Fair directly and they finally acknowledge getting payment through the third party, but I had not allowed enough time for processing. Four months in advance is not enough time? Next time I will pay Vanity Fair directly. But it is confusing to get renewal notices from different parties and I even get renewal notices for magazines that I have never subscribed to (those I ignore).
I have learned a lot from reading the comments. Years ago, my father used to get new subscriptions to his favorite mags to take advantage of the lower prices. I would come home from college and find Time magazine in my name etc.
I have had my share of phone billing problems. Every time I changed some aspect of my service or changed providers or moved, I had a new billing problem that took many phone calls to straighten out. I started to think it was standard practice to screw you over and double bill. I never did get all the money I was owed from Verizon for double billing me for DSL at my new and old locations for months when I moved. They claimed they did not have the old records. But I said “I do” and would be glad to fax them over. Then they kept coming up with convoluted explanations. Yeah, I know about the overlap of different service periods for different services, but this extra billing goes on for months? If I honestly owed them extra money, you would bet they would have the records. Thanks for the opportunity to vent and share.
Kathy
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I have a Home Depot card with a $1000 limit. I am currently tracking my credit report, because I am planning on purchasing a house in the next couple months. Last week I received an email saying there was activity on a dormant card. I went to check my credit report, and lo and behold, CITI Bank had closed my Home Depot account. I called Home Depot Credit Services to ask why my card had been shut down, and they reported that it was shut down due to 12 months of inactivity. I received no warning, otherwise I would have gone and bought something at HD.
This resulted in my credit score dropping 20 points and my debt to credit limit ratio increasing by 20%.
How do they expect to keep responsible consumers buying, if they are shuttering our credit lines? This is now going to make getting a home loan more difficult, because of the drop in my credit score! I have been working very hard to become debt free, and be able to afford my first home. Great!
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@ Paul in cAshburn #274.
A follow-up: I received the first delivered copy of the Washington Times today, so I guess by (them) not auto-renewing (even though I requested it) I saved $35 on an annual subscription because I found a discounted subscription online after my subscription expired (because they failed to auto-renew)!
Another thought: I should probably cancel my auto-renewal to TurboTax because I see it heavily discounted in stores every April. Anyone else have info on how best to get TurboTax each year (i.e., lowest price)?
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This just happened to me yesterday. The day after my husband walked out the door taking his military induced PST and OCD with him, he cancelled my home phone service. I called to restore service and was told I would have to pay a $50 deposit, which I paid. Now 2 years later I decided to stop wasting money on a land line since I have a cell phone. After scouring Bell South’s website to find the right phone number I called and then waited on hold for 40 min. When I finally got a CSR and told them I wanted to cancel my account they didn’t even ask why or bother to make any offers for discounted service. (Not that I wanted to stay, but what happened to customer retention?) I inquire about my deposit and want to know if it will be refunded or credited to my last bill. That’s when they tell me I never paid a deposit. WHAT? I remember it clearly because I had to borrow the money to pay it! I get transferred to accounts and they tell me oh yes, I did pay it and it was credited to my account within a year. NO… sorry I paid the same bill for 2 years and there was never a credit. I am transfered again and told no I didn’t pay a deposit. My last transfer agrees I paid says I recieved credit. At this point I gave up. Really Bell South if you never intend to give back a deposit then don’t call it a deposit, call it a service fee or some other clever name. Better yet just be honest and tell me when I call that you never return deposits. Thanks for wasting over an hour of my life. I won’t be back.
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I’m a little late to this party, and while I haven’t read all 300+ comments, I may offer some insight into this continuous service practice. I used to work in the Subscription Billings & Renewals division of Hearst Magazines, publishers of SmartMoney. Hearst adopted the continuous service practice a few years ago because studies, and other publishers, found out that loyal subscribers actually enjoy the continuous service program, and a large majority of them still do. Since the subscribers were going to continue their subscription anyways, they liked how they didn’t have to deal with mailing in invoices & checks or perhaps missing an issue because they let their subscription lapse. The percentage of subscribers who don’t like the continuous service program is very small. And why the higher price for a renewed subscription? Because it’s a renewed subscription, not a promotional rate to try a new magazine- the publisher has you hooked. Think of new food items intoduced at the grocery stores- when the item is first introduced, the item is usually featured with a sale price and coupons can readily be found everywhere. Six months after the intro, the item has now settled into its regular (and non-sale) price, but it still manages to attract its loyal buyers irregardless of price. The introductory lower price was a promo to sample the item. Once you’re hooked, you’ll pay almost any price. And one last fact, not every consumer (except GRS readers)reads every detail of their credit card statement. With the continuous service program, the subscription renewal charge is made without the subscriber even realizing it.
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My parents received the same SmartMoney renewal offer, so I forwarded them your post and showed them the rate available on Amazon. Today my mother called SmartMoney and heard the same two choices you did. I had her press the “0″ for a few seconds – this seems to automatically route the call to an operator on a lot of automated systems. SmartMoney gave her the rate on Amazon. Thanks, J.D.!
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Sorry, folks. I’ve been busy and haven’t made time to do the drawign for the magazine subscriptions until now. Somebody just reminded me, for which I am grateful. The numbers selected at random.org are: 39, 137, 201, 203, 266, 277. I will contact the winners by e-mail so that they can choose their magazine subscription. If anyone declines or cannot be reached, I’ll draw a replacement, just as usual.
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It seems to me that if you starting watching all of your accounts, you tend to find more an more of this kind of thing. It’s hard to believe that corporate policy could be “Charge them a random fee and see if they call” but it sure seems like it is true for some companies!
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Oh, you poor thing! This story has certainly put me on my guard about my magazine subscriptions. What a fun idea for a contest, though, thank you!
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Hi I know the drawing is over, but I have to say, this happens all the time.
I manager a number of magazine subscriptions for my job (research materials), and aside from the large volume of mail suggesting I “renew now for extra special savings!” every two weeks, things went pretty smoothly until I had to cancel them (for budget cut backs).
Not only are the subscriber services web sites exceptionally rudimentary, there are more errors than a virus infected computer.
If you’re lucky enough to have the option to cancel a subscription online, you shouldn’t do so right away if you have an active subscription: the cancellation is virtually automatic, meaning you won’t get what magazines you have remaining and you won’t get your money back. I have to set calendar reminders about when to go back and cancel.
The only time I ever get a customer service number is when I have a problem with the billing information, be it a card number or billing address.
I keep these (almost worthless) customer service numbers updated in an excel spreadsheet where I keep all the account information (this also includes expiration dates, account numbers and passwords).
And I must say, Martha Stewart magazine’s subscription services are the worst–although it seems there are plenty of companies competing for the title.
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Here’s my tale of woe, involving a newspaper that refused to take my subscription!
I live in Minnesota, in the 2nd largest metro area in the state–about 70 miles away from the twin cities. No, I don’t live in the sticks!
A couple of years ago, I thought it would be nice to subscribe for home delivery of the Sunday edition of the twin cities’ main newspaper, “The Star Tribune”. In addition to the print edition, the Tribune had a substantial free online edition. On their online edition website there was a subscription information page including all the cost breakdowns for home delivery to various cities in the state, and also a page where you could put in your credit card number and order home delivery. So I did that–I used their own online page to request home delivery of the Sunday print edition, and put in my credit card number etc.
And then I waited for my paper to come. And waited! After about 8 weeks I realized I still hadn’t gotten the paper. So I called their customer service line. The rep said, oh of course you have to call if you want a subscription because that online purchase site doesn’t work! She actually acted like I was an idiot for using their online subscription site and expecting it to work.
I went ahead and subscribed to the paper anyway (by calling someone on the phone), but it was rarely delivered even though they did finally charge me for it. I finally canceled the paper last year because at that time there was literally nothing in the paper–just ads.
The Star Tribune went bankrupt in 2009—I guess I can see why!
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Scott @3 had my husband and myself ROFLOL!!!!! It was hilarious and I laughed so hard I cried!
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