Dear TIME,
Three months ago, I cancelled my subscription to your magazine. When I cancelled, I did so at your website. To cancel, I had to go to your website, go to the subscription area, log in, click cancel subscription, and then confirm my cancellation.
While I know how very easy it would be for someone to accidentally go through these steps, I did not do this accidentally. I no longer wanted a subscription to your magazine. I know, however, that you think I did it accidentally, or perhaps under the influence of drugs or alcohol, because you won’t leave me alone about resubscribing. Since I cancelled my subscription, I’ve received four or five letters from you, written as if I was clearly confused about cancelling, and that furthermore, I should clearly want to resubscribe. I do not. If I’d wanted to resubscribe, I would’ve responded to the first letter I got from you that essentially said, “OH DEAR! You’ve UNSUBSCRIBED! What a terrible accident! Hurry and fill this out and we’ll renew your improperly-cancelled subscription right away!” I’m sure if you’ll check your records, you’ll note that I did, in fact, not respond to this. But, being the kind souls that you are, you sent another notice, telling me that if I didn’t hurry right now, I’d miss out on issues. I did respond to that notice, in a way: I sent it back with “I do not want to renew my subscription, thank you” on it. But apparently the people in your subscription center were unable to read my writing, because since that second notice, I’ve received two or three more. So, let me make it abundantly clear:
I do not want to renew the subscription to your magazine, unless it is completely free – and by completely free, I mean forever. Not the first four issues for free, and then the normal subscription price. Free. I truly doubt you will be willing to do this for me, because you are, after all, a business, and you wish to make a profit. Certainly understandable. Having said that, I am not interested in paying for a subscription for your magazine any longer. I know you won’t offer it to me completely free. Where does that leave us? It leaves us nowhere. I must sadly break our relationship.
Stop sending me renewal notices – please. I don’t want to renew. I’m not going to renew. You’re wasting my time and your paper. Cease and desist, and all that legalese. Cripes!
Technorati Tags: time, magazine, time_magazine
You know, it’s amazing how un-user-friendly some companies are. I had a similiar experience with a hotel chain that charged me both for the actual reservation I made, and for a reservation the same day in a town I’ve never been to. I’ve had to open a case, call the credit card company, call the hotel call the chain again, and wait for their investigation. Don’t these companies understand that in an era when all information is available to all of us all of the time that the only differentiating factor is their service level? Whether it’s a hotel, magazine, or phone company, we’ll go where we feel wanted. Cool post.
Jerry, http://www.JerryKolber.com
Hope your fight against the hotel chain turns out well. And indeed – some companies are extremely UN-user-friendly.
To cancel a subscription or contract always is a pain in the ass, whether it’s a contract you made with a mobile-phone company that you want to cancel or just to desubscribe a magazin subscription. You automaticly become swamped with letters of those companies cause they want you to stay.
I’ve heard that the banks in alemannia send offers of “cheap” credits several times a week. You don’t want to be informed about that, though you get those offers :/
It’s the same in America. I get approximately 418 credit card offers per month.