Rantings and Ravings

By Sun Advocate

My husband and I subscribe to a few magazines. We try and only take the ones we will actually read. The magazine business makes cheaper to get them in the mail than in the grocery store so we pay for one and two year subscriptions as they bill us.
However, it seems like as soon as I renew a subscription, I get a new notice for a special deal on renewing if I do it now.
Sometimes these are sent as an “Early Bird” special. Some times they are for their “special” customers only. But all of them make you think that if you don’t send the reply form back marked yes then you will be forced to pay the higher grocery store rate.
Several times I have been prepared to send them in for my favorite magazines because I thought the subscription might be due.
Then my magazine arrives and I check the date on the label and find out I still have over a year left.
I am pretty careful about paying for things, so I read all my bills carefully checking for errors. It has saved me a bunch of money. I have found double billings, dropped credits and overcharges.
Some people may not know that the end of their subscription is printed on their mailing label. They may renew several times before the original subscription is up. I wonder how many little old ladies, who pay bills and renew their subscriptions when ever they come have over 20 years of Better Homes and Gardens coming to them.
It is kind of a newer version of the old sweepstakes game. They tell you that you don’t need to subscribe to win, but many folks didn’t trust that and would subscribe to magazines every year even if they already had a subscription.
Once they took the magazine using the sweepstakes, then they also would get renewal notices from the magazine itself.
I wait now until I get a final notice. My magazine will also be plastered with stickers telling me that this is one of my final issues.
They then offer me a rate just to keep me as a valued customer.
Funny, the rate is often just as good as the early bird rate was.