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Sports Illustrated subscription scam?

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by bigpern23, Nov 23, 2015.

Page 2 of 2
  1. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

    You both must have been startled.
     
    Riptide, Nov 23, 2015
    #13
    dixiehack and Vombatus like this.
  2. sostartled

    sostartled Member

    *slow clap* ;)
     
    sostartled, Nov 23, 2015
    #14
  3. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    I used to get the "renew your subscription" notices a few weeks after I already had renewed. It got annoying after a while.

    My father, meanwhile, kept getting two magazines in the mail each week, even though, naturally, he was only paying for one. He kept telling them he was getting two, but they kept sending them. This went on for months.
     
    Baron Scicluna, Nov 24, 2015
    #15
  4. fossywriter8

    fossywriter8 Well-Known Member

    My problem is I receive ESPN The Magazine, Bloomberg, Popular Mechanics or Science (I can't remember) and some other magazine (again, I can't remember), but I've never once signed up for them or ordered them. And they're not gift subscriptions either, to the best of my knowledge. I've been getting them for more than a year, but I rarely read them.
     
    fossywriter8, Nov 27, 2015
    #16
  5. BDC99

    BDC99 Well-Known Member

    This. All magazine send out renewal requests long before your subscription actually lapses. It's aimed at people like pern who are unaware or just aren't paying attention to how long it's been since you renewed. Don't think it's a scam exactly. I always assume if you renew, they'll just tack it on to what time you already have left, but never tried to find out. Every time I get one, I just do as jericho suggest and check the exp. date on the address label.
     
    BDC99, Nov 27, 2015
    #17
  6. Smasher_Sloan

    Smasher_Sloan Active Member

    Had the same experience. Subscription supposedly ran out in September, and I haven't missed an issue. I'm not sure if it's a scam as much as it's incompetence and the by-product of having third parties sell subscriptions.
     
    Smasher_Sloan, Nov 28, 2015
    #18
  7. SnarkShark

    SnarkShark Well-Known Member

    I've been getting Rolling Stone for the last six months or so without subscribing. No bill or anything like it.
     
    SnarkShark, Nov 29, 2015
    #19
  8. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    There are two main reasons you are not getting cut off immediately when you don't renew. First is advertising. Magazines guarantee advertisers a certain rate base (number of subscribers) for their money, and for auditing purposes, you don't get wiped off the books as a paid subscriber by the auditing bureaus until a certain number of months past expiration (they consider you in arrears until then). The other reason is sort of related. One of the the things that gets audited and looked at by some advertisers is the magazine's renewal rate. Magazines with higher renewal rates can try to demand a higher ad rate -- the thinking being that subscribers are more devoted to those magazines and the eyeballs are worth more. So magazines want to keep you on the hook for as long as they can to give you a chance to resubscribe or change your mind. Even after you get wiped off the books as a paid subscriber by the auditing bureaus, you still have nominal value as an unpaid subscriber -- for the purpose of ad sales. Back in the days when print was still thriving, a lot of magazines didn't care about the subscription revenue -- they'd spend more than they made to obtain and keep a subscriber. It was all about keeping the number intact for the ad rate base, because advertising was where they made their money.
     
    The Big Ragu, Nov 29, 2015
    #20
  9. Huggy

    Huggy Well-Known Member

    I only renew through the SI website but I seem to get renewals notices constantly which just go in the garbage. I wish they had better swag for renewals, give me a helmet phone or something, I don't need another ill-fitting fleece or a shitty jacket with no pockets.
     
    Huggy, Nov 29, 2015
    #21
  10. BDC99

    BDC99 Well-Known Member

    Interesting post Ragu. As with newspapers it's all about the ads.
     
    BDC99, Nov 29, 2015
    #22
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