NO! You Can’t Have Our Magazine and NO! You Can’t See All The Pretty Ads Inside

I’m confused.  Several days ago I went online to renew my yearly subscription to BusinessWeek magazine.  Then today I became concerned for two reasons.  First I realized I hadn’t received this weeks issue, and second I couldn’t find the charge on my credit card account.  (It’s great that we can do all these things online!)  So I called subsctiption services to see if the charge went through.  It did.

Then the fun and confusion began.  I told the customer service person about the missing issue.  She said they put my account on hold because they hadn’t received the payment.  This is where the confusion began.  The invoice said ‘please pay by October 3′rd.  I paid on September 22.  Ok, the could I get the missing issue? No.  We extended your subscription instead.  In fact you won’t get the October 8 issue either. 

I asked if they could be sent, and she told me I could read them online.  I knew that, but there is something convenient about reading a magazine in bed.  It’s also much easier than using my notebook computer in bed.  Well, you would have thought I was asking for the impossible.  I just responded with a disgusted tone in my voice and said, “Whatever.”  At that point she offered to mail me the Oct 1 issue.  I said thanks and I really did appreciate it.

This event raises a question in my mind.  Why does a publication that rakes in hundreds of thousands of dollars per issues (maybe it’s millions) from advertising make it so difficult for a subscriber to get their magazine.  Sure I could read it online, but then the advertiser loses more than I do.  Online I won’t see all those ads inside the printed version.  I would think they would want as many readers as possible to see their magazine.  They get to charge their advertisers based on the subscription numbers!

Well, all is well now.  I will get my magazine.  Maybe I need to get a life!

Explore posts in the same categories: Real Life Stories