Why Can't "Parents"'s Magazine Processing Center Take the Hint?

It's not negativity, you are cancelling a service, you can't remember that you signed up for. There is always small print and I'm sure they are used to people cancelling all the time. That doesn't mean they won't stop sending you things, so they will send you offers to come back, so if you want an end to it all, ask them to take you off the mailing list or tell them you are moving. That one always works or saying you're leaving the country.

 

Lady, you hardly, know the half of it. My mom died in 2006.
There was a local newspaper, and national magazine that refused to take written letters or a copy of the her death certificate to stop sending those publications. Ebony magazine is still sending the magazine. It has never ever been renewed. However, they continue sending it as though there were a yearly renewal fill out by somebody.

 

Magazine subscriptions almost always work on auto-renewal. You haven't even mentioned if you've contacted them to cancel the subscription, so I would say that's completely on you. In most cases, it's as simple as making a phone call and requesting, or demanding, a cancellation. I've never had trouble cancelling a subscription, considering I don't sign up for things on accident and I won't deal with auto-renewal...ever.

 

I agree with the person who said that you are not projecting negativity out into the universe. If anything, the magazine company is the one that is projecting negativity by ignoring a person's request, and making that person very unhappy in the process. And I highly doubt that you are the only one having this problem with them.

They are big business, but they need to pay more attention to this type of thing, especially with the internet causing printed material to go out of business left and right. I'm sure their inattention to a basic business detail (stop sending bills and magazines, they don't want it) is costing them thousands upon thousands of dollars.

 

I feel like that all the time. It's not negativity at all. Just tell them that you want to cancel your service and thank them for being so timely with their mailings of the magazine or something like that. You'll be fine, and if you do feel bad then it'll only be for a little while. You'll get over it.

 

Another thing you can do is write on it ; Return to Sender, moved. I used to work at a center and we had to pay for any returned items and then remove them from the database as it would be too costly to keep sending out things that were being returned.

 

This is really smart idea. Companies that are to lax in sending out magazines will eventually become more motivated in getting better methods to decrease overhead

I have noticed that there are many services now that slip in these free magazine subscriptions. Some of these simply refuse to take no for an answer. I think the thing that gets to me about some magazines, will re post the same articles or pictures in later volumes calling it something like the years best picks or something along those lines. This is why I buy right from the newsstand instead. This seems quite rampant in decorating magazines.

 

Are they sending you a bill for *previous* issues they sent you? Or are they sending you an offer to pay up front for more issues? I can't recall the last time I ever heard of a magazine billing you later for your subscription after sending you the magazines first. The only time companies ever did something like that for me was with those Mysteries Of The Unexplained books from the 1980's, and those weren't magazines.

It sounds like they are trying to get you to purchase a future subscription instead - in which case you can just ignore them (but enjoy the free issues if they insist on sending them to you). They may be trying to make the subscription offer look like a "bill" to trick you into paying for it. Unfortunately no matter how obvious or sleazy this may be, there are a percentage of people out there, particularly elderly, who will fall for it and send in the payments.

Those subscription costs are not their bread and butter - they likely just cover the shipping costs, as well as confirming with them that you are still an active reader (so they can, in turn, have the statistics/data to pitch to their advertisers).

I am pretty vigilant myself with reading the fine print on offers and purchases I make, to be sure they aren't tacking on any additional things such as trial subscriptions to magazines - yet I still get them from time to time. Most recently I was getting subscriptions to Rolling Stone for like 2+ years and I never paid a penny for it, nor did I ever sign up for it.

No matter how careful you are, there are still some companies out there who will go ahead and sign you up for offers you did not agree to when you make some sort of transaction with them - so they can get a commission/kickback. They're banking on the notion that the consumer won't figure out it was them who did it, and the magazines won't realize the subscriptions were fraudulent.

 

I don't think there's anything wrong with simply canceling the service, I'm sure they're used to it....
Other than that, assuming that you're not paying for any of the deliveries, maybe find some good use for the magazine, maybe use it for wrapping Christmas presents? That's always a creative thing to do...

 

I get American Baby and I'm not pregnant and have no infants. After writing them to stop sending it, to no avail, at this point, I just leave the magazines in the library's donation box.