Entertainment Weekly Deceptive renewal Nationwide

Hi,
I just took a closer look at the renewal cover page to the Entertainment Weekly magazine. Shaded letters on the cover said "This is not a bill. No reply necessary." That struck me as strange since every magazine I have ever subscribed to would have a similar cover sheet which would say that time was running out to renew the subscription.

They automatically renew your subscription each year by billing your credit card. I find this a bit deceptive because other magazines which really care about the customer require that the person make a postive action to renew. EW requires that you make a positive action to NOT renew.

I know... I know... read all the fine print... Caveat emptor, let the buyer beware. Life has enough challenges as it is... to continually have to read everything to protect yourself from deceptive companies and individuals is just getting to be to much. It seems that they are always finding ways to sneak in a few extra dollars at the expense of the unaware or distracted.

Luckily I noticed this. When I first saw the renewal cover I thought, "Hmmm, no, I don't think that I will keep this subscription. Just let it lapse." It was a couple of days later that I noticed that it required me to call an #800 or go online to stop the automatic renewal.

Some may say to get with the program. These are designed to actually make your life simpler by ensuring that you always get the quality magazine that you want. It protects you from having to worry about missing out on their great product because you forgot to renew. Uh-huh, right.

I would suspect that if anything, they found that most people would renew but they forgot... so if they made it automatic they could take care of those subscriptions they would have lost and they can snare in those that are used to having to take an action if the didn't want to renew. After all... read the print.

It just gets tiring to have to swim with the sharks in daily life. There are those looking to take advantage of you, and those waiting to come on here and attack reporters and make snide remarks about the reporter being stupid or some such nonsense. How anyone could defend companies that use their marketing skills and lawyers disclaimers to deceive people is beyond me. That isn't capitalism, it isn't "family values" and it isn't integrety.

Life shouldn't be about having to limit youself for your own protection from those that try to take advantage.

I have tried these conveniences before... I let Verizon have access to my credit card so I didn't have to worry about writing a check each month. They didn't enter my phone plan code correctly and they charged me peak minutes for EVERY single minute used... weekends and evenings. They charged me $499 for the first month! Plus, I was double billed and it came out to $998! This was for less than 100 peak minutes used on a 400 minute nationwide plan. They wanted to prorate my future bills! Needless to say, I stopped that and pay monthly by check.

I guess the moral here is that if someone is trying to do something to make your life "easier"... run. Forget about the fine print. Life no longer means taking for granted those things that you have always known... it now means "Cover your @$$"

Darren
Neenah, Wisconsin
U.S.A.

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