S/O Beggars, Moochers and Scammers

[ACBNYC]

I love Reader's Digest, but they send URGENT RENEWAL NOTICES constantly. Since I didn't remember when I had originally subscribed, I would occasionally write a check without looking at prior payments. I'm now paid up through 2016, as I wasn't renewing so much as extending!

They all do this, and it drives me batty. I subscribed to Vanity Fair, last Jan, for 2 years. so my subscription is good through Jan 2014. Yet not three months after I first sent my payment in, I was getting these urgent notices taht my subscription was about to expire, blah, blah, blah,and I must take advantage of this fabulous deal. I've found that each notice, even though its in small print and you have to hunt for it, will tell you exactly when your subscription will expire.

I've also found that it's usually somewhere in the address block of both the notices and the magazines themselves. I always look at that now, and toss out any renewal notices that come before the last month of my subscription. :-)

I learn something every day. :-) I'll have to look at the next issue. I'm only a bit peevish about it, since I would renew anyway. And I will say they were very nice when my mom passed away in September--I had subscribed for her every year as a Christmas gift--by transferring her unused dollars to my account.

I've also had the recent phenomenon of getting magazines to which I haven't subscribed and of course they want payment. Rolling Stone finally stopped sending me issues; I still get Sports Illustrated, Men's Health, and Women's Health.

[LazyDaisy]

I had that with my Real Simple magazine subscription. Kept getting renewal notice letters about every week for the entire year subscription. I remembered when I subscribed so I knew right away that these were fake notices. I was so annoyed by it that I decided not to renew when the time came even though I do generally like the magazine.

It's like when I donated blood to the Red Cross a few years ago and then immediately (like the next week) kept getting pleas to come back and give more; both calls and emails about 1-2 times a week for a year. It took a month of me asking them to remove my phone and email addresses from their lists. Now, I still donate blood...to any organization except the Red Cross.

[Elfmama]

Those people who call and say they are from Reader's Digest, and you have to resubscribe NOW because the price is going up to $60 a year -- they aren't from RD, they're a subscription service.  And the price of a subscription is still nowhere near $60.

I've also stopped taking magazines that try to trick me into extending my subscription.  One of them was Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, which I really liked.  But when they sent me a notice marked on the outside with OVERDUE:  SUSPENSION OF SERVICE NOTICE in order to trick me into opening the envelope in a panic, wondering what vital bill I'd neglected to pay, well, THAT is not something I will put up with.  I called the handy number and not only did NOT extend my subscription, I cancelled the remainder of the current subscription and demanded a rebate for the unused months.  I then bundled up the whole thing and sent it to the company CEO, asking if he was aware that whoever was handling subscriptions was pulling this kind of shenanigans?  I never got an answer.

[Hillia]

Wejust bought a used car, and we've gotten several very official notices telling us that our warranty is about to expire, and just call this number to keep that from happening.  Of course the number is to a shady 3rd party warranty company that wants to sell you an overpriced, worthless contract.

[siamesecat2965]

I get a lot of stuff, due to my large credit card debt, that LOOKS official, but really are from shady companies who want to try and get you to sign up with them, adn they can magically make a big chunk of your debt disappear! and they'll lower your monthly payments, yada, yada, yada.  Sorry, but I'm not falling for that. I'm just plugging away, paying it down every month....

[hobish]

Moochers of the year 2012: my brother and his family.  They are continually claiming to be poor because they spend their money on things for themselves (constant ordering out because they don't want to cook, for instance).  None of them are able to hold a job for very long, partially because they all think they're the best thing since sliced bread and the world should fall and worship at their feet.

My mother gives them very nice Christmas gifts (usually cash actually).  They actually gave her a Christmas gift this year too... one of those cards that, if you use your store credit card, you get $10 per $100 spent put back on this gift card.  But you have to use it in a certain week and I'm sure you have to buy a minimum amount. But my brother is at least supposed to take Mom to the store to do this shopping.  We'll see. So it means they spent $200 at this department store on themselves and got her gift for free(that doesn't sell ANYTHING they couldn't have gotten way cheaper at Walmart).

Mom's birthday is near Christmas, and she decided to take brother and family out for dinner.  They suggested a steakhouse.  She assumed they'd all order appetizers to share (poor naive mom).  Brother and family all ordered steak and lobster.

And they didn't give Mom anything for her birthday.  Not a card even.

If I was still talking to my brother he'd get an earful.  As it is I am glad I was there to hug Mom when she cried afterwards.

Ohh, give her an extra hug from me.

Me, too. That actually teared me up a little. Your poor Mom 

[Otterpop]

Moochers of the year 2012: my brother and his family.  They are continually claiming to be poor because they spend their money on things for themselves (constant ordering out because they don't want to cook, for instance).  None of them are able to hold a job for very long, partially because they all think they're the best thing since sliced bread and the world should fall and worship at their feet.

My mother gives them very nice Christmas gifts (usually cash actually).  They actually gave her a Christmas gift this year too... one of those cards that, if you use your store credit card, you get $10 per $100 spent put back on this gift card.  But you have to use it in a certain week and I'm sure you have to buy a minimum amount. But my brother is at least supposed to take Mom to the store to do this shopping.  We'll see. So it means they spent $200 at this department store on themselves and got her gift for free(that doesn't sell ANYTHING they couldn't have gotten way cheaper at Walmart).

Mom's birthday is near Christmas, and she decided to take brother and family out for dinner.  They suggested a steakhouse.  She assumed they'd all order appetizers to share (poor naive mom).  Brother and family all ordered steak and lobster.

And they didn't give Mom anything for her birthday.  Not a card even.

If I was still talking to my brother he'd get an earful.  As it is I am glad I was there to hug Mom when she cried afterwards.

Ohh, give her an extra hug from me.

Me, too. That actually teared me up a little. Your poor Mom 

I think steam came out of my ears.  (My mom is deceased.    Treat her nicely while you can).

[Ida]

We've been getting "renew NOW cheaper" notices regarding at least three of the magazines we subscribe to -- and we don't get all that many. We both thought the renewal prices looked high, and DH keeps an Excel spreadsheet of subscriptions* and due dates besides, so we don't take anybody's word on due dates.

Then our mags started running notices that there are fake subscription services that send these. The services seem to change their names often, but the mailings themselves look oddly similar.

Protip: DO NOT pay anybody but the magazines or their own services for subscriptions. You can find the relevant addresses and names on the mastheads along with those of all the senior dogwalkers' and poobahs emeritus, usually on one of the first few pages near the table of contents.


*Some are tax write-offs.

[AuntieA]

I had a problem in the past with both Reader's Digest  and RN magazine (which I had taken on a 3-month trial basis) automatically renewing my subscription. I was then dunned to pay for said auto-renewed subscription. Unfortunately for both publications, in the province where I live (Alberta) *"negative notification renewals" are illegal. I was able to convey this to both publications and never heard from either again. I did have to threaten RN that I would direct my complaint to the U.S. Postmaster General about this, but it worked.

*"negative notification renewal" = if you don't tell the publisher you no longer want to subscribe, they will automatically renew your subscription.

[Thipu1]

On the other side, Harper's Magazine prints a prominent 'Subscriber Alert' notice in each issue.  The notice warns subscribers against solicitation from unauthorized subscription services. 

Also, Harper's does not send out renewal alerts until the subscription really is about to expire in a month or two.

[LadyJaneinMD]

Wejust bought a used car, and we've gotten several very official notices telling us that our warranty is about to expire, and just call this number to keep that from happening.  Of course the number is to a shady 3rd party warranty company that wants to sell you an overpriced, worthless contract.

I've gotten several 'warranty about to expire' notices about a car that has been dead for 10 years!
Yeah, like anyone would buy a warrenty for a 1990 car!

[MissRose]

Wejust bought a used car, and we've gotten several very official notices telling us that our warranty is about to expire, and just call this number to keep that from happening.  Of course the number is to a shady 3rd party warranty company that wants to sell you an overpriced, worthless contract.

I've gotten several 'warranty about to expire' notices about a car that has been dead for 10 years!
Yeah, like anyone would buy a warrenty for a 1990 car!

I have reason to believe those places are complete scams that send stuff out of the blue & word things in a way to scare people.  I got my extended warranty on my car the day of purchase and if there is any issue with it, I will visit the dealer first not reply to a mail to a place that may not be reputable.

[stitchygreyanonymouse]

Some car dealers are just about as bad. "We need more used cars on our lot! We’ll buy yours from you for a good price!" trying to get you to buy a new one from them. I started getting those notices within months of buying my car.

The kicker was when I continued to receive ones that mentioned my exact car—two years after I had turned it in to that dealership at the end of the SmartBuy! (A thing GM did for a while that worked a lot like a lease, and you could relinquish the car at the end, but you technically owned it and could instead keep it and refi the remaining balance after the 3 or 4 years).

[learningtofly]

Newsweek sent renewal notices every few months for years.  I would buy two or three years at a time, so I'd check the expiration date and toss the notice.  They were still sending them, and I was considering renewing, when it was announced they were no longer printing.  I'll read it online for the time I have left, but I really like holding a magazine.

[Kaymyth]

I got the famous Windows virus scam over the weekend.  So I said 'I don't have a Windows computer.  Please take me off your calling list and stop trying to scam me.  Thank you so much.' Click.

My computer runs Ubuntu Linux. Someone phoned trying the Windows virus scam and told me off as they said all PCs run Windows underneath everything and I must not know what I was talking about.

I would've just started laughing hysterically.  Man, I would be the wrong person for them to target.  My husband is a Linux sys admin.