Reader Brian doesn’t have a womb, so when he saw a copy of Working Mother magazine in his mailbox, he was pretty sure that he didn’t order it:

Last December I placed an order at art.com for a framed print which I intended to give as a Christmas present. I placed the order well within art.com’s recommended time frame for delivery in time for christmas. During the order they promised delivery by December 17th. Well, as you may guess December 17th came and went with no package (they shipped it on the 15th via DHL.) December 24th came and went with no package. DHL finally delivered it on the 26th after I had been forced to go out and purchase another gift to replace the one that had not arrived.

In the end I let it slide. I had no desire to deal with telephone customer service the week after Christmas to get my shipping money refunded from art.com. I had better things to do with my vacation time.

This week I come home and find an issue of “Working Mother” magazine in my mailbox. Thinking it was delivered by mistake to my box I check the address label. To my surprise I find that it is addressed to me. Having all the correct Male parts it is anatomically impossible for me to be a working mother so I was puzzled as to how I ended up with this subscription. I refused delivery of the magazine by writing “refused” on the label and leaving it in my mailbox with the flag up. Next I visited their website and put in an inquiry via an online form. Surprisingly they got back to me very quickly. The verdict? Art.com had signed me up for a complimentary subscription for one year. I certainly don’t remember clicking anything during my order with them indicating that I might be interested in 12 issues of a magazine that I will throw directly into the trash every month. If I did leave a box checked or something it must not have been very conspicuous because I usually catch stuff like that.

Working Mother magazine canceled my “subscription” in response to my message to them.

As a postal customer I’m bombarded with a pile of junk mail every month. Shame on art.com for adding this mountain of waste.

Brian

Attention Art.com: People do not like unsolicited magazines randomly showing up at their door. Seriously. We are not making this up.

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