If you watch enough TV, there’s a good chance you’ve seen ads for The Green Millionaire, which purports to be a free book that will teach you how to take advantage of government programs to do things like “keep your gas tank full for free” and “get big dollars to ‘green’ your home, even if you rent.” But some complain they’re getting more than the free book — they’re getting a pricey magazine subscription they can’t get out of. [More]
subscriptions
Microsoft Investigating Why Songs Are Disappearing From Zune Pass
By 2.8.10
If record labels decided to pull some of their songs from the Zune Pass service in the past couple of weeks, they did a poor job telling Microsoft about it. The company seems to be as in the dark as Zune Pass subscribers about why songs, albums, or entire discographies have gone missing. Ars technica reports that a Microsoft employee wrote on a Zune forum, “We are investigating your reported missing albums indicated in this post—and will come back to you as soon as we understand why they’re missing.” [More]
Netflix Offers Ex-Customer Disappearing Free Trial
By 12.6.09
Dana used to be a Netflix subscriber, and they want her back. To entice her back, they sent her an e-mail offering a free trial. She decided to try it out…but Netflix wouldn’t let her. Because, according to their system, she is an existing Netflix customer. Who received an email addressing her as a former customer. [More]
An Argument Against Amazon Prime
By 12.2.09
As usual, Amazon is pushing its Prime service these days, offering a free monthlong trial. On the surface, it seems like a reasonable offer for heavy customers: pay $79 and you get free two-day shipping with no minimum order amount and overnight shipping for $4. [More]
Free Shipping From QPB: Just Pay Shipping And Handling
By 11.29.09
Jon received this e-mail from the book club QPB. It promises free shipping, and a free travel set, if he pays shipping and handling. That shipping is on the travel set, we presume, but no one can really be sure. [More]
Seattle Coffee Direct Decides You Need $40 Worth Of Coffee Per Day
By 11.7.09
If you’ve been tempted by Facebook ads promising cheap “introductory” offers from Seattle Coffee Direct or World Bean Cafe, located in the world coffee capital of Evanston, Illinois, readers Adam and Ivan say, “don’t do it!” The ads promise t-shirts or a free coffee grinder as an incentive to sign up, or tempting introductory offers. But you’re really signing up for a coffee delivery service for close to $80 per month. Or more, as reader Ivan learned. He says that the company accidentally billed him for, and sent, two bags of coffee per day.
Why Retailers Like It When You Subscribe
By 10.12.09
You know what’s great about subscriptions? You forget to cancel them. You also pay more over time than you would if you were forced to buy items individually. Yeah, that’s awesome—for companies. The New York Times looks at current research on how consumers think about subscriptions, and why companies want to push them more than ever.
Last Remaining Human Who Actually Wants To Subscribe To A Newspaper Can't
By 10.5.09
Meet Michael. He likes to read the newspaper. Sadly, his attempts to resubscribe to the Washington Post have resulted in abject failure. Hmm, we thought that newspapers were sort of hurting for subscribers…
Freescore.com Sues Yahoo To Reveal Blogger's Identity
By 9.28.09
Freescore.com is one of those online companies that offers a free trial, and then attempts to enroll its customers in a $30/month subscription service. Now they’re suing Yahoo in an attempt to reveal an anonymous blogger who quoted a Reuters article when criticizing the service, and who pointed out that Freescore is owned by a company with a reputation for billing customers without permission.
Warning: Read The Fine Print Before Cashing An Unexpected Rebate Check
By 7.10.09
At first, it looks like a rebate check, but read the fine print. It says if you endorse and cash the check, you are signing up for a marketing service called “Great Fun.” Then, your credit card will be charged $149.99. That subscription will renew annually unless you cancel it with Great Fun.
Game Publisher Square Enix Slapped With Class Action Suit For False Advertising, 'Product Enrichment'
By 6.25.09
One day, gamers will get together to sue Square Enix for always lying to them about how infinitely sequelized “Final” Fantasy games are never really final. But until then we’ll just have to sit back and see how this false advertising federal class action lawsuit against the game publisher plays out.
Hulu May Start Charging For Content
By 6.6.09
Just when free tv on the internet was starting to get good, Hulu board member Jon Miller had to go and talk about subscription fees. Miller, an AOL refugee who’s now squeezing cash out of consumers for News Corp, said last week of subscription fees: “in my opinion the answer could be yes. I don’t see why that shouldn’t happen over time… it seems to me that over time that could be a logical thing.” Charging for content isn’t his only big idea…
Don't Buy Your Magazines From Door-To-Door Salesmen This Summer
By 5.5.09
A couple of years ago, the New York Times did a piece on the poor treatment of teens hired to travel the country and sell magazine subscriptions door-to-door, but they’re not the only ones getting the raw end of the deal.
Xbox Live Cancels Year-Long Prepaid Account, Demands Another Year's Subscription To Reactivate
By 3.25.09
Xbox Live has struck again, this time by screwing up the auto-renewal on a customer’s account and ruining the prepaid annual membership he activated just three months ago.
Sirius Streaming Radio Not Working For Some Customers
By 3.25.09
Sirus-XM charges for access to its Sirius Music Player, but for the past few days, some customers can’t get it to work. One of them in this forum says it only connects after Howard Stern is over, and speculates that some cost-cutting measures have reduced available bandwidth, leading to locked-out customers. In another thread customers are complaining that popular third-party streaming radio services have been sent cease-and-desist letters from Sirius, further limiting access to streaming Sirius programming online. Naturally, Sirius-XM hasn’t responded to customer queries about the issue.
E-Harmony Gives You 58 Dimensions Of Suck By Billing You For Two Accounts
By 3.3.09
Update: eHarmony has returned the money.
Outside Magazine Will Send Your Free 2009 Calendar When It's In The Discount Bin
By 3.3.09
Outside Magazine offered Tracey two free 2009 Calendars if she signed up for an annual subscription early last December. She thought her dad would enjoy the magazine and the calendar, so she accepted. Now it’s March and there’s still no calendar, and Tracey says every time she calls to complain, they tell her they’ll send it. In the meantime, her dad still has no idea what day it is.
