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Gene Jordan
04-01-2008, 6:18 AM
I recently received a notice for a magazine subscription to a woodworking publication I've been getting for a few years now. This notice came inside a plastic sleeve along with the current months issue of the magazine. This notice said that I could continue my subscription at the low subsciber rate of 43% off the news stand price. Inside the magazine, however, was a card proclaiming that new subscribers could have this publication sent to them for 52% off.
I am of the opinion that loyal subscribers should have the best price that is offered. Needless to say, I am not renewing.

Sorry for the rant, but this just rubbed me the wrong way.

Dave Verstraete
04-01-2008, 7:28 AM
Gene

I agree!! If you hold out longer, they send you a better offer. Whats with that. I recently waited one of them out and eventually paid for 1 year and received two free ones. Who's kidding who about "Newstand Price"?

Keith Outten
04-01-2008, 8:39 AM
Gene,

You can become a Contributor here at SawMill Creek for 50 cents per month. Possibly you can see the value of the information here may be more worthwhile than any magazine subscription, not to mention the friendships and other perks from supporting SawMill Creek.

I for one would like to know how everyone feels about how The Creek stacks up against conventional magazine subscriptions and their value as compared to this Community.

.

Rob Bodenschatz
04-01-2008, 9:32 AM
I for one would like to know how everyone feels about how The Creek stacks up against conventional magazine subscriptions and their value as compared to this Community.


Then perhaps you should start another thread. This one is about magazine subscription practices.

Jason Christenson
04-01-2008, 9:51 AM
I for one would like to know how everyone feels about how The Creek stacks up against conventional magazine subscriptions and their value as compared to this Community.

I've yet to come across a traditional magazine that I can subscribe to for $6.00 a year, or one that I can ask questions too 24 hours a day. Seems to me that Sawmill Creek wins hands down.

Jason

Prashun Patel
04-01-2008, 10:01 AM
I've found that (just like cable service) if you call the publisher to renew, they usually have flexibility to give you better rates - especially if you're willing to lock into a 2-3 yr contract. Also, I've had luck getting a bundled rate by subscribing to 2 mags by the same publisher.

SMC is invaluable, I agree, but it's hard to take it to the john!

Richard M. Wolfe
04-01-2008, 10:06 AM
This is for Keith: I joined SMC pretty early last year and became a contributing member in November. I gave it several months to see how I would like it. No sense in contributing if I wasn't going to use it. I contributed. I let the subscription to the one woodworking magazine I took lapse, although I am considering going with FWW. Question answered?

This is for Gene. Let the magazine people know just what you told us and see what they say. Or better yet make them a counter offer. :) Never heard of it being done, but the worst that could happen is you would be out postage and get ignored.

mike holden
04-01-2008, 10:06 AM
Shawn,
you have never heard of a laptop and wi-fi? GD&R....

Seriously though, magazines WANT subscribers - the larger their guaranteed circulation, the higher the rate for advertising. Obviously, mags without advertising use a different business model.
So, call them or simply send in the coupon with the lowest rate and write "renewal" on it. They will honor it if my experience is any indication. (full disclosure: this was done with a bicycling magazine, not a woodworking one)
Mike

Matt Meiser
04-01-2008, 10:58 AM
Shawn,
you have never heard of a laptop and wi-fi? GD&R....

Or a smart phone?

Ken Fitzgerald
04-01-2008, 11:30 AM
This marketing strategy has been used for years......take care of the new.....ignore the old.....to broaden the customer base. I am one of those that like to find something or a company I can depend on and then stay with them.......That was until about 8 years ago. I got to watching telephone advertising on tv. The offers for new subscribers was significantly lower than what we were paying. I called this particular telephone company of whom we'd been customers for over 30 years....I asked if we could get the same rate new customers were getting. "No sir....that's for new customers only".....2 days later I got an advertisement from a competing telephone company that was similar to that being advertised by what was then our current telephone company. I changed to the competing company. At the end of the month, I got billed by the old company at which time I called them and told them they weren't my long distance provider anymore and I wouldn't be paying the bill. I got transferred to a customer service manager. I repeated my song. They were heart broken that a 30+ year customer would leave for lower rates. Later I got a call from a Regional Customer service manager.....Then a check in the mail for $150 IF I'd come back to them. I tore the check up.......Then the LOML and I remembered our parents who were on fixed incomes (social security).....sure enough...they were with the same company we'd been with for 30 years and were paying the same high rates. They made a phone call and got a new company with lower rates.

I don't know where "marketing" folks get off thinking they can treat long term customers like that and get by with it?

David G Baker
04-01-2008, 12:50 PM
Ken,
You would think that the companies would wake up to the loyalty factor but they seldom do until it is to late. I am like you and am loyal only to companies that are loyal to me, if I lose their loyalty I am gone.

Jason Beam
04-01-2008, 12:59 PM
It's likely better business for them to alienate a handful of current subscribers who care in favor of gaining far more new subscribers. It's pretty basic business - It's far far harder to GET customers than it is to KEEP them.

The existing customers who get bent out of shape enough to cancel their subscription are but a fraction of the new subscriptions they get by using this tactic. There's no "Waking up" for them to do - this method is successfull for THEM. Maybe not for you, but it certainly is for them.

It's accepted and isn't likely to change unless the majority of their customer base feels the same way about it. Most folks either accept it or just don't pay attention.

dennis thompson
04-01-2008, 1:24 PM
It's also worth negotiating with XM radio, I didn't use it much & was going to cancel, when I told them it was too expensive they reduced the price from about $120/yr to $75/yr
Dennis

Matt Meiser
04-01-2008, 1:37 PM
It works for most services. The trick is to ask for their Customer Retention department. Not sure if magazines have them, but I cut our cell phone bill by almost 2/3 and got a $10/mo credit from DirecTV by threatening to switch. "Customer churn" is a problem for them too. Sprint especially has been hit hard by that. They gave me a "special" plan and multiple stacked discounts on top of that to get me to stay on for two more years. Now I'm locked in great rates for that long.

Bob Rufener
04-01-2008, 5:12 PM
I've been subscribing to Wood magazine for a number of years. I ignore all requests for renewal. I have been renewing off of ebay for the last to times. I recently got 3 years of magazines for $21.98. A little more than $7.00 per year. I have had no problems with it and they will renew your current subscription with the proper information.

Keith Outten
04-01-2008, 9:03 PM
Then perhaps you should start another thread. This one is about magazine subscription practices.

Rob,

The OP used the term "Woodworking Publication" which is a much broader term than just magazines. In fact a magazine can be a television program, they don't have to be printed on paper. SawMill Creek is a Woodworking Publication per my dictionary and is by definition a magazine. The costs and fees associated with subscriptions were also part of the main topic so I can't see where my post was off topic. There is a very fine line between a subscription and a donation as we use the term here, we don't normally split hairs that close here at The Creek.

I believe that woodworking forums are in fact a new generation of magazines that will in time replace the paper and ink periodicals. I doubt that many woodworkers would disagree with the idea that trees can be put to better use than printing color magazines. So I think there is merit to the comparison between the mediums, the costs associated and the means of subscription.

.

Brian Elfert
04-03-2008, 9:20 PM
People are creatures of habit and sometime just plain lazy. People will get a magazine or newspaper for years and for some reason quit reading it, but they never bother to cancel the subscription and just keep paying. There are a lot of others who are diehard readers and just pay the renewal notice and don't even pay much attention to the price.

Why would the publisher want to lower the price for these folks if they are going to renew anyhow?

Kinda unrelated, I work at a newspaper (not in circulation) and some of the reasons I've hard that people give for cancelling are just petty. If the minor change to the newspaper was enough for them to cancel they probably weren't the best customer anyhow and may have been looking for an excuse to cancel. Advertisers want people to actually read the paper so the ads get seen.

My mom really hates how magazine publishers will send out magazine renewals up to 9 months in advance. Sometimes it seems like she just paid and they are asking for the next renewal already.

Gene Jordan
04-05-2008, 2:11 AM
Thank you to all that replied. I guess quite a few other people have had problems with magazine subscriptions also.

For Keith Outten:
You have talked me into being a contributor. I can certainly see the value of this forum. The members here are very willing to help each other, and have a vast amount of knowledge. My money order is in the mail.