Unwanted, unordered magazines (periodicals)

[Sistema1927]

Just wondering if anyone else has encountered this.

My wife has been receiving the magazine "O" from Oprah for the past couple of years. She has never ordered it, and can't imagine anyone gifting it to her. It ends up in the recycle bin as soon as it hits our mailbox. Last time that I checked a label there were still multiple years left on the subscription.

Yesterday, she received a copy of "Wine Spectator" and the label says that the subscription runs through Oct 2020. Once again never ordered. At the same time, as the wife of a Baptist Pastor, we can't imagine anyone gifting it to her.

Do magazine companies send out unwanted issues, hoping folks will bite?

 

[kmyers]

My first job(12 years, 1985 - 1997) was with a magazine publisher and it was pretty standard practice but we published magazines geared towards dental issues, environmental issues and HR types of issues, personnel and employee assistance. They send out however many and hope that a percent will subscribe, strange that she still receives it after a couple of years.

 

[ancient-one]

I don't know but I have been getting, for about 3 or 4 months, the weekly Bloomberg Magazine. It does have some good stuff in it other than money matters. I still do not want it and I have contacted them twice with no results.
I guess that I will just forget it, read what interests me and pitch them.

 

[Vulcan Bob]

Yup, my wife gets O mag, Harper's Bazaar and Good Housekeeping all unordered and unwanted. Been a few years now with no signs of stopping.
Sheesh, if any of my buddys find out that I get Oprah's mag here I might get beat up! No idea why this occurs.

 

[arjay]

Publishers have done this for years. The magazines in the drs waiting room aren’t paid for by him. I would guess that subscriptions are way down for most printed magazines these days and mags set their ad rates by issues sold

 

[6518John]

Yesterday, she received a copy of "Wine Spectator" and the label says that the subscription runs through Oct 2020. At the same time, as the wife of a Baptist Pastor, we can't imagine anyone gifting it to her.

Maybe your congregation is trying to drop hints they want some kick to the Communion grape juice in the future!

 

[kmyers]

Publishers have done this for years. The magazines in the drs waiting room aren’t paid for by him. I would guess that subscriptions are way down for most printed magazines these days and mags set their ad rates by issues sold

That is how the company I worked for did it. You send out multiple issues all over an industry and hope that someone there, the dentist, the safety officer or environment person for one of our publications will just subscribe and write it off. The money is in the advertising. When I worked there we had 6 or so magazines and 12 or so newsletters, only 3 of the publications still exist and are put out by 1105 Media. OHS Magazine was our biggest money maker and out of perhaps 100,000 subscribers less than 20,000 were paid subscribers.

 

[delcrossv]

We get the New Yorker (Meh) and Cigar Aficionado (Yay) delivered. We didn't sign up for either. The former goes right in the trash, the latter gets sent to my Navy kid.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

Often is one magazine is a subscription card for one or more other magazines. People often fill them out in other peoples name and check the "Gift" box. The publisher is just glad to have another address to sell!

Ivan

In 1997 my oldest son was a junior in High School and filled out cards for information on colleges under the name Vladimir The Butcher (chip off the old block), at my address. Since he went US Army instead, 20 to 30 colleges sent info to my home for about 20 years!

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Back when I was a yout a favorite trick was to go to the magazine rack and get all the coupons they stuffed in them and then fill out the names of people and check the"bill me later" box. Playboy and Penthouse were always favorites. One year I actually bought and paid for a one year subscription to thr National Enquirer for my father. THAT was a hoot!!

 

[326MOD10]

I started to get Architecture Digest and was extremely confused.

When I called them they asked if I had ordered something from XYZ business. I had in fact ordered from them.

The magazine was a gift for my order. Apparently the information card telling me this was with all that paperwork that you just toss away at the bottom of the box.

When I canceled the subscription I was given a refund for the amount of the subscription.

 

[pawngal]

Just wondering if anyone else has encountered this

Yesterday, she received a copy of "Wine Spectator" and the label says that the subscription runs through Oct 2020. Once again never ordered. At the same time, as the wife of a Baptist Pastor, we can't imagine anyone gifting it to her.

Do magazine companies send out unwanted issues, hoping folks will bite?

I use to subscribe to Wine Spectator, expensive! Wish they'd send me a free subscription.
I get free trade magazines all the time.

 

[delcrossv]

Back when I was a yout a favorite trick was to go to the magazine rack and get all the coupons they stuffed in them and then fill out the names of people and check the"bill me later" box. Playboy and Penthouse were always favorites. One year I actually bought and paid for a one year subscription to thr National Enquirer for my father. THAT was a hoot!!

In high school, we used to pull out the inserts for "bedwetting problems" and fill in the names of other kids.

They'd be on those lists forever.

 

[italiansport]

I am not Catholic but I keep getting the Knights of Columbus periodical every month. I contacted them and told them I didn't want this periodical but I'm still getting it. Oh well!

Jim

 

[6518John]

Back when I was a yout a favorite trick was to go to the magazine rack and get all the coupons they stuffed in them and then fill out the names of people and check the"bill me later" box. Playboy and Penthouse were always favorites. One year I actually bought and paid for a one year subscription to thr National Enquirer for my father. THAT was a hoot!!

Gary—I submitted a flowery, heartfelt essay to Beano and on behalf on the snootiest legal secretary I have ever met. She worked for my best friend. Beano was running a contest on “How Beano has improved my life.” She placed nationally and won a 6 month supply of Beano. Oh to have filmed her reaction when the Beano reps called and told her she won! She was nice to me thereafter.

 

[GaryS]

A guy I worked with used to do that to people that annoyed him. Fortunately, I never annoyed him, so I never got any magazines.

Back when I was a yout a favorite trick was to go to the magazine rack and get all the coupons they stuffed in them and then fill out the names of people and check the"bill me later" box. Playboy and Penthouse were always favorites. One year I actually bought and paid for a one year subscription to thr National Enquirer for my father. THAT was a hoot!!

 

[Farmer17]

Be sure and watch your checking account and credit card statements closely, I recently saw my credit card was being charged for a monthly subscription to "Youtube Premium". I had never heard of it and definitely never gave Youtube my credit card info and they must have got it by being linked to Amazon or Ebay or something similar where I've used the card to buy a product. I notified them to stop the subscription immediately which they did and I also contacted my credit card company to reverse the monthly charge which they did. I think Youtube will cancel the service quickly without hassles and hope that a lot of people won't worry about trying to get the 13 or 14 dollars back for one month. Do that to 10 million people and you've made a pretty nice pile of money.

 

[UncleEd]

In a nearby thread, the lament is about
commercials and how they intrude on
our 21st Century lives.

Here, it's unwanted magazines.

It seems the hardships of this 21st
Century are nearly unendurable.

But the good news is that so many of us
on this forum won't have any of those
problems after 2050.

 

[Golddollar]

I have the opposite problem. Years ago one of my agents gave me a gift subscription to a magazine that at first blush would not seem to be aimed at me. It turned out this magazine was full of personal financial advice that anybody could use, and I enjoyed the magazine so much that I renewed my subscription on me own. The trouble is a couple years ago the magazine ceased print publication and went to a digital format. Being digitally challenged it's difficult to me to even remember to try to bring up the magazine on the computer.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

In a nearby thread, the lament is about
commercials and how they intrude on
our 21st Century lives.

Here, it's unwanted magazines.

It seems the hardships of this 21st
Century are nearly unendurable.

But the good news is that so many of us
on this forum won't have any of those
problems after 2050.

What happens after 2050 ??????