I renewed my subscription last November. In April, I received my renewal notice for next November, some 7 months too early !!! Had I not kept track, I would have simply paid the account rather than checked how early it was.
I wrote to Magshop and asked why I was receiving a renewal notice, and they said "Kindly disregard that letter for the reason that your subscription is paid up until November 2018 issue and we will send you renewal letters 3 months, 2 months and a month before it expires.
Clearly, Magshop is trying to fool customers into believing their accounts are due for payment. However, billing them even 3 months, 2 months and 1 month ahead of the renewal date is simply immoral.
I have asked them why one would do that (even though we all know the answer), but this is such a scam and a trap for the unwary.
I’m sure if our other regular suppliers such as Gas, Electricity and other services were to bill us so far in advance and repeatedly, there would be an outcry!
That I don’t know. Pretty much every account suggests it is a discount, to the point that I really disregard the amount as payment always seems to be determined by the “pluck a number out of the air” basis. A few companies seem to work on the same process. Every time I book a cruise the price is discounted from the release price, to the point where I doubt that anyone actually pays the “book price”.
My PC security program is due for renewal December 21 but I get urged to renew from October onwards. I’m not stupid enough to pay for twelve months and only get 10 so I ignore them and renew on the due date but it is annoying.
Those renewals are supposed to add to the existing subscription, not replace it, so if you ever get dudded you will usually get a quick resolution from customer service, often with a few extra months thrown in for your irritation.
There are various reason they send these renewals, but for busy people (or the elderly) they can be mistaken for a normal bill and just paid without thinking too much about it. I think it’s pretty immoral to be sending out accounts for services which are nowhere near due for renewal. One month maybe, but 7 months early? I don’t think so.
We subscribe to some magazines too, mainly because it’s cheaper than buying them in the shops. We, too, get these early renewal notices and the prices are always different, and as you say random, for example, at the moment I’m paying $2.99 per issue for Gourmet Traveller (hard copy, which is about $10 in the shops), just over $2 per copy for Woman’s Day and $1.33 for New Idea (which is about all the last two are worth).
I never renew early because the offers seem to get cheaper and cheaper as time goes on, and if I ignore them altogether I’ll be made a really good offer, because they “miss me”, LOL. I also never take the so called “free” gifts that are often offered (I’d rather have a really cheap magazine).
I’ve decided that what we each pay is the luck of the draw.
