Print Media Industry: Inconveniencing People is not a Viable Business Model
This isn't really gaming related but it's something that annoys me. Warning - there will naughty language.
I stopped at Best Buy this afternoon to pick up a new wireless mouse. When I'm checking out, the kid at the register asks me which of the three free magazines I want a subscription to. I don't want any; I read very few print magazines these days, and I have no interest in Time, Entertainment Weekly, or Sport Illustrated. He says that you get eight months for free but at the end it's up to you to opt-in to continue getting the magazine. I'm not interested in taking any longer than I have to so I just say sure. But when I'm running my debit card through the machine, there's a notice that I'm giving Best Buy or the publisher or whoever permission to charge my card automatically (wow, how convenient!) at the end of the "free" trial. That doesn't jive with what the kid told me, and I tell him to get rid of the magazine crap entirely. I guess he figures that sending in a card to opt-out is no different from not sending in a card to opt-in. There's a big difference, because while it's not that much effort, why the fuck should I have to make the effort to tell someone to not bill me or send me something I didn't want in the first place?
The other problem with this is that it often doesn't work. Case in point: the local newspapers often tie some sort of charity crap with high schools or programs to get people to donate money. It's one of those things where you give a donation to a youth center or a high school program and you get a "free" subscription to the paper for a limited time. Then, they start billing you. In the past we used to contribute and we'd get the paper (which went promptly into the recycle bin (despite the uselessness of recycling, but that's a discussion for another time); we get our news from TV and the Internet), then we'd have to say tell them to cancel, but the fuckers (the paper, not the original people asking for contributions) would keep sending it. It was a pain in the ass to finally get them to stop. We've even told the people in the past that we were fine with donating money but we didn't want the paper. And still we'd get it. Whether the person messed up or whether the paper ignored our request, I don't know (I highly suspect the latter).
It's obvious that the popularity of many print magazines and newspapers - especially newspapers - is in decline; if it wasn't, they wouldn't have to pull shit like that. But this sort of thing really, really annoys me. All it's doing is driving people away faster. Pissing people off or making it a hassle for them to deal with you is not a viable business model for long-term success.
OK, rant over :)
I stopped at Best Buy this afternoon to pick up a new wireless mouse. When I'm checking out, the kid at the register asks me which of the three free magazines I want a subscription to. I don't want any; I read very few print magazines these days, and I have no interest in Time, Entertainment Weekly, or Sport Illustrated. He says that you get eight months for free but at the end it's up to you to opt-in to continue getting the magazine. I'm not interested in taking any longer than I have to so I just say sure. But when I'm running my debit card through the machine, there's a notice that I'm giving Best Buy or the publisher or whoever permission to charge my card automatically (wow, how convenient!) at the end of the "free" trial. That doesn't jive with what the kid told me, and I tell him to get rid of the magazine crap entirely. I guess he figures that sending in a card to opt-out is no different from not sending in a card to opt-in. There's a big difference, because while it's not that much effort, why the fuck should I have to make the effort to tell someone to not bill me or send me something I didn't want in the first place?
The other problem with this is that it often doesn't work. Case in point: the local newspapers often tie some sort of charity crap with high schools or programs to get people to donate money. It's one of those things where you give a donation to a youth center or a high school program and you get a "free" subscription to the paper for a limited time. Then, they start billing you. In the past we used to contribute and we'd get the paper (which went promptly into the recycle bin (despite the uselessness of recycling, but that's a discussion for another time); we get our news from TV and the Internet), then we'd have to say tell them to cancel, but the fuckers (the paper, not the original people asking for contributions) would keep sending it. It was a pain in the ass to finally get them to stop. We've even told the people in the past that we were fine with donating money but we didn't want the paper. And still we'd get it. Whether the person messed up or whether the paper ignored our request, I don't know (I highly suspect the latter).
It's obvious that the popularity of many print magazines and newspapers - especially newspapers - is in decline; if it wasn't, they wouldn't have to pull shit like that. But this sort of thing really, really annoys me. All it's doing is driving people away faster. Pissing people off or making it a hassle for them to deal with you is not a viable business model for long-term success.
OK, rant over :)
Labels: real life
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