MONEY Magazine is back trying to steal money

As mentioned in previous blogs, I have a subscription to MONEY Magazine and from the very month I signed up for a one year subscription they have been sending me mail saying its time to renew for another year. Trying to get me to pay for something I will not see for 12 months. Trying to make interest of MY money while trying to give me advise on how to make good financial decisions in their magazine.

Isn't there something just wrong about that? So I decided to send them a letter. Here is the text. I doubt they will have the kahunas to respond. Or if they do respond it will be some standard form letter. OR, their lawyers may come chasing after me ... LOL. Let's see. Will they try to steal the American public's money and then chase down any dissent with their lawyers, or will they try and explain their ways.

Let's see...

The email I sent.....

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Why does Money Magazine try its level best to continue to deceive its customers? From the day I bought my 1 year subscription, 02/2006 I have been receiving mail from your organization telling me that I should renew my subscription for the next year.

Really? Does that make good financial sense? Your last letter to me was received today and it says "I have just been informed by our circulation department that your MONEY subscription is now up for renewal."

Doesn't this statement try to send the message that my subscription is about to expire? Even though it expires in 01/2007. Do you really think it makes good financial sense for me to buy a subscription and pay for it a year in advance? Do you? Is that what MONEY would like to suggest to its readers? Can you try to run an honest business please? I will be logging my experience on this issue here: http://meragussa.blogspot.com/..

Thanks.

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Very promtply (congratulations on the good service) I get a response. Here are parts of it.
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Dear blah blah : Thank you for contacting MONEY Customer Service.

We send early renewal notices for several reasons. First, because we select our issue mailing labels in advance, we want to give subscribers ample response time to ensure continuous service. Second, obtaining your renewal order early locks in your savings and protects you against possible rate increases.

We can adjusted your account so that renewal notices will not start until three months prior to your expiration date. Please let us know if the is your request. We apologize for any inconvenience. If you have any further questions, please let us know. We apologize for any inconvenience.

We removed your personal information from our promotional listings. If your information was already on our files, you may have been selected for a recent promotion. Please allow ten business days for this to become effective. After that, you will not receive future promotions. If you are just providing us with your contact information, you will not be added to the promotional listings..

We appreciate this opportunity to be of service.

Then there were link to various OPT OUT options.

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So here is my analysis.

1. Thank you for the prompt response.
2. Starting early does not imply the month I buy an annual subscription. Sorry lousy answer.
3. Lock me in at a good rate? They offered me an annual subscription at $14, but at money.com you can signup for $10. What they meant was lock me in at a higher rate and screw me.

Oh well. At least they got me off their spam list. Damn idiots.

Experion the new Deceiver. Watch out consumers

Everyone knows how dangerous these credit agencies are. You dont? Well here is a little brief. They have all your financial information. They collect this information so that they can provide feedback to anyone who is interested in knowing how stable your financial situation is, i.e., your credit rating. I can understand the need for such a business. Fair enough......

But Experion and its likes now sell all the information they have on you to others. Do you get anything for it? Nope, well maybe I stand corrected, you get JUNK MAIL. Your identity is at risk, because they can sell your information to people who have no good intentions. And no Experion and its likes do not check who they sell your information to. If you have been reading teh news you will see that the credit agencies like Experion have sold your information or lost it to people with mal intent.

So, if you wish to stop this onslaught of junk mail you can opt out of the prescreened mail by calling1.888.567.8688 or by going to www.OptOutPrescreen.com.

And that is exactly what I did. And voila I stopped getting getting all those pre approved credit card junk mail offers from CapitalOne and othe rcredit card companies.

But wait!!!!! just today I get junk mail from an insurance company. At least they had teh decency to say that if I wish to stop the junk mail I should contact Experion or call 1.888.567.8688 or by go to www.OptOutPrescreen.com to stop insurance policy offers.

WTF? I thought optout meant optout. What the hell is this? Well it turns out our friends at Experion have founf a way to screw us yet again. If you opted out ealier it was only for credit cards. Now they are selling your information to others, such as insurance agencies and perhaps Nigerian scam artists? So you have to call them back and opt out all over again.

Hmmm, then perhaps Experion will sell your information to Al Qaeda and after the sale ask if you wish to opt out. Think about it :-)