Dear PC World
To whom it may concern,
My subscription to the print edition of your magazine ran out about a year ago. I didn’t overlook it, I didn’t just forget to renew it, I made a conscious decision not to renew. (Mostly because just about everything I read in it, I had already seen online somewhere beforehand.)
I could forgive your assumption that maybe I had overlooked it the first time you sent me a notice to that effect, many months ago. I understand that you hate to lose subscribers, and want to make sure. I even appreciated the fact that you were willing to keep sending me a copy of the magazine the next month, just so I could see what I’d be missing one last time, again with a letter to that effect. It seemed a bit desperate, but I understand this is a desperate time for print media, especially tech media.
When the same notices came to my house 3 months later, I laughed at your desperation. It wasn’t a nice thing to do, I know, and I’m sorry.
At the 6 month mark, I thought to myself, wow, why would anyone continue to pay for this magazine when they never actually stopped sending it to me?
We’re at almost the 12 month mark now, and wouldn’t you know it, guess what was in my mail over the weekend? That’s right, this months issue of PC World, again with the stipulation that you were giving me one “last chance” to see what I was missing. This would be, I believe, my 6th “last” chance.
I think we’ve moved past desperation and straight into stalking. It’s creepy to think that a magazine I dumped a year ago, still manages to find it’s way to my front door almost every month. If you were an ex-girlfriend, I’d probably have to have a restraining order by now, and, frankly, I’m a tad insulted that you continue to think that I’m actually dumb enough to have overlooked all of these pleas to renew my subscription. Do you think so little of your readers?
Let’s just agree to go our separate ways, before someone has to get hurt, ok? Can we do that, or will I have to resort to more drastic measures to protect my home?
Sorry Mike – it’ll get worse. Soon each last magazine will have about 3 postcards in it to remind you to renew and about twice a week you will get a letter or a postcard (and some days both) begging you to renew your subscription. I too unsubscribed after a year when everything was about 2 months late and I could read the magazine in one loo sitting. Then this year they gave me a free subscription again!