OT: Popular Woodworking Mail

[Bill]

I just opened mail from Popular Woodworking magazine. Realizing it was an offer, I was thinking of just throwing it away without looking since my reading stack is growing faster than I can keep up, and I had to thin the heard. But I thought, let's see what they have to say...

Okay,

You pay only: $15.96* Mmm.. that's pretty good, let's see... hmm 2 years, 14 issues..(quick mental calculation), okay.

Oh, the "*", looking further down, in a significantly smaller font, " * Plus $2 Shipping and Handling". Well, I don't expect to see S&H on a magazine price, but okay, it's still not a bad deal.

Oh and they want to send me an electronic gift ("Free Info about Roy Underhill's Woodwright's School").. Okay, I figure I know almost as much about St. Roy and his school as they do, but I'd enjoy looking at the pictures.

Oh, but they need my email address to send me my "free (digital) gift" (above)--PLUS, "We will send you a FREE e-newsletter and special offers"!

They can have their S&H and I'll do my R&T ("Rip & Toss)!

I know tht magazine business is a tough one, but I don't like the feel of this.

I pay 4 times as much per issue for 2 other magazines that I am subscribed to; the price didn't rattle me as much as the "deceptive"(?) advertising". YMMV.

[Pat Barber]

[Artemus]

If it's the email address that you are concerned about, give them a disposable one from gmail or use this service

[Puckdropper]

"Artemus" wrote in news:jeief5$htt$ [e-mail]:

I created an e-mail address just for those types of offers.

For nosy companies that ask for your phone number, you could try this:

(I don't know if it's within their TOS, but maybe something similar is. I'd be happy with a recording that said "You don't need to be calling your customer, leave them alone.")

Puckdropper

[Larry Jaques]

I received a mini-Prevention mag in the newspaper yesterday. The scam was $13.96 for a year. Oh, plus $4.97 for s/h.

I paid $10 for 3 years of TFH an $11.97 for a year of PopWood. They're asking $16-20 for renewals. I much prefer the limited ads in there, but I haven't appreciated the projects as much as I'd hoped. I don't know if I'll renew this year.

-- We are always the same age inside. -- Gertrude Stein

[Bill]

Interesting site. I actually did create a new email address the other day to use on craigslist.

I think what got my attention here was their lack of tact in allowing me to see that I was just another "advertisee". There wasn't even a "Do you want to receive special offers?" box to check. Who knows, maybe someone at the magazine looks up what people are writing about it?

[Leon]

If it makes you feel any better I let my subscription expire, I tried it for $10 and felt after the second issue that I had paid too much. I literally never laid the magazine down to read later. I thumbed through it as I walked in the door coming from the mail box and tossed in to the trash.

And believe it or not the e-mail special offers for me turned out to be their news letter riddled with non woodworking ads. IIRC they were adds pushing something like Viagra and or condoms.

[Swingman]

The mag seems to be targeted toward old guys who recently retired and are optimistically tooling up to supplement their retirement income with woodworking.

Yeah, right!

(my apologies to other old guys ... just a general observation, there is nothing wrong with being an optimist, I'm married to one) :)

[Bill]

Yes, as a previously subscriber too, I had similar experience. But for a buck an issue, one can hope to look forward to seeing improvement and finding something useful! After all, we want to support WW... If it's "survival of the fittest", the days may be numbered for PWW.

I thumbed through