 |
07-04-2012, 09:28 AM
|
#1
|
|
broken-down horseplayer
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Portland, OR area
Posts: 2,090
|
Free Blood-Horse issues - lazy marketing?
Back in late February or early March, I started receiving the magazine "The Blood-Horse" every week. I did not order, nor did I want this, as it has very little content relevant to recreational horseplayers such as myself.
After several attempts at going online to get this canceled, I thought it would run out at the end of the eight weeks "free trial" they offer continuously.
But no, I was wrong, and not only have I received a total of 20 issues so far (with no end in sight), but now I'm getting other related horse product publications on the mail. (I'm not in the market for a new saddle).
Are the marketing folks so lazy at the Blood-Horse they don't bother to check the validity of their mailing list? Seems like they're measuring success by "issue shipped" and not "issues sold". Doesn't a trial electronic subscription to their website make more sense in this day and age?
I'm not sure how much this has cost them so far, but they're about as likely to get money from me as Chase Bank - which sends me credit card offers every quarter for a computer consulting business I closed out five years ago....
Anyway, if you're getting free issues now, go online and complain - maybe you'll get an ongoing free subscription too.....if that's what you want.
|
|
|
|
07-04-2012, 09:40 AM
|
#2
|
|
Registered User
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 756
|
No need for complaint
|
|
|
|
|
07-04-2012, 11:05 AM
|
#3
|
|
Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 6,128
|
For magazines that make their money from ads, getting it in-front of the right eyeballs is more important than subscription fees, even at the cost of some of the wrong eyeballs also getting it. So for some reason some database has decided that you spend money on horse stuff -- it thinks you are a breeder or have a ranch or whatever.
I've gotten a number of free magazine subscriptions (unasked for) over the years for similar reasons -- someone seems to think I'm some sort of business big-shot even though I'm self-employed, hardly talk to other people, and am perpetually broke.
|
|
|
|
|
07-04-2012, 01:39 PM
|
#4
|
|
broken-down horseplayer
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Portland, OR area
Posts: 2,090
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by pele polo
No need for complaint
|
I obviously disagree - a very wasteful hardcopy magazine delivered each week with no way to opt out? Twenty weeks worth?
Complaint duly filed with the FTC, though I don't expect anything from that.
|
|
|
|
|
07-04-2012, 01:53 PM
|
#5
|
|
Working on 'Plan B'
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Central Kentucky
Posts: 593
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Hoofless_Wonder
I obviously disagree - a very wasteful hardcopy magazine delivered each week with no way to opt out? Twenty weeks worth?
Complaint duly filed with the FTC, though I don't expect anything from that.
|
Maybe because they'll think your complaint is a waste of their time?
.
__________________
'Keep yourself in the best of company and your horses in the worst.' H. Luro et al.
|
|
|
|
|
07-04-2012, 01:54 PM
|
#6
|
|
Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 408
|
I believe a number of magazines utilize this ploy because it increases the number of "subscribers" they can report to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, which is the recognized authority that advertisers can refer to when they want to see how many eyeballs might see their ads. The higher the reported # of subscribers, the higher the ad rates the magazines can charge.
|
|
|
|
|
07-04-2012, 02:02 PM
|
#7
|
|
Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 396
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Hoofless_Wonder
.
|
so while this can be annoying, do you go to the tracks, or OTB? Maybe you can take your magazine with you. There might be someone there who would like to look at it.
__________________
Whatever actions a great man performs, common men follow. And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues. ~Bhagavad Gita
|
|
|
|
|
07-04-2012, 02:10 PM
|
#8
|
|
Working on 'Plan B'
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Central Kentucky
Posts: 593
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Wagergirl
so while this can be annoying, do you go to the tracks, or OTB? Maybe you can take your magazine with you. There might be someone there who would like to look at it.
|
Or public library. Especially if they sell books and magazines to benefit the library.
.
__________________
'Keep yourself in the best of company and your horses in the worst.' H. Luro et al.
|
|
|
|
|
07-04-2012, 03:22 PM
|
#9
|
|
Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 396
|
Or the doctor's office. Please anything is better than Reader's digest that is 10 years old and has half the pages missing!
__________________
Whatever actions a great man performs, common men follow. And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues. ~Bhagavad Gita
|
|
|
|
|
07-06-2012, 02:38 AM
|
#10
|
|
broken-down horseplayer
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Portland, OR area
Posts: 2,090
|
Well, waste of time or not, this time The Blood-Horse did respond to my complaint (perhaps the reference # of the FTC complaint helped).
According to them, "Your subscription was provided as a gift to you by Twin Spires Club."
Good grief. I don't recall being informed of my "gift" from TS, as I would have nipped that in the bud. I must admit though I file the junk mail from Twin Spires Club, including my free passes to Arlington, directly into the shredder.
As for distributing the issues to the library or barber shop, I don't want to do that since about 75% of the content of that rag is advertisements, and bad behavior shouldn't be rewarded. This seems typical of print media these days, which is why I don't subscribe to any hardcopy magazines.
Sigh. Somewhere in the forest, a tree cries...
|
|
|
|
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
|
|
