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Fortune Magazine offers an 'automatic renewal' service where they will renew your subscription on an annual basis at whey they claim will be the 'low rate then available'. They just sent me a notice of auto-renewal which was very clearly at a rate that was not their low rate. Their auto-renewal rate of $50 for a year is 66% higher than the $29.95 subscription rate available on Amazon.com and 25% higher than the $39.95 their own CSR quote me on the phone as the lowest renewal rate.
I believe the magazine is taking advantage of customers who seek to simplify their lives by putting their subscription on autu-renew by charging them a higher than market price, believing these customers will not check to ensure the rate is actually the low rate promised up-front. This seems to me to be false advertising.
Hi,
You are absolutely correct.
Here in Norway, they offer a rate of NOK 300, -/year at signup. They promote the auto renewal option, promising "to renew your FORTUNE subscription at the low subscriber rate". However, the renewal price they charge is NOK 572, - - a 90% increase!
Not only that, but when e-mailing customer service after I realized they had charged that much I got the follwing response: "We understand that we have registered your subscription with an incorrect term and/or price.
We wish to confirm that we have updated our records accordingly and you will shortly receive an appropriate refund. Please allow 30 days for this to show on your next statement. "
Sounds OK? Well more than one year later - after once again being billed NOK 572, - for another renewal - I decided to check the bank statement. Think they actually refunded anything? No!
This is clearly a carefully planned scam. I wonder how many worldwide subscribers they rip off this way every year..