I Want To Un-Automatic My Subscription, Please

Herb’s Blog, Herbdate 23842 – 1281

Dear Fans, Friends, Fiends, Foes, Followers, Flowers, and Family,

Here’s the haps:

Friend of this blog, Mr. Ooh!, recently left me baffled with a baffling post on his blog called, bafflingly enough, “AI: The Good, The Bad, and The Baffling.” Actually, it was not baffling but clear and humorous. In it, though, he did touch on this same subject I had in my drafts folder.

To me, it’s very aggravating when you are subscribed to something and it is set to automatically update but there is no readily visible way to un-automatic it. I don’t use credit cards much and usually put things on my debit card. Then forget about them renewing. Then find myself overdrawn. And while they have to give you a way to opt out, finding the way to do it is sometimes a real headache. Do you really think that by making me angry and forcing me to spend my time on hold, calling your support line and requesting to have “the convenient auto-renew feature” turned off, I am going to want to renew or ever subscribe again to your magazine or service? That’s bad business.

But, when there is a service or a magazine or whatever that I do want, and it stops or disappears abruptly and I have to search out how to make it start again, if I can find it, well, that’s equally aggravating.

How about, in either case, Mr. Business, do the right thing and send a polite e-mail stating that in a few days or whatever, this will expire or that will renew and here are the options you can choose from? Now that would be real customer service.

All of that being said, what if you are subscribed to a free, oh, I don’t know, maybe a blog or something, where the author has promised to write something every single day but then half the time just recycles old junk or fluffs it up with drivel just to say he posted something? That guy can be just as annoying, perhaps, even though you aren’t paying anything.

“Ah,” You say, “But we are paying to read your blog.”

“How so?”

“We spend our time.”

“Ouch! Okay,” I say, “I’ll work on it.”

Thank you for your time. I really appreciate everyone who comes here to read what I have to say. And, I am still finding the occasional gem in the archives. Some of the unfinished stories I have found are really worthwhile. Even worthwhile enough to finish and post, as I have done a few times already. I do have some new stuff I’ve been working on in my brain, but life is hectic, and I have to carve out some time to work on them.

And, to the person who stole my place in line: I’m after you now.