Dancing With Magazines and Newspapers.
It all started when I was offered a year’s subscription to the Wall Street Journal for one year, an introductory rate. The cost seemed most reasonable, just over one hundred dollars. I said yes but after one year the cost more than doubled. I quickly canceled when the rate went up. In about three months, I get a call offering me the introductory rate again for one year. I said yes but had to also say yes to auto renewal. I was told that I could cancel when the rate went up at the end of the year. I have a special laptop calendar devoted to yearly events ONLY. I put birthdays, subscriptions, yearly bill notices, times to fertilize the yard, furnace filter change dates on that calendar. I put the expected annual renewal date for the Journal on that calendar. On that exact date I canceled the Wall Street Journal. The pattern seems to be that I must wait about three months before I can expect a call offering me another introductory subscription rate. I have just found out that other people I know go through this dance with other subscription publications, such as Time.
I propose that the Wall Street Journal just give up and offer a standard price of $100 per year. It would save us from having to dance.