Online subscription renewal getting more and more burdensome

"Our Time Is More Valuable than Yours"

by Conrad Weisert
© 2003 Information Disciplines, Inc., Chicago

NOTE: This article may be circulated freely as long as the copyright notice is included.

The old way

Every six months or so we used to get those annoying renewal forms for free trade-journal subscriptions. In order to qualify we had to answer dozens of multiple-choice questions, some of which had no valid answer. If we did so consistently and in a way that would persuade advertisers that we were members of their target group, then we'd continue getting that publication.

That was tedious, but we could do it at our convenience. We might fill out part of the form today and the rest of it next Friday. We might fill it out on a train or airplane. It was a suitable activity while we waited on telephone hold. As long as the form remained in our input queue we were reminded to complete it and stick it in the mail.

The new improved way

We don't get those forms any more. Instead we get a note, either by E-mail or in a small envelope. That note:

• Congratulates us on saving a stiff subscription fee as a "professional courtesy".
• Instructs us to go to a designated web site and "follow the links".
• Gives us our private password for that web site.

When we follow those instructions, we're confronted by a lengthy form similar to the paper ones we used to fill out. But there's a difference: We don't get to see the whole form. We have to fill it out in sequence a page at a time and then click a link to the next page. They don't tell us how many pages there will be. Each time we think we've finished, we discover another page of detailed questions to be answered.

If we wish to work on the form incrementally, as we did with old paper forms, we look for a way either:

• to save the partially completed form on the website and return to it later,
  or
• to save the whole form on our local computer, to be filled out offline and submitted later.

Easing the reading backlog

After the first couple of those annoying experiences, I declined to play. If the notice has a return E-mail address, I notify the senders that I don't fill out long-winded online forms and ask them to send me a paper form. So far only one of them has done so, but only as a .pdf attachment that I still had to print.

Eventually after some "last chance" reminders a subscription runs out and I stop getting that journal. So far, I'm surviving.

If you agree, feel free to refer them to this web page.

Return to IDI home page

Last modified March 5, 2003