Technology Review is one of my favorite magazines, but they continue to show a lack of competence with respect to subscriptions. While their overall website has improved from bad to okay, renewing a subscribtion online is still a fool’s errand.
I prefer online renewals, just like I prefer online bill pay. Technology Review has unfortunately outsourced their online subscription management to a company called Palm Coast Data. On the page requesting your email address to begin the renewal process, the following note is prominently displayed.
Please do NOT use the Back Key on your browser. It can cause our application to fail.
Hey, it’s not 1996 anymore. Most web app developers have figured out how to work around the Back button. I could accept their app even losing data from forms if I went back and then forward, though even that isn’t that hard to deal with. But for their application to fail because I press the Back button??
It gets worse, though. The renewal form I received in the mail said I could mail in the form and pay $30 for 12 issues. There was another piece of paper in the envelope that said:
Renew online and receive 2 extra issues for the same price you’d pay for 12 issues.
Given the costs of handling paper renewal versus online renewals, they are almost certainly better off if I renew online. So, of course, I tried to do that. After entering the email address they had on file for me, I got the following “great offer”:
Get 10 more issues for only $34.00
and
And if you renew online today you’ll get an extra 2 issues FREE!
If they want me to renew online, why do they offer $30 for 12 issues for a paper renewal, but demand $34 for 12 issues for an online renewal?