Aug 18, 2010
This caller is to renew the free subscription to a trade magazine.
They are NOT selling anything!!! They are calling to have you renew your free subscription. These magazines ARE NOT THE kind of magazines you buy at a store. These are for highly specialized content targeted to a very specific market. The magazine is free because the advertisers pay a lot of money to put an ad in them. But the entire process is based upon the concept that these free magazines are correctly delivered to the people that are in the same field and would use that product. In my case it is for a metal forming and fabricating magazine that I receive for free and once every 6 months or so they ask to renew the free subscription just to make sure I still want it or if someone else in my company may want an additional subscription. So this company gets paid by the magazine publisher and they also get a bonus for every additional professional they sign up. This company represents dozens of free trade magazines from Metal working to archery equipment to medical equipment to professional maintenance engineers, welders, landscapers, automotive, etc.
There are many places they can get your information. If they are calling you at work, then your company may have people in it that already get the magazine and you are considered a bonus sign up.
If you have ever attended a trade show or trade convention, then they buy your registration information and try to sign you up. If you belong to a union or a professional association, like a welding society, then they buy your info and try to sign you up.
I agree it can be very annoying!!!!
BUT!!!!!! If you fall into any of the above conditions, or if you have ever done business with any of the companies that may advertise in the trade magazine they represent, the Do Not Call Registry is completely useless!!!!! The law is very easy - ever done business with them or one of the accounts they represent and they can call you legally!
The do not call registry only prevents a company from calling names or numbers that are completely unknown to the caller and selected at random.
NOW FOR THE REALLY BAD NEWS. Because I do subscribe free to a number of these publications I knew that they will call me to do the renewal screening. I DO NOT DO THIS BUT, if I want to avoid the calls and I was a dishonest person, I would provide the wrong phone number when I sign up for the free magazine in the first place. That's when it gets real confusing because if you are one of the unlucky numbers that someone picked, then you are going to get all these calls and you will never know why.
The best way to stop them from calling is to answer the damn phone and talk to them. The calling number should be the same so save it in your address book and add the name "magazine" to it. This way you won't think it is a bill collector and not answer it.