If you're not familiar, Reason Magazine is a publication put out by the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank.  I subscribed for the first time to their magazine last January after reading their online version for some time before that.  I decided that their articles and viewpoint were so good, that I wanted to support them more.  I have since let my subscription lapse.  Here is the story as to why.

Like any magazine, Reason begins sending you notices to resubscribe almost immediately after you get your first issue.  In fact, in the last six months of my subscription, I was receiving more notifications via postcard, letter, and email than I was receiving actual magazines.  Now call me crazy, but I actually prefer to get reasonably close to the renewal date before I actually resubscribe.  So I thought I'd wait until December or early January to do the deed.  That's when the phone calls started coming in.

Reason started calling me daily to resubscribe.  The first couple times, I just didn't have the time nor the inclination to talk at that time with someone.  They were very persistent.  When I did talk to someone at more length, she said: "Since we already have all your account information in our system, all I need you to do is say OK, and we'll resubscribe you.  OK?"  I considered that a very deceitful tactic, since ending the sentence with OK would normally cause someone to reflexively say OK, not to want another subscription, but to acknowledge hearing the question.  I said "No".  I had had enough.  I still got another call the next day after that, from a person who seemed to have no knowledge of the previous call.  They probably just have a big list they go through, and one telemarketer never talks to another.

I get plenty of magazines, and this is the first time I have been harassed like this to resubscribe.  And believe me, towards the end, I did in fact consider it harassment.  Now then, I have a strong feeling that the people on the other end of the line actually work for a company hired by Reason to resubscribe people, instead of Reason itself, but it really doesn't matter.  They are endorsing those tactics by continuing to use their service.

And so they have lost my subscription.  I will continue to read their articles online, but I won't pay a dollar for their magazine to come to my door.

Update: I emailed a link to this post to Reason Subscriber services, and got a pretty quick response from them.  They first told me they were investigating things, and confirmed that they used a 3rd party telemarketing services for subscription retention.  I have since been informed in a separate email from them that they have terminated their contract with that service, and that they don't condone the methods they were using.  Now I just have to consider whether I'm going to resubscribe or not.  Either way, its very encouraging that they take this so seriously.