“HURRY–BEAT THE DEADLINE!”: I just got an offer from Newsweek magazine–in my mailbox, today. It seems if I renew my subscription “for one year” I get to “send a gift subscription” to anyone of my choosing “for one low rate of just $37.”
REPLY ON OR BEFORE:
OCTOBER 31
for guaranteed holiday delivery
There is some fine print at the bottom. I figured it might disclose the detail that Newsweek will actually cease printing its magazine in a little over 2 months. But no. It just says “Offer valid in USA only and subject to change. … Newsweek publishes weekly, except when combined issues are published that count as two issues, and when an additional special issue may be published.” The flip side of the leaflet even has instructions on how to “temporarily suspend delivery” and what happens when “the Post Office alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable”–as if a print magazine were what was being offered.
Aren’t there laws against, say, selling someone a year’s lease in a building that’s about to be knocked down? Maybe laws with large penalties attached! The concept of consumer fraud seems relevant here.** Where is Eliot Spitzer when you need him?
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**–Plus the U.S. Mail is involved. A federal angle …