international subscription cancellation
American Iron MagazineDiscuss international subscription cancellation in the Other Topics forums; I am very disappointed by the way you brush off international subscriptions.
I'm not blind for the current financial situation where the value of the American Dollar has declined sharply ...
I am very disappointed by the way you brush off international subscriptions.
I'm not blind for the current financial situation where the value of the American Dollar has declined sharply during the last months. I understand AIM has to make money in order to survive.
It would have been far better to present international subscribers with the choice to either get a refund or to lower the number of months the subscription lasts (say with a third or so, giving AIM financial means to pay higher postage costs).
What AIM now does is to enforce a refund on everyone. However, an international refund, probably realized with a check drawn on an American bank, will mean about half of the refunded money will go to the bank. That's a lot of wasted dollars.
Additional to that, in my particular case : living in Belgium, AIM in the newsstand costs about 9 EURO (that's 14$). So instead of the 34 issues I'm still due in my subscription, I will be able to buy 4 or so with the money refunded (given above presumptions, and they won't be far off). So I just donate money to the bank.
If AIM can still deliver magazines to the international newsstands, I see no reason why they wouldn't be able to deliver the same to an international home address, thereby skipping several layers of people making a profit and bringing no added value to the magazine. That's why I opted for a subscription in the first place.
Well this is the suggestion I made in the other thread, ship the magazines freight, then mail them from a mailer individually from Europe.
Or if there is enough European subscriptions PDF the files to a European printer and have them printed there and mailed there.
There has got to be a solution to this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by timolien
I am
If AIM can still deliver magazines to the international newsstands, I see no reason why they wouldn't be able to deliver the same to an international home address, thereby skipping several layers of people making a profit and bringing no added value to the magazine. That's why I opted for a subscription in the first place.
I am very disappointed by the way you brush off international subscriptions.
I'm not blind for the current financial situation where the value of the American Dollar has declined sharply during the last months. I understand AIM has to make money in order to survive.
It would have been far better to present international subscribers with the choice to either get a refund or to lower the number of months the subscription lasts (say with a third or so, giving AIM financial means to pay higher postage costs).
What AIM now does is to enforce a refund on everyone. However, an international refund, probably realized with a check drawn on an American bank, will mean about half of the refunded money will go to the bank. That's a lot of wasted dollars.
Additional to that, in my particular case : living in Belgium, AIM in the newsstand costs about 9 EURO (that's 14$). So instead of the 34 issues I'm still due in my subscription, I will be able to buy 4 or so with the money refunded (given above presumptions, and they won't be far off). So I just donate money to the bank.
If AIM can still deliver magazines to the international newsstands, I see no reason why they wouldn't be able to deliver the same to an international home address, thereby skipping several layers of people making a profit and bringing no added value to the magazine. That's why I opted for a subscription in the first place.
Very dissapointed indeed.
Gert
Couldn't agree more - its a great pity no-one from the mag has had the gumption to explain themselves here.They were very quick to tout for business on www.1130cc.com , but haven't replied to my post there either.
OK what was explained in another thread? Buzz and the boys have remained remarkably silent about this other than a brief statement saying we aren't gonna honour your subscription & we will refund some time. It would be nice if someone from the mag atleast replied with a few more details.
Scenario: Recession in USA so fewer Harleys sold - fewer mags sold-postage prices rise - Lower circulation - lower advertising revenue- (AIM is atleast 50% ads)-lower profits. Answer: Cancel international subscription-saves money-lowers circulation-lowers advertising revenue-lowers profits even more.
OK what was explained in another thread? Buzz and the boys have remained remarkably silent about this other than a brief statement saying we aren't gonna honour your subscription & we will refund some time. It would be nice if someone from the mag atleast replied with a few more details.
Scenario: Recession in USA so fewer Harleys sold - fewer mags sold-postage prices rise - Lower circulation - lower advertising revenue- (AIM is atleast 50% ads)-lower profits. Answer: Cancel international subscription-saves money-lowers circulation-lowers advertising revenue-lowers profits even more.
It's amazing that a corporate entity like AIM is charged $96 for international shipping for 12 issues. I, as an individual, could ship 12 copies for the same price.
Hey domestic subscribers still get a 60+ % discount on your subscriptions so that's OK then.
We do not want to lose even a single reader - and it's not just due to financial reasons. However, it now costs us between $8 and $10 per copy per subscriber to ship them overseas. We don't make the rules buit have to live by them.
I am sorry to disappoint you on this, but believe me, I am disappointed to have to cancel a few thousand readers just because they live outside North America.
A number of readers have contacted us and said they would be prepared to pay more to at least cover our costs and we are looking into it.
And we are certainly NOT ignoring you here. Quite the opposite. But it's tough to get the time to review all posts here as we seem to keep pretty busy producing the magazine.
No conspiracy here, we're just trying to do the right thing and that's to keep the magazine as strong as possible.
__________________ Buzz Kanter
Editor-in-Chief, American Iron Magazine
Please keep me/us informed about possible alternative scenarios then please.
I also receive some other American magazines: they all use local (European) post for distribution and so probably ship bulk from the US to Europe
I can't really find my accountnumber anymore (it's attached to the plastic sleeve the magazine comes wrapped in and that gets tossed away immediately after arrival I'm afraid)
My name/address are :
Gert De Schepper
Hof ter Rijen 24
2070 Zwijndrecht
Belgium
international subscription cancellation 
International refund 
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