From: Timothy Knox
Date: 03:40 on 07 Sep 2007
Subject: Hating Zinio
Sometime back, I signed up to receive some "free" computer weekly. When they
offered me a choice of subscription methods, physical or electronic, being a
nice guy, I opted for electronic. Electronic, in this case, doesn't mean some
slightly retarded but not entirely hateful format like (and I can't believe I'm
writing this) PDF, but a completely and utterly hate-worthy one from Zinio.
Gah! Their reader is totally hateful. I used it for about three minutes, then
said, "Bugger this for a game of soldiers!" and deleted it, never to run again.
However, the Zinio website, which manages your Zinio subscriptions, as well as
makes the Zinio reader available, HAS NO WAY TO UNSUBSCRIBE. None! I can set my
email preferences to "Only send me notices of when my new issue is available"
but not, "Never darken my inbox again."
So, after much further digging around the Zinio website, accompanied by a great
deal of cursing, I find an FAQ section, but while it mentions (as an example
topic) "Requests or Cancellations", that is *not* a clickable link. Finally, in
desparation, I click on the name of the magazine.
Success?! Not exactly. It takes me to a page from the magazine's publisher,
inviting me to login: At last! Okay, not exactly. You see, to login, you need 1)
Your first and last name 2) Your state (good thing I'm in the USA) and 3) Your
ZIP code. While you can enter an email address, it IS NOT REQUIRED (read, NOT
PART OF THE SEARCH KEY).
You veteran haters can already see where this is headed. No combination of first
name, last name, state, or zip worked. And NO, you CAN'T search by E-MAIL
address. If you can't be found via the crap already requested, your options are:
1. Supply your address and city from your mailing label or invoice. Since I
never received a mailing label, being a nice green reader and all, and since I
got a free subscription I never received an invoice, that option is no good to
me. Never fear, there is always:
2. Enter your subscriber number. Aha! And how do I get my subscriber number? I
clicked on the helpful link "Click here to learn how to find your subscriber
number", and got the following priceless wisdom:
"How to find your Subscriber #
* locate a copy of your magazine
* find the mailing label
* look for the sequence of numbers in the same position as those boxed in green below
* enter all 11 digits with no spaces in the box labeled"
That's right, boys and girls! If you subscribe digitally, and don't keep the
original email they send you giving you all these delicious details, you are
hosed! FOREVER! BWAAAA-HAA-HAA-HAA!
Never again! Fsck the environment! Give me my accursed print copy! AAARGH!
From: Robert Rothenberg
Date: 10:33 on 07 Sep 2007
Subject: Re: Hating Zinio
On 07/09/07 03:40 Timothy Knox wrote:
> That's right, boys and girls! If you subscribe digitally, and don't keep
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> the original email they send you giving you all these delicious ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
As hateful as their system may be, you made a big mistake by not keeping the
e-mail. That's like throwing away the receipt of something you buy before
you know it works.
From: Greg McCarroll Date: 10:54 on 07 Sep 2007 Subject: Re: Hating Zinio On Fri, Sep 07, 2007 at 10:33:10AM +0100, Robert Rothenberg wrote: > > As hateful as their system may be, you made a big mistake by not keeping the > e-mail. That's like throwing away the receipt of something you buy before > you know it works. > When I signed up for the Hertz loyalty program I hit the last screen and it told me that they had sent a nice confirmation email to me. Great I thought. I'm in a rush and i'll just close this window and get on with something else. The email didn't have the membership number that i needed to login, the hire documents didn't have it either and they still havent send me any handy dandy card or similar with the damn number. They make me so mad I feel like letting my wife drive the car the next time we hire from them. Err this list isn't publicly archived, right? G.
From: Phil Pennock Date: 00:13 on 08 Sep 2007 Subject: Re: Hating Zinio On 2007-09-06 at 19:40 -0700, Timothy Knox wrote: > That's right, boys and girls! If you subscribe digitally, and don't keep the > original email they send you giving you all these delicious details, you are > hosed! FOREVER! BWAAAA-HAA-HAA-HAA! Did you try blacklisting the subscription sender on your mailserver, waiting a few months for a few issues to go by and then unblacklisting, to confirm that they practice list maintenance hygiene? Of course, they don't, but that's another hate. Probably. I am extrapolating. Perhaps they do. Perhaps pigs fly. On 2007-09-07 at 10:54 +0100, Greg McCarroll wrote: > Err this list isn't publicly archived, right? What list? You're mailing the email interface for an email<->blog gateway. Public blog. No private posts. http://tdk.hates-software.com/2007/09/07/5f31014e.html -Phil
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