Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Messing With "Gardens Illustrated"


July's mail brought a copy of Gardens Illustrated which I looked through with much enjoyment, admiring the beautiful gardens contained within its covers. It's a large format magazine - larger than most American magazines - but then legal paper in the UK is larger than that of our country, too. It's published twelve times a year by Bristol Magazines LTD, which is owned by BBC Worldwide, in the United Kingdom. A single issue costs $8.15 and a yearly subscription can be had for just $75 in the US.

Sure. I'll jump right on that.

And then I got an invoice. Yes, that's right, a bill for my subscription to Gardens Illustrated. I'm not sure how they got my name or why they thought I had $75 to spend on their magazine, and while it's a lovely publication, I can buy a lot of plants for my garden for $75. Or multiple subscriptions to other fine gardening magazines.

Then I took a closer look at this invoice. They were giving me a deal! Only $45 for a year! But wait, look even closer . . .

I could have two years for $0.00! What a fantastic deal! How could I pass that up? So I sent back the order confirmation, requesting the two years for free. I love free.

This week, I got another piece of mail from Gardens Illustrated. It seems that BBC Worldwide Magazines was just kidding. They didn't mean it.

Well, okay then. I guess there really is no such thing as a free lunch, but they shouldn't have teased me like that. In reality, I didn't think I'd end up with two years of Gardens Illustrated for nothing. I mean, that's a $150 value, or $90 with the discounted rate, and that's a lot of coinage to give away. But they DID make the offer . . .


7 comments:

Cindy Garber Iverson said...

That is just hilarious! I'm so glad you actually sent it back to see if they'd honor the typo. Hahaha!

By the way, Kylee, I know you're still swamped with things to do (or is the garage sale over by now?) but I've tagged you for a fun facts meme. For the guidelines of what to do next, please visit my latest blog entry. Cindy at Rosehaven Cottage

Yolanda Elizabet Heuzen said...

Oh bother! In my country they would have to honour the deal; they made it, you accepted it and that's is pretty much that.

KC MO Garden Guy said...

I agree with Yolanda. They should honor it. Thats for sharing it was funny.

Anonymous said...

They should definitely honor it.
That sucks.

Bob said...

They should honour the subscription, It is what they advertised. Plus newpaper and mags make much of their money on ads not on subscriptions.
I always enjoy your posts.
BOB

Bob said...

also, I would be delighted if you linked to my blog, per your request on the sunflowers.
Take care kylee, BOB:)

Unknown said...

Where would you have found that 2-years-for-$90 deal? Forget two years for free, I'd jump over the 2-for-$90 deal. I love that magazine... and my grandma would love to get my Christmas shopping done already.

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