Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The magazine is nice enough in an aspirational sort of way. I do well financially, but even for me, the endless parade of super-luxe, oligarchy-level escapes becomes relatively pointless. One only gets so much time off - you could read the condensed guide to the top destinations and have more than enough to chew on for a few years. Much of the rest here is fluff - glossy advertising, cutesy puff pieces & tips, etc. Escapism, which is fine if that's your bag and you have time for it. I really didn't like something they did (read below) and wrote them a letter, which they never even bothered addressing. So I canceled my subscription. Amusingly, I received a "how did we do" survey shortly after....I couldn't really say because they never even tried. Below is the letter: "Hello, I'm a subscriber to your magazine, and was surprised to receive the "100 Greatest Trips" hardcover book in the mail today. I didn't know what the package was, so I opened it and wondered why I had received it - was it a promotion? An interesting offer? What? Then I opened the attached envelope and saw that I now owed close to $40 (with S&H and tax) for a book I never requested. Sure, there's a "no-risk, return it if you don't like it" notice in the letter. But your sales department hasn't thought it through from the customer's standpoint. I have an extremely busy job and life; I thus do not want to be on the hook for things I haven't even been asked about beforehand. Now I have an extra thing on my massive To Do List: go down to the post office, stand in line, buy new packaging on my dime because your box is torn open now, and pay $8 or $10 for the return shipping! That's about 12 dollars total and more importantly, about 30 minutes of my time. Not only is this kind of aggressive push marketing presumptuous & ill advised (much as the letter describes it as a nuisance-free experience), but nowhere on the package is a return shipping label provided. Since I didn't ask for this, it's the least you could do. And if I do nothing or take my time, I'm sure you'll be sending increasingly strident bills about what I "owe" now. I suppose I'll have to swap the time & money I invest in this in exchange with not renewing my subscription. And please never send me any books with strings attached again. Put yourselves in the customer's shoes - if you received, say, a $100 toaster oven on your front porch from a company that now says you owe them that money for something you never asked for, and have to return at your inconvenience and expense - how would you feel? Your letter says, "pay only for what you keep!" which sounds great on paper, but what do I do with the book without being inconvenienced or having to pay for a box & shipping? Might I suggest that you promote your book via e-mail, send fliers asking customers if they would like to purchase it, or even offer it as some kind of incentive under special circumstances. I subscribe to several other publications, and the only other times I've received a 'surprise' book from them was because it was some kind of free incentive. It makes me very angry to think that your sales department thought, "Oh, since they already have it, most will just keep it because it's fait accompli in their hands and we've made the return a hassle, so we've just made a sale!". The irony is that I might have bought the book later on if the sale had been handled differently. But not like this, and not now. It's no way to treat your paying customers." EDIT: Long after I returned that first book and called, asking them to never send me anything I hadn't explicitly ordered again....they sent me another book. And another. And another. Each time, I kept writing, "Return to sender". I couldn't make them stop. Then it seems one of the books didn't arrive back, and they were trying to charge me...insane.