I don't know if it's the world most
sustainable business model. But I'm not complaining.
After complaining yesterday about being
called “old” I'm now going to admit something that may prove I am
indeed partially fossilized—I still subscribe to a couple of
magazines. Yup; I pay someone some money, and (usually) once a month
printed pieces of paper, bound together, show up in my mailbox, where
I can then peruse them at my leisure, even if there's no wi-fi or 4G
available.
You know—like we old people did back
in the 20th century.
Well, a couple of months ago I received
a notice—once again, by mail—that one of those magazines had
violated federal law by illegally selling its subscriber list to
third parties, and that, as one of those subscribers, I was entitled
to financial compensation as part of a class action lawsuit. I
filled out the card and mailed it back via that old company called
the US Postal Service, wherein I promptly forgot about it. Or, I
should say, forgot about until yesterday, when I received a check for
82 dollars and a handful of change, once again via that old company called the US Postal
Service.
So there. I may look older than I
sound, but at least I'm making money off of it!
The 82 bucks was a nice surprise;
Loraine's already coming up with ideas for places for us to eat out,
courtesy of the magazine's little transgression. But my first
thought was about the business end of it. I received 82 bucks
because they did something wrong. It's punishment; I just wish more
corporations who jump over the wrong side of the ethical line were
treated like that. However, the 82 bucks I received just about
equals four years of the subscription price to the magazine. Just
how serious was selling off the mailing lists? I realize magazines
have several revenue streams, only one of which is subscriber fees,
but to agree to pay such a settlement must mean that they did
something really, really wrong.
Hopefully, they've learned their
lesson. And hopefully, other companies that think about jumping over
the wrong side of the ethical line take note of what I'm pretty such
isn't a sustainable business model. I mean, I'm not counting on it,
especially in today's “the bigger you are the less you have to
worry about” world. But still...it's nice to see that at least
someone gets more than a slap on the wrist for violating laws these
days. Now, if we could just do the same to companies that do real
damage by destroying the planet or turning half of its citizens into
opioid junkies; well, then we'll have made real progress.
For now, we'll just have to hope that
the magazine (to which I still subscribe, by the way) learned its
lesson. We'll just have to hope that my privacy is not violated by
someone else. And we'll just have to hope that Loraine has an
inspired idea or two on how we can spent the $82 that showed up in
the mail, just because, as we learned yesterday, I'm older than I
sound, and have at least one habit to prove it.
8-)
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