I mentioned before that I was having trouble getting a response from spacing magazine about a subscription extension that went missing.
Today, finally, someone responded to me. This is after sending an email, leaving a phone message, and posting a few digs on this blog, twitter and facebook.
I had posted another link to my previous blog entry on facebook yesterday and received a message from Matthew Blackett this morning. I replied to his message, filled out the Customer Service form on their website as requested and waited. A short time later, I received an email saying that my subscription will be reinstated as of the next issue.
I am pleased that is resolved but it shouldn't have been this difficult to get a response -- ANY response -- from spacing about my complaint.
Recently in ethics Category
On December 10, 2008, I attended the Spacing magazine anniversary party at The Great Hall on Queen St. West in Toronto and, in a fit of jubilance, extended my Spacing magazine subscription by 2 years. I was told that the new subscription would be tacked to the end of my existing subscription which would be ending in 2009. I drank some wine and all was right with the world.
Then, at the end of my original term came a notice that my subscription was running out. Oh, a misunderstanding, thought I, and I sent an email reminding them of my renewal. No response.
I called the office and left a message explaining the situation and leaving my phone number. No response.
Oh, thought I, they're likely busy people and I'm sure it's taken care of.
But, by now I should have received the next issue and I am Spacing-less.
Now, $26 isn't a lot of money but it's the principle of the thing. A magazine preaching social consciousness stole my money. And won't respond when asked about it.
I still want the issues I paid for but this episode has really altered how I feel about Spacing magazine.
The We Don't Do Mainstream movie group went to see The Reader this past weekend. Coincidently, the T Dot Bookclub will be discussing the book at our next meeting and I had just finished reading the book. This gave me an opportunity to compare how the book and movie jive. On reading the book I thought it was a simple enough story that it would easily be adapted to the screen without many changes. Superficially this was true: the action pretty much followed that of the paper version but the relationships and motivations were tweaked just ever so slightly as to throw me off. Kate Winslet's character particularly was made more sympathetic than my interpretation of Hanna from the book.
The interesting part of the story for me was reading (or seeing) how regular Germans dealt with Nazism and the Jewish genocide and how their decisions during the war impacted their lives after the war was over. I've often wondered how I would react if a similar situation arose in Canada. I'm sure that most people feel that they would rise up and rail against the situation. In reality I think most of us would knuckle under and just do what we had to do to keep life as normal as possible for our children and families. Just like in the old saw about slowly boiling a frog, a small change here and a small change there wouldn't be enough for most people to do more than grumble about but over time it could result in situations that we would regret forever.
We love Lindt 70% Excellence dark chocolate but suspect (based on there being no information to the contrary) that the Lindt company does NOT enforce Fair Trade practices for the source of its cocoa. Because of this we're going to find a nice 70% known Fair Trade brand of chocolate to enjoy instead. Good bye Lindt.
Put a blue waste basket in the bathroom for recycling. It's amazing how quickly it will fill up.
This is a lot of packaging for twelve little pieces of gum.
