DDJ Online Subscription Renewal?

 I’ve been a Dr. Dobb’s Journal subscriber for most of the past 15 years.  Whenever I receive my subscription renewal notices, I dutifully check the appropriate box on the form, write a check (or enter my credit card number), and send the thing off.  Except this time.  I’m annoyed.

It’s not anything they’ve done, and I still find the magazine useful.  I’m just annoyed that I can’t log on to their subscription site and give them my credit card number.  Instead, I either have to mail the renewal form or FAX it back to them.  Why?  Of all things, you’d expect Dr. Dobb’s Journal to let me renew my subscription online.  Heck, Maxim magazine will let me (no, I don’t subscribe to Maxim).

I know that Dr. Dobb’s uses a fulfillment service to handle their subscriptions.  I suspect this is the same Boulder, Colorado based fulfillment service to which I’ve been sending payments for other magazines over the last 20 years.  You’d think a company that big would have this Internet thing all figured out.  By now, I’d expect to get my DDJ renewal notice in an email, and I could go to their site and take care of business with a few keystrokes and a button click.

Here’s the real kicker.  I can subscribe to DDJ from their web site, and I can change my address, report a problem, and do other customer-related stuff.  I just can’t renew my subscription.

Luddites.  Hey, DDJ!  Get a clue!  Fire that lame fulfillment house and get with the times.

Will I send in a check?  Probably.  But not before I post this little rant.