I love photo magazines….REALLY love photo magazines. That’s why I have subscriptions to not only English language ones, but German also.  While having the U.S. based magazines shipping to Germany can be expensive, I have found them to be well worth the price. For years, regularly, the magazines have arrived in our mailbox.

Until, September of 2007. Something was missing. My Shutterbug magazine failed to arrive. I emailed their fulfillment department to report the missing magazine and ask that it be sent to me. Their answer? “The September issue was not available for replacement so we extended your subscription for one issue in compensation.” Okay, I am willing to overlook the occasional problem as mail gets misplaced and lost.

But then October came and went. No Shutterbug magazine. Again, I mailed their fulfillment department to report the missing magazine and ask that it be sent to me. Their answer? “The October issue was not available for replacement so we extended your subscription for one issue in compensation.”  Yes, this was getting irritating but, again, I was willing to overlook it.

Then November came.  Again, no Shutterbug magazine. Once again, I mailed their fulfillment department and told them that I was losing patience. They asked about my address. No, it hasn’t changed, it is correct. They extended my subscription for another issue.

This went on until I wrote the fulfillment department in February and copied the editor of Shutterbug magazine. I guess, being an optimist, I thought that they might want to be aware that there is a problem and want to take care of an unhappy subscriber. The editor’s answer? This was the fulfillment department’s problem.

This was the answer to my question of whether the little guy really matters. Regrettably, after many years of receiving Shutterbug magazine, I wrote the fulfillment department one last time. Subscription cancelled.