Are there craftier telemarketers out there than the folks who rep the L.A. Times' circulation department? Probably not.
I generally manage to avoid being talked into their tricky sales pitches (which generally involve them somehow talking you into taking the paper for a full week)... but I fell for it today.
Hear me out. The Los Angeles Times telemarketer admitted that the paper was desperate to boost its circulation numbers in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving... and offered the paper for $2.99/week (I currently get the weekend package -- Friday, Saturday, Sunday -- for $2 a week).
Here's the reason I finally bit: The telemarketer said I should cancel after four weeks; in exchange, I'd get the weekend package for 75 cents a week for an entire year.
Yeah, it sounds like the old "eight CDs for a penny, with no further obligation" scheme that the record companies used to advertise in TV Guide (do services like Columbia House still even exist). I'll have to remember push to cancel the weekly subscription when the month is up (and the LAT boosts its numbers).
So in the end, I should come out ahead. But yeah, this all makes me feel a tad snookered. Anyone else out there fall for one of the LAT's aggressive sales pitches?
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