If you were to visit the subscription page at The Atlantic magazine's website, you'd find an important note beneath the form for payment information. It reads: "By paying with a credit or debit card, you authorize The Atlantic to charge your account now at the price above and then before the start of the first 12-month term (10 issues at $24.50) and, without interruption, for all subsequent terms at the guaranteed low rate then in effect unless you tell us to stop."

There is, in fact, no apparent way to make a credit-card purchase without enrolling in the automatic-renewal program. And therein lays the problem—while devoted readers might welcome the convenience, many others will rightly regard mandatory autopay as a policy tilted heavily in the magazine's favor.

In a review of The Atlantic posted at Amazon.com, Bryan Byrd expresses a sentiment that's likely shared by other subscribers.

"I understand why a business might want to operate this way," he writes, "but as a consumer, I'm not a big fan of this practice. If I don't want the product anymore, I don't like the onus being on me to stop being billed for it. I'd much rather just let the whole relationship die a quiet, peaceful death."

The Po!nt: Automatic renewal programs are fine—but make them optional. That way, you can offer a service to those who want it without alienating those who do not.

Source: Amazon.com.

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