Conniving

 

I think I might need help. I recently found this bargain hunting website that I've maybe become addicted to. And I'm getting greedy. People go to this website to share helpful information on easy ways to get things really cheaply or for free. But these cheap/free things come with certain conditions, like maybe you have to fill out a short survey, or test a product, or it says something about one per household. Any I just sit here and rack my brain for ways to buck the system and maybe end up with two per household.
And the thing is that these aren't necessarily scamming internet companies that promise to pay you twelve cents every time you sign up and give your credit card number to some shady company. Or companies that secretly send spyware and viruses to your computer whilst you peruse their site. Generally it's just some honest company that, you know, wants you to try its product or its service and in turn offers the product free to a limited amount of people, or offers a reward for trying out the service. Or maybe it's just some company having a short-lived blow out sale.
So, here's my shameful story for today. A few months ago, I signed up for a  magazine, which I've never read before in my life, because it was free for a year.  I was tired of living in a periodical-free zone, so I figured, what the heck? A week or so ago, I got my first magazine, the Oct issue. I looked through it. Not too shabby for a free issue. No complaints. But. A couple days later, I got another magazine. The September issue. OK, kind of weird. Whatever. Then, today, I got the August issue. That annoyed me. Yeah, I didn’t pay for the subscription, but still. So, I called their subscription 800 number and complained that they sent me two back issues that I had already purchased from the news stand (which maybe wasn't necessarily true, but, in my opinion, no less shady than them sending me back issues in the first place). They happily extended my subscription for two months. It was a 45-second phone call.
You know, whenever I feel kind of bad about these sorts of things, I just think about the people from this website who will drive hundreds of miles armed with loads of coupons, just because some grocery store in Biloxi is having a triple coupon day, and they get like $400 dollars worth of stuff they might not have otherwise bought for $36. Or I think about the people who drive to every single Walgreens (for instance) in the tri-state area to purchase every available weird-ass item that's on some kind of super-duper-special sale. I'm not as bad as those people. Yet. But keep an eye on me, OK?