« Grocery store hacks | Main | Be the master abater »
Two *more* free weeks of the Wall Street Journal
By Mr. Stupid | March 22, 2008
The Wall Street Journal is an excellent newspaper. It’s the newspaper of record for all things Wall Street. I usually read the front section, especially the editorials, and the “Personal Finance” section, cover to cover. I then browse the other two sections (”Marketplace” and “Money & Investing”). I love the new format, too… more color, more commentary, and a smaller form factor make it easier to carry and read in crowded places.
Reading the Journal has alot of benefits, but the main reason I read it is that it helps me win arguments. Whenever I can start a sentence with “I read in the Journal that…”, I know I’m gonna win that argument. Try doing that by citing the communist propaganda at the NYTimes or the half-witted, usually-recycled articles in the (shudder) Boston Globe.
When I first subscribed to the Journal, they gave me two free weeks. Not content with just those two weeks, I wanted more.
My delivery boy (actually, he’s a man named Mark who looks to be about 40) isn’t perfect. He doesn’t double bag on rainy days, he’s missed me a few times, he doesn’t put it on the porch like I asked, and sometimes he’s late. To get two free weeks of the Journal, you have to be willing to be a bit anal. You have to complain.
If your paper is damp or damaged or late, call it in. They add a free day to the end of your subscription. So if you subscribed for a year on January 1, but made 12 complaints, your subscription won’t run out until January 13.
The number to call is right there on page 2: 1-800-JOURNAL.
$79.90 annual subscription / 52 weeks = $1.54
$1.54 * 2 free weeks = $3.08
You can even do it online.
If you live in an area that has a lot of wet weather like I do, this will happen probably once a month. That’s 12 papers a year, or two free weeks (including the Sat/Sun weekend edition). And if you want to take this to its Stupid conclusion, if you do this for 26 years, it’s like getting a full free year’s subscription.
I actually used to deliver newspapers for a local distributor. I delivered the WSJ, the Boston Globe, and the Investor’s Business Daily. I was paid several cents per paper, per day. I had 200+ Sunday Globe customers and about 80 weekday customers. I made maybe $250 a week and was considered an independent contractor. Back then, if you got one complaint — PER YEAR –, you were on notice. Two complaints and you lost your route for a week. Three complaints and you were fired. I am not exaggerating. It was a brutal, uncompromising job whose only benefit was the tips at Christmas. The downsides were getting up at 3am every morning, beating my car to shit, and being, well, a newspaper delivery person.
Now, though, it’s different. The distribution companies have a hard time keeping employees — because of the price of gas, the shitty hours, the shitty pay, and the shitty conditions — that complaints have virtually no effect on the deliverer. So my conscience is clear when I call it in.
This Stupid hack also applies to your cable service. If you cable is out for a day, call them up and ask for a pro-rated refund. I’ve done it several times, and depending on the length of the outage, I’ve saved a buck or two once or twice during the year. Clearly, you can only do this if you have lots of free time, because of the ridiculous automated phone service hell you have to navigate, but it feels nice to get a little bit of my $139/month back once in a while.
Most of the Journal’s opinion pages are freely accessible online. And with a little hackery, you can read the rest of it for free, too.
The Journal also has 3 great blogs you can subscribe to:
Topics: hacks |
Share: Del.icio.us | Digg | Technorati | reddit