Guntrader is in many ways an example of all that is commercially good about the Internet. The ability to be able to search the stock of hundreds of retailers and having found the product of one’s choice to then get in touch from the comfort of home or office, is hugely welcome. Less welcome however, is that some businesses having found numerous ways to communicate with their customers, now seek to avoid their customers communicating with them, especially when it comes to the telephone. One has got used to the corporate evasiveness of the utility businesses and the way in which elaborate walls are put up to obstruct contact and it is incredibly frustrating to be persistently diverted toward an email form, especially if what one has to say requires a lengthy message.
And now it seems this arm’s length “thou shalt not call us” approach appears to be have taken root among at least one publisher of shooting magazines. Future Publishing, the owner of Clay Shooting and Sporting Rifle. Should one wish to buy a subscription or to advertise in these publications, then the magazines’ owners, Future Publishing have made it easy-peasy. However, should the aim be to call a member of the editorial team or, heavy forfend, someone in management, you will be a long time failing to get through. It is possible to uncover a general enquiry line, but that is answered by a recorded message inviting the caller to dial the number of the person they wish to speak to which is precisely the information you are trying to get. Oh, and those who think they will achieve the required outcome by asking the advertising or subscription departments to put them through will find their passage thwarted by the fact that the teams in those departments are just as much in the dark as they are.
There is a kind of dismissive arrogance evident when magazines, which very much rely on reader royalty regard themselves as too important to make themselves available. Mercifully at the moment this unwillingness to speak to those who pay their salaries has yet to spread much beyond Future and we must hope that remains the case.