This isn't the Jamie magazine site? Ah, that explains a few things.

it's the five opt-out ticks which are dodgy.

The Privacy and Electronic Communicati... you know what? This is waaaay too boring to go into, but suffice it to say the law says you should have to opt-in to marketing not opt-out.

that David doesn't personally hand deliver each subscriber's edition next. What do you mean he uses a third party? Royal Mail*? Sound like a bunch of cowboys to me.

*having only just renewed after a few months I can't remember whether it is Royal Mail or not.

We don't control this, but we'll check with the subscription company. As Fraser M says, marketing check-boxes should generally be opt-in.

...I'm beginning now to wonder if I got it the right way round. But the point remains that after requiring you to do one thing 5 times they then try to slip completely the opposite thing past you, and that can't be right.

I've attempted to subscribe on-line only to be refused, after filling in pages of questions, because my particular debit card isn't one accepted by the subscription company. Information that would have been useful before starting the whole process.
So I did what I normally do in that situation and rang the contact number provided. Usually the transaction can then take place over the phone. Not so in this case - and very little help volunteered by the subscription company. The only option they gave was direct debit and they were surprised by the offer of payment by cheque, confused about where it should be sent and had so much background noise in their office that it was difficult to hear where to send it.
At that point I have to say, I gave up...

I've recently become a subscriber against my will. My former colleagues, who have heard me say hundreds of times that publishers, especially small independent ones, who use newsagents' own shelves to steal business from the very shops who provide them with two thirds of their circulation and without whom they would be invisible, should take a long hard look at themselves in the mirror (see rants passim ad nauseam), bought me a year's subscription to Word as a leaving present.

So I'll have to go and explain to the local Londis why I'm taking £50 out of their till over the next year, but, being hopelessly shallow, I could probably cope with that if I got all the free stuff, the CDs promised in the magazine. What's the deal with that? Does it comes separate from the issue?