How Does Autobill Work?
You may now create subscriptions directly from the site! We offer subscriptions for combo packs, early ship combo packs and Smartsource or Red Plum only subscriptions! You can subscribe directly from the current week's item listing!
What is Insert Insanity
At it’s face, Insert Insanity is an e-commerce website that allows you to purchase whole coupon inserts from various regions throughout the United States. However, Insert Insanity also offers a subscription service that allows you to get inserts weekly without having to go to the site to purchase them. Some people like to use the website to purchase their inserts because they can pick and choose which weeks they want. They can also pick and choose how many they would like and change that number from week to week. The site offers combo packs, single copy inserts, early ship options and bonus buys. When ordering combo packs, customers may choose to buy 4 packs on some weeks and on larger weeks beef up their order to 8 or 10. Whatever floats your boat! We give you options so that you can use them. In contrast, many of our customers like the security of knowing they will get their coupons every single week with minimal effort on their part. That is where autobill comes in.
What is Autobill?
In its rawest form, Autobill is a subscription service that will give our customers the opportunity to enroll in the program for the number of inserts that we will charge them for each week. We have customers that get as few as 2 inserts and we have orders that receive over 100 sets of inserts per week. Now, before you go blowing your stack about hoarding, etc., the larger orders are the ones that have it all figured out. They are typically groups of 30 or more people that split the cost of the inserts and the shipping because they know they can get the very best deal that way. Again, we give you the option to choose how many you want when you enroll in the program. Should you want to change, you have the ability to make modifications inside of your Autobill account dashboard. Autobill is a completely automated process after the initial sign-up. Each week, we will draft your preferred payment method for the amount of of your subscription and then your inserts will magically appear every week. You don't have to lift a finger!
How Much Does Autobill Cost?
With autobill, we charge you at least 15% less the the site price per set of inserts that you receive and then we charge the appropriate shipping. First things first, what’s a set of inserts? A set of inserts is every coupon insert that comes in the Sunday paper that week. Some weeks there are 1 insert, some weeks there may be 3 inserts. Regardless of the number of inserts, whatever is in the paper is one set. Why would we charge the same rate for 1 insert but still only the exact same rate for 3 inserts? The answer is simple, the cost of our papers does not change. We pay the exact same rate for the newspapers when there is one insert as we pay when there are 3 inserts. Our labor varies slightly between weeks where there is one insert and three inserts, but it all comes out in the wash so we don't adjust the price from week to week. We do this so that our customers are able to budget accordingly. Shipping is the only variable. We bill you for shipping based on the total number of inserts you will receive. We use flat rate mailings for all of our packages. Because of this, we have defined amounts that fit in each size package. For example, a total of 50 inserts will comfortably fit in a flat rate envelope. Anything over 50 inserts would be required to be shipped in a medium flat rate box. However, a medium flat rate box only holds up to 125 inserts so anything between 125-200 is shipping in a large flat rate box. We charge the same rates that the postal service charges us to ship. We do not mark up shipping. Yes, we pay a discounted rate on the shipping, however the discount we receive is only enough to cover the cost of the labels, printers, paper and toner that we have to buy, so it really isn’t any cheaper for us either. Shipping is a straight pass through expense for us.
As an example, an average week on autobill would have 2 coupon inserts in the paper. If you were to order a 6 pack of coupon inserts, you would pay $11.10 for the coupon inserts plus $6.95 for shipping for a total of $18.05. This works out to $3.00 per paper to have the inserts shipped to your door. For some of you, that is a lot more than you pay for your paper. For others, that is half what you pay for the Sunday paper. It’s not worth a debate on the economics because the service isn’t for everyone. I can tell you that the average paper cost across the country at this point is over $3.00 per paper on Sunday, so for many people they can get the “inserts only” shipped to their home for the same price or less than they would pay to buy the papers and pull the inserts themselves. For others, they use the service because they get more coupons and higher value coupons than they would ever get from their Sunday paper. Finally, there are those people that simply use the service for convenience. They don't want to fool with having to go out and get multiple papers and hope that the coupons are in there. They also don't like having to deal wtih all of the excess newspaper laying around the house after they pull the inserts, so it is a more efficient way to get what they want.
How Do I Pay?
How you pay is up to you. You may pick your favorite debit or credit card so that you can earn loyalty points from your provider or you may choose to use your Paypal account. Whatever is most convenient for you! Please note that when you sign up via Paypal, it will default to using your balance to pay. It will also as you to select your backup funding source in case you don't have enough in your balance to cover your subscription payment. This looks a little confusing because it doesn't tell you that you are defaulting to your balance. However, through our testing, we can confirm that the Paypal option pulls your balance first, then a secondary funding source if there isn't enough in your Paypal account.
How Does Autobill Work?
Each week, 3 days before we charge your default payment method, you will receive a reminder that payment is coming out for the following week’s inserts. It will show you the number of inserts that you have specified on your subscription as well as the associated shipping. Three days later, your preferred payment method will be charged and your order queued for shipping.
Do I Get Rewards Points on Autobill?
The short answer is no. You actually get a much better deal! Rewards points accrue at a rate of 5% of your purchase amount. Autobill is priced at 15% off of the regular site pricing! That means, if you order from the site every week and get rewards points, it would take you 3 times longer to save the same amount of money! It would take you three weeks of site orders at 5% rewards points to save the same amount of money that you save in one week by being on Autobill. Since you are all coupon savvy, we kinda figured you wanted to save more money now instead of having points.
I Signed up Through Subscribe and Save, When Will I Get my First Order?
If you order through the subscribe and save button on the site, you are basically ordering the current week's coupons and then activating your subscription for the same number of inserts each week going forward. Therefore, your first set of inserts will ship on the date stated in the item description you ordered on the site. It is not a uniform date because different items ship on different days. For example, if you order the standard combo packs, they ship on Sundays. However, you may wish to pay a higher price to get a subscription of the early ship inserts. Those inserts ship on Wednesdays or Thursdays most weeks. It is always best to read the item description for what you are ordering so that you know the day your order will typically ship.
Why is the Price on the Site Different?
Some of you that order from the site are wondering why the inserts are more expensive on the site when you purchase "as needed" than on autobill. The answer is simple: I have more hands in my pockets on the site. I have to pay a % to about 5 different places each time I sell something off of the site. Also, some of the items are single copy which forces us to break up a set in order to move them. We have more financial risk when this happens so we have to charge enough to cover that risk. There are also early ship inserts that are on the site. These cost us more money to obtain, so the price on the site needs to be higher to cover that cost. As with everything else in life, convenience and speed of receipt cost more money. We are confident that those prices are reasonable and you will still save way more money than you spend to get your inserts. If we have a predictable subscription base, it allows us to buy an accurate number of papers each week. That is more efficient for us which allows us to charge a lower price for those committing to a standing weekly order.