Illusions dashed-Consumer Reports

I have always liked Consumer Reports. I think I still do...but!!!

I received notice in snail mail that my subscription was up. Fair enough. I don't like to send money or checks by snail mail and echecking seems to get mixed up because I cannot send the return stub back. Somehow, just using the account number doesn't work.

I wanted to take care of the subscription as soon as possible...remove one thing from my plate, so I called the 1-800 number "for faster service". The consumer report customer service was slow, and I was placed on hold. They have terrific classical music to soothe the customers on hold, so I put the speaker phone on to enjoy the fine quality of the sound. About a minute into it, I was encouraged to take care of my business on www.consumerreports.org  and it would be easy.

I listened to more music, and another minute or so, the same message came on. This was getting to be a long hold, and the music was becoming less soothing. After about the third announcement of the www address, I keyed the address onto my browser. The home page came up, sleek, business like.

I was experienced in these things. I went to my account, knowing full well that I had never set up an account, but this was an opportunity of a lifetime. I had two choices: enter my user id and password or subscribe. I entered my email and pressed "I forgot my user id" and the message returned was no email on file. That to me was unbelievable because every organization in the world seems to be able to get to me by email, to the extent that the first five minute after I open my email in the morning is spent deleting messages from every organization under the sun, most of whom I had never contacted had my email. These are the ones who make it through my generous spam filter.

I waited on the phone, listening to more music, and finally, after a five minute wait overall, a person came on. I paid for my subscription, and then popped the how come question. "While I was waiting on hold, I was told I could take care of all my business at the .org address. How come there was no window to open an account? (get a user id, and password, and pay for my subscription)?"
My courteous rep told me I had to click on subscribe, "You have to open an online subscription for $30 to use that service."

Boy was I deflated. I would have to pay Consumer Reports $30 to manage my hard copy subscription of $26. There seems to be a disconnect here. Shouldn't an online version be cheaper than a hard copy sent via USPS? Wouldn't it make sense to encourage people to select online services with a lower price. What really boosts readership and cuts costs?
Whose side is Consumer Reports on?