Wednesday, March 17, 2010

And you wonder why newspaper subscriptions decline?

People in that industry just don't seem to care...

We haven't been getting our paper, and the newspaper company didn't seem to care. Here it goes...

Saturday morning- no newspaper, call at 8:45 and use the fangled automated system to get a paper sent out. No newspaper is sent.

Sunday morning- no newspaper, call about 9a.m. and use the same dang system. No replacement newspaper is sent.

Monday morning- no newspaper, navigate through phone system to get a human. Spoke to customer service supervisor, expressed great displeasure, and said she would credit our account for Saturday and Sunday. She said they didn't have a Sunday paper with coupons left over much to my mom's displeasure. WTF? You're a newspaper, you don't print extra copies? Well, by 11a.m. there is still no Monday paper. Call back and speak to another lady who says she will credit our account for the week.

By Monday we felt the company doesn't seem to care, and well, as subscribers we were getting fed up and didn't care anymore. My dad was rejoicing in that he wouldn't have to read a paper with such a conservative slant on everything (it is owned by Belo).

Tuesday morning- no newspaper. We call to cancel our subscription. The whole "why do you want to cancel?" spiel, and "we'll make it up to you." We are now getting the next 26 weeks for free. Funny that until we wanted to cancel the company didn't care.

Wednesday morning- The paper was tied to the gate with a bright orange note, which you can read below:
"WARNING
DO NOT STEAL THIS PAPER
THIS PAPER IS INTENDED FOR A HOME DELIVERY SUBSCRIBER
THIS CAN COST ME MY BUSINESS
NOT ONLY DO I RELY ON THIS DELIVERY FOR MY LIVING, BUT ITS THEFT IS PUNISHABLE BY 1 YEAR IN JAIL AND A $500 FINE PER SECTION 404.488 AND 490 OF THE CALIFORNIA PENAL CODE"



Personally we think the newspaper deliveryman didn't care and only started to care when he found out his job was on the line.

3 comments:

Bi Like Me said...

Not only that, but I remember when I was a kid, I delivered the newspapers. That job was typically held by junior or high-schoolers looking to make some extra money.

Now the guys that deliver do it for a living. They handle an entire town and deliver the papers for a whole community.

I remember the Sunday morning door-bell ringing and asking "who is it?" only to respond "Collecting!"

Ah, sometimes big business isn't so good after all.

Phunk Factor said...

Lol @ the note!!! N yeah...even my grand-ma is all about coupons!

Anonymous said...

LMAO!

I avoid news altogether, so I can't say as I can identify.