Rant time.
Last week Friday I received an interesting piece of mail.
It was from my local, hometown newspaper. The Herald Palladium. For which my hubby and I had a brief subscription when we first moved in, a year ago. It lapsed about 9 months ago, since we only ordered a 3-month subscription.
The note said that we had recieved 11 issues above and beyond our 3 months, and now owed the Herald Palladium $13.95.
Needless to say, the longer this piece of mail sat on my counter top, the angrier I got. $13.95? Nine months after the fact? With no prior notice? Really? Reeeeaaally?
First of all, I don't remember EVER getting a single issue above and beyond our 3 months. Second, I was appalled at the disclaimer at the bottom of the bill saying that this was OUR fault, since ... drumroll ... we were supposed to call and CANCEL our subscription at the end of those three months. Um....Hello???? I ordered three months for a reason!!
Ohhhhh, and it gets better.
I made Nathan call to ream them out.
He's good at that, whereas I stink at it.
He did his research and called the head of the department. Who ... AND I KID YOU NOT ... offered to "forgive" our debt of $13.95 if we would renew our subscription.
^%$#@#$%!!!!
Nathan, in a not-so-polite tone (I'm assuming) told them he would consider the debt forgiven, thank-you-very-much, and NO, they would NEVER be receiving a single dime of our money again.
Ackkkkkk!!! Can you believe this?? I can hardly believe that our small-town newspaper has resorted to extortion and bribery in order to make ends meet. Because you can BET that was what happened. They had a little meeting. And decided they needed more money. So they figured they'd send threatening letters to their former customers and try to bilk it out of them. SERIOUSLY. ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THIS???
The sad truth was that we HAD been considering renewing our Sunday subscription. But now there is no way ... not even if I was stuck in Dante's ninth level of hell ... that I would ever buy another edition of the Herald Palladium.
All I can do is marvel at the slow demise of this particular American newspaper ... (for surely, it is eventually headed that way along with all newspapers...) It's become like that one sordid headline that you just can't rip your eyes off of no matter how much you regret it later. Fiery. Explosive. Unpredictable. Morally offensive.
Heartbreaking.
4 comments:
I am currently fighting with our phone company with the same kind of frustration towards being fined for things that we did not do. I feel your pain!
that's horrible kat! i would feel the same way....except i'd be the one calling because my hubby sucks at that! ;) good for nate for standing his ground!
Well, must say your situation is abominable, but your narrative about it was delightful! Someone ought to forward it to the Herald Palladium...letting them know what big dopes they've made of themselves!
Is there another newspaper you'd enjoy more? Say in South Bend or Kalamazoo?
I suppose you wouldn't want the old "USA Today" since it was Gannett that cut back on employees such as yourself! Hmmm....Guess you're stuck with online and TV.
I am SUPER glad that you included the name of the paper in your post! Bring it on! In this day and age, organizations need to be more than mindful that they are in a RELATIONSHIP with their customers, who are REAL PEOPLE. grrr. I think I'll tweet your post.
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