Boston Globe - I might know why people aren't subscribers

Adam and I are loyal Boston Globe readers.  Maybe too loyal.  Why are we so loyal?  Well, Adam found at least one job through the help wanted section.  I found at least one job through the help wanted section.  We found each other through the personals, before there was JDATE or eharmony.com.  And we found our home through an open house listing in the Boston Globe.  I think we have done okay by reading the Globe.  Our ten year old son now reads the Boston Globe sports section, and he has been doing that for a few years.  We have had many conversations about current events with our children because we read the Globe during breakfast.

Every morning, our son goes outside and gets the Globe for us.  It is delivered right outside our door every morning.  Most mornings.  In the past few years we have noticed our service has been sliding downhill.  Some mornings our Globe doesn’t arrive due to delivery issues such as the truck broke down, or printing issues or some other issue.  These issues are happening more often.  The customer service person promises me a “redelivery” in two hours.  Two hours isn’t going to help me.  Adam and I are going to be at work busy doing work related items.  And once we get home this morning’s newspaper belongs in the recycle can.  Just give me the refund.  And of course it never comes off the bill, so you have to call again – if you remember.

This past Tuesday, I send our son out and he comes back with no paper, but says everyone else has a paper on our street.  I call the number.  The customer service representative tells me that the credit card was denied because of an expired credit card.  The Globe has my phone number, my address and my husband’s email account.  The customer service representative says that it is not their policy to call me when the credit card has been denied.  It is not their policy to mail me a bill.  It is NOT their policy to email me.  She says that a “note” was put in our July 16 newspaper.  IF there was a note, it was not seen by any of us. 

I am tempted to cancel it right away.  If the Boston Globe doesn’t want to reach out to me, I don’t feel the need to pay them, and continue being a customer.  Adam wants to keep it.  He likes reading a newspaper, and he likes the conversations it starts with our kids.  I ask for a deal.  They give me a deal.  I then ask them to repeat the amount that they are going to charge me.  It is the original price – not the deal price.  Adam still wants the Boston Globe.  We are going to keep the Globe for now, but this loyal reader may have reached her breaking point with the Globe.

Tune in tomorrow – or next week, to find out what happens next.