Friday, October 20, 2017

Newspaper Delivery Options

As I mentioned, we recently went to Florida with our family. As always, when planning to be away from home for any length of time, I had our mail and newspaper held. Mail is easy - have it held at the Post Office, and then have it all delivered when we come home. But, when I go to have the newspaper held, I have a few options:


Looks logical, right? The only problem is that there is absolutely no reason for that first choice. When I missed a paper or went on vacation in Wisconsin, the amount for those papers we did not receive was deducted from our monthly charge. Simple, right? We did not get the papers; we did not have to pay for them.

Here it does not work that way. I was talking to one of the customer service representatives a while back and asked about the fact that my monthly charge never varied - even though I'd had some missed papers or vacation holds. She told me that once we built up an entire month's worth of credit, we wouldn't be charged for a month.

Well, that monthly charge just keeps coming.
What's new pussy cat?

We only get the paper Friday, Saturday, and Sunday - though we'd rather just get the Sunday paper and leave it at that, but that's not an option. For a few weeks in a row recently, our Friday paper was not being delivered, so I reported it online and asked that our account be credited. Eventually, I got a call from the newspaper telling me that they couldn't credit anymore that month - we apparently missed a lot of newspapers, not sure what was going on. It's a bit confusing, but when a paper is missed, they just extend the month a bit and charge the credit card on a later date than it would have been - or something like that. I'm honestly not sure if that's true or not because my credit card is charged automatically, and I haven't figured out exactly when the charge comes through. I probably should look at the history, but let's give them that...

Then, since I was already on the phone with someone from the newspaper, I asked about my vacation credits - because I've been choosing that first option every time we go away for a weekend, and now that we've lived here for 4 years, we should have built up at least enough credit for a free month. Right?

Nope!

Apparently, if you go on vacation here and choose that first option, you just forfeit your newspapers, even though you've paid for them. No credit.  That just seems wrong on so many levels, but it's really frustrating that they even list that first option. Just leave it off and be clear and upfront about the fact that I can either donate my newspapers to a classroom (which I did this year and would have done in the past) or I can get them all delivered when I get home - but under no circumstances is that going to affect my subscription or the amount I will pay for the month.