I hope the Philadelphia Inquirer (www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/) reads this and is embarrassed. They should be.
A little background:
I decided to try home delivery of The Philadelphia Inquirer after never having it. Why? To show support for my hometown paper in a time of crisis (and here you people thought I only read Vogue, Allure, and Self). So I signed up for a "deal". Sundays only, since quite frankly, that is the only time I really have to read a paper cover to cover. But I thought hey, I’ll give it a whirl. Show some support (yeah like my teeny subscription would help, but anyway).
I haven’t been too thrilled with it because I thought the content and coverage would be better. It’s not (online really has enough). And then there is delivery.
Delivery has been less than stellar, and I have had to call and say “where’s my paper”.
Since I signed up for this "deal" I have been deluged with Inquirer solicitation calls. And they are so friggin’ annoying. No one speaks good ,clear , grammatically correct English , and even though I say EVERY time “I am a subscriber, please do not solicit me”, and “I am on the “do-not-call-list” https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx , please respect my privacy and remove my name” the calls have not stopped.
Then I got my bill. My name was spelled incorrectly and that irks me. But I wrote out my check, put a correction on their invoice and mailed off my subscription payment. Did I also mention that I am one of those fiscally responsible to the point of anal types who pays all bills as they arrive, and doesn’t carry balances? I am. I am also proud of that because some months it’s tough.
The Inquirer cashed my check at the beginning of the week. It was cashed on the exact due date referenced on the statement. I saw it on online banking. Plus, my bank let’s you bring up copies of the little checks all scanned in. So that should be the end of it, right?
Wrong.
Since Tuesday I have had these weird unknown numbers on my caller ID. Couldn’t figure out who it was. Then last night at almost 8 p.m., the phone rang. Some mumbling Fool with the phone only halfway to his mouth asking for me. So I said, “You got me”.
Fool informed me he was calling on behalf of the Inquirer. I told him I was done being with solicited, I was a subscriber already. Fool replied he was from their COLLECTION agency.
Collection Agency?
Why would they be calling me I asked the Fool?
Because you don’t pay your bills, the Fool replied.
I went off on the Fool, asking them why they would call me three days after they had cashed my check on an invoice that wasn’t past due.
Fool told me I had to be responsible and pay my bills.
I told Fool about the Fair Credit Reporting Act. (I am including a link here in case the Inquirer needs to brush up on it http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcra.htm ). I further told Fool that I was running a credit check on myself over the next couple of days, and if they are on it, they will all be collecting unemployment when I’m through.
Am I being to harsh? I don’t think so. I work hard, I pay my god damn bills on time.
So here I sit. My Inquirer subscription expires soon. Will I renew? What do you think? No wonder the paper in so much trouble. They can’t even manage basic customer service, and the rules of solicitation.
Inquirer Subscriptions
your story is similar to what I experienced...which is why hell will freeze over before I buy that paper, and why I only read it online.
not good
this is not good....the post is good, but the topic needs air time...... guess that is why most people opt to BUY their papers
Did you call/contact
Anyone on this list: http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/contact_us/contact_list/departments_np1/
Instead of unsubscribing and not talking directly with them, it might be helpful to others to report their service to them.
doesn't matter
one of our members had a problem with delivery and with checks being cashed and not credited - while they didn't get these calls, they had no interest expressed from the customer service folks (trust us, this person is a tenacious consumer who contacted everyone appropriate). this person even had something mailed to them referencing some OTHER customer's check and account. The Inquirer is very sloppy with it's customers, which is why they can't maintain subscriptions. And their constant solicitation calls well, just suck. They do not adhere to federal guidelines with regard to solicitation calls and it takes so much effort to get them to comply with simple requests.
There comes a point, when words and conversations are useless and you just have to hit 'em where it hurts and not renew.
with all the coverage we have had in the media, most of us go out and buy the papers - even the local ones because as a subscriber you don't necesarilly get the service you pay for. Why is this? because a lot of these "services" are in truth farmed out to companies providing service for the Inquirer in particular are doing so as independent contractors - ergo, if all of this was TRULY "in house", perhaps people would care more.
Inquirer
Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc. is committed to publishing excellent newspapers and websites and providing superb customer service. We regret that Her Alter Ego has experienced billing issues and unwanted calls and would welcome the opportunity to resolve the complaint as well as others referenced. I did want you to know that we take the DNC regulations very seriously and go to great lengths to train our representatives on the DNC laws including honoring requests to be placed on our internal DNC list. Our readers and their feedback is very important to us. I invite you to e-mail me directly at cdooling@phillynews.com or call 215-854-4312.
I've worked in newspaper
I've worked in newspaper circulation management, and I'll attest that as far as contracting out various services goes, it's unfortunately the way of the world. Keeping every level of customer service in-house is an incredibly expensive proposition.
On the bright side, there's almost always a way to get through to the people who are in-house, and when you do, they will care, and they will respond to your concerns.
thanks Inquirer person but no thanks
nope. if you were committed to customer service then bills that weren't "net" anything (as is days) would NOT be turned over to the company that comes up on my caller ID, yet belongs to you (and why you employ a collection agency on absurdly small amounts of money like this isn't even good business sense- it costs more for you to have these phone terrorists paid then what you actually collect in real debt). I had yet MORE hang ups yesterday. You publish good newspapers most of th etime, but that is it. If I told you the sheer number of hang ups alone from your "customer service" people and reported it as a violation to the FCC, you would have a BIG problem, as in you might be out BIG money. Be glad this is all I am doing thus far. I know now from all of these responses I am not the only one. Just like I know I am not the only one who doesn't have their paper this morning that they paid for. When the Inquirer is sold AGAIN, I hope they get ris of ALL these people and bring customer service in its entirety back IN house.
I can't help but think
you're misunderstanding the DNC guidelines. They generally refer to companies with which you have had no business in the past year. While you may be correct that they are inconvenient, they don't sound like they're violating the law in that respect.
DNC/Fair Credit Reporting
If you ask a for profit company to STOP calling, they are supposed to comply ASAP. And the Fair Credit Reporting Act ALSO limits the number of times a person can be phoned over collecting a debt within a certain period of time, as well as there are guidelines as to when a company can turn a person over to a third party collector to collect that debt. So actually, that poster ISN'T wrong.
The problem with the Fair Credit Reporting Act enforcement and DNC enforcement is that consumers do not realize they have recourse as individuals, because there are so many companies which DO NOT comply.
What they need to do is get a good record together of what has been happening, refer to all the consumer information available online, including consumer advocacy sites. In addition, they can also log complaints with better business bureaus.
But...
the DNC rules do not apply to companies with which you have business dealings. And the FCRA may limit the amount or mode of contact, but not whether you are contacted.
And many of these rights are not enforceable until they are actively claimed. That's the basic difference between a civil and a criminal violation. The DNC and FCRA are both civil guidelines, which puts the impetus on consumers to claim their rights.
Philadelphia Inquirer: the WORST
Did you ever notice that the Philadelphia Inquirer website never gives you an email address to contact? It is absolutely the worst company I have ever dealt with regardless of the B.S. that was spouted by company reps on this website. I will never read the rag again.
The company should have the decency to respect their customer's wishes of not being called at home. The company should have the decency to get their records straight so their customers are not billed unfairly.
I hope they go out of business.
Inquirer
the inquirer will eventually go out of business because they are chasing all the talent away and interns and no names are writing articles. if you haven't noticed lately, there are a lot of old names no longer on the pages of the paper, and a lot of new names who can't write. the network news had a report recently about the death of the daily paper, and is this an example? how long before the owners merge the newsrooms of the daily news and inky? they sold the bricks, right? also, is the inquirer fair to female employees? just curious. you can't run a daily paper the way you run a p.r. firm can you? and check the content - the inquirer misses so many stories or underreports.