Sunday, April 22, 2007

The ethics of newspaper delivery

Apparently if you subscribe to the Toronto Star and you don't get a newspaper and you report this and ask them to credit your account, they'll deduct $5 from the carrier's pay. This blog mentioned it, and someone (who I don't know very well, but would be in a position to know) told me so IRL.

This seems wrong, especially considering that the paper costs like $1 each in store, and the Star seems so eager to sell me subscriptions at under $1 a week.

I'm not sure how I feel about this.

6 comments:

M@ said...

I've been so annoyed with the Star in the past few months, I honestly don't care what they do or who's responsible. The paper arrives on time and on the porch for a few weeks, then it ends up in the flower garden, in the driveway, in the middle of the lawn, in puddles, or wherever, I guess, is convenient for the carrier for a while.

Now, I live outside the City and I only get the weekend editions. But still -- if they can get it as requested for a few weeks at a time, why does it suddenly change? And when I complain, why does it take a few weeks to set things right again?

Incidentally, the local circulation office does absolutely nothing to help me -- they say "we'll make a note" when I complain, and when I say "that's what you said yesterday", they say "I'll pass that on to my supervisor". Lately I took to telling them, if a single drop of moisture ended up on the paper, that the paper was wet and I demanded a credit for it.

It's not the way I would like to deal with the situation; I'd prefer to have a level-headed conversation with the mythic supervisor, sort everything out, and have the paper on my porch each weekend. Unfortunately, their spotty service leads me down some otherwise distasteful roads.

laura k said...

Are we sure this is true? I had a lot of trouble getting my delivery changed to my new address after I moved. I had to get several credits, and a customer service person gave me a reduction on my rate as compensation. It never occured to me that the carrier was getting in trouble. That's awful.

M@'s troubles with wet papers on the lawn - that's clearly the carrier's problem. But change of addresses not going through, or the wrong edition being sent - that is not necessarily the carrier's fault (although it might be).

I had no idea that when I complained the carrier was being penalized. If that's true, it sucks.

impudent strumpet said...

The person who told me this: a) is in a position to know factually as opposed to repeating something someone told them, b) has no motivation to make me think the carriers are penalized if they aren't IRL, c) may, or may not, have motivation to make me think the penalty is harder on the carriers than it actually is. I don't know this person well enough to actually vouch for their character, but I didn't get any red flags when talking to them.

Anonymous said...

I WORK FOR THE STAR AND IF THE TRUCK IS LATE WELLL BE LATE PLEASE REMEBER THIS IT ISNT THE EASRST JOB AND U DONT SEE ME ON WELFARE

Anonymous said...

TO ALL THOSE WHO ARE SO UPSET OVER GETTIN THE STA ID ADVISE YOU TO HOP IN THE CAR THE STORES OPEN AT 7 A.M.AND THRY USUALLLY HAVE THE STAR IN BY THAT TIME GO GET IT YOURSELF INSTEAD COMPLAING WE DONT NEEED YOUR CHILDISH COMPLAINTS

John said...

I can't imagine how the Star can deduct $5 from the carriers and be able to keep the carriers from quitting their jobs. I am a carrier in Montreal for the Gazette. There was some discussion of this happening to us here, but it was never put into effect because they realized the turnover would just get worse than it already is. I would quit the same day. When you deduct gas and car repairs, we end up working for $8 to $10 per hour. We work in snow storms and in the rain and we get up at 2:30Am everyday. With repect to the comment on wet papers, most carriers I know get very few complaints re wet papers. We do our best to protect the paper, but occasionally a bag will tear or the water will infiltrate inside. Also, we detest bagging as it adds more time to our delivery. From time to time, weather changes during the delivery period and a few drops will fall on the paper. Most of my customers understand this and don't complain. But all carriers have a small number of chronic complainers that have nothing better to do with themselves. It's kind of pathetic.