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newspaper drama
Jan. 3rd, 2010 10:08 pmImportant parenting information: to help encourage your child to want to go to bed, make them run around without pants in a chilly house in mid-winter. They will then get cold enough that snuggling up with a blankie sounds like a good idea.
What? Perfectly sensible.
I am really cold myself but I am not smart enough to snuggle up with a blankie and go to sleep.
I bought seven additional newspapers today, for the coupons, to go with the one paper that was delivered, and picked up two free papers at the grocery store. Funny story. Okay, wait. Not really a funny story but I am going to tell it anyway. Nine weeks ago, I received a newspaper that was missing the coupon inserts, so I called in to complain/get credited for that paper. Hello, I am not going to be paying you for a newspaper that I throw in the recycling as soon as I strip the coupons out. So anyway, while I am on the phone, I request them to start sending me TWO papers every week. There are three papers available here. One of them has MUCH better coupons than the other, but it's the less widely distributed one. It is more or less impossible to find this stupid paper by noon on a Sunday in this town, because apparently, they haven't figured out that if they send more papers, they will sell more papers. Since I almost always want two papers, and then occasionally an additional one or two, I thought it would be much easier if I just had two delivered, and then supplement as needed. Okay, no problem.
The next weekend, there was only one paper. I figured that it just hadn't been put into the system yet. The next weekend, there was only one paper. I called in, received credit for the papers that they hadn't seen (I had been charged for that first week.) This has gone on every week since then. After a month or so, I started requesting to speak to managers. The first time, they left a message for a district manager to return my call. Still waiting! I continued calling. They continued telling me that they'd give a message to the carrier, they'd contact the manager, they'd have someone call, etc etc. Still? I received one paper every week. There were a number of incidental things going on here as well, like them telling me that if I called on Sunday, they would redeliver instead of just credit my account. Sunday came, I called, navigated through the phone system to request a redelivery and.... was told that their offices were closed, and to call back during regular business hours. Last week, I managed to call on a Sunday and request a redelivery. That redelivery never showed up. It's just incredible. I mean, obviously I am making this up because it's just not realistic. Two weeks ago, I asked again to speak to a manager, and after sitting on hold for ten minutes, I was promised that the supervisor would call me back in five minutes. Still waiting!
Anyway, last week I called again and requested a manager and did not allow them to try the callback line. When I finally talked to this guy, he was extremely professional and bloody horrified that all of this was going on. He promised to hand-deliver my account file to the lady in charge of the district manager and we would so get the problem fixed. He even threw in an entire month's credit for two papers. For once, I hung up feeling like it was theoretically possible that I might get two papers this week! That hope was pretty much dimmed when I got a call later in the day from Vern, representing the OTHER newspaper, which does the deliveries for both papers, saying that I was only listed in their system as subscribing to one paper, and that's why I wasn't receiving it, and maybe I should call them and let them know. I pointed out that I had called them every week for EIGHT STRAIGHT WEEKS and I didn't really think that calling them again would do much good. WTF? He called the customer instead of the company he's contracting for? What did he think I could do about it? And besides, how do you think you got the info about the situation in the first place? So of course, there was just one paper outside this morning. Sigh. M giggled at me because he can't wait to hear about tomorrow's phone call. The thing is, I would be really angry at them in most any other situation. But... it's just so completely ridiculous that it's hard to work up a good mad. It's hard not to laugh when I think about it. In any case, I now have ten papers. That also feels somewhat ridiculous.... except I will save so much more than the fourteen bucks I spent on them. I almost never buy more than four total, and I haven't even done that lately.
I just finished the third book in the trilogy I was reading, The Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb. It's the second set of a series of three trilogies. I have read the first and third parts already but was dreading this one, for some reason. I enjoyed them a lot. Yeah, this paragraph is aimed at a couple of specific people, no one else cares, I know. You know what I appreciate? An author who ends the book with some CONCLUSION. It drives me absolutely mad when the ending of a book is basically at the very end of the big dramatic scene and you never find out what happens to the characters and unresolved plotlines. I know it seems more intense and artsy to leave it hanging but I hate it. (I also hate it when series authors don't bloody finish their books. I am all for a little cliffhanger but there's a difference between adding suspense and being obnoxious. I have one particular author in mind, and though I love her writing, it drives me crazy. I was going to try to explain what I meant but it would require too much backstory.) Back to the Liveship Traders. Very enjoyable, particularly liked the way it was tied together. I will also enjoy being done with it. I have come to realize that the largest reason that I don't read more fantasy, even though I really enjoy it when I do, is that I tend to get too absorbed with it and want to read all the time. I enjoy that kind of reading, of course, but these books and series just drag on and on and on and then I have no time for anything else.
Like playing mindless computer games. I am feeling the urge for some Zuma or something... better get to it before I get sucked into something productive instead!
What? Perfectly sensible.
I am really cold myself but I am not smart enough to snuggle up with a blankie and go to sleep.
I bought seven additional newspapers today, for the coupons, to go with the one paper that was delivered, and picked up two free papers at the grocery store. Funny story. Okay, wait. Not really a funny story but I am going to tell it anyway. Nine weeks ago, I received a newspaper that was missing the coupon inserts, so I called in to complain/get credited for that paper. Hello, I am not going to be paying you for a newspaper that I throw in the recycling as soon as I strip the coupons out. So anyway, while I am on the phone, I request them to start sending me TWO papers every week. There are three papers available here. One of them has MUCH better coupons than the other, but it's the less widely distributed one. It is more or less impossible to find this stupid paper by noon on a Sunday in this town, because apparently, they haven't figured out that if they send more papers, they will sell more papers. Since I almost always want two papers, and then occasionally an additional one or two, I thought it would be much easier if I just had two delivered, and then supplement as needed. Okay, no problem.
The next weekend, there was only one paper. I figured that it just hadn't been put into the system yet. The next weekend, there was only one paper. I called in, received credit for the papers that they hadn't seen (I had been charged for that first week.) This has gone on every week since then. After a month or so, I started requesting to speak to managers. The first time, they left a message for a district manager to return my call. Still waiting! I continued calling. They continued telling me that they'd give a message to the carrier, they'd contact the manager, they'd have someone call, etc etc. Still? I received one paper every week. There were a number of incidental things going on here as well, like them telling me that if I called on Sunday, they would redeliver instead of just credit my account. Sunday came, I called, navigated through the phone system to request a redelivery and.... was told that their offices were closed, and to call back during regular business hours. Last week, I managed to call on a Sunday and request a redelivery. That redelivery never showed up. It's just incredible. I mean, obviously I am making this up because it's just not realistic. Two weeks ago, I asked again to speak to a manager, and after sitting on hold for ten minutes, I was promised that the supervisor would call me back in five minutes. Still waiting!
Anyway, last week I called again and requested a manager and did not allow them to try the callback line. When I finally talked to this guy, he was extremely professional and bloody horrified that all of this was going on. He promised to hand-deliver my account file to the lady in charge of the district manager and we would so get the problem fixed. He even threw in an entire month's credit for two papers. For once, I hung up feeling like it was theoretically possible that I might get two papers this week! That hope was pretty much dimmed when I got a call later in the day from Vern, representing the OTHER newspaper, which does the deliveries for both papers, saying that I was only listed in their system as subscribing to one paper, and that's why I wasn't receiving it, and maybe I should call them and let them know. I pointed out that I had called them every week for EIGHT STRAIGHT WEEKS and I didn't really think that calling them again would do much good. WTF? He called the customer instead of the company he's contracting for? What did he think I could do about it? And besides, how do you think you got the info about the situation in the first place? So of course, there was just one paper outside this morning. Sigh. M giggled at me because he can't wait to hear about tomorrow's phone call. The thing is, I would be really angry at them in most any other situation. But... it's just so completely ridiculous that it's hard to work up a good mad. It's hard not to laugh when I think about it. In any case, I now have ten papers. That also feels somewhat ridiculous.... except I will save so much more than the fourteen bucks I spent on them. I almost never buy more than four total, and I haven't even done that lately.
I just finished the third book in the trilogy I was reading, The Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb. It's the second set of a series of three trilogies. I have read the first and third parts already but was dreading this one, for some reason. I enjoyed them a lot. Yeah, this paragraph is aimed at a couple of specific people, no one else cares, I know. You know what I appreciate? An author who ends the book with some CONCLUSION. It drives me absolutely mad when the ending of a book is basically at the very end of the big dramatic scene and you never find out what happens to the characters and unresolved plotlines. I know it seems more intense and artsy to leave it hanging but I hate it. (I also hate it when series authors don't bloody finish their books. I am all for a little cliffhanger but there's a difference between adding suspense and being obnoxious. I have one particular author in mind, and though I love her writing, it drives me crazy. I was going to try to explain what I meant but it would require too much backstory.) Back to the Liveship Traders. Very enjoyable, particularly liked the way it was tied together. I will also enjoy being done with it. I have come to realize that the largest reason that I don't read more fantasy, even though I really enjoy it when I do, is that I tend to get too absorbed with it and want to read all the time. I enjoy that kind of reading, of course, but these books and series just drag on and on and on and then I have no time for anything else.
Like playing mindless computer games. I am feeling the urge for some Zuma or something... better get to it before I get sucked into something productive instead!
