AOL’s infamous customer retention program has caught the attention of other failing businesses. In particular the Minneapolis StarTribune, an Old Media newspaper, has adopted such a program. It first starts with ignoring requests to cancel service. Only after refusing to pay the bill for the canceled and unwanted newspaper will the delivery stop. That’s when the phone calls start. They begin about receiving payment for the delinquent billings for the undesired and unauthorized service to resume the unwanted service. After thoroughly explaining that the paper delivery was canceled to several moronic phone representatives the message finally seeped through their ignorance.
Next, the phone calls changed. Instead of getting the ‘disputed’ bill payed by the customer, tribune solicitors attempted sell one a subscription. At first they spewed the resubscribe message. Later the message changed to bashing the Internet as not capable of getting the reader the full story. Two different sales associated tried to sell me on this ‘fact’, when I responded to the question “where do you get your news from?” with “the Internet”.
The second sales associate was rude to say the least, and obviously in customer retention mode. Responding that the Internet is not a credible source for news. Annoyed now, I began to vent on this representative about how the paper he was trying to sell my was biased and incapable of ever getting the whole story, and by no means did it hold any credibility. “What’s your favorite section?” asked the persistent associate. “I don’t have one.” “What are you interested in? Sports? Our sports section…” “I’m into technology and your paper is run by a bunch of Luddites,” I interrupted. I continued on with telling the associate that we did not want the paper, we canceled our subscription and do not want to renew. “I’ll need an name and address to verify that.” I responded with a fake address and allowed him to misspell my name. The idiot did not even know what a Conestoga wagon was, and I was in no mood to spell it for him. “Let me verify this…” I hung up the phone, I had things to do.
Today I received a bill for the newspaper in the mail. That representative signed me up for a subscription with out my authorization. I try calling the provided number, and it gives one of those talk to the machine menus with no live representatives at the time I called. They provide a Internet address and it doesn’t allow cancellation of accounts. Right now I’m thinking about going to the BBB and talking to some people who know the law better than I to see what provisions Minnesota law has that can be used against the StarTribune.
This resides in the new StarTribune category which will contain all my posts for this problem. If you still subscribe to the StarTribune cancel your subscription.
-John Havlik
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