I am miffed. And I am going to explain why. Perhaps I am missing something really obvious that justifies what seems to me to be just plain wrong on a couple of levels. So please feel free to show me what that might be.
For as long as we’ve been married, my wife and I have taken a local newspaper where possible.
We’ve had a yearly subscription since settling in this area in 1994.
The first paper out of Tampa went out of business and we had to settle for the Saint Petersburg paper some 15 years ago I guess.
Anyway, last week we received our annual subscription notice. We were shocked that it was over 330.00$. I can’t remember exactly how much and my wife has already shredded the notice in anger.
We don’t use the newspaper to become informed. My wife still likes her TV and I have my IPad. But we do enjoy the puzzles and what can I say, I still like the comics and the editorials. Though I place more significance on the funnies. I like the weather page and I still peek at the baseball standings.
But not for that price. I am not sure how much exactly but it was a big jump from last year.
After talking about it we decided we couldn’t justify paying that much. So my wife called them to let them know that we would not be continuing our subscription.
During her call, the representative tried to make her an offer to keep her business but she had already made up her mind and ended the call.
Awhile later I got to wondering how much the special price would be and how much a Sunday only subscription would be.
So I called them a couple hours later and connected to the new subscription line. I asked what a 7 days per week subscription would be and a Sunday only as well as the online price without identifying myself as a long time customer.
I was quoted a price that was over ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS less than what my mailed notice said!
Why in the world would the Tampa Bay Times attempt to gouge it’s arguably most loyal and long term customers?
It just doesn’t make sense to me. They claim that they are struggling financially and are trying to increase new readership.
Well I can understand that. But is taking advantage of a bunch of, in some cases busy or perhaps elderly customers the best way to do it.
Perhaps if the Tampa Bay Times really wanted to increase readership they would be more responsible, open minded and responsive in the way that they conduct their business and report the news.
It’s my opinion that they are just more interested in getting new, read young readership because they are beginning to realize that their brand of liberal partisan reporting is wearing very thin on people who have been around for more than a few decades.
Their only hope is to keep propagandizing and indoctrinating the naive.
Please tell me where I am off base on this. And if I am not then warn people not to trust renewal notices that they receive in the mail from companies that they have been loyal customers of for many years. Grrr. I wish they could read this