Friday, September 01, 2006

To Cancel Or Not To Cancel (My L A Times Subscription)

Once again I am thinking of canceling my subscription for Los Angeles Times home delivery. I know a canceled subscription is not really a big deal, that subsciber churning is a part of the business, an expected thing. However, this is not coming from a typical subscriber, but from a 26 year employee of the Los Angeles Times. I figure subscribing to the paper is one way of showing my faith in the product we produce, it's more symbolic than anything else; my one paltry subscription, or lack of same, is not going to make or break the Los Angeles Times. The bad thing about this situation is the reason I'm considering canceling my subscription has nothing to do with quality or editorial content, it's a problem with delivery. It's not a problem with getting the darn paper, though I've had a few problems with not receiving my paper, this was resolved with a few phone calls to the subscription center. It's not a problem with late delivery, which is not an issue for me, I work swing shift and don't really need the paper to be at my home by any certain time in the morning. No, the paper is being delivered, and I might add fairly accurately. The problem with this accuracy is that the delivery person is using my car as his target! Let me clarify something first, my car is not parked at the curb, but well into the driveway. There's nothing like the early morning sound of the delivery person's car driving up my street, the splat of the newspaper hitting the sidewalk in front of my neighbors houses, and then the thud of the paper colliding with my car, sometimes followed by the sound of my car's alarm being activated by the impact. Many mornings I've went outside to grab my paper(I like reading it over a cup of coffee or two) and found it on top of my car, or in it's usual place by the car, where it lands after bouncing off the sheet metal. Today was the kicker, I guess "Ol' Cannon Arm" the delivery person must have got a little more oomph on the paper than usual, it hit my car with enough force to leave a nice ding in the rear quarter panel! Bear in mind the delivery person is not some teenager on a bicycle, but a full grown adult in a motor vehicle, you would expect an adult to show a little more good judgement and care by being careful when throwing a object out of moving car. Well, that's my rant, I guess I need to decide whether to cancel or risk another ding or dent.

1 comment:

Kanani said...

It's $18.20 a month.
I get it out of loyalty to everyone here!