Yes, so what I still read the hardcopy paper? Call me a dinosaur, but it’s my indulgence and I like to drink my morning coffee while perusing the morning headlines.
So, lo these many years, I get the Boston Globe delivered to my house. The service has always been mostly good, with an occasional missed paper or rain-soaked mishap. I always appreciate scooping my paper off the front step while I pop out the door and in my Nick and Nora cocktail shaker P.J.’s. (And Dear Santa, if you are reading this, man are they long in the tooth this year. Bring some new ones for Christmas).
About or 6-8 weeks ago, I noticed while picking up the paper that there were tire tracks on my front walk, and ergo the lawn. Which lined up directly with where the paper delivery person apparently rolls his window down and flings the paper with laser precision to my front step.
And so, I have a really nice brick walk that a nice mason named Salvatore built for me a few years ago. And needless to say, cars driving on it for their convenience (or because they are the laziest _____ of _____ ever) is not remotely acceptable.
So in a social science experiment, Meg placed some stray cobblestones leftover from a yard project to prevent vehicles from going a certain distance, that distance being her front walk.
And here are the results of her experiment/investigation:
As you can see, the paper is no longer delivered to my front step, because it’s looks like I’ve inconvenienced the delivery person by not allowing them to drive up on my front walkway. GASP! How RUDE of me to do that?
So I talked to the customer service department, who assured me that the paper is SUPPOSED to be delivered to the front step, and she will ensure that happens.
A week later, no change in service. But guess what? I did get a request for a monetary TIP in my Sunday paper.
Any suggestions for an REALLY appropriate tip, fellow readers?
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
This problem explains why I’ve given up the home-delivered Globe. No. 1 – The paper is not worth the price and then you have to recycle it….creating another problem – disposal……No. 2 – Have to trudge thru the snow to the end of the drive to collect said paper once winter hits…requiring secure foot gear, a coat or outer garment and a snow-free path -probably not going to happen in the am. after snow storm.
No. 2 – I can remain in PJs, pour a cup of coffee and read it on-line whilst I try to awake. I did love having the paper to peruse but lately, it really is not worth the trouble. NYTs – Please sell it back to someone local who really understands and cares about the Hub and Bay State….you don’t. ‘Nuhf said.
–>I live in a residential neighborhood and for six years I’m the ONLY house that gets their paper delivered on the doorstep. Everyone else gets theirs delivered at the end of their driveway. I have scratched my head over this one for a long time til I remembered that in renewing my yearly subscription I rounded up the total by a few dollars to make it easier to balance the checkbook. Then every year I login to the paper’s website, and Praise my anonymous newspaper delivery person for excellent service.
I now only get the paper two times a week and it’s always on the doorstep.
I suggest the same thing to see if it helps. People are easily motivated by money and a thank you.
~deb
http://www.WebSavyMom.com
Interestingly enough, I always give this guy a substantial cash tip at the holidays with a handwritten note commending his service!
I *did* think money talked! Not sure what now – maybe opening his car door trumps the potential cash tip?
Will be continuing me experiment….. thanks for the feedback!
I, too, have long enjoyed the daily ritual of reading the Globe-glancing at it before work and later sitting down and reading through it leisurely each evening. I am now at a point where I am seriously considering giving this up. It is amazing how difficult this decision is! But the latest exhorbitant price increase coupled with the paper being smaller and smaller each week is leading me down this road. I will miss it…
Dear Meg
I have been a delivery courrier for the newspaper for about 4 years now and work for two different newspapers . From what i have read it seems like you have tried everything a normal person would do . I have some insight into this : 1 Maybe a new person started the route and not the same person who had done it before . 2 maybe the person had some type of injury or disability that they have trouble getting in and out of the car . Just for the record im not defending the action of the paper person . 3 if they had been new when you called it in it probley got them chewed out by the manager and thus pissing them off . 4 It is always better to try to make a face to face contact with the person or a note explaining what you expect from them . I dont think asking for a tip the week after providing bad service was right . My customers always try to talk face to face or with notes in the box . In my case for the occasional tip i try to go the extra mile and provide extra service such as walking the paper to the door a little futher than normal . but in all fairness i have over three hundred customers and if i had to walk each paper to their door i think i would be gone from this . i have a deadline i have to be done by but i think with the tip and the stones they should have taken the hint .I hope this helps provide some insight into paper carriers please rember not all of us are rude and childish . I do the job because i like to work at night and spend more time with my daughter then if i worked at say walmart or mcdonalds if anyone would like to contact me please do so at floridaboy2052@gmail.com
Good to see about the shared information regarding newspaper home delivery services. We provide the best services regarding wrapped newspapers and flat wrapped newspapers.
well, my delivery issue: we get a lot of Rain in the Pacific Northwest. Back in the days when newspapers were the evening edition, school boys & girls could get their first job, and the paper was placed in a special box which was attached to the porch.
Apparently, modern news is ‘stale’ if is isn’t delivered by 5 am, so that has become a requirement, which means most newspaper routes are worked by adults.
So: we were told that unless we had a physical handicap of some sort that would prevent us from walking halfway down the street to where the newspaper ‘boxes’ are bolted to a pole, (next to the mailboxes), Everyone would now receive their paper in the box, because it’s easier to chuck it in there.
I got rather used to that, and in driving my kid to school, it’s OK to swing by and pick up the paper, either coming or going. The paper is generally dry, as it’s in a plastic bag. If I don’t have anywhere to drive, I can handle the short walk; it’s good for me.
Sometime this spring, the newspaper started arriving at the end of the driveway. Not such a big deal in fair weather, but the winter rains are here, and soon it will be Snow. The paper has, thus far, been dry enough inside the bag, but I don’t like picking up a Drippy bag…and I have to dash to pick up the paper before running the kid to school, or I may back up over it.
It is also landing about where the snow plows will start to Bury the darn thing in the near future.
So: I called and asked that my paper be delivered in the Box. Otherwise, why have the dam* boxes. After the second complaint in a week’s time, I got a handwritten note and phone number from the carrier.
She says that she is disabled, and that unless the newspaper boxes are ‘not blocked in any way’ she can’t deliver to the box.
She’s offering to ‘double bag’ the papers, although she points out that the extra bag will cost her. That won’t spare me from picking up a cold, wet object before breakfast.
Her vehicle must be lower to the ground than mine, if pushing the paper in is difficult. The boxes were created for motor routes!. The box height ought to be something that could be modified. The only thing I wonder about is if one of the neighbors parks close to the mailboxes/newspaper boxes; I’m not usually up at 5 am to check.
Semi-related: I recycle plastic newspaper bags by using them when I walk the dog…but this lady ties the bags shut with a TIGHT knot, vs. using rubber bands. The knot can’t be penetrated with tweezers. 9 times out of 10, I have to cut the bag open, shortening it, rendering it useless for dog walks. I am now buying bags for that.
If she put the papers in the boxes, she could just slip the end of the bag inside, and wouldn’t need a knot or a band.
I am also wondering how this disabled woman can fling a newspaper from her car, but not pop something into a box.
How can she pick up her heavy bundle of newspapers from the drop-off location? If she has Assistance from a family member, then the ‘I am disabled’ argument doesn’t wash….
The disability is something I can empathize with, but I’m tired of the newspaper’s delivery policies being changed on a whim, and now there’s the unspoken expectation that if she accomodates my ‘request’ (to have my paper delivered like most others in the county are delivered!) I should compen$ate in some way.
My husband has been a substitute Sunday carrier for a different paper. I’m thinking Round Three of negotiations on this simple matter should fall to him. I don’t know whose job it is to modify the height of the boxes, or how many would have to be modified to make it ‘easier’ for her. Our paper is paid ahead to sometime in Spring of 2010. It’s getting to where we mainly read the Wednesday paper (grocery ads) and the Sunday paper. The advertising outweighs the news, and the paper’s available Online.
I much prefer to hold a newspaper in my hands, read the comics all at once, etc., but its the freakin’ little Nonsense that gets people to finally say Enough is Enough and quit. If we get a lot of snow this year, her job has only begun to get ‘interesting’ and she will have more cranky people than just me; I am being pro-active.