Why does this feel like its MY fault

[ruffrecords]

Jusy over a year ago we got a lawn management company regularly treat our lawn and bring it back to some semblance of greenery following last year's very long hot summer. They had two deals. You could pay off each treatment as it became due or, if you paid a regular amount every month by direct debit for a year, you got a small discount. I chose the regular payment option. So for the first 6 months or so a guy came out every six weeks, applied some weedkiller spray and some lawn feed and slowly the lawn improved. Then it plateaued and as we approached the first anniversary it started to get worse. So I contacted them and said that I was not happy with the lawn and that I wanted to cancel the agreement at the end of the year. I got an email acknowledging this and a subsequent phone call trying to win me back but where I confirmed I wanted to terminate the agreement. The guy told me there would be two more payments and that would be it. Before the agreement ended, a guy came out and did what he said was the late spring treatment. So far so good.

The next bit is complex and repetitive so I will simplify it. I got and email saying the last treatment was not covered by the original agreement so they would be invoicing me for it. I replied the only argument I had with them had been terminated and they agreed to that. If they had made a treatment outside that agreement that was their mistake and I was not going to pay. To make sure I cancelled the direct debit. They sent me an invoice; I told them I would not pay it. I got a notification that they had not been able to take the money by direct debit. Again I told them I was not paying for their error. Then I get an overdue invoice notice. Once more I told them I had not aurhorised this treatment so I was not liable for it.

Final the other day I got an email which said:

Dear Ian

Thank you for your email.

As the Late Spring Feed was applied without your prior authorisation, we have waived this invoice for you.

So sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Hang on a minute - waived the invoice for me? Don't they mean cancelled, revoked or rescinded or corrected their error? Waive sounds like they are doing me a favour, like I probably should pay the invoice but as they are nice folk they are letting me off. This kind of smarmy bull makes my blood boil.

Cheers

ian

 

[JohnRoberts]

take the win...

JR

 

[living sounds]

Legally and practically it doesn't make any difference at all. And the snarkiness is bad business practise.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Legally and practically it doesn't make any difference at all. And the snarkiness is bad business practise.

It is unfortunately a common business practice to over bill customers who may not be paying close attention to invoices. Especially business invoices paid by people using the boss's money so less careful.
==
I have a running conflict with my newspaper delivery (via the post office). I have been receiving my WSJ subscription this way for almost 40 years. Back 3+ decades ago my newspaper would show up in my PO Box, like clockwork first thing in the morning. I could literally read the front page of the newspaper with my morning coffee, and still make it into my office (7 miles up the road) before 8AM.

For about the last decade the PO delivery reliability has degraded significantly. Today both my Tuesday and Monday papers arrived. Monday one day late. Yesterday when I logged onto the WSJ to report the missed Monday delivery the website declined to accept my report because there were too many (no sh__). I was supposed to contact customer service. This is just a ploy to discourage me from reporting the missed delivery, they have to credit my subscription for the missed papers. This too is a common business ploy to increase resistance in some task to discourage customers from pushing for refunds or whatever.

My work around for this is to send an email to customer service, but sometimes they get snarky about that asking me for extra information to identify myself (as if they don't know from my customer number).

I suspect the kids working customer service can't understand this old geezer who still reads paper newspapers. I recall back in the 70s one friend claiming that newspapers would soon be obsolete.

JR

 

[ruffrecords]

take the win...

JR

Oh, I will, but if I am asked or a TrustPilot review then....

Cheers

Ian

 

[living sounds]

It is unfortunately a common business practice to over bill customers who may not be paying close attention to invoices. Especially business invoices paid by people using the boss's money so less careful.
==
I have a running conflict with my newspaper delivery (via the post office). I have been receiving my WSJ subscription this way for almost 40 years. Back 3+ decades ago my newspaper would show up in my PO Box, like clockwork first thing in the morning. I could literally read the front page of the newspaper with my morning coffee, and still make it into my office (7 miles up the road) before 8AM.

For about the last decade the PO delivery reliability has degraded significantly. Today both my Tuesday and Monday papers arrived. Monday one day late. Yesterday when I logged onto the WSJ to report the missed Monday delivery the website declined to accept my report because there were too many (no sh__). I was supposed to contact customer service. This is just a ploy to discourage me from reporting the missed delivery, they have to credit my subscription for the missed papers. This too is a common business ploy to increase resistance in some task to discourage customers from pushing for refunds or whatever.

My work around for this is to send an email to customer service, but sometimes they get snarky about that asking me for extra information to identify myself (as if they don't know from my customer number).

I suspect the kids working customer service can't understand this old geezer who still reads paper newspapers. I recall back in the 70s one friend claiming that newspapers would soon be obsolete.

JR

Quite frankly, I find it hard to understand how it can still be economically viable to print and deliver newspapers daily. I've visited a newspaper office more than a decade ago and saw the printing hall, it's a massive, complicated, expensive piece of machinery. Add to that the cost and logistics of having lot's of people get up very early and drive around to the fewer and fewer recipients...

I'm sure some kind of pooling is often involved these days, but still.

I'm far from a kid, but I also do not see the attraction of printed paper in 2023. I switched my weekly magazine subscriptions to online years ago, and I never in my life had a subscription myself for a daily newspaper - online media has been around for more than 25 years now. And I'm so old, when I have printed fotos in front of me I try to enlarge them with my thumb and forefinger to make it easier to see things...

What has happened to the vitally important newspaper industry is a tragedy, but the decline started long before the internet age...

 

[JohnRoberts]

Quite frankly, I find it hard to understand how it can still be economically viable to print and deliver newspapers daily. I've visited a newspaper office more than a decade ago and saw the printing hall, it's a massive, complicated, expensive piece of machinery. Add to that the cost and logistics of having lot's of people get up very early and drive around to the fewer and fewer recipients...

the price covers the printing cost and delivery... back decades ago the post office was more effective. The post office trucks run every day. The newspaper has presses near major distribution centers. This is not a new concept, but has lost a step. The newspaper is printed maybe around midnight so by the time I get my paper the news is 8 hours old... if the paper is a day or two late it is aging. I still read the late papers for the rigor in reporting .

I'm sure some kind of pooling is often involved these days, but still.

?

I'm far from a kid, but I also do not see the attraction of printed paper in 2023. I switched my weekly magazine subscriptions to online years ago, and I never in my life had a subscription myself for a daily newspaper - online media has been around for more than 25 years now. And I'm so old, when I have printed fotos in front of me I try to enlarge them with my thumb and forefinger to make it easier to see things...

I believe we have different likes and dislikes...

What has happened to the vitally important newspaper industry is a tragedy, but the decline started long before the internet age...

The media is in decline but I see a lot of self inflicted wounds. The uneven coverage of recent events is glaring... I get angry about even the WSJ misreporting climate/weather effects.

JR

 

[AnalogPackrat]

I prefer books and magazines to digital media. Was never really a regular newspaper subscriber except for a few years that I took a local Sunday edition. Until very recently my father took the WSJ and would bring them when he visited. Much better experience than screen-scrolling.

The big problem with newspapers (digital or print) is not the media, but the poor content. Bad writing, bad editing, no journalistic standards and huge swaths of advertising are not appealing characteristics. This trend began some 20+ years ago and has accelerated of late. With very few exceptions it's bird cage liner and compost anymore.

 

[AnalogPackrat]

On the original topic...that sounds like a very frustrating experience. "Customer service" departments these days seem to mostly be about wearing down the ripped-off angry customer until they just give up in frustration. Endless phone menus, clueless or rude phone staff, etc.

 

[living sounds]

?

Using the same printing press for more and more different newspapers. In the old days the bigger newspapers each had their own presses.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Using the same printing press for more and more different newspapers. In the old days the bigger newspapers each had their own presses.

News Corp. on Wednesday announced plans to shift printing of the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal and Barron’s to a new press in New York City.

Until the transfer is completed, the publications will continue to be produced at the Bronx plant, which prints The Post, the WSJ and business weekly Barron’s.

All three are also printed in a number of other locations around the country.

I can't find details but the papers are printed in a handful of different locations around the country. I vaguely recall classified advertising that could be targeted into different regions. I would speculate these regions are the sundry regional printing plants.

Some 650k paper subscribers and 3M digital subscriptions.

JR

 

[JohnRoberts]

I prefer books and magazines to digital media. Was never really a regular newspaper subscriber except for a few years that I took a local Sunday edition. Until very recently my father took the WSJ and would bring them when he visited. Much better experience than screen-scrolling.

The big problem with newspapers (digital or print) is not the media, but the poor content. Bad writing, bad editing, no journalistic standards and huge swaths of advertising are not appealing characteristics. This trend began some 20+ years ago and has accelerated of late. With very few exceptions it's bird cage liner and compost anymore.

I get enough from reading the WSJ to justify the hassle... Indeed I see plenty of mistakes. TV news reports stuff faster, but the day or two later newspaper articles go deeper.

JR

 

[cyrano]

I set up remote printing for a Chinese newspaper in Brussels like in '85. Even back then paper was going out.

Most presses that print newspapers these days are paid for by other jobs. Physical distribution has been subsidized for decades over here. Not only for newspapers, also magazines.

 

[Brian Roth]

Maybe I should start a new thread re. newspapers and local radio and TV stations.....

For John, WSJ built a satellite printing facility in Okla. City in the mid 1980's to supplement the plant they had in Dallas. New building...lotsa money. But, they shut it down (and demolished the building IIRC) less than 10 years later.

In Okla. City, a family dynasty ran The Daily Oklahoman newspaper for decades. Doing some digging out of curiosity, the daily circulation in the 80's was something like 250,000. Now it's literally 25,000 and dropping.

I'll stop at that point because it's probably not all that interesting to the younger members of this forum.

Bri

 

[abbey road d enfer]

Quite frankly, I find it hard to understand how it can still be economically viable to print and deliver newspapers daily.

Newspapers and magazines make money out of ads. Subscriptions pay their telephone bills and toilet paper. Sales in stands hardly pay the cost of distribution.

 

[living sounds]

Newspapers and magazines make money out of ads. Subscriptions pay their telephone bills and toilet paper. Sales in stands hardly pay the cost of distribution.

Yes, and the advertising business has largely moved online. You don't want to know how much basically talent-free influencers get for holding products in the camera. That's a lot of money missing for good journalism...

 

[user 37518]

I prefer books and magazines to digital media. Was never really a regular newspaper subscriber except for a few years that I took a local Sunday edition. Until very recently my father took the WSJ and would bring them when he visited. Much better experience than screen-scrolling.

The big problem with newspapers (digital or print) is not the media, but the poor content. Bad writing, bad editing, no journalistic standards and huge swaths of advertising are not appealing characteristics. This trend began some 20+ years ago and has accelerated of late. With very few exceptions it's bird cage liner and compost anymore.

I also prefer real books and media. Particularly with books I just like having the thing available. I have a lot of Kindle books, still, I can't help but think what would happen if some day Amazon goes out of business, or if I loose my account, or if Amazon considers me persona non-grata for not bowing to Greta Thunberg and decides to cancel my account, or whatever, all of that is gone.

I had a small scare a few months ago in which I switched my cellphone number and I couldn't access my Amazon account, since it was linked to my old phone number. I called Amazon and I had to go through a very thorough process to recover my account. So, it is not far-fetched to believe that I could loose all my Kindle library in just a heartbeat.

Also, I really enjoy reading true paper, it is not just the way it looks and feels, but even navigating through a book is very different from navigating through a pdf or similar; you can take forever finding the page you want, you either overshoot or undershoot, and its painful to go from one place to the other, without counting that even the Kindle Paper White doesn't look like the real deal. For some reason, I never seem to find the right amount of zoom, it is either too small or too big; it is painful for me to read digital books.

 

[AnalogPackrat]

I also prefer real books and media. Particularly with books I just like having the thing available. I have a lot of Kindle books, still, I can't help but think what would happen if some day Amazon goes out of business, or if I loose my account, or if Amazon considers me persona non-grata for not bowing to Greta Thunberg and decides to cancel my account, or whatever, all of that is gone.

Yep. Tried to explain that to my brother. I don't think he has many books or CDs anymore. It's all streaming or in the cloud (which are both simply someone else's computer). I have my CDs and books. Still adding to my collection. I like looking at liner notes (with a magnifier). If a book is deemed "bad" it can be instantly removed from online access or, perhaps worse, edited to meet some arbitrary faddish standard. Also anything you buy from such places is tracked and part of your profile.

I had a small scare a few months ago in which I switched my cellphone number and I couldn't access my Amazon account, since it was linked to my old phone number. I called Amazon and I had to go through a very thorough process to recover my account. So, it is not far-fetched to believe that I could loose all my Kindle library in just a heartbeat.

I lost contents of an old email account and a photo account because I didn't use the service often enough or switch to paid. I keep all photos on local storage, so it was just inconvenient for sharing once gone. I now avoid using Amazon. I buy used and new books and CDs on Alibris or locally (even if it costs a little more). Other items I buy used, local, or find an alternative online source.

Also, I really enjoy reading true paper, it is not just the way it looks and feels, but even navigating through a book is very different from navigating through a pdf or similar; you can take forever finding the page you want, you either overshoot or undershoot, and its painful to go from one place to the other, without counting that even the Kindle Paper White doesn't look like the real deal. For some reason, I never seem to find the right amount of zoom, it is either too small or too big; it is painful for me to read digital books.

With books I can have as many open as I have table or floor space. When reading history I often like to reference maps in other sources, for example. Or if I'm reading a unit history or personal account (military history) I'll have other books about the larger battle or operation out for reference (and online maps, too, sometimes).

Many of my books are larger format than Kindle or most Tablets. A good number are not available in digital format. I, too, hate scrolling and zooming. I read one fairly long (~700 page) novel in pdf form on my phone. It was out of print and the author had published the pdf. Not enjoyable despite the content being good.

When traveling I don't have to worry about theft of my dog-eared used paperbacks on planes, in airports, at the beach, or elsewhere.

 

[user 37518]

Many of my books are larger format than Kindle or most Tablets. A good number are not available in digital format. I, too, hate scrolling and zooming. I read one fairly long (~700 page) novel in pdf form on my phone. It was put of print and the author had published the pdf. Not enjoyable despite the content being good.

When traveling I don't have to worry about theft of my dog-eared used paperbacks on planes, in airports, at the beach, or elsewhere.

Ohhh I hate digital book numbering so much. In Kindle they have this "position" or "location" or whatever system. AFAIK, it is due to the fact that letter size, screen size, etc... would change the number of pages from user to user, but, to me, it just looks like random numbers; I never have a good idea of how many pages a book has based on the number of locations or positions.

Also, when it comes to pdf's, 99.99% of the time the book numbering doesn't match the pdf file numbering, so you type page 140 on Acrobat but it is really page 127 of the book, it is soooo annoying.

Plus, Adobe wants to charge you a fortune to be able to do the simplest and most menial tasks, for instance, if you want to rotate a page you have to pay for the premium version, if you want to add book tabs, you have to buy the premium version. It seems that their software is so lame that you have to pay for features that were not even outstanding back in 1997. I think they charge $30 per month for the premium version, what???? I get the entire Microsoft Suite for 5 computers, plus 1 Tb of cloud storage for something like $8. I can get a yearly antivirus subscription for 10 computers, which includes VPN, password manager, etc... for the same price Adobe charges for a month of Acrobat; ridiculous.

And yes, having books gives me some feeling of security that, if my house gets robbed, the books will be spared; they are practically seen as wallpaper by thieves.

 

[Matador]

 

[hodad]

The media is in decline but I see a lot of self inflicted wounds. The uneven coverage of recent events is glaring... I get angry about even the WSJ misreporting climate/weather effects.

Yeah, the biggest self-inflicted wound is their determination to pander to the "old man yells at cloud" crowd rather than finding ways to grow a new audience. The recent CNN debacle illustrates what a flawed strategy that is.

 

[AnalogPackrat]

View attachment 111527

Not all change is good and not all that is newer is better. Maybe one day you'll understand.