When the Boston Globe’s home delivery went Chernobyl last month, the lately local broadsheet promised a credit to stiffed subscribers for the papers they failed to receive.
Turns out the Globe’s definition of credit doesn’t involve actual money. Here’s management’s latest email.
Dear Subscriber,
Many of you have contacted us recently regarding credits for missed deliveries.
Missed deliveries are credited to your account by extending your “paid through” date for the appropriate number of days. To view a detailed list of your credits by date, log in to BostonGlobe.com/MyGlobe and click on Delivery Credits in the Billing section.
We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced, or may still be experiencing, as a result of our delivery transition. We deeply appreciate your patience, and your loyalty to the Globe.
The Boston Globe Team
So instead of getting your money back, you get more papers that might or might not be delivered. Which, in turn, would extend your subscription even further.
Paging Mr. Kafka . . . paging Mr. Franz Kafka . . .
Time for a 93A letter?
Now that I’ve looked 93A up . . . yeah.
Yeah, but don’t most home delivery subscribers actually want the newspaper? I’m happy to have my subscription extended as long as I actually get the paper, which I’m glad to say has been coming reliably for about 4 weeks now, since the PCF person that also delivers the Herald took over.
Also, I went to that page and noticed that not only did the Globe credit me for 2 weeks of undelivered newspapers, they also gave me day-by-day credit for each paper I missed, so I ended up with at least two days worth of credit for each paper I missed. No problem with this at all.
I’m sure a lot of people feel the way you do, Mark. But I’m guessing a bunch of people don’t.