Back in the day, if you had an issue with newspaper home delivery, you could speak with your local newsagent and, usually, it would be fixed. Today, for many Australians, thanks to the changes led by News Corp, changes that have ripped newspaper home delivery away from local newsagency businesses, you often have to deal with a faceless, not local, call centre.
One home delivery customer told me this week that the process was so broken that they cancelled their subscription. They were a 7 day a week customer. The issue was the paper being left at the wrong entrance to their apartment complex. The delivery was to a foyer 5 metres for their foyer. They told me that contact to report the issue took more time that the paper was worth.
Another person told me of their experience at receiving the paper without having ordered it. They spoke to the local newsagent who advised they no longer did deliveries. The person receiving the free paper called the number the newsagent provided. After a couple of calls they gave up and decided to lean into the daily free paper.
For all their noise to home delivery customers about the changes providing a better experience, the anecdotal evidence is that the experiences are worse, more disconnected and certainly not local. I wonder if these experiences will be noted as a reason for a decline in newspaper sales.
Newspaper home delivery in Australia, while often loss making for newsagents, was an appreciated local service. News Corp has led the changes that have dismantled this much loved service.
News Corps model is broken. They have a subscriber who over 6 months ago was put into care as they and their partner both had some major health issues. I rang on behalf of the subsciber as they have no family. I explained they are not returning to their residence so STOP trying to restart the subscription.
Since then i have had 5 attempted restarts the latest this week. Each time Cust Service say someone from Subscriptions will ring me back to confirm this, but they never do.
Another point to make is that IT is NOT collaborative and there isn’t much help -take Telstra Microsoft and most Public Service departments and then again look at the charges…over the top.
Big problems looming here.
There is a price to pay for converting to on line for Newscorp it is circulation loss but they hope profit gain. Certianly it is consumer loss and newsagent/retailer loss.
I am currently in the process of transition with my ‘customers’ becoming ‘subscribers’ – News doesn’t want to use the term customer so as to de personalize them..
Many have just been dumped as they are not 6/7 day orders, I have one customer whose bill is around $200 per month but because his order is of different titles on different days he has not been deemed worthy of a subscription. I have taken the opportunity of offering delivery of TV Week to others who only take one paper a week for the TV Guide with a good take up
I have just found this website and thought I would share some of my frustrations with News Corp over continued service failure.
Our family has spent many years in Newsagencies and continues to have involvement in two states – usually with a large home delivery . Whilst I have not worked in the trade for many years I am a subscriber to the the Courier Mail and Australian daily and can vouch for the decline in the service now provided to the public. News Corp just cannot get it right and obviously do not understand the meaning of service.
A couple of examples.
I went away in March and stopped the papers for almost three weeks. Needless to say the papers kept coming. After five calls to News Corp I gave up and the papers continued to be delivered for the duration of my absence. My neighbours collected them daily.
For the past four Saturdays I have not received my Australian and also for the last two days no Australian. Despite all my calls there is no way I can escalate my complaints and talk to someone more senior than the CS person in Adelaide and the situation remains unrectified at this point as it continues to “be looked into”.
If this were any other business not providing the service that has been agreed to they would most likely be before some sort of consumer watchdog.
My frustration has got to the point that I am using my family to contact some sort of appropriate person within News Corp to try and resolve this total lack of service.
Any further suggestions would be appreciated
Good luck with that Brian. Both Nine Media and News Corp are appalling at newspaper home delivery customer service.
Since they have gone to central with delivery my paper is thrown into the gutter each time in rains making it unreadable and having texture of used toilet paper. Trying to speak to someone to resolve this issue is impossible and the online reporting does not work.
Oh dear The Herald Sun delivery just seems to lurch from bad to atrocious.
Trying to lodge a missed paper notification on their website and that can’t be delivered either.
Weekend only delivery and almost without fail have to lodge a missed delivery complaint every week, this week never received either.
Disgraceful service
The increase in missed deliveries to our address at Surf Beach NSW has been noticeable over the last six months, for whatever reason.
Our wonderful newsagent at Batehaven has been sympathetic but, of course, has no input on such issues under the revised News Corp arrangements.