The frustration with late newspapers is being expressed by customers and newsagents in Queensland. So frustrated are some newsagents that they are actively discussing quitting the category as the grief of late papers is not worth it.
Newsagents getting newspapers from News Corp. after 10am each day makes for a tough day in the shop, understandably.
I’ve been told that News Corp. execs have were meeting last week to discuss making further changes to fix the late newspaper problem.
They have to do something. It is a mess up here. Getting papers at 10am is ridiculous, a joke. No one at the Courier Mail cares. Its like they want to kill the paper.
Robert Rigby held a South East Qld webinar to explain the contractor take over. When asked how excluding the local newsagent from deliveries would service customers better, his reply was – ‘this would improve customer service’. The same Robert Rigby that said at the Qld T20 newspaper delivery presentation in 2012 – ‘this will go ahead no matter what the cost is’. Obviously Robert and his team have never included this word in their projects : Planning -Planning is the process of thinking about the activities required to achieve a desired goal.
If true, ‘shut the stable door after the horse has bolted’ comes to mind. The amateurs at News don’t know what to do or don’t care. Phone calls / emails are ignored, loyal home delivery customers are viewed as an annoyance and the promises made about delivery standards are frankly laughable
They are morons. Their new approach is delivering dreadful customer service and no one in the company seems to care. It leaves us dealing with understandably upset customers. What a joke.
Michael – News Ltd’s main objective is to drive everyone online. But in the meantime, there is absolute chaos with their printing centres closing and opening, logistics, distribution and contractor delivery. As retailers, we are the ones having to confront abusive customers while papers arrive at completely unacceptable times.
They’re taking other publisher’s down with them. IPS & Fairfax / Rural Press publications get delivered whenever the distributors feel like it. Days late sometimes. It’s just a shambles.
No where that I know of has old style media successfully taken itself online and thrived. I may be wrong but that is not what I have seen. Further old style media has lost its rivers of gold in advertising and going online will not return it to them.
Judy what you are saying is very true. I know some staff at IPS, Rural Press & Fairfax are very pissed of about this. I have made of point of referring delivery F Us to these people and I have heard their comments. However at the end of the day Lord Rupert Duke of World News still rules in these markets.
The Melbourne Herald Sun should be printed in Queensland and coming in 1 day late is ridiculous but we wanted the Herald Arun printed in Brisbane.
Back in March when we got switched to black dog there were no IPS papers for two weeks. And when they do deliver, it was always at the back door of Woollies. With the change of delivery recently, these guys are not much better. Always deliver to the loading dock on the other end of the shopping center, one stop drop off for them. Being telling newscorp to get them to drop off at our loading dock for the last 4 weeks nothing seems to happen. The newspapers are not being picked up. Always missing a bundle on weekends, or short supply a few and there. Many customers come in to complain that they didn’t get their delivery, some has accumulated 2 months of credit. Very difficult to get through on the phone. The question that they usually ask Is any newsagents do delivery?
God I thought I was coping the rough end of the Pineapple.The contempt they are showing to Queensland is mind blowing. Will the Blues win the next round ? Mind I expect next State of Origin will cause 2 or more hours late deliveries by Newscorp in NSW as was done after the first match.
For months our weekend Courier Mail has been delivered late. On a few occasions we have not received a weekend publication. Today I rang their 1300 number and was entertained by a recorded message. I lodged my complaint, as best I could given the ‘restrictions’ that they have put on the recorded message that as at 1000hours this morning our Saturday Mail had not arrived. At the end of the call I was ‘invited’ to leave feedback, did not get past the first question ‘…on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is least likely……..would you recommend….’ I typed in 0 two times, appears they ‘restrict’ your feedback responses as well, recorded message came back to say they had not received my selection. On the third attempt to type a big fat 0, they hung up. Customer service taken to a new level.