[Vision2020] Thinking of Subscribing to a Local Newspaper? BEWARE of Telemarketing Gig

[Saundra Lund]

Visionaries:

Please note that I'm cc'ing this to the pertinent folks at the Daily News,
not that I expect a response (the Daily News certainly hasn't risen to
challenge to provide quantitatively equal coverage to non-NSA & non-Logos
area schools).

Close to four months ago, I decided to give the Daily News another try after
reading some wonderful editorials folks posted here from the new editor.  I
wanted to give it a fair shot but was unwilling to go back to an annual
subscription, so I subscribed to the online version for three months.

I'm used to getting renewal notices when subscriptions are about to expire
rather than taking personal responsibility <g> to put a reminder note on my
calendar, which was apparently an error on my part.  My subscription ran out
over the Thanksgiving holiday, which I didn't notice right away until I
tried to log in a few days later.

Not a problem, I thought -- I just went through the renew process online,
which seemed to go smoothly according to the messages throughout the
process.

Except that my subscription didn't restart as it should have on the date the
system gave.  No biggie, I thought -- I just sent an email to the Daily News
on 12/3 & included screen shots that indicated the process was successful.

I've not received a response.  At least my bank account hasn't been debited!

If the saga ended there, I'd likely not be posting now.

However, since my subscription expired & my renewal apparently didn't take,
I've been plagued by phone calls from a telemarketing outfit called West
Park Direct (216-589-0214) that TPC Holdings (owner of the Lewiston Tribune
& the Moscow-Pullman Daily News) contracts with.

When your subscription ends for any reason, TPC turns over your name & phone
number to West Park Direct to try to get you to subscribe again, and then
even God can't help you.  You can look forward to endless calls from West
Park Direct until hell freezes over.  Less than a month after my
subscription ended, I've given up trying to keep count of how many calls
we've received.

And, I just loved this part:  even though we've been enrolled in the Do Not
Call Registry since its inception, calls from West Park Direct are exempt
because I was STUPID enough to do business with the Daily News, which thinks
it's OK to give out my name & phone number to West Park Direct, so West Park
Direct has free reign to call me for the next 18 MONTHS before I can file a
complaint with the FCC to get them to STOP calling.

I cannot tell y'all how DISGUSTED I am.  We pay for phone service for OUR
convenience, not so that we can be harassed by a NATIONAL telemarketer on
behalf of a  LOCAL businesses we entrusted our personal information to.

IMO, the Daily News ought to be ashamed for giving over former customer
information to telemarketers, and current subscribers should be aware that
should you decide to stop subscribing, you, too, can look forward to
telemarketing phone calls.

For those thinking of subscribing, BEWARE!  Pay in cash & refuse to give a
name or phone number -- demand that your subscription be tied to your
address only or else be prepared to be hounded from the depths of hell by
telemarketing phone calls.

And please be sure to spread the word.  I've gone through everything I can
find with a fine-toothed comb, and NO WHERE do I find any disclosure that
TPC Holdings will turn over our personal information to a flippin'
TELEMARKETER!


Saundra Lund
Moscow, ID

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
nothing.
~ Edmund Burke