I receive a number of newspapers delivered to my home each morning. Not surprisingly, each is delivered by a different carrier. One carrier, far more so than any other, presents problems, and that would be my Newsday delivery. This has long raised an issue between me and Newsday. When they fail to deliver a paper, what are the damages?
The typical response, delivered with a sweet computerized voice, is to credit me for the missed delivery. If missing a paper was a rare occurrence, it would likely be more than sufficient. But it had been a regular occurrence for me, and so I sat down one day and gave it some thought. Here’s what I came up with:
I contract with Newsday for home delivery. I assume a duty to pay the monthly cost of the paper. They assume the duty to have a paper waiting for me at the end of my driveway every morning. I am entitled to rely on Newsday sitting quietly on the edge of my driveway when I go out to pick it up. That’s why I contract for home delivery.
So when I go out to retrieve my newspapers, and there’s no Newsday to be found, Newsday has failed to fulfill its end of the bargain. The credit they give me one missed paper does not address their breach of contract. Clearly, they cannot charge me for a paper they failed to deliver. But their failure goes beyond the mere missed delivery. The failure goes to my contractual expectation of having a Newsday waiting for me.
The way I see it, the deal is not that they deliver a paper if they feel like it, and I pay for it if they do. I have a right to see a paper waiting for me everyday. If they fail to deliver, then there is a measure of damage for their failure to deliver, on top of not being charged for a paper not received.
It strikes me as fair that I should receive a credit of two days for each paper missed. Of course, customer service at Newsday does not see it this way, but that’s to be expected. On the other hand, the issue could be avoided in its entirety if they just deliver the paper every day (like the New York Times), but that appears beyond a possibility.
So, I ask your thoughts. Am I right or wrong? For those of you who think I have way too much time on my hands by pondering questions like this, tough nuggies. I can ponder any darn thing I want, even when it isn’t of earth-shattering importance, and I don’t need your permission.
Discover more from Simple Justice
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
You have too much time on your hands. Get a job or something.
There’s a solution for your problem: stop getting Newsday. It’s not even a real newspaper, anyway.
OT? It’s your blog. NOTHING is OT! T is whatever you’re posting about!
Of course you’re right. You pay them ahead of time, and you expect to receive a series of regular deliveries in return. Timing is of the essence.
It’s kind of like when the bank buys you a car, and you promise to send them a series of 60 easy payments in return. If you miss one payment, you can’t make up for it with an extra one at the end, can you?
I delivered Newsday for a few years, from 13-16. It was an aftenoon paper then.
There was no system for how to compensate for a missing paper. It simply didn’t happen. If I got “shorted” by the guy that delivered them to me, I rode my bike to the store and bought a new one, and charged Newsday for it.
My three brothers and I held this one route of about 50 houses for 10 years. We were a dynasty. They still talk about us and sing songs to our name.
Even now, they whisper in awe about the Turk brothers. You’re legends.
Do tips, the amount and frequency, affect your carrier’s work ethic? If you can tell? Newsday cannot control whether and when their carriers wake up and get up. The carrier breached the contract, and as Newsday’s employee, shares in the liability for your damages for the breach. Whether to tip and how much may be the only way to control and motivate the service you receive, short of cancelling your subscription. To Insure Prompt Service, remember? I have heard an anecdote or two that they rely on tips, keep track of them, and make bulk of their income from them. You may get his attention.
That you do not have the problem with the other papers infers that Newsday is not hiring the right people, or is not paying them as well, which creates turnover. I assume they drive to do the deliveries. The spike in the price of gas is a factor in what may be a turnover problem.
Tips (or lack thereof) have zero to do with it. When I had kids (like the legendary Turk Brothers) delivering papers, I used to tip. My papers are now delivered by a delivery business, and I do not tip at all. Never have and don’t plan to start. And does Newsday take the view that having a home delivery subscription isn’t enough to assure that a paper will be delivered?
The question of why I refuse to tip is a matter for another day, but suffice it for this post to say that if my receipt of a paper is dependant on my not merely paying for it, but then paying a little something extra to make sure that it actually reaches me, I would immediately terminate home delivery.
Under no circumstances do I pay twice to get a paper once. Let the delivery service that displaced the Turk Brothers pay their employees. I won’t. And you might consider, if you pay tips to a corporate service for doing what you have already paid for, what you are encouraging. Do you really want to enable this?
But separate two issues. One is the fact of missed deliveries. The other is how the paper, which charges me for the pleasure, addresses the missed delivery.
This isn’t a matter of finding excuses to explain failure. It’s how to address a failure when it happens.
Oh I see. Ours have always been independant contractors with a direct relationship with the paper. I tip once a year, directly. The bills we get have a blank line to add a tip, which I never do.
Two days’ credit for a missed delivery seems fair if only Newsday would agree. As one of millions of subscribers, you are not in a position to negotiate, are you?
My name is Ken, I am a circulation manager at Newsday, and I would love an opportunity to solve your delivery issue and give you the credit that you deserve. Please email me at kleak AT newsday.com. Looking forward to hearing from you.
I am a circulation manager at Newsday, and I would love an opportunity to solve your delivery issue and give you the credit that you deserve.
Ahhh, the power of blogs….
Welcome Ken, and I can’t tell you how pleased I am to hear from a circulation manager. While I appreciate your kind offer to contact you directly, this really isn’t about me and my problems, but rather about a corporate policy and culture that fails to demonstrate respect for its consumers. So, it seems that you would be doing a far greater service to your subscribers by having a discussion here, where others can read and perhaps offer their own views.
Incidentally, I also heard from the person in charge of my delivery, who left me a message that he received a call from the publisher to fix my problems. He then told me some convenient times to call him back. Mind you, they were the convenient times for him, not me. While he’s a nice enough fellow (and I’ve spoken with him a few times in the past), this indicated that he wasn’t getting the message. I don’t work for him, and his expectation that his convenience controls might not be admired by paying subscribers.
So back to our chat, Ken. Does Newsday agree that its obligation to its subscribers is not merely to deliver a paper if and when it’s convenient, but to do so daily? And if it fails to fulfill that obligation, even if accidentally, what does Newsday see as the appropriate remedy?
I look forward to hearing from you too.
Full Disclosure: I’ve written for Newsday in the past, and they send me a negotiable instrument afterward that can be redeemed for a fairly decent lunch, and perhaps a dinner at a nationally recognized chain restaurant.