Customer Service = Professional Incompetence

I spent a lifetime working with computers, designing software that ostensibly makes people’s lives easier, which makes the following experience “ironic”. In the beginning – I subscribed to our local newspaper, the Sacramento Bee. This is not about the paper, its content or its editorial position. Rather it is about its Billing Department. More specifically about the incompetence of its Billing Department.

When I first subscribed, I went to the Bee’s website, and signed up for their “Easy Pay” plan. All this means is they bill your subscription directly to your credit card. This was all working fine. That is, it was working fine until there was a problem.

The problem, in this case, was caused by Citicards calling me saying they detected “unusual activity” on my account. Mind you, no one had actually made an illegal charge on my account. Rather, there were several instances of the card being used to verify if it were active and not cancelled. That is usually a precursor to illegal activity occurring. On Citicards advice I cancelled the card and had a new one issued.

Once I had my new card I went to the Bee’s website to update the card information for my “Easy Pay” plan with them. Guess what? You cannot update your card information. So I decided I should call them to have the card on file updated. And that is what I did.

About two weeks or so later I received a bill from the Bee, stating that my card was no longer valid, and could I please pay my bill. I call the Bee’s Subscriber Services line, and explain the problem to them. They said they could fix it, no problem. I gave them my name and new card number and I was assured that the problem was fixed and that they would bill my card. I hung up satisfied that a problem had been resolved by a human.

Another two weeks pass, and guess what? I receive a bill in the mail saying my account was overdue, and can I please send payment in the amount of such-and-such dollars? Once again, I am on the phone with the Bee’s Subscriber Services, asking them why they had told me this issue was fixed when so clearly it wasn’t? I received the obligatory apology and was assured that this time it was positively fixed. I appreciated again the fact I had a human on the phone to resolve a problem, though my confidence in humans has been shaken.

The other morning I go out to retrieve my paper. No paper in the driveway. I figure, OK they are late, but as I look around the other driveways have papers in them. So I call, you guessed it, the Bee’s Subscriber Services, and ask why my paper wasn’t delivered. You get three guesses as to the reason and the first two don’t count. Bingo! My account was flagged for nonpayment!

Prudence suggested I wait a day before calling to “fix” this problem, if only to save the poor clerk from a stream of undeserved verbal abuse. So this morning I call the Bee’s Subscriber Services for two reasons. One – to lodge a detailed complaint outlining the history of incompetence displayed by the staff of said Subscriber Services. Two – to start my subscription on MY terms – which means no credit card payment. The Bee is to bill me at their expense, and I will pay via electronic debit upon receipt of their bill, which saves me the expense of writing a check and paying postage.

Stay tuned to see if I actually receive my paper tomorrow morning…