I never understood why The Toronto Star stopped using child carriers. I'm not talking 10-year-olds, I'm talking 13 and up. Delivering newspapers was a great way for young teens to earn money in a way that teaches skills -- like meeting deadlines or keeping customers happy -- and good work ethic. But I guess The Star feared the child molester around every corner. Fear trumped common sense and deprived young teens of the best first job they could ever have and deprived us customers of decent paper delivery. Instead we have the pleasure of adults delivering our papers, adults who view this as a dick job to supplement their other meagre income, adults who couldn't care less about customer service, adults who think deadlines for delivery are plastic, adults who take no pride in their work and just get pissed when a complaint is laid instead of trying to improve their service.
It takes a lot to move me to call up and complain about the delivery of my paper, usually something along the lines of a soaking wet one that's unreadable. I haven't even been able to stay mad over the Saturday comics long enough to call up on a Monday morning to complain about the new lay-out. So if I'm calling the circulation department several times over several months about the delivery of my paper, you bet I'm truly ticked.
You'd think they'd have some computer software that raises a red flag after let's say 3 complaints, especially after a new carrier is put on the route, that would get a higher-up in the circulation department to talk to the problem carrier who clearly isn't interested in improving his service. But the issue seems to be that not only does The Star use adults to deliver the paper, they contract delivery out. So now there's an added layer to go through that we didn't have years ago when youth delivered the paper. It's like a frigging government bureaucracy. And about as effective in effecting change. I'm seriously thinking of cancelling until they prove to me they have a new, enthusiastic carrier on the job. But then what would I do at breakfast?
Tags: Toronto Star
It takes a lot to move me to call up and complain about the delivery of my paper, usually something along the lines of a soaking wet one that's unreadable. I haven't even been able to stay mad over the Saturday comics long enough to call up on a Monday morning to complain about the new lay-out. So if I'm calling the circulation department several times over several months about the delivery of my paper, you bet I'm truly ticked.
You'd think they'd have some computer software that raises a red flag after let's say 3 complaints, especially after a new carrier is put on the route, that would get a higher-up in the circulation department to talk to the problem carrier who clearly isn't interested in improving his service. But the issue seems to be that not only does The Star use adults to deliver the paper, they contract delivery out. So now there's an added layer to go through that we didn't have years ago when youth delivered the paper. It's like a frigging government bureaucracy. And about as effective in effecting change. I'm seriously thinking of cancelling until they prove to me they have a new, enthusiastic carrier on the job. But then what would I do at breakfast?
Tags: Toronto Star
Comments
_Then I'd witnessed delivery from a nephew (more than once). He had too large a route for his age, but still - there was no iota of "pride of work" at all.
_As to adults, the sister goes away for a week this past summer and asks her decent enough 905 neighbour (doors/lawn huddled close together) to simply pick up & toss her paper(s) instead of having them blow all over her front lawn telling everyone they're away - despite away home security measures; neighbour says of course. Well, of course, I stopped over mid week and found - those ruddy newspaper & flyers all awry.
My unrequested weekly is delivered by adults too, one of whom decided to go the extra mile and deliver it inside my front door! Luckily it was locked, but he tried.
Being a neighbour isn't the same as when I was growing up (man, I sound old!) but I long since decided using the automated vacation date system of my paper was safer, and even though ask my neighbour to pick up those pesky flyers, also ask my friend to check too. Your sister's lucky she has you!
I did cancel in the end, then a few years after I wrote this post, restarted it and received much better deliverey service. But I ultimately gave up on the paper subscription because of continuing reading difficulties (it's easier to read on a screen). The Star's iPad app is terrible, so I read their website or through a newspaper iPad app.
Thanks for commenting!