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The Globe's not here
By adamg on Wed, 12/30/2015 - 9:37am
The Globe's having some problems with its shift this week to a new home-delivery vendor, based on some of the comments from people who still like getting the paper at home, including:
Hey @BostonGlobe if you are trying to get rid of home delivery customers. Excellent job! 3 days no paper and 1 hr wait for customer service
— Robyn Kanter (@RobynKanter) December 30, 2015
Anyone else suffering from @BostonGlobe catastrophic change of home delivery vendors?
— John C. Berg (@jcberg) December 28, 2015
Um @BostonGlobe.. day 3 of no paper w/ your new delivery service & customer service has an estimated hold time of an hour. @universalhub
— Kristie Helms (@KristieHelms) December 30, 2015
@KristieHelms @universalhub @BostonGlobe Same situation in Hingham - I attribute it to Brian McGrory's revenge!!
— Joe Freeman (@JoeFreeman3) December 30, 2015
@KristieHelms @dankennedy_nu @BostonGlobe @universalhub In west roxbury with same issue. And I'm still waiting for my callback (over 1 hour)
— davejerome (@davejerome) December 30, 2015
@kathic1016 @universalhub I had the best delivery for last five years or more... he has been replaced, haven't had a paper delivered since!
— Spyglass Printing (@spyglassmedia) December 30, 2015
Day 3: no @BostonGlobe. This new home delivery system sure saves John Henry money! Hope he uses it for better pitching!
— Scott Ferson (@scottferson) December 30, 2015
The Globe is changing to a new home delivery partner affecting service for many subscribers. We appreciate your patience during this time.
— Boston Globe Support (@GlobeSupport) December 30, 2015
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Comments
Stupid Management Tricks
I'm sure some management knucklehead decided that changing their distribution would be an awesome game changer. We'll squeeze yet a few more pennies out the distribution chain, they said.
They KNEW it was going to happen. They sent us a couple of coupons to preemptively assuage us for the transition. The whole freaking point of home delivery is so you don't HAVE to go to the store and can read the paper in your jammies.
This is what newspaper suicide looks like.
None for me today
Tuesday's paper showed up sometime in the late morning. Today's paper not there when I left for work.
The delivery people already make next to nothing for what they do. I find it hard to believe that a new vendor can do it better, for less. The only place to cut is by paying people less and that stone has bled everything that can be squeezed from it.
Cold comfort
So it seems I'm not nearly the only one affected, but that's not exactly reassuring news. I was initially glad to see this post, as it reminded me that I need to call the service number, since we've also been totally without a paper at my house since the switch... Then I saw all the comments about 1+ hours of wait time. I can't even get it that good - just a busy signal.
John Henry is a fucking moron
Same here in East Boston. No delivery since they switched over. Went on-line and requested re-delivery every day so far and nothing. Call the phone number and just a busy signal. Check on-line as to how I can cancel my subscription and it says that it can only be done by phone. Call the number and get a busy signal. If I can't get through before the first of next month then I have to pay for an entire month, which strikes me as fraud.
Fuck them. I've had Globe subscriptions my entire life. Even with Shirley Leung I've held on. No more. Fuck you John Henry. You suck wet farts out of dead pigeons.
"You suck wet farts out of dead pigeons."
WOW. 10/10 for creativity. Very impressed with vulgarity I could use at work without resorting to actual swearing. Well done.
full disclosure
sorry to let you down, but I lifted that from Dave Sim of Cerebus fame. Or obscurity, as it were. Can't take credit for vulgarity that's not authentically mine.
It's ok
You get full credit for usage/exposure :)
It's ok
You get full credit for usage/exposure :)
hm.
remember when companies (or municipalities even) used to employ people directly to do work instead of hiring a whole other company to do some of their work?
No. I remember when papers
No. I remember when papers were delivered by local "news agencies" who would pay kids to deliver them. Reserving judgment on then vs. now that's still a sub-contractor. I can't imagine trying to hire new distributers and having an entire company try to figure out where to go.
It's bad, but
They did basically implement the system from scratch, so the wheel is being reinvented with Globe delivery.
Yes, my paper wasn't there when I left 2 out the past 3 days, but it was delivered all days. Today, I even saw my delivery guy- at 8:10, which is better than the folks in West Roxbury. I saw their delivery guy at 10.
Not in my part of W. Roxbury
I haven't received a paper all week.
And today the page to report a missed paper is not working, and I hung up on the customer service phone line when the 3rd advertisement started.
Really ridiculous.
0 for 3 for me too
In Red Sox terms that would be a strikeout. Somehow I managed to get a phone book delivered to me today. Not that I asked for it. The Globe needs to apologize and clean this mess up right away.
John Henry strikes again
Boston Globe Home Delivery Subscribers, don't fret - CEO Henry is on the job. In response to the current seamless transition to his new Globe distribution partner, he has assigned his crack management team from the Boston Red Sox and the Liverpool Football Club to handle the crisis.
In a brief press conference, the Henry assigned distribution swat team reassured Globe readers that "while the switch over has hit a couple of unanticipated speed bumps, this is a building process... wait until next year because we anticipate great results from our new game plans and strategies and we think the fans - opps - we mean subscribers will be pleased with the results."
I don't think it's just home delivery that's having problems
I subscribe to the Globe's epaper edition and it is having browser problems today -pages won't load correctly and some articles won't pop up when clicked on. They changed the format last week, and while it has generally been an improvement over its prior version (when printing articles from the older version the second page of a continued article wouldn't automatically print, unless it was in the A section, so the reader would have to navigate to the continued page and print out the rest of the article -hardly a big deal, but a minor to moderate annoyance if one was printing out multiple articles), the old version rarely had problems loading pages.
Coupons
At least they're trying to make up for it by sending out coupons to all subscribers for a free copy at a local store.
There was one
comment on the FB page of the Globe on Monday that the person tried to use the coupon at their local store and the store refused to honor it.
"coupons" = TWO.
The letter warning home delivery subscribers about the new delivery system included TWO coupons at the bottom of the page (with text warning that they should not be copied). The last paper I received was a week ago Monday so I have not received any for 7 days. On Tuesday when I finally managed to locate a store that still had copies they refused to accept the coupon. How on earth could Globe "management" hand off delivery to an organization who now says they don't have any drivers ???
I miss my old deliverer
I did get a Globe today by 6:30, but never got one yesterday. My old deliverer was AMAZING! He always had the paper at my house before 6 a.m. and bad weather? Pssh! Bad weather couldn't slow him down. I hope the new company works out.
If the Globe was smart, they wouldn't give people the opportunity to muse, "Hmm, I haven't gotten a paper in 3 days. I guess I can live without it..."
Day 3
of no Boston Globe in JP. I assume my regular deliverer is the one still delivering the NYT at about 5 a.m. He's the best ever, reliable, and didn't miss a day last winter.
Extend subscription by the number of missing/late issues.
The subscription can be extended by the number of missing issues and/or late issues.
GLOBE
I send my tip directly to the delivery guy . Never a problem, paper on the steps before 7am. Now it arrives at 10;30 thrown out the widow into the driveway under my car. Cannot get thru to complain. I give them a week and if no improvement then I'm out b
Globe Direct
I don't subscribe to the Globe so I can't speak for home delivery - but I got home today to find the Globe Direct circulars in my mailbox. Can't remember the last time they were delivered via the USPS. Does this mean they won't be littering the neighborhoods with their damn red bags anymore?!?
Not so fast
I think the GD circulars are only moving to the USPS temporarily.
To be honest, using USPS was great. Supporting a beleaguered service, and much better than fetching baggies from trees, under cars, and so on.
Also affecting WSJ, NYT starting Friday
Both the Wall Street Journal (which is what I subscribe to) and the NYT (Sunday edition at least) also are switching over their delivery vendor (or the delivery vendor is switching sub-sub contractors, it wasn't clear to me) starting on the 1st. I'm guessing it's all the same company. Can't wait to see how that goes...
What is their problem?
The Globe claimed that there were problems with the previous delivery group, but even way up in the North Shore, I always got the paper, usually before 6:00 AM. Even during last year's blizzards, even when there was a state of emergency, I always got the paper. The deliverers did a wonderful job for precious little money and now they've all been laid off.
The people who get the Globe delivered to their homes are their most loyal customers, paying more then $600.00 per year for the privilege.
I agree that this looks like newspaper suicide.
Boston Globe Delivery Problems
In Duxbury, I had almost perfect delivery service from the same person for six years and form a different person before her for many years. Boston Globe clearly did not want such good service to continue so it changed vendors and no papers have been delivered for the past three days. You can't reach anyone to complain unless you're willing to wait for an hour on the phone. Seems that Boston Globe does not want home delivery subscribers. Seems that Boston Globe changed vendors without first ensuring that the new vendor had delivery people in place. No one at the Globe cared enough about its newsprint subscribers to plan the transition carefully. Because of this incompetence, there's no one to actually make the deliveries in numerous Massachusetts towns. The new vendor still has not hired delivery people for many routes. Call Peter Doucette, Globe VP for Circulation and harass him: 617-929-2967. He won't bother calling you back but you can leave an angry voice message to remind him of the Globe's incompetence. Newspapers are a dying business and the Globe is hastening its own death with its stupidity.
How do you read the Globe paper edition online?
How do you read the Globe page by page online viewing the pages of the paper edition, viewing the same layout of the paper edition?
The ePaper
After you've logged in, there's a link in the upper right for "Today's Paper." Click that on on the next page, there's a link in the upper right "Boston Globe ePaper."
It's a little clunky, but I am getting used to it - day 4 with no paper.
Might be time to give up & cancel my delivery.
New York Times delivered all week
At my building in Eastie, several of us receive the Globe and one receives the New York Times. This week only the Times is being delivered. Am guessing the Times stayed with the Globe's previous distributor.
Raymie you're correct. Old
Raymie you're correct. Old company is now servicing the NYT, WSJ and the Herald. As a delivery person, I was waking up at the crack of dawn for the past two years and commuting from Lawrence, MA to deliver papers in the Concord area. Never missed a beat and this was my saving grace of a job that allowed me to pay bills and not surrender to expensive daycare payments. My globe clients were such kind people leaving on lights, clearing pathways well and ensuring a generous tip each month. And if you've ever been into a distribution center it's ugly and it takes a hungry person to commit to the labor, car wear and tear and drunkards out on the roads at night. Many people are hurting from this change and the new routes with the other papers are AGONIZING!!! To the point where people abandoned their paper bundles and went home to catch some much needed zzzz's. Oh and we don't get benies, cant take a single vacation and must show up even if we are struck by flu. They say they switched to assure less delivery issues..... HA. Funny. There are many comments here about the late delivery peeps and people not wanting to the job but the distribution center I was with had some serious troopers from many surrounding towns. People brought their kids, there were husband and wife teams, college kids paying their way through school, and the old heads... The print loving, paper assembling, ink leaking from their pores, long-bearded, long hair slicked and greased in a ponytail, pipe smoking management peeps, all of them named either Bill or Jim. To clarify a bit, I'm not complaining here... The job worked very well for me and the many others that got hijacked of a job and had to leave their clients abandoned with coffee in one hand, door holding the other, pajamas exposed and a cold gusty swoop of wind chilling piss off, to just close the door lost. Lost and lonely without the globe and a perfect morning routine to shot to SHIT. . Happy mother fucking new year eh... Fuckery. Welp off to seek employment at the Eagle Tribune or the Lowell Sun. Ugh. Fuckery. Fuckety. fuck fuck. Damn Globe.
Globe Direct
If Globe Delivery is that bad.. why don't they use the same outfit that delivers Globe Direct? I mean GD keeps coming, and coming, and coming... even after you request them to stop. At least the newspaper would get delivered to someone.. maybe not the correct person, but at least someone would be reading that printed Globe.
Except
Oftentimes the "Thursday" GD baggies come on Friday or even Saturday. With that attention to detail, we'll end up getting the Sunday paper on Wednesday.
No Globe Direct this week
I didn't get my Globe Direct this week...or any Globes either. I did get two phone calls offering me a Boston Herald subscription though. After 4 days without a paper it was tempting, but I just don't care enough about what Howie and Battenfeld think about the world.
Globe Direct came in the mail this week
Mine came in the mail! So they're back to that trick. I wish we could get rid of that nuisance once and for all. It's utterly indestructible.
What John Henry should have written
Instead of the weasel-word-infested note that's now on the home page of the Web site.
Ha ha, 95% received their papers?
The Globe article referenced in that blog quotes Globe chief executive Mike Sheehan saying that 95% of subscribers received their papers on Wednesday and the other 5% did not receive them in a timely manner.
What is a timely manner, the same week?
I really doubt that 95% of subscribers received their papers today, let alone yesterday - they have a list of about 90 towns where they expect "Delayed" delivery again today, which I think means "No" delivery.
inaccurate list of non-delivery locales
And the list they have is inaccurate. No one on my street in East Boston has received their paper the entire week and yet 02128 has not been listed in the "zip codes that get the shaft" list.
Complete and utter incompetence.
I think "timely manner" is broad
It probably means "on the same day it was printed."
Speaking of which, what has become of the undelivered papers, like my one from today?
What's the name of the new delivery company?
What's the name of the new delivery company?
New deilvery Vendor
ACI media now ACI last mile delivery
They delivery other papers including the LA Times.
This happens whenever they change contractors. 600+ routes and drivers cant get covered as fast as they think.
Distribution Debacle
What a way to end 2015... no distribution for four days. Forget about the subscribers (the Globe certainly has!) I think advertisers must really be PO'd. I would be. Saying that "... some disruption was to be expected" is beyond lame. Though, since the paper has been looking like USAToday for a while now (don't get me started on the embarrassment of the Saturday paper... not thin, anorexic!) maybe I will finally migrate to the NYTimes for more than just the weekend. How ironic that this "amateur hour" effort by the paper comes on the heels of the fine movie, "Spotlight" celebrating real journalism at the former Morrissey Blvd. address.
Didn't this used to be a two-paper town?
How is it possible that the Herald has not published (as far as I can tell by Googling and searching their site) one word crowing over the Globe's ridiculous failure here?
I miss the Phoenix.
Here are a few more questions
One can still theoretically get the Herald delivered. Who do they use? How is their delivery situation?
If they are using the Globe's people, they might want to be silent. There is a certain level of solidarity in the industry.
two paper town
To the best of my knowledge, the Globe has taken over the actual printing of the Herald and they handle the distribution of it as well -- which would mean the home delivery of the Herald is also buggered? I haven't heard anyone complaining (then again I don't know anyone who gets the Herald delivered). Something there doesn't seem right. At least on the North Shore for the past few years I know the distributor to local stores and such was the same company doing Globe and Herald. Anyone have the real info?
globe delivery issue
4 days no paper, no response from customer service. How is it possible that the Globe did not anticipate problems and add staff? Sad day for the paper that printed and delivered through blizzards and hurricanes. Open letter to Globe advertisers; please take note that I saw none of your ads over the past 4 days (along with countless others) you should demand an proper apology and refund also.
Daniel Beck
Brookline
0 for 4
and I've let them know every day that I didn't get the paper. It's only at night when I could get through to the website. I received an email today saying that they were giving me a week's credit, so I guess that means no paper through the weekend.
I don't think the new company even has hired anyone for my route.
Same here.
It pains me but I'm shitcanning my subscription. $670 a year for this crap? Nope. Maybe I'll pay for a State House News account. Anyone have any recommendations for a hardcopy substitute?
0 for 5
Still no paper, and today the ConsumerUpdate page is still displaying yesterday's list of delayed (missed) deliveries.
You can't even report today's missed paper - it told me I already reported it. (Yes, I reported it every day this week, except today.)
And the customer service chat is closed.
Well, it is a holiday.
Who's the head of Customers Services at the Globe?
Who's the head of Customers Services at the Globe?
Charles H Taylor?
Seriously, though, I think that position got retired during one of the buyouts.
The farce continues; no paper
The farce continues; no paper again today (we live in 02110). That's five days out of five this week with no delivery. Curious if we will receive the weekend papers.
As others note, calls to the Globe service team either receive a busy signal or are on perma-hold.
How broken was the previous delivery system that it needed to be replaced by this chaos? Only very rarely have we had issues - until this week.
John Henry and the Globe's senior management should be ashamed of themselves.
We've been considering cancelling our Globe subscription for some time. This may be the straw breaking the camel's back. Such a shame that this, once great publication, continues to wither and die.
Great humor in some of the previous posts - thanks!
globe delivery
Globe readers will not be satisfied until the forme advertisiing exec (Mike Sheehan) responsible for the debacle ia fired. Drivers were offered a "buy'out" just before Xmas. Lovely
Have gotten two newspapers
Have gotten two newspapers since the new system and today's was a HERALD. WTF. I am so mad and am going to cancel a lifelong, multigenerational subscription. This is a travesty. And today, when you google Boston Globe Delivery problems, you get all these sweet stories about how the editors and reports are pitching in to help with today's delivery. Way to try to turn lemons into lemonade.