Got a Trib renewal notice in the mail about a week ago – mind you, the Trib sends out individual bills for each subscription – this one was for two Sunday papers for 25¢ each a week.  You can bet your ass I took the maximum two year period on that one!

Couple of days ago I got three bills in the mail – all for one Sunday paper.  Two for 50¢ a week and one for $1.10.  Called over to Joe/Chuck/John/Frank … at the friendly customer service center in The Philippines.  Explained that I received three bills for the same one paper delivery and one was over twice the rate of the others.  He “explained” that the Trib was increasing their subscription rates and that was why the one was higher.  I pointed out that the bill I received the prior week was for half the 50¢ rate so how could that be?  He said they were increasing it just picking a few at a time(?).  I said that made no sense; why would I want to pay more than I would pay picking up the paper on Saturday at any of the dollar stores?  I said I wanted the same rate as the other papers.  He put me on hold and came back in a second and said he could lower my rate to $1 but that the lowest he could go.

I said to transfer me to whatever department deals with cancellations and he said he could handle that.  This is a change, because every time a similar situation has occurred, I’ve been transferred to a “cancellation department” which codes are discovered to reduce my rate.  Heck Tribune people, I don’t even want your dumb paper!  Just gimme the inserts and we’ll all do the happy dance!  He thought I’d cave over his swifty explanation – I didn’t so I’ll pick up an extra paper at a dollar store from now one.

And what really pisses me off about all this is that I pay for all those papers on Sunday, plus the Wednesday and Friday ones, too, yet for me to read 90% of the paper online, I’d have to pay for the premium subscription.