Longtime WSJ subscriber on why he canceled subscription

PR executive Eric Starkman writes about why he recently canceled his Wall Street Journal subscription.

Starkman writes, “During the 20 or so years I’ve lived in Manhattan, I always knew that when I opened my apartment door at 6:00 am, the Journal would there waiting for me. Further, I knew that calling the customer support center in Chickobee, MA to suspend delivery when going out of town would be a painless process.

“Not anymore.

“In the past few months, there have been big hiccups in distribution to my neighborhood. The newspaper hadn’t arrived by the time I left in the morning and were not yet available at the local newsstands. ‘Not in yet,’ is how the guy at the counter greets me most mornings when I stop by to try to grab the Journal. It seems I’m not the only one hearing it as he told me that he loses at least a half-dozen Journal sales a day because of the paper’s late delivery. I’d be much more understanding if I was out at 4:30 am looking for the paper or if the newsstand in question was out in the suburbs somewhere, but we’re talking 6:00 am in the middle of Manhattan.

“Adding insult to injury, News Corp. has transferred the once-reliable customer care center to some incompetent outsourcing firm overseas. After 30 minutes on the phone with them trying to resolve my missed deliveries, I recently became so exacerbated I simply cancelled both my Wall Street Journal and Barron’s subscriptions (News Corp. owns both). Sadly, in the process I may have cancelled another subscriber’s subscription, as the woman on the phone called me by the wrong name. (Apologies to Mr. Levy, whoever you are!)”