Today is the first day that The Boston Globe‘s previous home-delivery vendor, Publishers Circulation Fulfillment (PCF), is supposed to be fully back on the job. I figured things would be more or less back to normal this week.
Instead, the Globe‘s Dan Adams, in the midst of reporting on the weekend’s chaos and labor strife, drops this gem: “Although Globe executives expect rapid improvement beginning Monday, they cautioned it could take as long as six weeks for service to return to normal everywhere.”
Six weeks.
Is there any way that the Globe could return to the pre-December 28 status quo? Decide that the new vendor, ACI Media Group, didn’t live up to the contract and simply re-engage with PCF? I mean, you have to wonder if it’s ever going to work having one company deliver the Globe and another the Boston Herald, The New York Times, etc. Competition is great except when it isn’t.
Six weeks is obviously better than the four- to six-month prediction that prompted Globe executives to bring back PCF in the first place. But you have to figure there are going to be a whole lot of cancellations if the situation can’t be resolved sooner than that.
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How long does it take for a business operation to realize that it made a mistake by taking what appears to be an unvetted low bid?? The adage “you get what you pay for” is once again true. As I enter my 3rd week without the Globe, yet still receiving my NYT from PCF by 5am, I wonder if the “6 week” figure means a late February resumption. ACI doesn’t even know.
@Charles: I suspect the problem at this point is that it would be nearly impossible to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
For the first time, we got our Globe, NY Times and WS Journal all delivered at the right time and in the right place. I feel born again!
The Globe seems REALLY, REALLY not to want me as a customer, in any shape or form. About two weeks ago, with great difficulty, I cancelled home delivery and signed up for digital access.
Today, neither the mobile nor the desktop app will allow me to sign in. Nor will the “Member Center,” which tells me I need to call in. So far, I’ve been on hold for over 20 minutes.
Any ideas?
@Lois: I wish I did. I’ve been a digital customer for so long that I have no idea how to retrace my steps. Good luck!
Update: I got through after 42 minutes. The system sees my digital subscription as of 1/6, but automatically cancelled it as of today and removed my billing info. It took another 10 minutes to re-up and get everything working (I think). If the Globe can’t even get digital access right, I think, sad to say, it’s doomed.
Thanks for continuing to cover the story so well.
Still no Globe since Dec 28th. What is that….day 17? Finally did get a response to the email I sent on day 3 or 4, giving me a suggested set of steps for how to lodge my complaints more efficiently. Is that progress?