I've always seen "automatic renewal" as a service provider saying to me, "We're not sure if our product is all that great *in the long run* so we're going to hedge our bets here a bit. Therefore, we will put the responsibility on you, dear customer, to take action to stop payment and we hope you'll forget, be too busy, etc. to stop it."
In truth, when the service I am receiving is awesome, I the consumer don't think twice about stopping a service. Indeed, just the opposite occurs: I make sure that I have no interruption of service.
Friday, October 06, 2006
New York Times Pre-Roll Ads
I've noticed in the last month or so that the New York Times has begun inserting ads between the blurb of a story and the actual article. In other words, when you click on a link to go to a story, occasionally an ad is fed between the link and the article.
What I've also found is that about 1 out of every 3 times my Firefox browser gets hung up and I have to hit the back button (reload doesn't work). (I have my browser set to not show ads. ) So I contacted the Times to ask whether a subscription to their TimesSelect product would eliminate these ads. (Yes, I'd pay $30/year to get rid of those things, along with the other benefits of TimesSelect.) After filling in the form, selecting 'Other' as the problem I was having, this is the email I received in response:
Subject: NYTimes Other
We regret the inconvenience you experienced accessing our Web site.
There are a few possible reasons why you were asked to log in to our Web site, the most probable being that the 'cookie' that stored your saved sign-in information on your computer expired or was deleted. Reminder: You must accept cookies from NYTimes.com in order to go beyond the log-in screen.
1. If you remember your Member ID and password:
For the quickest solution, please go directly to the following web address (URL) to log out of The New York Times on the Web: www.nytimes.com/logout
Then click on the link to "Log in."
Now on the page that follows, look at the right part of your screen for the section marked LOG IN NOW and enter your Member ID and password.
Next, click on the LOG IN button to submit your request.
2. If you have forgotten your Member ID and/or password for the quickest way to gain access to our site please visit:
www.nytimes.com/forgot
Or, if you wish, you may reply to this message (include the e-mail address that you originally registered with, please) and we will reset the password for you. To speed things up, please write "Reset Password" in the Subject line of your e-mail message.
Thanks for your interest in NYTimes.com.
Regards,
NYTimes.com
Customer Service
www.nytimes.com/help
After the salutation and first sentence, I wanted to look over my shoulder to see if they were talking to me, because clearly this email did not address my question.
However, several hours later I received this email:
I thought, "That's more like it," though of course I wasn't happy with the response. It seems that if I'm going to pay $49.95 "automatically renewed" every year I ought to be able to avoid intrusive advertising.
What I've also found is that about 1 out of every 3 times my Firefox browser gets hung up and I have to hit the back button (reload doesn't work). (I have my browser set to not show ads. ) So I contacted the Times to ask whether a subscription to their TimesSelect product would eliminate these ads. (Yes, I'd pay $30/year to get rid of those things, along with the other benefits of TimesSelect.) After filling in the form, selecting 'Other' as the problem I was having, this is the email I received in response:
Subject: NYTimes
We regret the inconvenience you experienced accessing our Web site.
There are a few possible reasons why you were asked to log in to our Web site, the most probable being that the 'cookie' that stored your saved sign-in information on your computer expired or was deleted. Reminder: You must accept cookies from NYTimes.com in order to go beyond the log-in screen.
1. If you remember your Member ID and password:
For the quickest solution, please go directly to the following web address (URL) to log out of The New York Times on the Web: www.nytimes.com/logout
Then click on the link to "Log in."
Now on the page that follows, look at the right part of your screen for the section marked LOG IN NOW and enter your Member ID and password.
Next, click on the LOG IN button to submit your request.
2. If you have forgotten your Member ID and/or password for the quickest way to gain access to our site please visit:
www.nytimes.com/forgot
Or, if you wish, you may reply to this message (include the e-mail address that you originally registered with, please) and we will reset the password for you. To speed things up, please write "Reset Password" in the Subject line of your e-mail message.
Thanks for your interest in NYTimes.com.
Regards,
NYTimes.com
Customer Service
www.nytimes.com/help
After the salutation and first sentence, I wanted to look over my shoulder to see if they were talking to me, because clearly this email did not address my question.
However, several hours later I received this email:
Thank you for writing to The New York Times on the Web.
You will still see normal ads on our Web site, but as a TimesSelect subscriber, you will not see any "intrusive" advertising
You will still see normal ads on our Web site, but as a TimesSelect subscriber, you will not see any "intrusive" advertising
while you are accessing our TimesSelect content or features. If you go from a TimesSelect column to a regular news article
on NYTimes.com, you might encounter an advertisement that is more intrusive, such as a pop-up ad. We do limit this type
of advertisement to one per Web browser session.
We hope this helps. Please let us know if you have further questions or concerns.
Regards,
NYTimes.com
Customer Service
I thought, "That's more like it," though of course I wasn't happy with the response. It seems that if I'm going to pay $49.95 "automatically renewed" every year I ought to be able to avoid intrusive advertising.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Podcast Expo: Amazing Job
I am back from the Podcast Expo, where I had the chance to meet Tim Bourquin, the founder. I bumped into Tim on Thursday morning, and again right after the Expo came to a close. He was as calm, cool, polite and unflappable at the end just as he was at the beginning. There appeared to be no customer service issues throughout, and everyone seemed to have had a danged good time on top of it. Tim and his team get a big-time thanks from me for all their hard work.
tags: podcast expo, podcast and portable media expo, tim bourquin
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