Angry consumer: How to respond (besides cancelling my subscription)?
February 10, 2006 8:52 PM Subscribe
I subscribe to the Boston Globe newspaper, which recently accidentally distributed credit card and bank routing info printouts with newspaper bundles. I am angry about this carelessness and want to respond somehow, but I selfishly really enjoy the paper and do not want to cancel my subscription. What are other good ways of responding? Sharp-tongued letters (to whom?), etc?
Part of the Boston Globe's employee directory is online. Try scouring it for the name of their general counsel.
posted by majick at 9:15 PM on February 10, 2006
posted by majick at 9:15 PM on February 10, 2006
I believe they're offering free credit monitoring to those affected.
I'd suggest using it, since it costs them money.
posted by I Love Tacos at 9:34 PM on February 10, 2006
I'd suggest using it, since it costs them money.
posted by I Love Tacos at 9:34 PM on February 10, 2006
Response by poster: @jodic: Mainly I would like to be heard. I'm taking them up on their credit fraud alert advice and monitoring service, but on top of that I want to be heard about how unprofessional I think that this incident was.
posted by cadge at 9:44 PM on February 10, 2006
posted by cadge at 9:44 PM on February 10, 2006
Well, I'd write a letter to the editor. Though it might not get published, it's worth a shot. Also in the link the majick posted, I'd be hitting the e-mail address of all those circulation people. Perhaps the Ombudsman too, though it's probably not an issue that person would handle. Maybe even some of the finance-type people too, because shouldn't they really be shredding anything with personal customer information on it?
posted by jodic at 10:12 PM on February 10, 2006
posted by jodic at 10:12 PM on February 10, 2006
I don't think a letter would do any good. I mean. I'm sure they've gotten a ton of letters already, and I'm sure they feel like shit already as well.
I mean do you think these guys are sitting backing having a good laugh about all of this right now?
posted by delmoi at 11:36 PM on February 10, 2006
I mean do you think these guys are sitting backing having a good laugh about all of this right now?
posted by delmoi at 11:36 PM on February 10, 2006
By the way, did you know that your checking account and routing number appear on every cheque you write?
posted by delmoi at 11:44 PM on February 10, 2006
posted by delmoi at 11:44 PM on February 10, 2006
delmoi,
your account and routing number appear on every cheque, it makes it a bit easier to try and actually debit money from the right person. The entire system relies on trust. In theory giving your cheque and routing number to a business keeps it safely away from untrustworthy people. That's why you shouldn't pay for drugs, prostitutes or politicians with cheques. You've given any of them enough information to buy or create cheques in your name.
cadge,
You should cancel your Boston Globe subscription and make sure they know why, that you're not anonymous. You can resubscribe and even time it so there's little or no lapse in your subscription just change your name slightly or have it sent to work instead of home etc.
posted by substrate at 12:30 AM on February 11, 2006
your account and routing number appear on every cheque, it makes it a bit easier to try and actually debit money from the right person. The entire system relies on trust. In theory giving your cheque and routing number to a business keeps it safely away from untrustworthy people. That's why you shouldn't pay for drugs, prostitutes or politicians with cheques. You've given any of them enough information to buy or create cheques in your name.
cadge,
You should cancel your Boston Globe subscription and make sure they know why, that you're not anonymous. You can resubscribe and even time it so there's little or no lapse in your subscription just change your name slightly or have it sent to work instead of home etc.
posted by substrate at 12:30 AM on February 11, 2006
What exactly do you want heard that you don't anticipate has been already noted? Is one more letter out of a thousand going to make that much difference ("be heard").
I used to work for a newspaper with 45k subscribers, in the mail room where inserts were put into bundles -- there's no freaking way this could have happened because someone had to monitor each insert being put in each paper, sometimes two people per insert depending. I wonder just how automated BG's mailroom is, unless the inserters were in on it?
posted by vanoakenfold at 1:17 AM on February 11, 2006
I used to work for a newspaper with 45k subscribers, in the mail room where inserts were put into bundles -- there's no freaking way this could have happened because someone had to monitor each insert being put in each paper, sometimes two people per insert depending. I wonder just how automated BG's mailroom is, unless the inserters were in on it?
posted by vanoakenfold at 1:17 AM on February 11, 2006
I used to work for a newspaper with 45k subscribers, in the mail room where inserts were put into bundles
They wern't inserts someone grabbed paper out of the recycling bin for 'cover' sheets to put on the top and bottom of the paper bundles. Someone else had thrown a huge print out of all of their customers in that same recycling bin, not realizing what happened to it.
posted by delmoi at 11:06 AM on February 11, 2006
They wern't inserts someone grabbed paper out of the recycling bin for 'cover' sheets to put on the top and bottom of the paper bundles. Someone else had thrown a huge print out of all of their customers in that same recycling bin, not realizing what happened to it.
posted by delmoi at 11:06 AM on February 11, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by jodic at 9:11 PM on February 10, 2006