Four weeks ago I started having my weekend New York Times delivered to Matt’s apartment building, and I have yet to receive a paper without first having to call the Times’s customer care hotline, 1-800-NYTIMES. If you’re a weekend subscriber, you’re supposed to receive the Saturday paper and half of Sunday’s paper on Saturday, and the rest of the Sunday paper on Sunday. Instead, what happens at Matt’s building is that the Saturday and Sunday papers are delivered together to all the building’s subscribers on Monday morning. It’s as if the carrier isn’t even around on the weekend, which totally defeats the purpose of getting a weekend paper.
A couple of times in the last few weeks, in addition to having my complaint moved up one link in the chain of command (making me wonder if Arthur Sulzberger himself will eventually be notified), I’ve been told that a replacement newspaper will be delivered to me. The replacement clearly does not come from the carrier, because instead of a sticker with my name and address, the front page contains my apartment number written in pen. And it’s just my paper — nobody else gets replacement copies. I don’t know why the other people haven’t complained. Matt’s building is a college student apartment building, so perhaps the students’ parents arranged the subscriptions and they’re not aware of a complaint number. But part of me is actually pissed at those students for not caring that their weekend papers come on a Monday.
What happens more commonly than my getting a replacement paper delivered is that I get my account credited for that missing paper, and then I go around the corner and buy one myself. But you can’t get the advance Sunday sections on Saturday morning at a corner store.
Jeez. One wouldn’t think it would be so hard to get the New York Times delivered in LOWER MANHATTAN.