13 June 2007
Who works sales for the Cambridge Chronicle?
Nearly every day for the last two or three weeks I’ve received a phone call from the same number. As soon as I pick up the phone the person on the other end hangs up. Never did a human respond. Each time I called back I got the standard message: “This mailbox is full.” It has frustrated me to no end. They call in the morning when I’m getting ready for work, in the evening when I’m eating dinner, even on weekends. Googling the number was no help.
Finally, someone actually responded when I answered the call from that number:
“Is this the head of the household Kanson,” they asked awkwardly?
“Yes, that’s me,” I said suspiciously.
“I’m calling from your local paper, the Cambridge Chronicle. Would you like to try a subscription again?”
Truth be told, if I hadn’t been so annoyed by this number for the past few weeks, I’d probably have said yes. I subscribed a couple years back and found it nice to receive the paper in my mailbox each Thursday, I just never got around to renewing because it’s all online.
I hesitated for a minute and said: “Eh, no, I don’t think so.”
Unfortunately for the Chronicle this woman wasn’t even a good salesperson and simply responded: “Ok. Bye.” No sales pitch. No trial price. Nothing.
Who in the hell does the Chronicle, or more accurately Gatehouse Media use for their paper sales? Clearly this woman was calling from a cell phone — and either a malfunctioning cell phone or one she didn’t know how to use.
Either the Chronicle isn’t too desperate for hard-copy sales (which is contrary to most of the newspaper industry in this day and age), or someone’s taking them for a ride. Hell, maybe it’s even a scam that I just avoided.
I know some staff of the Chronicle read my blog, so maybe they’ll want to share their take on this.
4 Comments currently posted.
Meghann says:
David Harris says:
Hey Jesse,
While I can’t speak for our subscription people completely, I know that we do want people to subscribe to the paper — in fact, we need more subscribers as every newspaper does. I will forward your blog entry to the subscription people and see what they have to say.
Keep up the blogging!
David Harris
Editor, Cambridge Chronicle
Phil Ouellette says:
Hi Jesse,
Circulation Sales Director for the Cambridge Chronicle here.
I’m very interested in talking further with you regarding this. We work closely with our telemarketing company to ensure professional calling is being made to each of our publication markets. Can you contact me at my email address so I can get more detail as to the phone # that appears on your caller ID, etc.
Thanks – Phil
Lisa says:
So what happened to this story? Did they fix the problem? Any free goodies? (I accidentally landed here)
Way back in day, when I was living in Allston, I tried to subscribe to the Allston-Brighton TAB. When I called, I asked if they had a student rate as I was in college full-time. The man took my name and number and said he’s look into it and get back to me. That never happened.