Last night on WGBH’s “Greater Boston” Boston Globe CEO Michael Sheehan told host Jim Braude that the biggest problems the paper is having with home delivery are happening in Newton and Pembroke.
The comments I’ve seen on social media suggest that the problems are much more widespread than that. But is the Globe coming to your Newton home? Take our unscientific poll and share your experience in the comments section.
[polldaddy poll=”9257938″]
Hearing that it is 5-10% is low. I don’t think the Boston Globe is being truthful. I have friends and family in Salem, Swampscott, Malden, Newton, Wellesley and only two families have their paper on time daily. My whole neighborhood has been missed.
And if they are counting that a newspaper is delivered at 2 PM as delivered, that is boosting the numbers. Basically, if the paper isn’t here by 7 AM, then to me it isn’t delivered. I think they are using funny math.
I think this is a good listing of why as a daily subscriber I am upset:
http://wgbhnews.org/post/globes-delivery-fiasco-10-points-outrage
According to an article in today’s Globe business section, it’s not necessarily Newton and Pembroke with the issues, it’s cities and towns “served by distribution centers in Newton and Pembroke.” Makes it a bigger area.
And I agree with Newton Mom — this seems like far more than 5-10%. Now I see that ACI is the one providing that figure, so I certainly wouldn’t count on it. And that figure is for homes who didn’t receive a paper at all. Mine is coming after 10am (not great but but not terrible), so I think I’m counted in the “happy” 90-95%!
Wait til the advertisers start asking more serious questions about exactly how many papers weren’t delivered and “can we get a 10% discount on those ads we placed?”
And still no Herald. I will never be able to pick up the thread in the Phantom comic strip now.
@Newton Mom, thanks for the link to the Emily Rooney commentary. She nailed it.
I’m seeing lots of complaints from areas of Boston, such as Roslindale. And you know it’s bad when you read the stories in the Globe itself (online, of course) and the reporters are using words like “debacle”. If they were allowed to use terms used on the Daily Show, I’m sure the reporter would have called it a clusterf***.
Sunday 3 papers (1 was the NYT which we don’t subscribe to), today no papers (we usually get 2 BG & WSJ) last week 3 days without a BG. Why don’t they just go back to their old delivery service?
Agree with Newton Mom – if it’s not here by 7 am, its not here.
The Globe is reporting that it will again be working with the old distributor that used to deliver papers in our area starting Monday.
Last night at 9:30 PM we heard a THUD . . . . someone had slipped the new Whitey Bulger book through our mail slot, and the man was still there. . . . when I opened the door, the man handed me a stack of papers (the papers from Monday and Tuesday and Wednesdays food section), along with an appology. He works in the newsroom and he is very sorry about what is going on and he hopes that we will stick with the Globe.
Very nice. Dedicated worker. Too bad I don’t have the same opinion of John Henry. His letter was awful, and making excuses. He never answered why he took down the customer service line – ignored that part of the fiasco. Not getting a paper was frustrating but not being able to speak to a human (or cancel on line, or having a coupon be no good) and having no mention of that was terrible.
@Newton Mom: Any chance you got the reporter’s name?
My must unusual delivery experience of the week occurred Tuesday night at 11 p.m. when a found a copy of today’s (Wednesday) TAB on my front lawn. I’ve never seen that before.
It was Gabriel Florit (in graphics). Very nice guy. If he stopped to talk to me at 9/9:30 PM, it was going to take him a long time to get through his route! I live in the highlands and five out of six houses on my street get the Globe.
@ Newton Mom, Not having enough lines available for angry call ins is consistent with the Globe’s completely underestimating the ramifications of the change they made.
Offering excuses, and blaming others, is almost worse than the original screw up. Even though ACI made big mistakes, they become an extension of the Globe and no one wants to hear that ACI screwed up. The Globe had ample opportunity to do its due diligence in making sure all was in readiness for a launch, and flubbed that in the worst way.
Yes, a classic B.I.P.E. (pronounced in this still Globe-less household “Bippy”): a bad idea, poorly executed. You could look it up.
@Amanda, not necessarily a bad idea. Trying to improve service, and save money isn’t a bad idea. [And my experience with the prior vendor wasn’t great. At least 10 times a year, no delivery].
But awful planning and bad execution, absolutely.
One step forward, two steps back. I was getting the Globe reliably since Saturday but not today.
The map shown in the article seems to indicate that the old company my be handling Newton.
I did get my Globe today though by 7:00. That’s a big improvement.
I also received my Globe by 7:00 today. And I was also unimpressed with John Henry’s letter. It seemed to say all the right things (except for ignoring the customer service line issue that NewtonMom highlights). But it seemed to ring hollow for some reason. There still seems to be an explanation that the delivery process is not easy. But no one is questioning that! It’s too bad ownership seemed to take it for granted. And while we all feel bad for the reporters and staff who helped out on Sunday, leave that attaboy out of the open letter to subscribers. And leave out the Hallmark movie stuff about the delivery person knowing our dogs’ names and that we like the paper six inches to the right of the front step.
I still am Herald-less since last Thursday. I did reach a person on the customer service line. And I am hopeful that it’ll be back on track tomorrow. The impact on delivery of other papers is an interesting element of this.
The paper of record had no issues: Tab was on time, in the right spot.
The plan was to save money by bringing in a new distributor who’d pay drivers half the going rate, starting a race to the bottom among existing distributors afraid of losing business to the new guys. Nice ethics in a profession that considers itself the arbiter of other people’s behavior. Apparently never occurred to the suits at the Globe that there wouldn’t be enough takers to make it work. Publishers are accustomed to treating the hired help shabbily–because they can. Plenty of people are willing to make sacrifices in order to do work they consider especially meaningful. But the masochism doesn’t extend to the drivers. If they can make better money delivering pizza, they’ll deliver pizza. Journalism, pepperoni–it’s all the same to them.
I’m sorry to take my own thread off topic but I predict we will come to the same conclusion if our City Council bans leaf blowers: “there won’t be enough rakers to make it work.” Folks like to think that there’s magic stash of workers eager to take on these low wage jobs. As every restaurant owner in Newton who is looking for kitchen help knows, there isn’t.
Sigh, it was going so well. Serves me right for bragging. Everyone on my street got their paper today, except us. Sigh indeed.
It would be interesting to know if any of the suits at the globe ever delivered papers as a kid. If they did, they would know how difficult it is to get a lot of people organized to deliver several hundred papers by 7AM.
Comment of the day goes to Amanda Heller. Excellent.
Thank you, Jane, that means a lot.
After one day late and one day not at all, we’re receiving the Times again. The new(?) driver is even managing to toss it a foot or so closer to the house than we’ve been accustomed to. Power to your arm, sir or madam. Thank you for your service. Clearly we will not see the Globe again until after the old distributor, with its arcane knowledge of the backstreets of Newton Centre, returns to save the day.
If labor shortages are what’s keeping the Centre’s “opening soon” restaurants from opening, then this calls for an exposé of its own. Word is there’s a brew pub making massive renovations at the former Appetito location. They’ll be sunk before they start if they’re unable to staff up and open the doors as soon as they’re ready.
Back to no Globe, no Herald.
I spoke to the Herald customer service yesterday. The person acknowledged that when the Globe switched providers, some of the Herald delivery folks (who previously had been delivering both papers) jumped ship to the new company.
This ripple effect has affected Herald, NYT and Wall Street Journal subscribers to various degrees. And that’s why the Herald hasn’t been crushing the Globe on this situation as badly as would be expected.
The Globe hasn’t been delivered to my house for the last two days, after a stretch of great delivery for about 5 or 6 days…
Oh well.
Marcela Garcia’s Op Ed in yesterday’s Globe is haunting me. I love daily delivery but how can I justify a $700.00 annual fee when it would appear that fee isn’t enough to cover a decent wage for the delivery personnel? I am having doubts.
They seem to have no problem delivering the Globe Direct, which I neither want nor asked for, and seems to be importable to unsubscribe.