Tom Jacobs

The WSJ's Broken Subscription System

Great piece. I could not agree more. I cancelled both print and on-line a couple of years ago (after subscribing for 25 years) over similar disconnects between on-line and print customer service. I felt like a tennis ball getting bounced back and forth when they kept disconnecting my on-line access without explanation and then blaming print customer service who, in turn, said it was on-line's fault. I even made the mistake of writing to several of the editors to complain and received a phone call from a senior customer service person asking me, "Why are you bothering our executives with this?" No apology, no concern, but simple annoyance at my intrusion on their time. This was the straw that did it and I canceled.

There was zero recognition that I as a customer had any value. It took me a long time to get used to not reading it every day and I am sure they are happier without me and my subscription fees. Further, as an academic, I will never sign up for a class, either. I have never seen such a broken business model.

Tom