Friday 2 October 2009

Office hours 2

Updated 05/10/09 re Sault Ste. Marie

TSF tipsters in North Bay (Nugget), Brantford (Expositor) and Sault Ste. Marie (Star) say their office hours have also been cut back.

Are earlier office closures alienating subscribers and advertisers? The Brantford tipster says you betcha.

The tipster writes:

"Same in Brantford. You should see how many people stand yanking at the door, while we all look on and shrug.

"It's truly awful. Even worse, when you leave to grab a coffee, then have to use your key to get in and quickly shut the door before a customer can scuttle by you.

"I've been ranted at countless times by some aged member of the general public who managed to get a friend or family member to drive them down to the office to pay their subscription, only to find us closed.

"It usually starts with 'The Expositor hasn't been closed on Mondays in. . . .' and ends with ' . . . what is this newspaper coming to? Why am I still a subscriber? I can't even pay my damn subscription!'

"We just nod and take the abuse now. How can we defend ourselves? They're absolutely right."

The Soo tipster says:

"Sault Ste Marie Star cut their hours in March. It's horrible and hard to justify you're a business in the community that doesn't keep business hours."

Thank you for your comments.

Now if a Quebecor exec could explain the logic of earlier office hours, locking front doors while employees are inside looking out at frustrated subscribers and potential advertisers who want to add funds to Sun Media's coffers . . .

5 comments:

  1. I can second that. It's embarrassing for sure. I duck my head in shame each and every time.

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  2. I don't even tell people where I work anymore because every time I do, all I hear are complaints! And you betcha' I'm staying anonymous!!!

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  3. Same here. Our bosses want us to pull together more than ever before and all work to face this new threat to their 'monopoly' in Brantford, but how can we do that when we don't believe in our shitty services and the state of the product we're flogging? Not to mention all of the rumors about even more layoffs coming in November. It all sucks.
    Give us a reason to want to go the extra mile other than the threat of losing our jobs if we don't! I used to be proud of this newspaper, my family even grew up reading it and delivering it.

    Not anymore.

    PKP and his cronies have much to answer for.

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  4. How long before they turf publishers at papers - Brantford, Welland, Peterborough, North Bay - where the 'leaks' (if you can call office hour reductions a leak) are coming from. I am sure PKP will blame them, but they don't deserve the blame, they're just pawns in his game. And I bet leaks come from beyond those papers and higher up than people would like to think

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  5. Seriously, if someone of the higher executives are reading this, don't they realize how morale has hit an all-time low throughout the chain.

    Sad to see how all these papers are just floundering and no one gives a damn except the people who have to endure the abuse from the public who are complaining about the product.

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