The Des Moines Register Falls Down on the Job in Circulation

Jim and I have been subscribing to the daily Des Moines Register for over 30 years like our parents before us. We've been through the good times and the bad times with the Register. Today is one of the bad times.

I woke up this morning early, read the Economist until I thought the paper might be here (after 6:00 a.m.), went outside with my walker and reacher, and . . . no paper. I waited till after 7:00 a.m. Still no paper. I called the robot that answers the Des Moines Register circulation line at 1-877-424-0225 before 8:00 a.m. and told the robot what my issue was: "delivery issue." She asked if I'd gotten the newspaper. I said "no"; she asked if I am missing the paper just for today; I said "yes." Then she asked me to say or key in my phone number complete with the area code.

This is where the communication with the robot goes awry and becomes pointless. Her inability to find my account with my correct phone number has been going on for well over a year.

Yet my phone number has been the same for over 30 years. The phone number used to belong to a drug dealer, but it's respectable now and has been mine since approximately 1977 or 1978 at the latest. I have subscribed to the Des Moines Register since 1975. My address has been the same since 1982.

But the robot, despite the fact that she can repeat back my phone number accurately, says she can't find my account, or else says "due to technical difficulties," she can't find my account. Balderdash!

I am here to tell you that if she can't find a faithful old subscriber's account like mine, she can't find anyone's account. I am to wait until the customer service office, staffed with real people, opens at 8:00 a.m. I wait.

After 8:00 a.m., a real customer service rep tells me that my newspaper will be redelivered by a substitute. Surprised and thankful, I thank the customer service rep, put in a good word for her with her supervisor, and go about my business. The newspaper never comes.

Hours later I go to the South First Avenue Hy-Vee in Iowa City and buy a New York Times. I also try to buy a Des Moines Register. There are no Des Moines Registers. No one at the Hy-Vee who subscribes has received their newspaper and none of the stores have received their copies either, I am told by a crowd near the newspaper stand.

I call back the Des Moines Register and demand a credit. I am told the trucks are late and that I will get my Tuesday DMR tomorrow. I want a credit, I tell them. The woman is very nice and everything, but I no longer believe everything I'm told.

Gannett newspapers aren't getting better, and their customer service is getting worse.

The very least they could do is start being honest (instead of ending with being honest ("the trucks are late" after six calls in which no one mentions that the trucks are late), fixing the robot so she's functional and can find people's accounts, and work on reliability so that the trucks that have made it through countless snowstorms all winter can also make it through a half inch of snow in the spring, too.