1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

"I'm canceling my subscription ... "

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Gator, Jul 13, 2010.

  1. Gator

    Gator Well-Known Member

    If I had a nickel for every time somoene threatened to cancel their subscription over the dumbest of things, I'd be a rich person. I can only assume that everyone here, like myself, have had to deal with this kind of thing. I'd be interested in hearing just how dumb, though.

    I'll start.

    Guy calls today and claims that a picture of a woman wearing a dress, who has her legs closed, is showing off her private parts. Unless you were flat out looking hard at that region, there's no way you'd ever think of such a thing. This was a far, far cry from TMZ/Lindsay Lohan stuff. He said his son was looking at the paper noticed it. He called in a rage and said "rest assured he'll be canceling his subscription."

    Another one bites the dust, I guess.
     
  2. CR19

    CR19 Member

    [​IMG]

    Just give the guy a couple of French insults next time he calls.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  3. apeman33

    apeman33 Well-Known Member

    We've gotten some of that. Because a majority of our readers are of the age where showing a little bit of calf is "nudity" and gossip from area "columnists" are among the most popular things we run.
     
  4. TheHacker

    TheHacker Member

    Summer 1996, Virginia, in a town and at a paper that time forgot, phone rings in sports department:

    Caller (in a slow, southern drawl): "I wanna cancel my subscription."

    Me: Uh, well you'll need to call circulation and they're not here right now.

    Caller: Nah, I'm callin' you because y'all show favortism toward certain NASCAR drivers. All y'all ever write about is Jeff Gordon. Y'all ain't never written nuthin' bout Earnhardt!"

    Me: Uh, well all of our NASCAR coverage comes from the AP, so we're not writing it.

    Caller: Well then y'all should tell your writer to talk to Earnhardt.

    Me: Uh, well, it doesn't really work like that, but we'll be sure to run any Earnhardt stories they send our way. Thanks for calling.

    Click!
     
  5. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Wow. Got nearly the exact same call in the late '90s. Earnhardt had taken someone out near the end of a race, I believe, and the AP writer noted as much. Guy called in a rage, cancelling his subscription because the story "blamed Dale." Was going on and on and on about how I needed to watch the race, and this was what really happened, and it's no surprise my Jeff Gordon-loving paper would write it that way, and on and on.

    I kept trying to explain the concept of a wire service to him, but he wasn't having it.
     
  6. HejiraHenry

    HejiraHenry Well-Known Member

    We used to get little notes from circulation when people canceling their subs cited some problem w/sports.

    I would always check back with circulation about 3 months later. Almost without fail, the subscription in question would have been renewed.
     
  7. TimmyP

    TimmyP Member

    The closest I ever came to really losing it with a caller was along the "canceling my subscription" lines. It was a guy upset with a TV/Radio listing, and he went through it with a clerk before the call made its way to me. He kept ranting and raving about canceling his subscription, and wouldn't tell me why he was upset. After about the 8th time I asked him what the problem was and he answered by telling me he was going to cancel his subscription, I just said, "Well, I wish you would."

    That kind of snapped him out of his funk and we had a conversation after that (which he was correct about). That was about 10 years ago, and I still regret how I handled it.
     
  8. reformedhack

    reformedhack Well-Known Member

    We used to have a caller who'd regularly dial a number in the sports department to "cancel my prescription."
     
  9. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    I wonder what percentage of people who call and angrily threaten to cancel their subscription actually do it. I'd say less than 5 percent.
     
  10. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    Maybe you should leave a note to circulation everytime someone complains to you about not getting their paper. Of course, when some papers rely on drivers who can't hold a real job, problems happen.
     
  11. Gator

    Gator Well-Known Member

    At our shop, that happens 100 percent of the time. We're a PM paper, and by the time people get home to read it, everyone else in the building is gone but us. I loathe circulation.
     
  12. NoOneLikesUs

    NoOneLikesUs Active Member

    He canceled, but I wonder how many people not in the Taliban signed up after seeing that picture?
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page