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A sad state of affairs for The Union Tribune in San Diego.
The Union Tribune is the only large newspaper in San Diego. They have no competition and yet they are barely surviving. The newspaper has to cut back on their staff with a number of them being fired. The VP has replaced these positions and others with companies outside the state of California and even as far away as Panama City, Panama. So If you have a question for The Union tribune you better polish up on your spanish as it is very difficult to understand their English.
That is a couple of ways they are saving money. The two ways that I discovered at my expense they are adding profit to their if your a subscriber.
1, If you are a subscriber and it is time to renew, you do not have to worry about a thing because the company has decided to take that decision away from you at time of re-newel. Example: I just found out that The Union Tribune has renewed me automaticlly. Their explanation when I called them today was that when I first subscribed to the paper last year they made business decision to write in their (somewhere) that they will automatically renew my subscription without notifying me at time of re-newel. How considerate of them, don't you think?
2, They also changed their vacation hold policy, that they do not mention when you first subscribe. With other newspapers and theirs in the past if you went on a vacation instead of having newspapers build up on your driveway, you could request a vacation hold for financial and security reasons. They would then add those days onto the end of your yearly subscription so you get what you paid for.They have a new policy which I might say must earn them considerably more profit from the subscriber. They still will honor your request for a vacation stop but they will not extend your subscription nor credit you the money. This is a great way to boost your bottom line because you incur no cost and gain 100% profit. Wow, what and idea, no cost and all profit.
I guess this is one way of keeping local businesses profitable. But as I already pointed out that The San Diego Union Tribune is not local anymore. They now have a good portion of their employees sub contracted outside of San Diego and even the U.S.
Which brings me to my point of why I even subscribed to The Union Tribune. It wasn't because I read the paper everyday but I thought it was a small way on my part to keep a local company going. Now that I found out this company is not local, but my subscrption goes to pay the salaries to support out sourcing companies in other countries I no longer have a reason to support The Union Tribune.
I have been reading and subscribing on and off for the past 23 years and have steadly become more and more disapointed in the directions (content or lack of, sending jobs outside the state and the small print in their subscription contracts) this newspaper has taken. Recently I discontinued my subscription to the UT. I was just informed by the VP that the UT now publishes a Spanish only paper that is free. That would be great news I guess but only to the customers that speak Spanish. This while they continue to raise the cost of their regular UT newspaper. I can only assume that they keep raising the cost of the UT to pay in part for the free paper.
Credit card charges showing transaction dates and posting dates with amount charged:
03/07 03/08 SAN DIEGO UNION TRIB-SUB [protected] CA [protected].00
03/15 03/16 SAN DIEGO UNION TRIB-SUB [protected] CA [protected].00
Billing is supposed to be monthly. I was billed on my credit card twice within 8 days.
I have requested that delivery of my daily morning paper be placed inside the gate in the patio...someone is stealing my paper and I have to go buy one or request another from your office and I do not receive it...I guess I will have to cancel my order,,,all the delivery person has to do is throw it over the gate to the patio...
I don't receive my paper at least twice a week. Sometimes when I call, they deliver, and when I call back that it is not delivered, then they say unable to deliver. I want to receive my paper every day.
Today when the obituary of my wife, came out in the paper, my paper was not delivered? If there was a significant event I wanted to keep, and you forced me to go and buy the paper I should have received.
Victor M. Uranga, MD
Hidden Meadows, Escondido CA youth solicitors of all types pitching sales for paper and potential reward for school/after activities. We took the paper for 10 weeks - One order set only. However, there are numerous complaints about various youth coming to the door with versions of sales and school rewards not true. Many complaints shared social media, local network. If outsourced or not these programs need much oversight. Many misguided programs put youth in jeapardy and hurt customer confidence while raising suspicions. Please get an official legal management team involved to solve this ongoing door-to-door sales issue.
The delivery person throws the papers 15 ft or so at 5.00 am in the morning She doesnt walk up to the door and leave it. Its a 55 and older community and she wakes me up all the time
Newspaper was not delivered, today, 12/29/18. Will I get delivery or credit?
Fernando Fernandez
2159 El Amigo Road
Del Mar, CA 92014
[protected]
frankdarpa@yahoo.com
In regards to my subscription: A young man came to my door earlier this year soliciting subscribing to the UT, as it was dubbed by him, a step-forward in obtaining educational benefits, etc. At first I told him I was not interested, as I readily receive and have access to the UT at my place of employment Mon. through Fri. Still, at my decline of his offer, he proceeded to tell me I could just subscribe to and receive the UT Sunday edition only..."full of coupons, more articles, and the like." Being a mother of two teen-age sons' myself, I then felt compelled (suckered-in to) subscribing to the Sunday edition ONLY, and to help benefit his "educational cause, " as he was a high school student in the area in which I live. I gave him my debit-card info. as means of payment to my "Sunday only" subscription, and was told that my payment would start up my subscription for one month only and that would take care of my "one-month trial subscription for Sunday's only." After that, if i so chose to continue my subscription of one month, I would be notified for completion of my subscription and/or offered to continue my paper delivery. Well, guess what? I immediately started receiving the UT every single day, including Sunday's; which I thought were going to be the ONLY editions being thrown on my doorstep. The papers started piling up faster than I could take them in off my porch; as I previously stated, I get the UT daily at my work and really had no need for 7-day-a-week delivery. Bottom-line: my debit-card account is still being charged for the subscription of daily delivery for which I did not agree to, nor do I need/want. Pretty slick of the UT to keep charging me AFTER I had agreed to this young man for only one month and being told I would not incur additional charges, but only if i decided to continue my subscription. I'm not complaining about the high school student trying to earn educational benefits. I'm complaining that UT has a hold of my banking account info. and continues to automatically charge my account. That being said, I am calling up the UT and cancelling any and all subscriptions. PERIOD. I don't mind reading the paper, I just don't appreciate continually being charged after the fact by UT. After all, the UT is nothing what it used to be; thin as a pamphlet. I consider that as a sign of the harsh economic times most all of us endure; myself largely included.
The UT has been hacking away at itself for several years. The new format that was started on August 17 has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that a newspaper can exist with absolutely no meaningful content. The new size is about what one would expect from a weekly neighborhood paper, not a major city newspaper.
If a newspaper wants to keep its readers, this isn't the way to do it.
I have subscribed for over thirteen years, as I like a local city newspaper, but I'm considering dumping the Union Tribune for either the LA Times or the New York Times. Enough is enough.