Doing other people’s work for them
Posted By Mike Orren in Square Pegs on April 15, 2008
We have a hard enough time keeping up with our own snafus around here -- we really don't need to be saddled with other people's baggage. We received the following email yesterday:
Date: April 14, 2008 6:38:02 PM GMT-07:00
From: [email redacted]
Subject: i pd for dmn to be delivered
To: customerservice@pegasusnews.com
i was at walmart on samuall when i pd one of your salespeople to have the d.m.n. delivered to my house i have not recieved anything its been about 2 wks i paid for 3 months and he gave me a 15.00 giftcard please have my paper delivered or refund me.
My response:
Subject: Re: i pd for dmn to be delivered
From: Mike Orren
Date: April 15, 2008 9:46:39 AM GMT-07:00
To: [email redacted]
Cc: customerservice@pegasusnews.com
Hi Michelle:
We're not the Dallas Morning News -- We're an online-only competitor of theirs with no print edition.
We appreciate your frustration, though. In fact, if you just use us instead and send an email to ten of your friends encouraging them to do the same, I'll personally refund your three-month DMN subscription. You'll be ahead a $15 gift card; a better local website; and a customer service team that actually gives a damn.
BTW: I live by that Wal-Mart too. Here's what our neighborhood page on Pegasus News looks like.
Thanks!
Scott Doyle, says:
A lot of angst towards media y'all frequently utilize for Peg articles, Miko. IJS
Kudos on the approach, though. Reminds me: have you drawn for the Tre Wilcox tix? I can't check personal email from work and I'm on the cougar prowl.
Verified
1 year, 7 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
djkeith, says:
scott has a point. without the dmn's original reporting, you have no product. so who is doing who's work? and where is MY $15?
Anonymous
1 year, 7 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Scott Doyle, says:
You joined today to <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=QQ">QQ</a> over $15 and get a random jab in? Doubtful. Wouldn't happen to be involved with DMN, would you <a href="http://www.pegasusnews.com/users/djkeith/">djkeith</a>?
Regardless of your questionable affiliation, my point certainly was not that PN is contingent upon DMN - simply that content is frequently cited. There's so much about PN that DMN doesn't hold a candle to, imo, and service from Miko himself is part of that.
But thanks for trolling. Hope you stick around and chip in something useful rather than incorrectly speculating on my behalf.
Verified
1 year, 7 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Mike Orren, says:
You both certainly have a point, although I naturally find Scott more right-on.
FWIW, we could certainly get along without linking to the DMN, but we believe in giving props to the folks doing a lot of good work to cover our towns. And it's always been our philosophy to link to others on things that have already been covered and use our staff resources for original coverage of things that others aren't already getting.
But even that is an aside-- the sassiness on this point has as little to do with DMN journalism as the original complaint. Most newspapers are three very distinct entities that might as well be separate companies: Editorial, Advertising and Circulation. (Plus a fourth untamed uberlord called "corporate.")
As someone who has spent hours on the phone with clueless newspaper circulation customer service folks over the years, I know where this person is coming from.
Maybe I took it a bit off course with the better website note, but that's a point anyone is free to debate.
Finally, as an upstart media outlet, it's kinda de rigeur for us to have a little fun sniping at the big boys. We've been a little quiet on that front lately, and this seemed an easy setup...
Staff
1 year, 7 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
djkeith, says:
"The Jester knows he shall never be King; his only solace is that rare moment when the clown wounds the monarch. Yet, in the end, the King is still the King and the Jester is still the Jester."
Anonymous
1 year, 7 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Mike Orren, says:
Interesting quote from the history of Troy, djkeith, although missing a good bit of context. Glad to see it all turns out pretty well for the Jester. For the King, not so much...
http://alltalksports.wordpress.com/20...
Here's another for ya:
<i>"the jester sang for the king and queen,
In a coat he borrowed from james dean
And a voice that came from you and me,
Oh, and while the king was looking down,
The jester stole his thorny crown..."</i>
Staff
1 year, 7 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
djkeith, says:
“It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”
Anonymous
1 year, 7 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Mike Orren, says:
"If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?...We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces."
Staff
1 year, 7 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
djkeith, says:
a double edged sword for a jester whose conceits have him believing he should be wearing the crown. my own game now bores me. i leave with a thought. do what you do well. quit worrying about the other guy. its more fun if he must worry about you. djkeith out.
Anonymous
1 year, 7 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
xdavidwattsx, says:
Are you guys done measuring each other's swords? Cause it's a little boring.
Anonymous
1 year, 7 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Rachel Skinner, says:
I second that.
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