Quantcast

Jump to: site navigation, content.

Doing other people’s work for them

Square Pegs

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!

April 15, 2008

Comments

Scott Doyle Verified

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.

3 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

djkeith Anonymous

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?

3 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Scott Doyle Verified

You joined today to QQ over $15 and get a random jab in? Doubtful. Wouldn't happen to be involved with DMN, would you djkeith?

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.

3 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Mike Orren Staff

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...

3 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

djkeith Anonymous

"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."

3 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Mike Orren Staff

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:

"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..."

3 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

djkeith Anonymous

“It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”

3 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Mike Orren Staff

"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."

3 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

djkeith Anonymous

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.

3 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

xdavidwattsx Anonymous

Are you guys done measuring each other's swords? Cause it's a little boring.

3 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Rachel Skinner Verified

I second that.

3 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Post a comment

(Requires free PegasusNews.com account.)


Password: (Forgotten your password?)


Latest comments

See more recent comments

Latest reviews

See more recent reviews