Crazy but true: I've received dozens of emails from Orange County Register subscribers who think we're the Reg and proceed to let me have an earful about their delivery problems. I direct them to our coverage of Reg owner Aaron Kushner, and they always thank me for being far more transparent about the Register's problems than the Reg is. Then they say something along the line of never expecting such professionalism from the Weekly–and that we now have a new reader.
WOW. Maybe I should take into consideration the advice from my superiors that I act more mature…HA!
Anyhoo, the Reg's customer service reps must know that readers are reaching out to me, because they keep sending me letters to publish in which they try to reach out directly to subscribers via me to apologize. Here's one such letter–anonymous, of course–in which the rep claims she's been ordered to lie to subscribers.
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I am a Customer Service Agent for the OC Register…We barely have 50 total agents answering the thousands of calls. I do want to personally apologize for the lies I have been told to feed OC Register subscribers. It is going on almost a week, for some people, of missed deliveries.
I am disgusted.
I cannot believe we have been selected as Kushner's henchmen. We are given no information on this logistics screw up, yet we are required to appease subscribers. We are being told to let customers know we cannot guarantee delivery but at the same time that they should be getting a delivery the next day. I don't even get how that makes since it is an absolute lie.
When subscribers ask when they should expect delivery, we have no clue. I think it is so rude and truly offensive to give an employee no information but tell them to answer customer service calls. It is sickening and I mean this. Inside right now, I hate that I'm doing this dirty, filthy work. I have come to the conclusion, after taking hundreds of calls personally, that:
1.Entire areas don't have a carrier
2. All of management at the OC Register needs to take a corporate ethics course as well as a customer service class
3. Management at the OC Register does not ever intend on telling loyal subscribers who have been reading their paper for decades in a majority of cases a lick of truth.
All three of these conclusions sadden me.
Keep those letters and tips coming, folks!
Email: ga*******@oc******.com. Twitter: @gustavoarellano.
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