“Entitlement” would imply some sort of obligation on the part of the SDMB, and I am clearly not claiming that. Your comment – and others like it – are misplaced.
If this was a place where I had little history, where my patronage was an unknown factor, I would never ask for a courtesy in a million years: the business does not know if I am a long-term customer and has no reason to give it. What I’m talking about here is not a sense of entitlement; far from it, I’m talking about maintaining a mutually beneficial customer-provider relationship.
The HMO didn’t cut my dad a break to be generous; they did it because they valued his past patronage, and wanted to be sure that patronage continued. The credit card company did not waive my late fee out the kindness of their hearts; they did it because they valued my business and wanted that business to continue. As, indeed, it has.
Well, as I said, it forwards into an account that I do read (the alumni account is not an actual mailbox; it just forwards to an account I designate). And that account does not delete incoming emails after any time period.
Of course the Credit card company had hopes that you would continue to pump thousands of dollars through there hands and more than pay for the late fee.
The HMO probably gets $3000 to $6000 per year (please adjust down for inflation is long ago). These companies both had huge monetary incentives to keep you happy.
The SDMB, has a best the hopes of getting $7.99 per year for another 5 to 10 years. Not the same incentive is it?
Where as if they leave things alone, which is easy, they either piss you off and never get another dime or you complete your venting (and getting abused) and pony up $14.95 per year for 5 to 10 years. The Risk reward says they might as well not accommodate you and take their chances. They need to jump through a few hoops to help you, if they help you, they then have to help others. It would probably be a very bad business decision to help you out.
Well, in the HMO example, the party requesting the courtesy was my father, not me; he was the customer, not I.
33, and that is not my argument. I fully admit that this was an oversight on my part, and have pretty much done so from my very first post.
Oh, come now; surely you can recognize that the bulk of my posts after the start of the thread are simply replying to those who have elected to take issue with my request.
Sorry for coming back to Drake’s post, but at this stage I’m just responding to general points raised rather than specific posters, and this line seems to exemplify one of those general points. So let me say this:
Slow down. I’ve registered some disappointment in the administration in this thread, but registering some disappointment does not automatically translate to “the admins are evil and I hate them and they all terribly unfair, mean people.” We ought, I think, to be able to register disappointment without being saddled with a whole host of viewpoints that were never expressed.
This is also why I balk at descriptions like “whining” or “tantrum.” I’m hardly a wild-eyed lunatic here. I’ve stated my position, I think, with politeness and my criticims have been restrained (and no, Priceguy, I do not consider “you’ve gotta be kidding me” to be an especially harsh sentiment, particularly given the culture of these boards). I disagree with the judgment at work here, and have given my reasons for it, but that doesn’t make me some kind of self-appointed martyr.
At the time of the resubscription drive there were announcements at the top of every forum. These announcements were in place for nearly a month.
There were also active threads on the subject in ATMB. These threads were prominently displayed on the Straight Dope Message Board front page.
Finally, emails were sent to each and every subscriber that had not yet resubscribed and had a subscription due to expire in a few days . . . every member who had selected “yes, it’s okay to send me email” in their system settings. If someone selected “no,” we respected their wish to not receive email from us and did not send an email renewal notice.
DCH, please look at your settings. I note that the default setting to receive email is “yes;” you have to specifically select “no” yourself.
Just FTR, I re-registered on June 3, not just now. I know this because I have the PayPal reciept in my inbox. Not that it makes a difference or anything, but let’s be sure our facts are accurate.
I registered then because I first realized I my error when I went to use the search function to find an answer to a particular question. I didn’t realize the loss of title until just now because I haven’t been actively participating for several months.
I don’t know what might have happened, but I never received emails this year or the last regarding subscription renewal. I’ve had the same email address for years and I religiously check my spam folder, but I never did see it. I also don’t think there’s any kind of white-listing going on with my provider.
But that doesn’t matter to me so much. I think I paid early just to avoid any problems. Looking at the user panel I see that I can pay now for the next subscription period, so there isn’t any reason for me to fail to keep up.
Fer chrissakes, It’s just a title. Does anybody really think there’s some kind of superior status associated with having paid on time? I’m only interested in keeping my subscription current to assure that I can keep posting and searching. They can change my title to “big nobody” for all I care.
Not sure why you’re not receiving these emails, Alma, but I do note that we did get a lot of complaints from people who later found their emails in the spam trap. Some email systems filter more strenuously than others.
I have worked in customer service. I will go out of my way to help a customer if I can. However, as TubaDiva has explained, there is absolutely nothing she can do. You, however, continue to beat the dead horse instead of accepting the reality that there is absolutely nothing she can do.
You were not active on the boards. Fine. If it were that important to you to remain a Charter Member it would have stayed more in the forefront of your brain. You missed the window. Sorry, dude, but there were notices, and do you not bear some responsibility to keep track of your own memberships? What happens if you let your car insurance lapse? Is that your fault or the fault of the insurance company for not tracking you down? How much notice do you need?
ivy, as I’ve stated repeatedly, the fault for the lapse is my own; I have not claimed otherwise (I have said that the loss of title was a non-obvious consequence, but that is not the same thing). Fault doesn’t really enter into my argument; letting that credit card statement slip by was my fault, too, but that didn’t affect what a good customer service response was to that situation.
And far from “beating a dead horse,” all I’m doing at this point is responding to what others are saying. If you don’t want a response, don’t reply to my posts.
Could it be that the real issue is not the “charter” part but the “extra $7.50 a year” part? If you’re not going to post for four months out of the year, paying an extra $7.50 eats into the profit margin a bit, I would think.
If you’re arguing from the point of “hey, if you charge people $15 a year, you’ll lose a lot of posters…” that was the whole point!!! They started charging so they could separate the wheat from the chaff. You may not be chaff, sir, but, like me, you’re also not whole-grainy goodness.
That would explain it, then. If you were already paid up when the e-mail went out, it never would have been sent to you in the first place, because you didn’t need it.
Decided to take your turn at the deceased equine, eh?
I disagree with that characterization, of course. All I can really say, I suppose, is that if you never ask those businesses with whom you have a longstanding relationship for the odd pass, regardless of fault, then you simply aren’t being an effective consumer.
Oh, poppycock; the stated reason was a desire to defray operating costs.
At any rate, my long absences make me something of the ideal customer – I pay the fee, but don’t use up a lot of bandwith. That is, I bring in revenue but add little to costs.
I am the more ideal customer. On top of paying, I have given up my Charter Member status in order to more fully fit in with the hoi polloi. Further, I post the most insightful and entertaining posts on the internet. It is time I renounce my Member status.
Thank you. What the fuck is the big deal, anyways? I think the first time we went subscription, there was a glitch in the system and I was labelled just “member”, even though originally I was a “Charter Member”. I didn’t even notice until someone pointed it out. Who the fuck cares?
