The shrinking SMH gift subscription

[manfredh]

A couple of weeks' back, I received a letter from Fairfax subscriptions thanking me for my custom and offering an 8 week gift subscription to the Saturday SMH. It all sounded good so far!

There was no mention of an expiry date, only that it ran for 8 weeks from 13th June. Unfortunately, nothing appeared on the day. I called up to ask why and they said it was probably a mistake from their end not organising things in time, but the surprise was even though 8 editions were promised, the marketing department had said it was my loss and it would not be extended. I was assured it would _definitely_ be delivered from this Saturday. Not a very genuine gift, or ethical process in my view, but I left it at that.

Now, this Saturday has come and still no delivery. I called up, got told it would come later, it still didn't turn up so they said they'd debit the agent's account. However, it still would end in 6 weeks' time. I'm pleased to know they're not losing any money on their gift!

Thus, any potential 'gift' is now 25% smaller than promised, making it a furphy of a campaign, and their assurances clearly aren't worth anything either. I understand mistakes happen, but it's an odd way to run a business, and not ethical, to make the customer lose out for someone else's mistake.