Today's Battle With the KC Star
 

I got my newspaper bill in the mail yesterday. Started looking at it today over my lunch hour, it's due for payment the first part of Feb. The price went up by about ten bucks for 13 weeks, from around $68 to around $78 for 7-day service. Why? So I call up their customer service -which will connect you with the friendly customer service agents in THE PHILIPPINES- and ask why is it $10 more?

"Bob" the phillipino says "well, you're getting the added benefit of being able to read the Kansas City Star on line, and you can manage your account on line." I tell Bob I don't give a shit about reading the KC Star online, and it was free anyway until they changed the rules on December 5th. And they send me a bill in the mail, and I pay it with online banking, so I don't need to "manage my account online." So please, just take me off the "free online reading lists" and I'll just read the copy they throw in my front yard. After much hemming and hawing, Bob says, OK, and I'm back to $68 for 13 weeks. Fine.

So I hang up with Bob, and start wondering if other Star subscribers have had the same issues. I do some googling, and find this site:

http://www.discountednewspapers.com

These guys offer to give me 26 weeks of the KC Star (twice as long) for $81, with the exact same home delivery. Currently I'll be paying the Star $136 for that same time frame. So I call up the Star Customer Service in the Phillipines again, and get Bob's cousin Juan. I ask Juan how come I'm getting reamed up the ass by the Star, when I can buy twice as many newspapers for $55 less by contracting with an online vendor? Juan says "I don't think that's legal." I tell him, "They carry six Missouri papers, including the Star, The St. Louis Post Dispatch, and the Columbia Tribune. Don't think it's a hoax." So Juan says, "Oh Surprise, we have a "Special" today, where we'll sign you up for an introductory rate of 26 weeks for $72!" I asked him to send that offer to me in writing. So we'll see. Man, I'm tired of playing footsie with these assholes to get their best deal. I've had a seven day subscription since 1978.

Anyway, if you take the Star, you may want to call their customer service and re-negotiate your deal. Or buy it online from a different vendor.

Did you see that draft article from today? You don't want that shit for the next 13 weeks.

I dumped the Star delivery about three years ago and it was around $130 for a year. The "deep discount" of $81 for six months is a joke.

I threw the Star off a truck in Independence all thru High School, and I've had a personal subscription since 1978, even when I went to Mizzou I got the paper there too. So I've been a subscriber for 35 years. No wonder newspapers are dying. Hey, if they need to charge for online content now, that's fine. But give me the option of whether or not I want to pay for access to it. Don't just throw it onto my bill and hope to slide it by me. And customer service in the Philippines? WTF is that????

Just like most other 30 year olds, I've never had a land line and I've never subscribed to a newspaper. If print media doesn't rethink their business model, I'm happy to see them go the way of Blockbuster and Borders.

I haven't taken the Star since the advent of the Internet. Don't want to read tomorrow what I can find out today.

RIP KC Star....

I don't care for the way the Star treats our Chiefs, I won't patronize them.

why does anyone pay for physical newspapers anymore? whatre u 150 years old? read all the free news online

I read all my news online but still enjoy a big mug of coffee and a fat Sunday paper. To me the death of printed media would be a sad day. And I am barely over just a 1/3 of 150.

Why do people still listen and watch local radio and TV news? People still crave locality. Something that feels part of the community.
Posted via Mobile Device

I am still reading it for free up here and with no logins to their site. Just started it with a 2nd laptop still free online.

Every paper in town is free at the library!!

ya all the articles on the kcstar.com website is free on my phone. I dont get what the problem is.

Yea, there must be some premium stuff I'm unable to see? Because I'm still able to read a ton of stories for free on there.
Posted via Mobile Device

Wtf? People still buy newspapers? I didn't even know they were that much. GBlowfish must be the only person keeping the KCStar alive.

I am thinking it has something to do with the browser.

The what? Is that like a new store at the mall or something?

The Star is desperately trying to stay alive.


All the newspapers going out of business is probably not a good thing but the world changes.

g- they are mad at you for being able to write better than most of them.

Had nothing better to do than quibble over 10 bucks, huh?

Ever heard of supporting a dying newspaper industry? If you like their product that much maybe 10 bucks shouldn't be that big a deal?

CRANKY OLD FART!!!

Read the Star religiously from 1987-1991 and never paid for it once. Through the week, people would leave copies laying around at UMKC. On the weekend, I was a felon and stole the copies I needed, especially on Sunday. Would never pay for this, or any newspaper.

The articles on kansascity.com are not the same stories as in the daily paper. They are either just the first couple graphs, or entirely different stories. They're not the same thing.

Old people are on fixed incomes, you smart ass whippersnapper.
Now, where's my stool softener???

Sundays only here. We get it as part of a subscription to the Liberty Tribune.

I don't have it, but I have seen their app and it is pretty sweet. If you don't have the full subscription you don't get the app. (At least I think that's how it works)

I call ****ing bullshit on never having a land line.

And for that, I thank him :thumb:


Yeah, what he said. :thumb:




You thieving no good bastard :shake:

Do they still sell the Star in those old metal machines you would have to drop your quarters in? I always wondered, what would stop someone from only taking one paper?

why would you need more than 1 paper?



not everyone is a thief

Not a weekday one , but a Sunday one with coupons for sure.

toilet reasons...

maybe in Salvador



:evil:

Nah, just in Rio.




Okay, on the outskirts and in the shitty (pun intended) parts of Salvador.

I'm 29 and since moving out of my parents' house, I've never had one. I've had the same cell number since I was 14, and that's about all I need.

I've never had a newspaper subscription either, and none of my friends have either, that I know of.

That's really not uncommon.

I am still able to read all the KC Star.com content for free.

Maybe the paywall only applies to people in the KC area?

Weird.

Out sourcing because it saves them money. Just like most call centers are outside of the US.

What's a library? They still have those? :p

People still read the newspaper?

I just can't get comfy trying to take a dump and balance my laptop at the same time.

Its funny you said that- there are lots of folks that have No clue what a library is- peretty sad. They walk in and can't grasp the concept that you get books, ebooks, music and DVDs all free.

I havn't rented a movie in years. Through World Cat you can link to Every library in the country and get any movie you can think of- no charge.

I think i remember reading that the NOLA newspaper was the first big city newspaper to go to only printing 3 or 4 days a week. How much longer until other cities do the same?

tablets are the perfect crapper hardware

I can see getting the Star, as it would have news I would be interested in. It is also nice to have something physical in your hands like George says. Besides old newspapers are handy for a lot of stuff.

We get the Chicago Tribune up here for the Mrs. but I only look at the back page of the sports to see the MO Valley standings (No big 12!) and what games are going to be on the tube.

I get my news on the internet though, and never did care for the rest of the paper. We could easily do without it.

Newspapers are pretty much screwed in the modern world.

Man that's a lot of trees!

Hard hitting news that people want on the fly is going bye bye for newspapers, but if they change their model to more human intrest and community type events stories, they would do well.

I don't totally agree. The giant newspapers and the tiny newspapers I think will survive. The tiny papers are the only ones covering small town politics and are the only ones serving the needs of small communities.

This.

We've also recycled all of them since around 1985.