Update 7:40 one more time. I called 313-222-6500 and learned that the Free Press circulation person I talked to on Monday had it wrong. My Free Press will not automatically be e-mailed to me. Instead, for now I can log onto this website to read the digital paper; Tomorrow, April 2, 2009, I can receive a password that will allow me to continue reading the Free Press.
Okay. I’m trying…
Update to the update:
It’s Wednesday, April 1, two days after I paid for the Free Press. I was promised I’d receive the e-mail version of the paper on Tuesday morning, March 31. Didn’t happen. Zilch today, also. Gonna have to call that order center again and straighten things out.
Out of curiosity, I tried again to work the paper’s order website. Again, here is what came up:
| We are unable to start your subscription at this time. Please call customer service. |
| Please select another E-mail Address. The one you chose is being used. |
DETROIT FREE PRESS
SUBSCRIBE NOW IN THREE EASY STEPS!
Three easy steps? Back to the phone I go.
Update — Monday afternoon, March 30, 2009, I finally ordered my sub to teh Free Press. I kept calling 313-222-6500 until finally I got a ring — and a human being. ˆ told her about my problems with teh online ordering system. She told me that wouldn’t work — as we spoke, the computer ordering system was not working for her. Gotta use the phone.
By Joel Thurtell
I started by calling 313-222-6500, the Detroit Free Press circulation number I know by heart from having recited it hundreds of times to people who called my news desk by mistake.
Now I’m the one who wants to get through to circulation.
Wrong day.
Busy.
Should have known.
Hundreds, maybe thousands of people, like me, waited for March 30, the beginning of the new era in publishing at the Free Press and Detroit News.
Busy, busy, busy.
No paper paper on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays for Free Press readers. Add Sunday to that list for readers of the News.
I keep trying. Number is busy every time.
Finally, getting smart (or so I thought), I googled “subscribe to Detroit Free Press” and got this website:
http://www.detroitmedia.com/circulation/freep/
Wow! Simple as that. Fill out form, give credit card info, and for twelve bucks a month, I get the paper Free Press three days a week and the online version daily.
Good deal.
I filled out the form and all went well till I tried to give my carrier a tip. Somehow, my two-dollar offering got booted back with a note saying I needed to leave a valid tip.
Two bucks isn’t valid?
How much would a valid tip be?
I by-passed the tip, thinking it’s most important just to sign up.
A big red message came up telling me my e-mail address is in use. I need to give a different e-mail address.
So happens I have a second e-mail address. Fill out form again.
No good. My other e-mail address is in use, too.
Of course, they’re in use! I’m using them!
Back to square one. Since my e-mail addresses are not good (though they function perfectly as far as I can see) I’m advised to call customer service.
Here we go: 313-222-6500.
Busy.
This is the target day, end of an era, the day when the newspaper changes form. Today, they should be hooking us. Instead, they’re rejecting us.
Crazy.
Ideas, anyone?
Drop me a line at joelthurtell@gmail.com — and believe me, that address does work!
Joel,
You totally lost me on this one. But, the freep lost me when they were making a lot of money and tried to bust their unions.
Pat told me about the book. Sounds good. Keep truckin’.
Peace,
George