Because I said I would...and I'm not a liar...

The following is an e-mail I sent to Larry Riley, Vice President of Circulation for the Orange County Register, along with his reply. Please note for future reference: It's a bad idea to scorn someone who rarely gets angry enough to contact a supervisor, let alone a Vice President.

Dear Mr. Riley,

I just received a call, on my cell phone, from one of your sales staff. I am contacting you because, on the Orange County Register website, you were listed with this e-mail address as the Vice President of Circulation. I assume that you are in charge of the sales department making cold calls, if you are not, I kindly ask you to forward this to the appropriate person.

I can’t even begin to tell you how many calls I’ve received from your sales department because I lost count after the 10^th call. Each time I have been contacted, I asked the caller politely to take me off the OC Register call list, and each time I was assured that I would be taken off said “list.” Truthfully, I wasn’t very polite after the 8^th or 9^th call. Why is it that when I ask to be taken of the OC Register’s cold call list, I am continually being contacted? Do you make it a policy to lie to potential customers? I really hope you reply with an answer to this one, because it baffles me. Your employees are effectively lying to me when they say I’ll be taken off the list and then I am continually being contacted. I know these are tough times, but you seem to be shooting yourselves in the foot each time you contact me.

I wish I would have been given the opportunity to speak with a supervisor when I received the call this morning, but I was assured I would be taken off the list, and then I was hung up on. If there were ever a small chance I would even think of subscribing to the Orange County Register, it was completely shattered the minute I wasn’t given a chance to speak to your representative’s supervisor. I assure you I will never agree to subscribe to the Orange County Register and I will do everything in my power to dissuade people from subscribing to it. I will post my experiences on my online blogs as well as send e-mails to every person I know who lives in Orange County, CA. Please pass along this information to your sales staff so that they may know that they have the WORST customer service I have ever encountered.

Thank you for your time,

[Em-Cat]

And his reply...

This is completely unacceptable Ms. [G]. I’m glad you wrote and that you’re holding me accountable. We adhere to strict guidelines when it comes to do-not-call compliance. We not only download against the Federal Do Not Call list (required by law), but we also maintain an internal DNC list too. There’s no sense in calling folks that don’t want to be called. It’s very unproductive the next time around. Numbers are being added daily, and I need to figure out why we dropped the ball with yours.

I need a favor please…

Our calling campaigns are managed through a sophisticated computer. It maintains unbiased records of everything we do. We can track frequency of calls and “call disposition” by agent. We maintain a call center right here in the Santa Ana Register building (foremost, for quality control purposes). However, we do supplement campaigns through the use of a vendor, but not just any vendor. We interact with them almost daily regarding call quality and calibration.

I apologize for this lengthy summary, but hopefully it demonstrates how seriously we take outbound sales. In the end, you’re being called and you’ve asked numerous times for it to stop. Regardless of whom you’re speaking with, this request is not being honored. With your telephone number reply, we can load it into our computer for DNC (which takes effect in 24-hours, or sooner). Plus, we will run diagnostics on the history of calls and figure out who you’ve spoken with.

I always say…”it is through feedback that we improve.” We have some work to do here.

Again, thanks for writing. We should be able to get this corrected very quickly. I know how these experiences go, as I do exactly what you did when called at home. There are companies that adhere to my request perfectly, while there are others that don’t. I respond the same way you have and I really appreciate the feedback.

In closing, I don’t want this experience to damage your opinion of the Register. Hopefully we can redeem ourselves quickly.

Best regards,

Larry Riley

Vice President, Circulation

Orange County Register Communications

625 N Grand Ave.

Santa Ana, CA 92701

O 1.714.796.6864

F 1.714.347.2725

www.ocregister.com

lriley@ocregister.com

cc. Bruce Blair, Director of Circulation Sales

Larry Blake, Manager of Customer Relations

Well Larry, I guess I'll just have to sit back and see if you're as good as your word. I hope you are, because I don't like being angry. It interferes with my beauty sleep...