Feb 17 2015

I had a question for Canon and a separate question for the New York Times. For each, I went to their websites, looked a the FAQ section, looked at chat streams all in vain. I could not find an answer to my question online. Well, each site had a way to send an email to customer service. I was very precise in the question I asked of Canon and the question I asked of the New York Times.

The question to Canon was about whether a particular lens was going to be updated and, if so, when. The response was generic boilerplate about Canon lenses and a link to their catalog. The language was such that it was clear the person who responded had not read my email question but had just seen the word “lens.” When I pointed that out in a second email, he/she responded with the answer to the question I asked.

For the NYT, I had a question about joint subscriptions (Kindle and those for online viewing). The response said that they could not find my email address in their database so I should please register or tell them an address I’d used when I subscribed. Well, I was clear in my first email that my subscription was through Amazon on my Kindle and not an online one. This time, I was a bit snarky in my email back to them:

Well, you seem to have ignored what I wrote about. I said I have a KINDLE subscription. That's through Amazon and not through you as you well know.

Let's go back to what I asked rather than the non-answer you gave me. I have a KINDLE subscription to the NYT that I read on my Kindle, obviously. I would love to have a joint subscription that I could also read either on my Kindle app on my desktop or iPhone or just on my laptop through NYT rather than through Amazon. I do not see any option that would allow that. The only options for online subscriptions (NOT ones from Amazon/Kindle) are for a combination of different computer/phone/iPad devices. Seems silly for me to pay you $19.99 a month for my KINDLE subscription and then have to pay an additional fee of about that or more to be able to read NYT on my laptop or iPhone or iPad. So, that is the basis of my question.

This time, and I'm sorry for being so direct about my disappointment in your first answer which did not address my questions at all, I hope you will respond with answers. 

Canon sent me an email survey about my experience with customer service. Had fun filling that out.

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