Too Much Excitement -- Part 2

Okay, so it's been a couple of weeks and things have been improving physically for Mother & Dad.

We have, however, been carrying on an ongoing battle with the local newspaper over their new policy of 'edge of property delivery'. It started without even any notice. Mother went out to get the paper (which she has been in the habit of doing because she's usually the 1st one up) on the Sunday morning after their trip to the emergency room and it wasn't in the box. I got up between 7 and 7:30 and checked again in the box and around the steps, then I called to complain that we hadn't received our paper. That's when we were informed of the new policy. I told them that with two octogenarians in the house the edge of the property wasn't going to work. (I didn't actually use that word - I told them the exact ages) The woman said she'd pass my message along.

I went out and checked the lawn, front walk, and drive way - still couldn't find a paper. Later when I was leaving for church I found it on the neighbors lawn. From then on they have hit our driveway - but way down at the end. We called several times over the next couple of weeks to complain and got the same run around.

Earlier this week Mother and Dad finally got in to a specialist about their injuries and were given shots and meds. Dad is feeling so much better he's moving around the house much better.

On Thursday morning Mother decided that she should be able to get around more independantly so she walked out to the end of the driveway to get the paper. When she bent down to get it she lost her balance. She doesn't have the balance or strength to get up on her own. Dad and I were still in bed and didn't even know what had happened. When Dad got up he noticed the living room light on but Mother wasn't in the living room. He opened the door to go get the paper and found her on the front step. She had crawled back up the driveway. She still couldn't get up and with his prior experience he couldn't help her. So they buzzed me on the intercom and I came up to see what was going on. It took us a little while to figure out how to help her back to her recliner because she can't be lifted by her arms.

I was so mad I didn't trust myself to call them so I went online and sent them a carefully composed comment on their webpage about what I thought of their terrible customer service. I told them that I held them responsible for Mother's fall and that they were lucky that we aren't litigious people. I told them we wanted to cancel our subscription and a refund of all prepaid payments. They haven't yet responded directly, but the paper was on the front step this morning. I'm pretty sure they don't want to give a refund, but they've already lost any future business from this house. When our current subscription expires it won't be renewed. We can get our news from the tv or online. I also checked out the daily comics and we can assess all our favorites online. I even found a site that has the exact same jumble that Mother and I like to work.

It really amazes me that at a time when there are so many other resources that they would show such disregard for their customers. They may be the only daily paper in the area but that doesn't make for a monopoly anymore.