Taking care of readers

A local or regional newspaper, like the Birmingham Mail, can NEVER let down its readers.

And so it's always galling when something in our paper does just that.

Two incidents this week enraged me.

The first was an offer by Subway to give all readers the chance to claim a £2 breakfast 'sub'. Good value from a 40p Mail. Problem was, one or two of the chain's outlets got fed up with Mail readers queuing up with coupons, or misunderstood the terms and conditions, and started turning away readers.

Not very nice if you've bought your Mail, seen the offer and have queued and expect your breaky. Even worse if you've cleverly bought five Mails and are there with your whole family each clutching the answer to your daily bread.

A growing number of irate calls to the editor's chair led to my even more irate calls to Subway via promotions.

Fortunately, Subway appear to have been very responsive and the complaints have tailed off, a sure sign it is now honouring the original offer.

The next incident was even more annoying.

A national customer had paid for an 'insert', a 'leaflet', and this turned out to be a 'Golden ticket worth up to £10,000'.

Eager hands tore open the envelope to see what could be won... and in the seven examples I tried I won them all.... only for my winnings to be the equivalent to a packet of seeds that I had to spend nearly £10 on the phone claiming.

All legal, all within ASA standards and regulations, apparantly. But all outrageous to the average Mrs Cannybody who really believed she might win £10k... and then spent half her food money for the week finding out she's actually won nothing worthwhile at all.

And who would she, and scores of other readers blame? The Birmingham Mail, of course. Not good customer service.

Calls have been made. Matters are under discussion.

Watch this space....