Re: Tales Of India And Irony
Posted by:
The English Assassin (IP Logged)
Date: 17 January, 2012 08:44AM
I respect the rationale for the delay, but I don't accept that NSB have done much to ease the concerns of the subscribers: hence the legitimate ill feeling.
As I'm not personally involved in the NSB subscription debacle I don't feel that it can be claimed that I'm motivated by my personal woes nor that I am just self-destructively venting my spleen. I take issue that the subscribers have been intolerant or have too easily given in to their frustrations... In fact I'd say that most of the complaints have been fairly humorous and ironic, rather than raging rants.
The fact is if NSB took just ten minutes to email all of the subscribers once or twice over the last few years then much of that ill feeling would have been instantly eased. As far as I can tell, they didn't do that, they didn't attempt to do that, they didn't even consider doing that... And worse still, they've not always been forthcoming in responding to the queries and concerns of the subscribers. You can dress it up any way you like, but ultimately they have taken a substantial advance to help finance their business from the subscribers and have not treated them with any consideration or respect. Okay, in the wider scheme of things this isn't up there with the credit-crunch, but I don't think it's fair to suggest that the grievances felt by many of the subscribers is without merit or a hideous overreaction. If someone feels ripped off, then I for one am not going to suggest that they are wrong or that they should censor their complaints. I know in similar circumstances I too would feel annoyed. It would seem that the only resource NSB have left them is to complain about it online... Pissing in the wind and self-destructive, you might say, but why shouldn't they? Indeed, I'd argue that by complaining they have alerted me (and others) to a potential problem with NSB and the small press in general, thus at no point in the future will I succumb to the allure of a dodgy subscription deal. while NSB might have changed their distribution method thus this exact turn of events might not happen again, this (and the other bad press they have received lately) has ultimately hurt their rep and the loyalty of their customers, which may yet come back, in a small way, to haunt them.
As for the argument that other small press have been equally unreliable (or worse), therefore NSB subscribers have nothing to complain about and should then, presumably, shut up, seems unfair... If I get my wallet pinched on the bus, but in the past you had you house robbed, do I not have a right to complain too? Okay, my complaints should show some perspective, but I see no evidence that anyone has significantly over reacted to this. Indeed, I'd argue that you should make us aware as to which small press publisher you are talking about and what the circumstances were... If they just went bust.... well, them the breaks I guess... But if they're sitting pretty with no intention of giving their customers the goods they have in good faith paid for, then this is less forgiveable. If a bank or corporation was doing it then it wouldn't be tolerated? By publicly outing these companies, it makes them more accountable. By taking a "Que Sera, Sera..." stance then you're just letting them get away with it. Bend over, touch your toes and think of noble sacrifice you're making...
Okay, it might be a case of diminished returns in escalating complaints beyond a few utterances upon a forum or whatever, but I don't see why they should have to take a totally fatalistic stance either... I'm not saying that every small grievance and mistake should result in a boycotting of NSB or whoever and sure maybe we should cut them a bit of slack and give them a chance to fix things, but it would seem that for many that point has been surpassed with NSB.