Jerusalem Post Subscriber Abuse Story

This was sent to us recently:

WARNING TO CURRENT AND FORMER JERUSALEM POST SUBSCRIBERS:

If you canceled daily delivery of the Jerusalem Post (or for that matter, any delivery related to this organization)...check your bank and credit card statements. Last February, we suddenly realized we hadn't been getting the Jerusalem Post for a long time...during the entire Gaza War and even before. We waited a day - and sure enough...no paper. We called them up and told them. We explained that while our son was in Gaza, we were preoccupied and getting minute by minute news on the Internet. Who noticed we weren't getting their paper? I had other things on my mind! Their initial response was that they offered to send us the day's paper. Bully for them...we demanded a refund. They offered a week's refund. We told them we could confirm, without question, not having received it from before the war, through the current date - minimum of 6 weeks.
I told them I wanted them to check with the delivery person. A day later, they called back and said they did and he was telling them he delivered it every day. Lies...We said - we've been customers for 6 years; we want to speak to that delivery person and hear where he thinks he's delivering the paper...no response; they refused. We said, if you won't credit us...cancel the subscription - that was back in March after we spent many days trying to get them to fix the problem. They refused to credit more than a week. We told them to cancel EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.

Well, today, 8+ months later, they called their "active customers" to make another offer. I said, "we aren't active customers."

Turns out - they have been charging our credit card for the last EIGHT+ months...SIX of which, we haven't even been living in the same house where we used to get delivery. The house we rented then is still empty...no one lives there - and amazingly enough, there is no stack of delivered newspapers - not a single copy, never mind an eight-month build up.
I told this to the Jerusalem Post representative...he said they can cancel the paper, if I want. I said, "CANCEL WHAT???"
Yes, that's right - we are entitled to sue them, if we want, says the customer representative, but they can't give us credit for the money they stole from us.
I wanted credit for six-eight week during which time they did NOT deliver a paper back in Dec/Jan of last year. That would have amounted to a credit of less than 300 NIS. Instead, their stubborness cost them 1,760 NIS and counting...or should have if they did as we told them to do. So, for the last 10 months or so, they have been taking our money despite our having cancelled...and supposedly have no record of all the mess back in Dec/Jan - several calls with many people about our complaint, our follow-up and the final decision to cancel in March, 2009.

I can tell you that I will not be buying the Jerusalem Post this week. I am furious at such a blatant attempt to steal money from clients. The fact that all our complaints and conversations were not recorded in the record, including our demand to cancel back in March is a major indication of how bad the situation must be there.

If you cancelled the Jerusalem Post any time recently, I strongly suggest you follow up in writing to them - and even then, don't trust them to follow up. Cancel with your bank. Apparently non-delivery of services means nothing to the Jerusalem Post and pointing out that we moved from the house they were supposedly delivering it to over 6 months ago delivers nothing. Our former neighbors certainly would have told us if the paper was there; our former landlord would have come screaming. I have been past the old house...nothing.
I am completely disgusted with the attitude of the Jerusalem Post. So, if you cancel - do it in writing- even a registered letter and follow up by canceling your credit card or bank order. Do NOT trust them to honestly stop pulling money from you if they can.

I'll let you all know if the situation changes, but in the meantime, I'm still waiting for some manager to get back to me. Yeah, apparently, I can hold my breath.

A VERY Former Jerusalem Post Subscriber

Bloggers to Watch in 2010

In the world of Jewish and Israeli bloggers, there are so many amazing blogs to watch in the coming year. There are those who are on the cutting edge of reporting what is happening, those who present challenging and interesting stories in a way that touches and explains, and those who simply defy all supposed rules of journalism to simply show Israel as it really is - through humor, through love, through the lens of a normal day.

Bloggers to watch...who report fast and accurately:

The Muqata (http://www.muqata.blogspot.com/)
Israel Matzav (http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/)
IsraellyCool    (http://www.israellycool.com/)
Life in Israel (http://lifeinisrael.blogspot.com/)


Bloggers to watch...who simply write about Israel:

A Soldier's Mother (http://www.israelisoldiersmother.blogspot.com/)
A Mother in Israel (http://www.amotherinisrael.com/)
This Ongoing War (http://thisongoingwar.blogspot.com/)
Treppenwitz  (http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/)
What War Zone (http://www.whatwarzone.com/)

How Small is Israel?

Our adopted son #2 told us about an adorable site filled by people posting some pretty funny stuff. Most are just cute...some cross the line. It's a cute site. It has thousands of such posts...where people do something and it backfires or someone says something that they meant as a compliment, but was an incredible insult, if they would have just taken the time to actually think.

The site is www.fmylife.com (read it at your own risk).

The posts are sorted by many factors...one is by country. I clicked on Israel to see what sort of things were posted by my fellow countrymen (and women). I expected to see a drop-down list of countries, instead I was presented with a world map. I slid the cursor across the face of the world...Turkey...Jordan...Egypt.

I'd missed Israel...I tried again - Saudi Arabia...Egypt...Jordan. No matter how I tried, I couldn't see Israel. I've been on sites before that intentionally left out Israel...and I began to think this was the same.

And then, somehow, I managed to place the cursor just so...a fraction of a millimeter on the scale of that map was enough to render Israel all but invisible.

That, I realized, is how small Israel really is.