Philippine Daily Inquirer Subscription

Can anyone tell me where we can get reliable delivery of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI)? We formerly had a newsboy deliver to us daily -- up until today.

During the Christmas holidays, our usual delivery boy missed out on two issues of the Inquirer and didn't even offer an explanation or offer his apologies. (As they say in the vernacular: "Ni ha ni ho, wala.) I guess he figured that we could just not pay him for the undelivered issues but that it not the point.

We then decided to try calling the Inquirer directly at 896-6000. PDI has been plugging their subscription service heavily, with a focus on getting your daily newspaper regularly and reliably. My husband did the "inquiring" and the placing of the subscription under my name. He was told that copies will be delivered between 2am and 7am (who wants to read the newspapers at 2am but who's complaining?) and that the first copy will arrive two days after payment.

We paid for our subscription last Wednesday, January 3, in the amount of P6,480. They were efficient in picking up the check and when I talked to the collector, he did confirm that the first issue will be delivered today, January 5, Friday.

We informed our newsboy to stop delivering the Inquirer effective today. Did the Inquirer arrive today at 7am as promised? No. It arrived at 11am. Aaarggh!

At about 8am, I called their hotline (which is even wrongly printed on their statement of account as 896-600 when it should be 896-6000) and spoke with Tess. Their records were updated and correct (my subscription was on record) and they were surprised that I had not yet received my copy as of that time. I was told: "Nandyan na po sa (mention general vicinity where I live here)." ("The rider is already there near your place."

I patiently wait for my copy. 9am comes. Still no newspaper. To give credit to Tess, she calls me twice during the morning (Pasensya na po -- Please have patience with us) to say that she will be giving me a 2007 calendar and that someone had already been sent to bring me a copy. So how come they told me at first that the rider was already in the area where I live?

It was almost 11am and my newspaper has yet to arrive. I call Tess again to inform her that I still don't have my newspaper. She says that it is coming and that by tomorrow, it will be on time. I rant in frustration and say that if the newspaper is not delivered on time, I will terminate my subscription and that they should return my money with interest.

Tess laughs on the other end of the line about the "interest" thing until I tell her that I'm not joking. I then say my piece about them promoting their service heavily and about readers not "missing" copies but then, in reality, they can't deliver.

Anyway, we shall see. I will let you know if my copy does arrive at 2am tomorrow when it arrived at about 11am today. Why do I like the Inquirer so much? I'm really just after Conrado de Quiros. Balanced News, Fearless Views? I guess they didn't say anything about timely delivery. =)