Timeless: Life without the New York Times

Shortly after I moved from Alexandria, Virginia, to Lago Vista, Texas, I logged in to my New York Times account and changed my address for my Saturday and Sunday home delivery. Everything went much more smoothly than I expected, since it had occurred to me that I might not be able to get home delivery so far away from Austin. But the computer seemed to recognize my new zip code, and I knew that the Times was easily obtained at the local supermarkets and Starbucks, so I was hopeful.

Well, not much time passed, about 24 hours, before I received an email from NYTimes customer service informing me that they were unable to deliver a paper to my new address. It seems that it was, after all, outside their home delivery area. But then that was what I had expected anyway, so I called customer service and requested that my account be switched to an online account. Switching, however, was not possible. Apparently the New York Times online and the home delivery New York Times don't play well together. I was going to have to cancel my home delivery account and open a new online account. Okay, I said, then that's what I will do. It seemed straightforward enough, and I hung up thinking I'd completed the necessary transaction.

I went about my business, consulting the New York Times online as my curiosity moved me, sometimes on my computer, sometimes on my phone, sometimes on my iPad. Everything seemed to be working fine. I was a little curious about the billing, since I had seen no charges for the new account, nor credits for the canceled home delivery account. But then I'm famously impatient about such details, so I let it go thinking all was well.

In fact, all was not only well, it was excellent. When the next Saturday arrived I looked outside as I was making my morning coffee and noticed something that looked like a newspaper on my driveway. I walked out, assuming that my neighbor's paper had been delivered to the wrong address, something that happened frequently back in Virginia. But what I discovered was a copy of the Saturday New York Times enclosed in its familiar blue plastic bag. I was a bit confused, but delighted to have my paper again. And they said it couldn't be delivered to me so far out in the boondocks.

For several more weeks all was well until one Saturday when suddenly there was no familiar blue plastic bag on my driveway. I thought perhaps the paper was just a little late, but when it didn't arrive later in the morning, I did what I always did in the past, I went online to report a missing paper. But my account seemed to be blocked, and the NYTimes website didn't recognize my password. When no Sunday paper appeared, I called customer service again, and was informed once more that I was outside the home delivery area. "But," I explained, "I've been receiving a paper on Saturday and Sunday for several weeks." Not possible, I was told. Then when the customer service representative checked my account she informed me that my delivery was suspended. Could that be, I wondered? I hadn't requested a suspension, but I was going to be away for a few weeks anyway, so I decided to straighten everything out on my return.

When I got back I realized that my online access had been terminated. Apparently, it had never been associated with a new online account, but had been the free access that came along with my home delivery account. So I called NYTimes customer service once more and got a very determined man who said he intended to get to the bottom of my case before he would end the call. First he confirmed that I did have a home delivery account and that it was either inactive or suspended, but he could not tell who had changed its status. Then he checked and so far as he could ascertain my new address was not within their current home delivery area. He had no explanation for why I had received the paper for several weeks, but as far as he could tell that was not possible. What about my new online account? No record of that. He kept checking, trying different ways of querying the computer using my email, address, phone numbers, etc., but he could find no explanation for what was happening with my account. Finally, he gave up and said he would call me back later if he was able to discover what was going on.

I never heard from him again, and decided that I could, after all, live without access to the New York Times. I became a subscriber to my inferior local newspaper, and made do with weekly copies of The New Yorker and the London Times Literary Supplement for news from the outside world. Besides, there's always CNN and Yahoo! Then today, when I went online to check my American Express account, I discovered a credit for $93.00 from the New York Times. Since I no longer have access to my account, I have no way of knowing what the credit is actually for, and I have no desire to consult the NYTimes customer service again, even if I thought they could tell me anything. Besides, I'm doing quite well without the New York Times, something I would never have believed only a few months ago.