« Good Night, and Good Luck | Main | Success! The NYT Responds »

October 31, 2005

Cruel and Unusual Punishment from NYT

I'm labelling this Media News even though it is Personal. Here's the deal: if you create online access to your home delivery account with the NY Times, you can absolutely never delink your account. That means that your Member ID must remain the same. You can change your email address and you can change your password, but you can really never change your Member ID.

Why should this matter? Well, suppose your home delivery is a gift. And then suppose you stop talking to the person who gave you the gift. See my emails with NYT Customer Care for more on this conundrum...

I think this is a ridiculous system. My problems began because my home delivery service was a holiday present last year from my boyfriend, who managed my account through his Subscriber ID. We broke up and I wanted to continue my subscription - and pay for the months he didn't pay. So first I was told there was no way to transfer the home delivery account to a new email address. Then I was told if I had access to the account, to change the email address and password. Now you're telling me that for the rest of my life I have to look at my ex-boyfriend's Member ID because I want to continue uninterrupted home delivery of the Sunday NY Times.

This is cruel and unusual punishment and honestly, your system cannot be that archaic that you truly have no way to change my Member ID. Doesn't the money I pay every month count for something when it comes to Customer Service?

Your extremely frustrated loyal reader,
Cynthia J. Minster
Chicago, IL
-----------
On 10/31/05, NYTimes.com Customer Service wrote:
Thank you for contacting The New York Times on the Web.

Unfortunately, we are not able to change Member ID's.

There are two options: in order to change the Member ID that you registered with, you will need to cancel your existing subscription and re-register with the same e-mail address.
Alternatively, you could register again with a new e-mail address and request that we cancel your old ID.

Please note that if you have a home delivery account and access NYTimes.com with the same information, you can not cancel your ID at this time. Additionally, if you have purchased products or services on our site, those services are valid based on your current ID.

If you wish to cancel your current Member ID, please e-mail:
cancelcs@nytimes.com

and write:

Cancel Member ID
in the Subject line AND in the body of the message.

Once your original ID is cancelled (usually this is processed over night), you can then re-register with the same e-mail address.

We regret the inconvenience and hope you enjoy using our site. Do let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns.

Regards,

Leo Jones
NYTimes.com
Customer Service
www.nytimes.com/help

-----Original Message-----
Date: Monday, October 31, 2005 07:11 PM
To: help@nytimes.com (help@nytimes.com)
Subject: Registration

How can I change my Member ID? I would like it to be cjminster instead of carsp98. Thank you.

Posted by cj at October 31, 2005 08:57 PM

Comments

Post a comment




Remember Me?