Until the past week, I believed that businesses worked hard to treat customers well, so they would remain loyal, buy more and recommend the company to others.
But now I have to admit I‘ve been wrong.
A lifelong baseball fan, I was extremely upset to discover last week that the major league standings and the box scores for the Yankees and Mets had mysteriously disappeared from my daily home delivered newspaper.
I initially thought this was just another step in the Times’ efforts to shrink the Monday through Saturday papers by suddenly eliminating features important to me, such as the local movie listings and the stock/mutual fund tables.
It seems clear that before long, the Times will cancel its printed version altogether and force customers to go online or switch to another newspaper
Customer service, however, knew nothing and had no explanation for the missing sports features.
One supervisor promised to check into it and get back to me, but never did, so I decided to keep calling Times departments until I was given an explanation.
I was finally told that someone or some group decided to choose a few zip codes (perhaps at random?) and remove the baseball standings and local box scores from their newspapers in order to find out how many of them would complain.
It’s possible that if no one complained, the change would be permanent — I was not told.
I mentioned that it was my experience that only a very minute percentage of people who are unhappy about something will actually contact the company responsible, since most prefer to complain to friends, family, and total strangers.
I was also told that the baseball features that had been suddenly removed would be restored in two weeks, so perhaps the number of people who are as miserable as I’ve been and have wasted many hours trying to get answers are of no consequence to them.
I do, however, know that I felt and still feel like a lab rat forced to participate in a highly sadistic experiment.
I would liken it to similar tests that have been done throughout history by those in power upon those who are despised and have no power to fight back.
Because at no point did the Times inform its readers or most of its employees about what they were doing.
Employees getting phone calls from people like me were unable to offer any explanation or information and were, in fact, completely taken aback. So they, too, were made to suffer and were unable to do their jobs.
And what is even worse, at no time did the people carrying out this secret operation stop to consider that their readers have brains and emotions and might, like me, be highly distressed by what they had done.
I have long observed that companies that respect their customers and employees, listen to them and value them are almost always more successful, while those that do not often get into serious trouble.
I can think of some examples of that right here in Great Neck.
I have also noticed a recent trend in the Times to print huge photographs which, of course, means less and less space for articles, all this while the size of the paper appears to diminish by the day.
Perhaps it is a ploy to cut down on the need to hire and pay writers?
It is my hope that someone at the Times who cares will admit in print that this lab experiment was a terrible mistake and that it was upsetting and harmful to many of those who are devoted baseball fans and trusted that their favorite newspaper would deliver the information they need and want, especially at this very crucial point in the baseball season with both local teams striving to make the playoffs.
I never thought the Times would attack and abuse us in this cruel way, but the fact is, they did.
If you agree that what the Times did was wrong, please contact them and let them know what you think. Remember, they are counting all the protests, although I still don‘t know why.
Diane Coffield
Great Neck
Readers Write: Times wrong to eliminate box scores
