Several weeks ago I received an automated e-mail from the Economist to say that my subscription had been frozen due to an issue delivering my copy. Odd, they’ve never had an issue finding my house before?I called up and confirmed my address - it was correct - and was told that they’d send out a replacement and resume my subscription. 10 days later and I’ve received no replacement nor last weeks copy. To add to my confusion I received another “your subscription is frozen mail” last night.I attempted to use Web Chat. This proved to be an appalling experience (as other reviewers have noted). The guy I spoke with (someone called “Allan”, apparently) asked me for my address - the one they already had - and then claimed to have “updated it perfectly”, assuring me that “I won’t have any more issues”. Naturally I asked him what the underlying problem was only to be ignored for quite a while. As I probed further “Allan” eventually admitted that he didn’t know why my deliveries were failing and that he hadn’t actually updated my address at all as “the system was down”.Having had enough of “Allan’s” dishonesty I opted to phone instead. The person I spoke with confirmed my address looked correct and that my subscription wasn’t suspended after all and that last nights e-mail was apparently a mistake. Confused? Join the club!They confirmed that I wouldn’t be charged for my missing copies, despite not actually asking how many copies I’m missing in total – it’s three by the way – and I’d even get 2 free ones for my troubles. Alas there's no sign of the 2 free copies on my account either, my number of issues remaining still reads 8, as it did last night.This is such a shame as I really enjoy reading The Economist and have been a subscriber for quite some time. However, if I'm honest I’m doubtful that this week’s copy will arrive. I’m equally doubtful that they’ve credited me for the missing copies and goodwill gesture. And finally, I’m not convinced they’re up to the job of resolving a simple distribution problem.If Friday's copy fails to arrive I will, regretfully, have to cancel my subscription.
