Just a mild rant re: free newspaper delivery

savingdosh2

1. Why cant they push them right through your letterbox instead of leaving them sticking out? . . thus advertising to the whole world and all the thieves therein that you are out. Complaining seems to make no difference.2. Why do I get the free rag delivered for a few weeks, then it goes awol for a week or so?3. Why is it always stuffed full of advertising leaflets and junkmail? I'm sure 99% of people toss them straight where they belong (without reading them) . . . . . in the bin.4. Why are they full of such garbage? 5% rehashed news from the week before, and 95% advertising dross from local businesses - who we know where they are if we need them anyway!mild rant over

HalfPint

And....why do they leave the a pile of papers for the whole block of flats (6 flats) outside in the wet and rain, when it would only take minimal effort to press trade, open the door, and place them just inside!!

HP x

Bowling_4_Gold

1. Put a note on your door saying 'Please push papers through'. Better than expecting a kid to remember a set of instructions for one house on their round when they're probably delivering to anywhere between 60-200 doors.

2. Less than minimum wage = high staff turnover. You'll get one deliverer who does the round completely and well for a couple of weeks then quits, then the next deliverer will dump the papers and take the money until found out (usually a couple of weeks) and so on.

3. Main source of revenue for the newspaper. If you even glance at a brand name while transferring the leaflets to the bin, you'll have them in your head and think about them. This could lead to more sales! Big firms like Asda or B&Q will happily pay 5-6p per paper for this sort of coverage.

4. Nobody needs the paper. The paper is not a charity, and as such wants to make money. It's not going to pay thousands every week to get top notch reporting and pictures, otherwise it wouldn't be free or made on a weekly basis. Likewise, it isn't going to make a loss on every paper, therefore adverts are needed to cover their costs. Printing in full colour for 80 pages doesn't come cheap!

Pink_Giraffe

savingdosh2 wrote: »

1. Why cant they push them right through your letterbox instead of leaving them sticking out? . . thus advertising to the whole world and all the thieves therein that you are out. Complaining seems to make no difference.

And also in winter, it leaves freezing air blowing into your house until you get home some hours later!

Pink_Giraffe

Bowling_4_Gold wrote: »

1. Put a note on your door saying 'Please push papers through'. Better than expecting a kid to remember a set of instructions for one house on their round when they're probably delivering to anywhere between 60-200 doors.

It shouldn't be an instruction for just one house though, it barely takes any more effort on most houses to push it right through. I delivered papers from the age of 10 to 15 (when I got a 'real' job), and I always pushed them right through.

DebtHater

Bowling_4_Gold wrote: »

2. Less than minimum wage = high staff turnover. You'll get one deliverer who does the round completely and well for a couple of weeks then quits, then the next deliverer will dump the papers and take the money until found out (usually a couple of weeks) and so on.

This made me chuckle........

When I used to do the free papers at 13 years old, they used to pay 1p per paper delivered, then you would get extra for leaflets. But you had to put the leaflets in the papers yourself and then cart the heavy bags around delivering the papers. Used to get extra money for leaflets, but not much extra. Used to get between £10-£15 per week.

Hated the job, too :rotfl:

nellytheelephant

I used to work for a free newspaper - Pet hate was when people would complain they didn't want the leaflets, so we'd cancel their delivery then they'd phone up and complain they didn't get the paper.... So we'd reinstate, week after.... Don't want leaflets, arrgghhh!!!

hoyles10

I know when I was doing a paper round years ago some people had tiny a letter box which barely fit the newspaper they had ordered through but on a Sunday the papers were that full of leaflets, magazines and things like free cd's then it was a choice of either posting the paper through in 3 sections or just wedging it in the letterbox. I couldn't win, 1 week I wedged it in the letterbox and someone complained so the following week I posted it through bit by bit and they complained so the following week I knocked on the door at 6.45am on a Sunday morning and surprise surprise they complained.

A couple of weeks after that I came to the conclusion that it really wasn't worth the £6 a week and getting up at 5.30am so packed it in.

Edit: I should really read things properly I've just realises it's about free papers.

Bowling_4_Gold

Pink_Giraffe wrote: »

It shouldn't be an instruction for just one house though, it barely takes any more effort on most houses to push it right through. I delivered papers from the age of 10 to 15 (when I got a 'real' job), and I always pushed them right through.

I don't think it's about extra effort, more about getting your thumb bitten by the 'friendly' dog. Much safer to leave it hanging.

Surely putting an a5 sign by your door isn't too much effort....

chou_123

When I was younger I delivered free weekly newspapers before I moved onto the better paid delivery of daily national newspapers.

I always pushed the newspapers all the way through the letterbox where possible (unless it was too small, had a nasty spring or there was a vicious dog). Although saying that, if the person who delivered the other local free newspaper had got there before me and had left their newspaper sticking out of a letterbox, I would take out that newspaper, push mine all the way through and stick their newspaper so it was half sticking out again!

Probably not worth the effort, but very satisfying!

vyle

Ah brings back memories.

I remember doing the paper round. Used to put the papers through some letter boxes as much as I could, but sometimes they'd get stuck on something and would tear if I pulled, or not budge if I pushed, so I'd leave them - I wasn't being paid enough to care that much.

The only times I'd leave papers half way, though, where either if they got stuck, like above, if there were spiders I suddenly spotted near the door (seriously arachnophobic), had a dog who would try to eat fingers, or if the letterbox had a spring that had caught my finger before.

I hated putting leaflets in, but once there were freebies of wheetabix, like, mini boxes half the size of a normal retail box. These were too big to go through most letter boxes, so I ended up having to keep about 50 of them. Not that I was complaining.

I also had to deliver free tea, coffee and gravy at different times. They were the good old days. The wheatabix one got me £50 for my usual delivery worth £15. Don't get promotional material like that any more.