Yeah Bill I read that too. Really makes you want to go out and spend 6
bucks on a magazine that is written by people who apparently could careless
if they have anyone reading it.

Dale


"Bill Crocker" wrote in message
. ..
I picked up the December 2005 issue of SCANNING USA magazine yesterday. On
page 8, under a title of "The News From Ground Zero", with a sub title of
"Behind The Scenes, The Scanner Community Uncensored", was an interesting
story directed at their customers!

The first paragraph begins with the words, "Obsessive, hostile, combative,
angry and paranoid"! They claim these words apply to "to those of the
scanner community"! Later they qualify that by saying this applies to a
small percentage, about 10%, but they said it just the same. The entire
story talks about all the different kinds of abuse they receive from
unsatisfied customers, attempting to inquire about the status of their
subscription.

The article go's on about how obsessed some scanner listeners are, and
sites
a few examples of occurrences that have been in the news. The story
quickly
changes to how professional SCANNING MAGAZINE staff is, and how serious
they
take the hobby.

According to SCANNING USA magazine, "We feel that to get a subscription is
a
privilege" If you rattle their cage they will "REFUSE your order". It must
be nice to be so successful, and have so much business, that you can take
this attitude! It's interesting to note, no one took credit for this
article, as it was nameless!

I had attempted to subscribe to SCANNING USA myself, several months back.
Some of you may recall, I inquired on "RR" as to how long this process
took,
as I had been waiting over three months. I wasn't obsessive, hostile,
combative, angry or paranoid. I just asked, because like everyone, you
want
to get what you paid for. Some of you suggested I call them. I didn't
because I didn't think it should be necessary. I'm glad now I didn't. God
forbid I might upset someone!

My personal feelings are that it's very apparent that no one ever told the
staff at SCANNING USA that "the customer is always right". Now we all know
that isn't a true statement, but in business, when you're selling a
product,
it almost always applies, if you want to keep customers. I've worked many
jobs where I've had to deal with obsessive, hostile, combative, angry and
paranoid clients, in the computer industry for many years. I never had the
luxury to tell them I will "REFUSE" them service. Nor have I ever read in
any other magazine, the staff complaining about how some of their
customers
treat them! I'm paying $6.00 for a magazine about "SCANNING", not
"WHINING"!

On the positive side, I liked SCANNING USA magazine, as evidence by the
fact
that I just paid $6.00 for it off the news stand (because my attempt to
subscribe failed). But it's not something I can't live without. In the 60
pages, only 25 pages were what I would call useful content. The balance
was
ads, and 29 pages of frequency updates, from around the nation, aka
filler.
I also like Monitoring Times, and Popular Communications magazines, both
of
which I subscribed to with no problems. Neither one of these magazines
have
ever complained about their customers! Maybe because they don't have
internal problems servicing their customers.