Hindustan Times — Mismatch in coupons

Address:

Mumbai Suburban, Maharashtra

I had renewed my subscription for Hindustan Times for a period of 1 year @ Rs.199. My previous subscription was to end in September 2010 which means my renewal should have started in October 2010

However the coupons i received start from November 2010 which means I would have to pay for 1 month of the paper. When I called the customer care # this is what i was told:-

- booking date is treated as the date of subsciption, however the coupons issued are dated after a month. Hence I should have booked & issued my renewaal cheque only at the end of September. Also they cannot give me coupon for the month of October 2010 hence I would have to pay for that month.

What i would then like to know is:-

- why was I sent a renewal sms in August & why was the cheque collected from me early.
- They take 21 working days to issue the coupons so if I wait until my previous subscription ends before renewing it it would again delay my renewal process.

This is the 1st time ever that i have heard of any subscription that considers the booking date as the date of renewal & not take into account the expiry date of the previous subscription period.

When i lodged a complaint i was told that they would get back to me in 10-15 days, who works like this? Any complaint lodged with customer care does not take more than 24-48 hours to be attended to. What kind of people run this newspaper????


Sujata Chandran