Another DRF Gripe

[andicap]

I have an arrangment with a local magazine store each week to save me a copy of the DRF Simulcast Weekly which arrives Wednesday.
This week, the store got the Saratoga Special insert but no Simulcast Weekly.
I called the distributor in our area to ask whether the Weekly would be given to my store and he never called back.
The store reported that it never got the paper this week.
What kind of distribution is that? Are they pushing the Saratoga Special this week so they don't send out the Simulcast Weekly?

The DRF is the pits.
I will post this on the DRF board as well.

Marc at DRF?????

[Tom]

In my town, we got No Sim Weekly, NO Saratoga Special, NO Del Mar Special, and No Daily Form.
Then the next, day, NO nothing again.
Then today, FRIDAY, WEDnesday's Form shows up.
I have to ask, if you could get $5.25 for a newspaper, wouldn't you WANT to sell it?????
I called DRF and ordered both Sar and DelMar specials by mail. That was 1st class maild. Five days ago.
Hmmmmm???? Probably get them both by labor day.
That would still be an improvement over last year- I literally begged them to send me a copy of the Sar Guide. I called, sent email, sent faxes, went to their webpage........felt more ignored than a two legged sway-back in the Derby.
Sheeez, Mr. Crist.....Why?
Tom

[anotherdave]

Gee I just came back from vacation and bought my first DRF in a few years (I always use BRIS). It cost me $4 Canadian. (That's about $2.60 U.S.). Seems like they are giving us hosers a deal (eh).

[Tom]

Originally posted by anotherdave
Gee I just came back from vacation and bought my first DRF in a few years (I always use BRIS). It cost me $4 Canadian. (That's about $2.60 U.S.). Seems like they are giving us hosers a deal (eh).

Canadian Racing Form, eh?
So let's see, a horse earns a 97 Beyer at Belmont,
what is that at Woodbine, an 88?
<G>
Tom

[Dave Schwartz]

Tom,

Actually, that's no joke. There is a problem with Canadian figs... The class levels are in Canadian dollars but are treated like American dollars!

In other words, a $10k claimer is actually entered for $10k Canadian, which (help me here) must be about $6k American!

This is a problem I am currently wrestling with. It would appear that Canadian race pars need to be adjusted about 3 levels south!

I am figuring out the best way to do it, considering the obvious problems that programmer's face.

Regards,
Dave Schwartz

[andicap]

A circulation manager from the DRF sent me an email today replying -- probably to my post on the DRF bulletin board -- to my problem with the Simulcast Weekly this week.
He was very businesslike, asked me where my retailer was, who did not return my call and said he would mail me the missing copy.
My hats off to Harry McAlpin of the DRF circ dept!

(Marc, if you're out there, pass this on).

[Tom]

You sure you called DRF?
The response I got was (in some fringe version of English, I think) was that they do not replace copies. they will add 1 week onto my subscription.
And very rudely, too.
Maybe you accidently got a parellel universe?
Tom

[Marc At DRF]

ok, gentlemen, if I haven't made this offer before (I thought I had), I'll make it now- if you ever have any problems with DRF or DRF.com, let me know directly (mattenb@drf.com), and I'll traffic any reasonable issues to the right people. Customer service here is mostly outsourced and somewhat rudimentary, whereas Paceadvantage types are more sophisticated, and, IMO, a pleasure to help out.

Related-- %99.9 of the problems having to do with delivery of either Simo Weekly or the Players' Guides have to do with the good ol' US Mail. The Players Guides were shipping from our West Coast circ office, so they can take a while to get to someone in New York.

Simo Weekly should probably be available as an online product, but there are numerous reasons why that isn't financially feasible just yet.

[ceejay]

Originally posted by Tom
You sure you called DRF?
The response I got was (in some fringe version of English, I think) was that they do not replace copies. they will add 1 week onto my subscription.
And very rudely, too.
Maybe you accidently got a parellel universe?
Tom

Tom,

Once I get past DRF's fufillment contractor, and to DRF itself I've had pretty darn good response, like Andy, which I appreciate. My problems with SW are an erratic delivery schedule, including two issues being delivered on the same day, issues being delivered out of order (for example, I might receive an issue dated July 8 before I receive the July 1 issue). My probelms have been so severe because, I think, I'm +/- equidistant from the 2 distribution sites and in a zip code that I'd be surprised had more than 2 subscribers. I decided not to renew due to the poor delivery schedule and (more importantly) to the availbility of the full pdf charts on the drf.com site (I do not think the fonts are too small!).

[Tom]

Originally posted by ceejay


Tom,

Once I get past DRF's fufillment contractor, and to DRF itself .....



Like any good pimp, surround yourself with a group of whores! I see now.
Today-looking forward to the opening day edition of DRF for Saratoga. No form, again! Go to their miserable excuse of a web site-you can buy the PP's if you take two other tracks you don't want, but you still can't get the atricles worth reading ubnless you buy a long term subscription. What a bunch of Ass-clowns!
Marc from DRF told me once in an email that the DRF was something like a giant bohemith and slow to react and he sounded proud of the fact. There is a cure for that-fire every idiot on the payroll and hire people that give damn. But I guess Steve-a-rino likes yes-men around him. Hard to believe he was responsible for the Racing Times. Complete opposite at DRF. How would you like to be a writer for DRF and find out any old slob can have you article for free, but Dave Litfins's will cost money? Nice slap in the face. Not that Litfin isn't a good writer, but as a handicapper, well, he better keep his dictionary handy. Those that can do, those that can't teach (write).
Tom

[Marc At DRF]

Against my better judgement, I'll post a reply to this one.

"Like any good pimp, surround yourself with a group of whores! I see now."

Tom, I'm sure I'm slow, but the metaphor went completely over my head.

"Today-looking forward to the opening day edition of DRF for Saratoga. No form, again!"

Where, Tom? let me know and I'll forward to the circ. dept. It's a big country and a small staff, so these things happen.

"Go to their miserable excuse of a web site-you can buy the PP's if you take two other tracks you don't want,"

No, this is incorrect. We introduced a 20-card monthly plan, and we will soon introduce a 10-12 card monthly plan, probably. You can come in and use one card a day, you just can't come in and buy 1 card and that's it. I know it annoys some players, but there's a number of reasons a 1 card "package" doesn't work for us, yet. If you're a serious player, though, a 20-card monthly package should make some sense, no? Certainly, our sales numbers seem to indicate that.

"but you still can't get the atricles worth reading ubnless you buy a long term subscription."

Tom, unlike our online PP competitors (many of whom do a damn good job), we have a ton of editorial staff that we actually need to compensate for their work. I know you'd love to get *all* editorial content for free, but we need to reserve some of it for our longer term subscribers for two reasons:

a) to drive sales of longterm subscriptions.
b) to NOT cannibalize print sales in the wrong way. Some people actually buy the DRF to read Litfin's stuff, or Free's stuff-- if we give it all away for free on the site, we'll impact print sales, at least mildly. So we give away a lot of our coverage for free, but usually hold off on the columnists and handicapping pieces.

"Marc from DRF told me once in an email that the DRF was something like a giant bohemith and slow to react and he sounded proud of the fact."

I'm glad you've taken private e-mails public, Tom. First class behavior. That said, yes, DRF can be slow to react for a wide variety or reasons, but it's also a dramtically better print product and online product than it was a few years ago-- Look back to the print product of the early 90's, then get back to me. Look back to the website of 2 years ago, then get back to me. And no, *nobody* here is proud of slow we can be to fix things. There's numerous fixes on the new site that are underway, and we're all ticked off that it takes as long as it does-- that includes Steve, me, everybody.

"There is a cure for that-fire every idiot on the payroll and hire people that give damn."

Having worked at a few different companies over my professional life, I can say with confidence that people who work here are generally more passionate about their work than anywhere else I've ever worked.

"But I guess Steve-a-rino likes yes-men around him."

The opposite is the case.

"Hard to believe he was responsible for the Racing Times. Complete opposite at DRF."

Given that he incorporated many of the changes, staff, etc, from the Times into the DRF, I disagree.

"How would you like to be a writer for DRF and find out any old slob can have you article for free, but Dave Litfins's will cost money? Nice slap in the face. Not that Litfin isn't a good writer, but as a handicapper, well, he better keep his dictionary handy."

So which is it, Tom? Mad that you can't get Litfin's articles for free, or, alternately you think he's a miserable handicapper? His articles are "worth reading" but he's a bad handicapper? Don't try and get inside the mind of a DRF writer-- your knowledge of their professional experience is clearly nonexistent.


"Those that can do, those that can't teach (write)."

And apparently, those who can't write still give it a shot on occasion. I suppose this will spur some more hate from Tom. Out of respect for this forum, I will decline further response.

[PaceAdvantage]

Marc,

I admire the fact that you took the time to respond to Tom's comments -- I would have completely understood if you chose to ignore them. With that said, I'd like to avoid a total flameout here which would likely result in Marc no longer participating here. Since I value Marc and the view he brings from inside the DRF, let's all try and keep things civil (that's not to say things AREN'T civil right now.....LOL)

Marc does afterall WORK for the DRF, so we all should understand where he is coming from.....


In any event.....carry on


==PA

[andicap]

Having some of the same problems Tom has and sharing his frustration I have to say Marc has tried to help me in any way he can.
Also having worked for many newspaper in my time I can understand the frustrations of the readers and the problems in the circulation department.
I used to run (as an editor) a weekly trade publication. Biggest complaint: readers weren't getting it until Thursday, Friday or the following week (it came out Monday.)
There was little I could do about it in the editorial dept, but kept plugging away internally until we solved the problem somewhat.
(Unfortunately the new management that came in and cared about this stuff ended up laying me off but you can't have everything).

Unfortunately, I still can't get a Simulcast Weekly unless I pay a king's ransom for a 1st class mail subscription or pay $10 and waste 2 hours to take a train ride into and out of New York City.
My question: Why sell and promote something in the pages of DRF that I can't buy?

Yes, the DRF is a better paper than it was before Steve Crist came. But while I believe Crist does care about the $2 player, I also believe that the DRF was forced into making many of these changes by competition -- first from the Racing Times, then from BRIS. Face it, if the DRF was still a monopoly do you think they'd have spent the money on all these upgrades? Does anyone remember the old management that successfully kept Sports Eye from selling past performances on track?

[Rick Ransom]

My wife worked as a secretary for DRF in Phoenix a couple of years ago and used to get a lot of calls about customer service related problems. Someone in customer service had discovered they could get rid of the customer by giving them her phone number. Although her job really had nothing to do with customer service, she would try to follow up as well as she could.

Now, once a customer had gotten what he wanted that way, the next time he would just bypass customer service and call her. Anyway my point is that knowing someone working for DRF that is willing to help you is much better than going through customer service. I think Marc has stated at least twice that he's willing to help people so that would seem to solve the problem.

All businesses have people that care and people that don't care. I don't think it's much different at DRF than anywhere else.

[Tom]

First, thank you for your offer to help people with problems.
Secondly, as far your reply to me, that is fine. You are entitled to your opinions as I am to mine, and I absolutely will not engage in a flame war or whatever else. I don't expect everyone to agree with me, nor would I want them to. As PA said, your posts are always welcome here whether I agree with them or not.
As far as free stuff, that is not the point I meant to make. What I was complaining about was that if I bought a whole three track edition, I thought I should have access to the articles the same as if I bought a print version.
I will admitt that this year I was able to buy both the Sar and Delmar special editions through the mail. that is a major improvment over last year.
As for Litfin, I enjoy his articles about handicpping and methods, etc, but I think he is terrible when he handicaps a race before it is run. Just my opinion.
As far as DRF goes, I will probably end up buying a long term plan-the hard copy paper is just way to erratic for too many years-I don't think it will ever be fixed no matter what you guys do-you are, as you point out, at the mercy of the USPS-hands down a worthless organization, and too many small lazy distributor's unions that only care about their paychecks and pensions to care about customers. And a $5.25 per day, with tracks I don't want, it is just foolish to keep buying it. And I have been a daily customer, 364 days a year, for over 20 years.

As for the website, I still think it is worse that a year ago. To each his own. I think most websites are poorly desingned.

So we all have our own opinions, there is no reason to be afraid to voice them. I don't take it personaly and I hope you don't either. My disdain is not directed at you.
Tom