A long time ago, the New York Times announced that it intended to charge for access to its news archives. The announcement said that the archives access would continue to be free for paid subscribers.
In October, my subscription renewed and I paid over $300. So far, so good.
Today, I went to use the archives and the system tried to charge me $3.95 for the article. I called up Customer Service, and was told, after being instructed five (5) times to "log in" (which I had already done, myself not being a blithering idiot), that they were switching me to "technical support". What I got was dial tone.
I called back and asked for a supervisor. I was told this was a "known issue" and that they would fix it within 24-48 hours. If it was a "known issue" doesn't that mean that the free access promise has another label; fraud? Also, why the need to place it on a "queue" for fixing? Either the New York Times knows the problem and they're responsible or they don't know the problem and they're irresponsible.
Which is it?