I also marvel at Jennifer Stephen's 1/9 posted recollection
that an account letter made the Clark Boardman and Callaghan
merger work pretty well. My experience with those merging
account changes was just the opposite -- in fact I have
never witnessed a worse account mangling before or since.
Rather than Callaghan's reasonably respected account
servicing practices setting the new CBC standard, the foul
habits of Clark Boardman immediately permeated the new CBC
operation such that constant account and standing order
errors resulted. Complicated by Lawyers Coop. smatterings
being tossed in at the same time, neither the CBC customer
service reps. nor their computers knew what in the heck was
going on. I have more recently experienced just over the
past 12 months through at least a half dozen isolated and
unrelated incidents, Lawyers Coop's unprecedented incapacity
to reliably service my library's account. From my
observations it is apparent that when Thomson takes
ownership of another publisher, reliable customer account
servicing is their first cost cut. If Callaghan's servicing
strengths could not withstand Clark Boardman polluting, then
we cannot expect West Publishing's reputable account
services to survive WIPGing. When Thomson's Ruth Stanoch
cites to Joe Stephens that there are currently more than
1700 legal publisher fish afloat (AALL SPECTRUM, 12/96, p.4)
she fails to warn that there are merger-hungry price-gouging
piranha also in the tank!
Allen Story, Librarian
U. S. Courts Library
401 Courthouse Square
Alexandria, Virginia 22314-5718
793-299-3300 / fax 703-299-3302
(Opinions here are my own and not those of my federal
government employer or of U.S. Court libraries.)
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