From a now-former customer service representative:

Yesterday, and without fanfare, marked the end of an era at our beloved Gazette. The 45-plus Customer Service employees charged with ensuring that your paper was delivered on time and either through the mail-slot or between the doors, at the top of the stairs or at the side door, in plastic or without an elastic band, earlier or later, with the flyers or without the flyers etc., have been laid off; our jobs sent to a centralized call center for all Canwest publications in Winnipeg. Although this labour dispute did not get the same airtime as the Canadian Auto Workers’, it certainly deserves at least footnote. For some, working at The Gazette put us through University, for others it was the household’s main source of income. Either way, these wonderful and patient people deserve to be recognized for decades of service to the ever hard to please Gazette readership. Although this transition was designed to be seamless and perhaps secret, it doesn’t seem right to let this moment pass without marking it’s passing in the very Newspaper we worked for – Monday to Friday 6:30 AM to 5:00 PM and from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM Saturday and Sunday.

Maybe it’s because I lost my job, but I feel that it is unnatural that a Winnipegian take over responsibility for an institution in our city. Unfortunately, I could not think of a tangible problem that will not be solved by the internet or google maps – but that doesn’t change the overwhelming feeling that there are certain things only a Montrealer can understand about Montreal. There may be some glitches in the system, such as the 411 directory assistance representative, in an unknown location, (”sorry sir, I am not at liberty to divulge the location of our call center.”) being unable to locate a listing for a ‘billetetrie’ until I replaced the French pronunciation with an awkward English one. But I am certain that these momentary delays will pass quickly, like so many introductory offers. It seems that this is the trend for all call centers. As one radio talk-show caller put it – some people are just happy that these jobs are staying in Canada.

Finally, I would like to thank all of the people that I have worked with over the past 4 years. For listening when someone needed to vent, for supporting each other through this period of uncertainty, for facing the layoffs professionally and most importantly for proving that what you do is as important as who you work with.

To our readership: if you were patient and polite while we tried to resolve a problem, stopped your paper for a vacation and donated it to charity, took the time to move a subscription to a hospital for a friend or loved one, gathered the papers piling up outside your neighbour’s house and called to tell us they were away or just plain started a subscription, please join me in thanking the people at The Gazette Customer Service and in wishing them the best of luck – merci et bonne chance!

For those of you who have threatened to cancel because the carrier was late in a blizzard, demanded to speak to a supervisor just because you didn’t like the answer you got, lied about not having a subscription to try and get a deal, insisted that your Gazette be delivered to a different address every day or were just plain rude, go ahead, show those Winnipegians what Montrealers are made of.

Justin Levy

Former Customer Service Representative (RSS)