I have recently had considerable difficulty in dealings with
Research Institute of America (RIA) regarding their Tax Coordinator
tax reference service and would alert others that they may need
more lead time than anticipated in similar dealings with this company.
   We are adding a new Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) Tax
Practice Series and are reducing our RIA Tax Coordinator subscription
to one of their newly-available smaller package plans.  The source of
our primary problems seems to be the RIA sales rep's belief that making
sales calls on the School of Accountancy is sufficient to cement deals
involving library monies and subscriptions--in spite of my several
explanations to the contrary.  This sales rep seemingly refuses to either
call on me or return my telephone calls.  (After one of my complaints
about his lack of respone, he actually asked for the name of MY
supervisor!  Who's the customer here, anyway?)  The problems, however,
extend more deeply into the company as well.  The sale rep's supervisor
defended his lack of response to me, and three separate phone calls and
a fax to the company's main office all failed to effect a cancellation
of our original subscriptions--one of my attempts to get some contact out
of the sales rep.
   Unquestionably, our problem lies primarily with our area sales rep,
but it is clear that a lack of service permeates both the sales
supervisory level and the "customer service" operation of RIA's main
office as well.
   And as our conflict lingered, our subscription lapsed--leaving us
with at least a month's gap in our holdings, which the supervisor says
he will "speak with the company about filling."  Meanwhile, I can't even
get this same supervisor to supply me with a title list of the items
our new smaller subscription package includes!
   RIA customers, beware.
                             --Jan Anderson, Utah State University
                               janand@usu