When you call in a complaint, the delivery person is assessed a fine, often more than they make per month for delivery of an individual's papers. Instead of the original delivery person fixing the problem, often it is a customer service representative that does work for the paper. They only have access to whatever parts of the paper are left in the loading bays - if there is a shortage of paper sections available, they cannot deliver a full paper.
Also, the different parts of the paper are printed on different days - TV guide, ads, and supplements are published the day before and sometimes distributed to the delivery people early. Then the main Sunday paper is published by the deadline and distributed early in the morning. The delivery people have to assemble the parts of the paper prior to delivery.
My husband delivered papers for several years in the early 1990s and worked as a customer service representative in 2001. The newspaper made sure that delivery people could not have large enough routes to make a living. When he worked as a customer service representative, he was forced to charge the delivery people "fines" for complaints even when the problems were not their fault - non-delivery for customers who had not paid their bills was a primary charge, late delivery when the papers were not available to the delivery people on time was another. He was happy to lose the job because he HATED having to lie to everyone. And because he could not force himself to lie to new applicants, he never had enough delivery people and was delivering three routes himself as well as doing the office work to cover all the routes in his service area.
I don't know what you pay for a subscription to the Washington Post but be sure that the delivery person doesn't make much for bringing it to you. With your complaint, they probably will lose money delivering it to you for the rest of this month. If you call in another complaint about the incomplete paper you received the delivery person for your route will probably be charged another fee even though they were probably not the one who brought the "defective" paper.
One way you can help your delivery person, get on their good side and get better service is to pay them directly. If they are willing, get their phone number and if a paper is missing, call them directly for a replacement. My husband did that when he was a delivery person and he would take a full paper to customers that called him - while the customer service people would only give them a few cents' credit and not drive his rural route to bring a new paper.
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