The Charlotte Observer

Trying to collect money not owed and threatening my credit score.
Did not renew subscription which expired 12/8/19 and did not receive paper after that date. Have been called twice demanding I pay for something I did not receive.

This company delivers weekly papers to my driveway that I do not want. I have contacted then numerous times asking them to stop and they will not.
Every Tuesday morning a newspaper is left in my driveway that I did not order and do not want.

This company delivers weekly papers to my driveway that I do not want. I have contacted then numerous times asking them to stop and they will not.
Every Tuesday morning a newspaper is left in my driveway that I did not order and do not want.

Unfair and deceptive billing after services were cancelled.
In 2018 I subscribed to an online and home delivery service, which was paid for upfront. Before the service period ended I cancelled services and removed any billing information. Once the service period ended I continued to receive papers at home, which I assumed was a delay for them to update the route. However, I then started to receive aggressive billing calls from the paper stating I owed a back balance from continued services. I explained that I cancelled services, however they proceeded to send the small amount supposedly owed to a collection agency (because they could not collect since I cancelled service and removed billing information). I settled $21 with the agency to avoid any reporting issues. Thankfully nothing was reported. I cannot understand how this company gets away with these deceptive billing practices. Even more so the flippant attitude from the billing department when you try to speak with them. They just are concerned about getting as much money as they can. Moreover, their marketing department called me 3 days ago inquiring if I would like to start service again. This experience has been unbelievable, and I just want people to know what their getting into with them.

Delivery of Encore has never been requested by me. I have repeatedly requested it be stopped but I have not missed a week yet.
I have repeatedly requested that delivery of this bundle of ads be stopped, both online and by phone. It continues to litter my driveway weekly.

I have called and requested not to send their newspaper but they continue to and are littering on my property
I have called and requested not to send their newspaper but they continue to and are littering on my property

Subscription was started without my consent just after buying a coupon book. I cancelled the subscription 3 times on phone but they did not stop.
I did not subscribe the newspaper. I just bought a coupon book from a student who told me that he is in need. After that I started receiving Sunday papers.

Then I told them on the phone at least 4-5 times to cancel it and also have paid them around $25 in a hope to close this issue. But they kept on sending me papers. All the papers went directly to recycling.

Now they have stopped sending the papers and I have received a collection notice for $42.34. This is a fraudulent company. They still keep on calling me every other week with a new discount offer. I am not going to pay this amount because it is my hard earned money and I cannot give away to fraudsters.

Charges after cancelling subscription
I called Customer Service to cancel my subscription back in November 2018. I recently reviewed my card statements and saw that the newspaper charged me for December and January subscriptions. I called Customer Service to resolve this issue and they said that they will issue a refund. To date, I have not seen the refund in my account.

They want payment for 3 months of service I only owe 1 month of service due to an accounting error on their part.
We received a phone call from the ARM collection agency claiming that we owe the Charlotte Observer an outstanding balance of $62.09 on the account for service from August 03,2018 to October 31, 2018.

I had been trying to get this resolved by email and telephone since 11/8/2018. I told them they had accounting errors. I would be willing to pay what was owed having been a subscriber since 1992 and never had a problem in all that time. I had bank statements showing what and when paid to the Charlotte Observer what I did not have was the account numbers and dates of service. The Observer refused at first to provide billing info finally they provided billing data in the format requested. See below.

Transaction Date:__________
Account Number: ______________
Publication: The Charlotte Observer
Delivery Frequency:
Current Renewal Date: _____________
New Renewal Date: _____________
Payment Term: _______ weeks
Payment Type: ____________
Payment Method:_______
Total Amount: $______

when they provided this I seen immediately what the problem was. In August they tried to raise our rate. On account*** under my name ***. During this time they keep the paper delivered to our address ***. Finally I was told that they start a new subscription ( account number CLT- ***) under my wife's name ***, same address ***, this was at the lower rate. The record provided by the Charlotte Observer shows :
Payment Date: 08/27/2018 Payment coverage from 08/29/2018 until 11/28/2018 for this account number CLT- ***.
so the period for service from August 03,2018 to 08/29/2018 was the period the paper was delivered and not paid for . As soon as I had this information I offered to pay at the higher rate under account*** under my name *** as follows:
for August 3 through August 31, 4 weeks. based on their request
for payment of $62.50 breaks down to $4.80 per week I agree that I owe
$4.80 x 4 weeks = $19.20 which I will issue a check for that ammount. Even though the rate is at the higher rate I wanted to be fair because my wife's subscription did not start until the end of August. If they had billed us for the month of August this would have not gotten to this point.
I tried to get them to agree a couple of times to this but they never answered the request.

At no time had we ever received 2 papers delivered the same day, delivered to our address ***. This tells me they acknowledged that the paper should have billed me only for the month of august which they failed to do. I have complete email string that shows the above.

I have asked to cancel subscription because paper has not been delivered but once and it has been 4 months and they are still charging me.
I was told my account was closed and the money for the subscription would not be taken out of my checking account any longer and I should get a refund because I have paid it for 4 months and only got 1 paper delivered. Did not get refund and they charged me AGAIN this month!!!

Phone solicitation for subscription service inaccurate followed by fraud. Now papers delivered only bills and refusal to clear account.
I never agreed to pay ... I have called to correct. But I still get billed. Only one Sunday Paper was delivered after I called -to complain about billed. I never agreed to subscribe ... I reluctantly agreed to try a trial - free paper. But clearly said I didn't want to subscribe. Instead it is turned over for collection.

I am a subscriber since the late 70s. We moved and first called the Obsesrver on November 29, 2018, to change delivery address. Since then we have received 4 newspapers. I call daily, email them, have been promised this will be handled by the next level up, offered extension of my subscription (which renewed right about the time we were changing addresses). I am now planning to go to the actual building to lodge a complaint in person. I can think of no other business that could stay afloat with such dismal customer service, with not delivering on its promised product, which is paid for in advance.
Other neighbors in our current neighborhood get delivery, I see papers out in front of other homes when I am walking th dog in the morning. I want the paper to succeed in print. However, this is a poor effort to keep subscribers.

I am a subscriber since the late 70s. We moved and first called the Obsesrver on November 29, 2018, to change delivery address. Since then we have received 4 newspapers. I call daily, email them, have been promised this will be handled by the next level up, offered extension of my subscription (which renewed right about the time we were changing addresses). I am now planning to go to the actual building to lodge a complaint in person. I can think of no other business that could stay afloat with such dismal customer service, with not delivering on its promised product, which is paid for in advance.
Other neighbors in our current neighborhood get delivery, I see papers out in front of other homes when I am walking th dog in the morning. I want the paper to succeed in print. However, this is a poor effort to keep subscribers.

This company charged an unauthorized charge to my credit card. When I called to complain, they said they would refund, but did not refund entire amt
I started a free trial for newspaper delivery with this company over the summer, and they took my credit card information for payment if I decided to continue after the trial. I called and cancelled the subscription before the free trial ended. I paid that credit card off and stopped using it. Now, six months later, I happened to check that account and saw I had a charge from this company that charged me for a subscription. I had gotten no correspondence from them, and I had not spoken with them since I cancelled the free trial 6 months earlier. I called the customer service line for this company and asked who authorized the charge, as I did not. They did not have any answers for me, but said they would refund the money since I did not authorize the charge. This was 2-3 weeks ago. I checked my credit card statement today, and saw that they refunded some of my money back, but not all. I proceeded to call the company today and ask why all the money was not refunded. They said it was because I received a few of the newspapers. However, I did not want the newspapers and never gave anyone permission to start a subscription again, or charge my card, as I told the representative. She said she could not refund the additional money since I got the product. I asked to speak with a supervisor, and she would not connect me with one, as I asked for an explanation of why I was charged at all with no notice from them, or permission from me. Still no answers to who authorized the charge or why they started the subscription without my consent or any notification from them to me. The last time I spoke with them was 6 months to CANCEL a trial. She still could not give me any answers and said she would try to get the money refunded to me. I don't think it should be an issue to refund the full amount of money that was charged without my permission, and I do not think that is good business practice. I requested all my financial information to be taken off their records, as I never plan on doing business with them again and I hope this complaint will make sure that happens, and that I am refunded the full amount that was charged to my credit card without my consent or any type of notification from this company. I have never had a company charge me for services/products without any type of authorization or notification. I also want to know why they cannot tell me why that charge was made, or why I was not notified.

Bought a subscription which should have started Dec 26. Haven't received a paper yet. Jan 2
Ordered weekend (Wed, Sat, Sun) subscription delivery to begin Dec. 26. Paper hasn't been delivered yet. We emailed and called to let them know. Each time the paper wasn't delivered they said we would receive it the following day and that we could look at the digital edition. We received a form letter response from the following customer service employee Marc (Dec 30). When we still received no paper, we sent more emails and made more phone calls. On Dec. 31 spoke with Vicky who said she would escalate to Jane Gordon the distribution manager in our area. She reassured us that this would get resolved. It is now Jan. 2. We haven't heard from Jane G nor anyone else and we still haven't received a paper.

The weekly unwanted deliveries MUST stop. I have asked in may ways multiple times. You are littering on my property. Fire the GD carrier.
Weekly papers - not wanted for me and many of my neighbors. STOP IT.

Cancelled delivery on 12/12/18 via phone. Checking account withdrawal from paper on 12/19 in advance. Many calls and email will not fix.
Called 12/12/18 to cancel subscription. Account still showed active so called again on 12/19 and was told by "Raven" account had been cancelled and check for refund had been issued. Never received check and paper did not stop. On 12/23 another email to the paper with another standard apology response with the same language that we had been given before. On 12/27 another email telling me to send them proof of withdrawal from checking account. Sent proof via PDF. GOT MESSAGE BACK THAT THEY COULD NOT READ THAT FORMAT AND THAT THEY had cancelled the account now on 12/27. They also said they would stop delivering paper. I resent proof of their withdrawal in JPEG format. No response. I have filed fraud claim with my bank and will be contacting local TV stations to do an investigation. These people are using illegal tactics and using people out of the US to do so.

Failed to send bill before remitting to collection agency as delinquent account
I Paid in full for a one year newspaper subscription on July 5, 2017. When the newspaper stopped being delivered, I believed the subscription had expired. I never received a billing statement to continue service and since I had no interest in renewing, I thought nothing more about it. Today, Dec 21, 2018, I received a letter from ARM Solutions, INC, a collection agency, requesting payment for a delinquent account in the amount of $27.72! The letter stated, "Despite our client's best effort, this matter remains unresolved." I have had no personal contact from this business. At no time did I ever receive a billing statement from this business. And yet they chose to turn me over to a collection agency.
My credit report attests to my responsibility in paying bills on time. Had I received a bill from this newspaper, or any correspondence regarding this matter, I would have
paid it and cancel my subscription. Going the route they chose to collect on a "delinquent " account I was unaware I even had appears sadly unethical.

Would not stop delivery and billed us again.
Called twice to stop our subscription to the Charlotte Observer, then was charged $180.41 on December 17th after telling phone agent that we wanted to discontinue the paper just a couple days earlier. In addition to our phone request being ignored, we also sent a message through the contact page of the Observer that was also ignored. Today we disputed the transaction with our bank to try and have the charge removed.

My elderly father could no longer afford the paper,so after the last payment in July 2018 he did not renew.He called customer service to cancel (which of course you have no record of) .When you look at his account on line it clearly states it expired in August 2018, yet you continued to deliver for the next 90 days. Finally a bill stating he owed $213 arrived,prior to this bill there were no phone calls,emails or any other paper bills. Even after calling customer service on WED 12/12,THURS12/13 and FRI 12/14 to make sure that his account was marked cancelled he still gets a newspaper and my fear another bill .I spoke to Keanta in the finance dept and she was very quick to threaten a collection agency.I don't feel that my father should have to pay such a high bill when no attempt was made to collect in a timely manner after it was marked expired.