LA Times review: newspaper subscription 30

Same here ... a guy knocked my door sometime last year in Mar and sold the $20 subscription which you bought it too. But my story is that until today I'vent received not even a single copy of Newspaper and on top of it they keep sending me a bill due of $27. They said that I agreed on phone verbally for a subscription.

Since I'vent received a single copy of their Newspaper I'm denying to pay the bill and they are bombarding me with their calls everyday asking me for my credit card details. They almost sound fraud and scam people. I've lost the impression with LA times and in future will never ever have any relation with them. LA times is a scam and fradualent company in my opinion.

same here, was wondering if anyone had luck getting a refund?

same here, they are charging $4.90 per month from my checking account and can't find any phone # to cancel the damn thing! Anybody knows a way, how to get rid of it?

2 kids knocked on my door, one stated 17 yrs and the other is unknown, selling for $20/10 wks. He said it is for an afternoon program, he has an ID from COMPTON HIGH SCHOOL, and we are from COVINA (40-50 mins away from COMPTON) sounds fishy right? and the year on the ID is 1992 ?

We had purchased 1 year the LA TIMES already, so I denied the offer, the boy said I could buy it and the newspaper would be send somewhere else.

He said the purpose of the sale was for him to earn credit toward graduation, for college! doesn't make any sense to me!

I wanted it help, i've asked for a phone number but he didn't want to give.

Could this be a scam!

Oh my god! I can't believe it! This is the EXACT same thing that is happening to me! Bought the paper from a kid going door to door. LA Times call's looking for $16 dollar payment, after subsciption period, I cancel the service, she transfers me to customer service, and after what seemed like forever, the call disconnects! (After hearing you were also disconnected, I'm not longer certain this was technical difficulty!)

Now here's where it gets even more distressing. I stopped receiving the paper after this call. I continued to get mail from them, and since I canceled the paper and was no longer receiving it, I assumed they were offers to renew, and therefore threw them away without even opening them. They were not. July I receive a call from them saying I owe them 30 bucks. I told them I had canceled the paper back in April and haven't received the paper since. The guy makes a note, and transfers me to customer service, and I was disconnected again! Only this time, I called back the number on the caller ID, The guy gave me the direct number to customer service. When I call them and inform them of the issue. The lady says, we have been sending you bills, why didn't you call in response to the bills? I explained why I didn't realize they were bills and was therefore throwing them away. As if she was on another planet, she actually said, well ma'am our our account shows you've been receiving the service, and if you don't call and file a complaint that you aren't receiving your paper we have to assume you are. HUH? Seriously?!? To which I responded, "ummm, excuse me if I'm a little slow here but, why anyone would call your company to complain that they aren't receiving a service that they assumed was canceled? Eventually, after a long back and forth about when was the last time I received the paper. They said they could not close the account or cancel the service til they recieved payment and would further investigate my complaint and that I could call back in a week and find out the status. Today I receive a collection notice from a collection agency!

If you think about it, It's good scam for a paper that's hurting financially like the LA times. Use kids to get subscribers, continue to charge them beyond the subscription period. When they cancel, disconnect them so they can't get a cancellation number, and save money and keep them from calling to complain about continuing to receive the paper, by discontinuing delivery of the paper, and increase the bottom line by continue to charge them for it. Since they didn't call to complain they weren't getting the paper, and don't have a cancellation confirmation number, its our word against theirs that they haven't been receiving it. If they don't pay threaten their credit records.

This is called slamming, and I'm informing the DA of it today. I can't pay it, because I can't be certain that if I do, they won't continue to bill me! And I wonder how many other people have paid up to avoid the grief and have therefore allowed them to continue doing this?

If you've had a similar experience with the LA Times continuing to slam you with charges you after you've informed them you want them to stop delivery, please speak out here or call the DA's office!

I have lived at 12 11 S. Orange Grove Blvd., Pasadena for nearly 10 years. My telephone number is, and has been, [protected] for that entire time. I have requested on numerous occasions for you to update your automated system to reflect this number without success. Per usual, on my return today from a trip, my paper was not delivered as requested. I called your number and could not be recognized. Does anyone there care?

See above!

Similar story as the posters above about slamming the subscription. I have written a letter to the LA Times.

Yes, we need to speak it out. I'm going to write them a letter. They call me three times in one morning about the same issue. Unbelievable, it happens in US.

I also have been getting outrageously billed by L.A. Times. Every time I try to cancel they call and try to get be to re-subscribe. After noticing a seventy-two dollar charge posted to my bank account I angrily cancelled it again. They tried to tack on a bunch of so called late fees to my previous subscription without informing me over the phone or by mail. Beware of giving them your routing number. Every month I paid my bill automatically and every month the charge was higher. What a freakin' scam!

I am very angry with LA Times / Redlands Daily Facts ( I think redlands daily facts is a subsidiary of los angelese times). A few months ago, some kid came knocking on my door asking me to help him take a certain trip by me subscribing to Redlands Daily Facts. I wanted to help him but having been autosubscribed before, I declined. He assured me there would be no autosubscription and since I wanted to help him out, I bought the subscription. A few months down the line, I recieve a mail that says I owe $13.75. I must admit I liked the paper and had actually toyed around with idea of resubscribing, but now am mad. This is some form of extortion, I know newspapers are having a hard time, have they turned to extortion by small print and using innocent kids as their agents. That is the last time I fall for one these newspaper tricks again. Never again am I buying LA times / Redlands Daily Facts. I hope you continue not doing well.

The LA Times is running a newspaper subscription scam in the supermarkets now.

The have someone behind a table with $10 store gift cards that are marked free. The salesperson also yells out that the cards are free. Of course they are not, you need to subscribe to the Times.

What is sleazy and unethical is that nowhere do they display any signage saying that they are selling the LA Times. They don't even have the paper on the table.

Years ago I had a weekend subscription. They kept on telemarketing me to get the weekday paper. I called and got the direct line number of their subscription manager. One long angry message from me on his voice mail stopped the telemarketing cold.

I bought a subscription for my husband (I wanted to make it a gift so it wouldn't automatically bill me if we forgot to cancel it.) That was four weeks ago, and I have yet to receive a paper on Sunday morning. I've called EVERY monday, and requested a replacement each time and I still never get the paper. I get a lot of apologies, but no paper. Each time they say they will "escalate this matter to higher management" and that I'll get my replacement paper the next morning.. but that's only happened once when i was awake early enough (with enough brainpower that early) to call and ask for a replacement. Other than that it's been an awful experience.

Contacted L.A. Times Customer Service [protected]) to stop harrasing collection calls for past due invoice for a subscription I did not order. Accented English customer service reps (possibly overseas operation) would not cancel the invoice for the "unauthorized past due" subscription deliveries I did not order. Each rep was focused on the invoice amount and did not care whether the invoice was authorized or not. First rep stated I owed $85, second rep stated $14. The L.A. Times invoice I received in the mail stated $35.21, huh?. I explicity stated I will not pay this invoice for a subscription I did not order or authorize. Fortunately, I have paid by check so I didn't have to experience the automatic deduction nightmares many of you had to contend with.

It is a shame a "once" world class organization has to resort to these tactics to hold on to subscribers. If they wanted to get more subscriptions they should give them away for free after validating each "free subscription offer". I'll bet they could double their circulation numbers and thereby increase advertising revenues. There are still a lot of baby boomers out there who still wouldn't mine reading an "old fashioned newspaper" and checking out the weekly retail sales ads for free!

EXACT story here. I got very angry with LA times and I can't believe they have this scam. I don't want to repeat the whole story, because it's exactly the same as others. I have never received the paper, because the address was not my home address so I never receive the paper and I never receive the bills. I already called LA Times customer service three times so far to dispute the billing. Every time, they told me that they took care of it but I got a call again from LA times.
This morning I got a call from collection agency for $17.42 that I owe to LA times. I got very furious with LA times. I called LA times and they transferred me to different department and the customer service assured me that my bill was disputed. I can't trust them. I will call the accounting department to make sure it was cancelled. The customer service did not want to give me the number of accounting department, but I found out that the number is [protected]. If you have the same problem, call this number and make sure that your account was cancelled. When you call LA times make sure you ask the cusotmer service's name and his/her employee ID number. This way they know that you can track them and hopefully they will listen to you.
I will never help those teenage kids again and I will never subscribe to LA times again, even if they offer me a free subscription.

SCAM! LA TIMES IS A SCAM. They called me stating that I owe them money. I asked the representative can you tell me when did I signed up, he said in July 09. I said well we are still in Jun 2010 and why are you calling me before a year. For this he did not had an answer, after babbling for few moments he stated that your subscription ended in April 2010 and therefore you owe use for the the three months. This was infuriating, I cursed the representative hang up the phone and called the customer service @ [protected]. I asked them same question when did I signed up they said July 2009. After hearing this I said ok now please cancel my service permanently. They tried to sell me other stuff, and paper at a discounted rate furthermore they keep on insisting on putting a temporary stop on this account. After good 10 minutes of back and forth argument I was able to cancel the paper.

Another thing they are doing now is they call you and ask if you would like to subscribe to their services, when you say "no, " they continue talking to you and asking you "Yes" and "No" questions. As soon as you say the word yes to one of their questions, they hang up! You know what that means right? Yup they just got authorization to send you the paper they were trying to sell to you. They did it to my wife before we got married and they did it to me this morning. Be aware of these callers, never say "yes" or anything that implies that you agree. If they ask "do you still live at 111 blah blah street, " don't say yes. If they ask "is your name Blah Blah, " as soon as you say yes, they will subscribe you to whatever they are trying to sell you.

i just cancelled my subscription not even 5 minutes before typing this complaint.

some kid came to my house and i assumed she was fundraising for her school. i did the 12 week, Thursday to Sunday thing for 15-20 bucks (i can't remember), and at the end of the 12 weeks, they were supposed to call me to renew the subscription. they didn't. they kept sending the paper anyway, so i figured that they would they would charge me every month until they called to renew. this wasn't a problem, as i've enjoyed their paper for over a decade. but they didn't even do that.

it's now October and i get an automatic charge taken out of my checking account for $45. i call the newspaper to see what the charge is for and the operator tells me that it's for delivery from May 31 to October 31. that's 5 months. 9 bucks a month for a newspaper? i like their paper, but i wouldn't pay 9 bucks a month for it--i could buy it from a vending machine from Thursday to Sunday and pay half that.

i tell the operator that i want to cancel my subscription, because the delivery is not worth the money if i can not only buy it cheaper from a vending machine, which i pass by every day anyway... but i'd also AT LEAST have SOME say as to whether or not i even want the paper. she apologizes profusely and tells me that they'll call to renew if i renewed my subscription with them now. now, i think to myself, i at least have some control over when i get my paper and when i get billed. so i ask her, "alright. what are the renewal rates?" and while i'm on the phone with her, i'm on the LA Times website and i'm googling calendars, trying to crunch numbers.

she tells me, and this is the same on their site, $12 for 8 weeks, $18 for 12 weeks, $36 for 24 weeks... and i stop her right there.

i tell her that the paper just charged me $45 for a 22 week renewal that they didn't even call to confirm with me. why is it only $36 for 24 weeks? she couldn't answer. then i asked her if they were going to give me my $12 back, since going by their renewal rate 22 weeks of service is supposed to only be $33. she doesn't give me an answer.

instead, she tries to reason with me. she asks me if i'm going to cancel my subscription to a paper that i LIKE over a measily $12. this was the last straw. i tell her that it's not about the money, it's about how they treat the people who read their paper on a regular basis. even though it was a small amount of money, i was still overcharged, and they should've worked with me instead of patronizing me over the amount, because i was WILLING to renew my subscription.

the LA Times has just LOST a regular customer who bought their paper AT LEAST once a week from a vending machine for the past 11 years. if their customer service wasn't so horrible, i'd at least still buy from the vending machines, like i used to, but i won't even be doing that anymore.

I just want to know how to cancel my subscription. I bought the paper from a man at the mall, who had a small stand with items on display from the LAtimes. I got it for school, but i don't need it anymore. He said they would call when the subscription ended but they didn't. I cannot afford to keep paying them since i no longer have a job. I called [protected] but I can't get past the question "Please provide your street number". So i tried [protected], but it doesn't seem to dial at all. I tried [protected] and it ended up sending the call over to what seems to be the first number I dialed and it hangs up after I fail to answer the same question.

Can someone please help? My e-mail is samrakun@gmail.com

Wife was approached @ shopping center in Chino last Sept. by a young woman selling subscriptions for LA Times. The woman offered the subscription plus a free card to use in the nearby major supermarket. Wife gave her a check for the asking price of $15 and went about her business. The paper delivery began a week later and within a month we were receiving solicitation calls to extend the subscription, which we declined. Within 2 weeks after these calls, a woman named "Kathy" from Caine Weber (?) began calling for a "collection account" allegedly placed on us by LA Times. When we tried to explain the check given for the subscription, the Kathy-person insisted that LA Times had not received our check thus, pressure and "obligation" routine calls began by this Kathy-person. Our phone rings daily from Caine Weber, with an occassional message left by this "Kathy".
This whole "scheme" smells of fraud and grand larceny. I've read others complaints and feel there is a good case of criminal charges against this colaborated crime that LA Times and Caine Weber are engaging in.

Similar story as everyone else's. Some kid came to my apartment in December under the guise of a "scholarship program" and I ended up cutting her a check for a 4 week subscription. I asked her whether the subscription would automatically cancel after the 4 weeks which she said it would. A couple of months ago I start getting invoices in the mail and calls asking for payments. I assumed it was for continuing my subscription which I politely declined and threw away the invoices. Then I get a call yesterday at 8:30 in the evening from a Nicole who finally tells me I'm being billed for issues they've been sending me. Odd thing is she was quoting me the bill for January when it's already halfway through April! She kept on bugging me for a bank account number or credit card which I refused to give. When I tried to cancel my subscription she said I had to make my payment first. Absurd!

Anyways, SOLUTION, I called the number and extension someone posted here (800notes.com) previously [protected] x73464) and spoke to a Jerry. He sounded bored out of his mind but he was professional and after I explained the situation to him he cancelled my subscription and credited my account. I confirmed that I should no longer be getting any calls or invoices in the mail.

I asked him about these kids going around spreading false information and he says that the LA Times makes contracts with vendors who in turn hire these kids. Regardless of what these kids say all the LA Times receives is an order form to open a new account and all new accounts are ongoing subscriptions. There are no pre-pay accounts and customers need to call to cancel their subscriptions.

So hopefully that'll be the last I hear from them. Thank you internet and google for allowing us to share our experiences and solutions.

We should all file a lawsuit against LA Times.

I would like to file a lawsuit against LA Times.

Be sure to follow through with a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission.

Same problem. Be sure to file a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission. Takes a few minutes. May not get the money back but perhaps with enough complaints, the FTC will shut down that practice.

Anyone calling the [protected] phone number, keep hitting zero. After about six times the computer gets frustrated and sends you to a person.

I need some kinda info and I want a refund on the money they charged on my debit account.. Not only did I not receive the dang gone newspaper I was just hit with a darn resubcribtion fee of $ 21.95 and it was automatically taken out from my bank account without my consent was do I do, I'm stressing out here that in the darn metroexpress lanes took 40.00$ on the same freaken day Jesus ! Some one please send me some advice! Asap

Email anthonyfontain@msn.com

The LA Times lists TV programs and for example prints, "Attenborough and the Giant Elephant" on BBC at 9:00 PM. This is the LA Times, not the NY Times, so why do I want to know what time the show is aired in NY or any other eastern city for that matter? The show is scheduled in Los Angeles at 6:00 PM, not 9:00 PM. You can look that up as easy as I did - why the hell don't you follow the correct time here in Los Angeles? You do this often and not only is it confusing, it is stupid and annoying.