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- From: jws@hpcuhe.cup.hp.com (John Stafford)
- Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 17:39:55 GMT
- Subject: Re: DISPUTE OVER A BILL WITH SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER!
- Message-ID: <117660001@hpcuhe.cup.hp.com>
- Organization: Hewlett Packard, Cupertino
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!saimiri.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!hpscit.sc.hp.com!hplextra!hpcss01!hpcuhe!jws
- Newsgroups: misc.consumers
- References: <1id7m9INNa4t@morrow.stanford.edu>
- Lines: 26
-
- Also beware of their "free" trial subscriptions; they use the same logic
- with them. You are expected to call them at or very near the end of the
- "free" period and tell them that you don't want it automatically
- converted to a paid subscription, otherwise it continues and you get the
- bill (despite the fact that they will often say "we'll call you back and
- see if you like the paper and want to continue receiving it", they have
- never called back).
-
- I am a Sunday only subscriber and frequently get solicited by them to
- take some multi-week daily edition "at no extra charge", but again I am
- expected to "cancel" it to keep it from becoming a "paid" subscription.
- The usual excuse is that it helps their delivery person get more
- commission or something (pay them more anyway - don't expect me to take
- something I don't want so you can be more generous to them) or it helps
- their delivery person have a more "consistent" route (hire more
- competant delivery people). Their solicitors seem totally flabbergasted
- when I tell them I don't want this "free" offer and I have had to get
- fairly insistent to get them to understand that NO means NO (as in - if
- you deliver those "free" papers I'll cancel my subscription completely).
- After several rounds of this they haven't called now for quite a number
- of months (although I am not naive enough to believe my account is
- actually tagged with "don't bother"). Hey, if they offer a product I
- (currently) wish to purchase, the "Sunday only delivery" product, and if
- they can't deliver that product correctly without delivering unwanted
- product, then they shouldn't claim to offer a "Sunday only delivery"
- product.
-