Warning . . . Complaint Ahead!

In March, I posted what I thought was a great deal on the Dallas Morning News. Joey and I signed up for it, understanding that we had to keep it for at least 90 days. After the 90 days was up, we reevaluated and decided we weren’t using the paper at all except for the coupons that came on Sunday. Knowing they had Sunday subscriptions, we decided to cancel the year long subscription and change our plan.

When I called, I was told that I was wrong and I could not cancel until after 180 days. I knew I hadn’t misunderstood the rep, the agreement was 90 days. When pressed, they told me I had to produce the original receipt and prove that I had agreed to 90 days. Not only did this mean I was responsible for finding a tiny, credit card sized receipt that is months old, but then they told me I had to have the bank fax it in. After an hour and a half on the phone and being on hold and hung up on multiple times, they finally refunded 1/3 of the original amount I paid and agreed to refund the second 1/3 when they received the fax. As I clearly was not going to get any further, I left it at that and when in search of this receipt.

By the grace of God, I had apparently stuck the receipt directly into my wallet and it was still there. And right on it, in black and white with the Dallas Morning News logo at the top it stated that I had to keep the paper for 90 days. If I was frustrated before, I was livid now! They had tried to convince me that the rep had lied, that there policy was never 90 days, that maybe I had not read the agreement well enough. But clearly all of that was misdirection, if not outright deception.

The next day I got up and rounded everyone together and took them to the bank. The lady at the bank was gracious but informed me that she could not fax anything that wasn’t bank business. By the time I got home, I was boiling. Immediately I called the Dallas Morning News again and asked for a supervisor. When the supervisor came on the phone, I explained that I had spent almost two hours total on the phone, made a trip to the bank with my children and dug out a tiny receipt just to prove that I had done everything that was asked and expected of me. The supervisor quickly apologized and said that they had several reps who were telling people that they only needed to keep the paper for 90 days and she would immediately refund my money. I thanked her but told her that I was extremely frustrated that it had taken me jumping through hoops when it was apparently something that could have been done the night before.

So, I repeated this torturous story to tell you that I think the whole “too-good-to-be-true” promotion is just that, too good to be true. I don’t know if it’s the company’s fault or the individual rep, but in the end I’m the one who had to deal with the repercussions. For the time being, I think I’m probably going to stay away from the Dallas Morning News completely and try to get my coupons elsewhere . . . any suggestions?