Customer ReviewsforThe Des Moines Register

Signed up for an introductory period. Used it for 15 minutes and cancelled my account prior to any recurring subscriptions. They started charging me monthly. Would not allow me to cancel. I had to dispute with my credit card multiple times. Online chat agents routinely word disconnect.

We agreed to a special subscription offer to the dsm Register. Our rates would increase at the end of the special offer but, although they would not tell us how much our rates would increase, the Register promised to notified us what the rates would be prior to increasing them. Didn’t happen. Our rates increased one month jumped from $16 to $44 and the second month from $16 to $57.25 for a total increase of $69.25 without our approval. Both those increases showed up on one credit card statement. The Register said they could not cancel the increases on our credit card. However, the credit card company canceled them immediately. I’ve read other FB posting stating victims of the same bait-and-switch. Yep, we cancelled our subscription.

My mother in law canceled her subscription several months ago, she has called they indicated it was canceled. The next month again she is charged for the paper, we then call her bank and they put a stop on the charges and they return the money. Another month goes by and this time they are charging her for the past three months, since the bank returned two months. It is a sad day to see the Des Moines Register becoming the new scam in the neighborhood. They once had a great reputation. I don't think this would have happened if it was not for my mother in law being almost 90 years old. This is so upsetting to her, now she has to cancel her card and will be without one. Most places are not taking checks any more..... and she thinking of what this would have done for a neighbor who didn't have $90 in her account to take.

DO NOT, under any circumstances, give your credit card information to the DM Register. I subscribed to a "special" deal for $5 for Sunday delivery. Delivery was unreliable and I received the paper about half of the time. I didn't renew. One and one half years later, I noticed a $115 charge on my credit card from the DM Register. I had not requested a renewal and had not been receiving the paper. When I called to cancel, the customer service rep. was not helpful so I asked for a supervisor. The supervisor said it was my fault that I didn't get the paper delivered because I didn't call them to let them know I wasn't getting it!??? What??? I didn't KNOW I was supposed to be getting it because I didn't request or authorize a subscription. A refund was promised and I was told to expect an email to verify the cancellation within 24 hours. 7 days later, no email, no credit to my credit card. I called again and was assured that my account would be closed but it would take another week. During that week, I still didn't receive the paper, my account was still active and I didn't have a refund. When the refund finally appeared on my credit card, I was refunded only half of the amount. I called AGAIN. The customer "service" (what a joke) rep. told me that the rest of the amount would be refunded after they verified the amount that had been charged to my credit card. The amount that I had been charged was on my account and pretty obvious. The rep. couldn't explain what that meant but reassured me that I would receive an email and a refund for the rest of the amount. I had been promised an email verification on my last 2 calls and recieved nothing. I'm not optimistic about the rest of the refund. Quite a business plan DM Register; bill people who haven't requested your service, don't deliver the service you have billed for and don't provide a full refund when you're caught billing for services not requested and not delivered.