ComplaintsforAurora Beacon News

• Initial Complaint

  01/04/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I signed up for a e-subscription to the Chicago Tribune Newspaper. I believe it was $1.09. After that, I was able to access the articles that I found of interest. When I was notified of an article, if I wanted to read it I would click on the article and it said you need a subscription. Which I had so I called to complain. This went on for a couple of months. Sometimes I could access the article and sometimes not. I called again to complain. This time I asked them to cancel the subscription. That was approx. 6 months ago. I never authorized the Chicago Tribune to take more than $1.00 and some change out of my account. I also haven't been able to access the e-subscription articles since. Yet, the Tribune keeps debiting my card $15.96 per month. I hadn't even noticed this until like a week or two ago. This had been going on since August I believe. I called them to ask why they were taking monies out of my account. They said for a subscription (which I don't have and never asked for at that price! i requested that they STOP debiting my account. I told them that I cancelled the subscription earlier last year and it was over. I also requested that they refund all of the charges that they debited from my bank account. The representative said that they could only refund 2 of the payments. I stressed that that was not sufficient since I never asked for it. In addition, on their website under my profile, it asks if it's on auto pay and it said NO! This is on Chicago Trbune's website. So if it's clearly marked NO AUTOPAY why do they keep taking monies out of my bank account? This is fraudulent business practices in my opinion. I immediately called ********** when I hung up from them and requested that they stop allowing the Tribune to take ANY amount of money out of my checking account.. They were putting in a dispute for ALL the payments. That was just over the weekend! WHY did the Tribune debit my account for $15.96 on January 1st? Again, fraudulent!

  Business response

  01/12/2023

  
  January 12, 2023
  
  Once again, sincere apologies for any inconvenience or frustration you have experienced with your former digital Chicago Tribune subscription.
  
  After reviewing your information and former account, it seems that when you agreed to the online subscription, and processed your payment for the 6 month subscription, it does provide in the terms and conditions of the continuous subscription and automated billing associated with this type of digital account.  The email address used was ********************* which is no longer active in our system.  Due to the information you provided, and as the credit card company has returned the last 4 payments back to your credit card charged, I have processed an additional refund of $15.96 which then would total all payments besides the initial one to start the subscription processed to this subscription. Please allow 14 business days for this refund to be applied back to your credit card and disregard any further billing statements received.
  
  Once again, our sincere apologizes for any misunderstanding. If you would like any further assistance, please contact our Chicago Tribune ***************************** at ************.
  
  Sincerely,
  ******
  Executive Resolution Center
  
  

  Customer response

  01/16/2023

   
  Complaint: 18671555
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  Thank you for your response.  I am rejecting the current offer to settle the matter because I never agreed to that.  Furthermore, every time I

  tried to access the online articles, I was never able to do so.  I even called and let the representative know that I couldn't access it.  As late as

  January 2023, I was unable to log on to access the online platform.  I never agreed to pay that amount per month.  I'm not going to say it was

  done purposely on your end.  But that never happened!  I had problems accessing the platform when it was in the trial phase, so I definitely did not

  and would not have agreed to that.  I was absolutely shocked when I learned that your company had charged me 6 months of payments.  I tried to

  get it settled by calling you directly.  The representative said that they could only refund the "payments."  Your offer to refund all but one month is

  not acceptable because it's a matter of principle.  I didn't agree to that, ever!  You (Tribune **** cannot and should not take someone's payment

  information and just start a subscription that the customer never agreed to.  It is a very big responsibility to take credit card information from consumers.

  You can't just do with it whatever you want!  I see it happening more and more.  I would suggest that the Tribune *** start doing what other companies

  have chosen to do, which is to have the consumer key in their card information instead of giving it to the representative.  Also, there should be some type of

  email or follow up if you're going to take automatic payments each month that you take it.  That way, if there was an error or mistake, it can be corrected

  expeditiously instead of it going on form 6 months and then trying to undo it. There's definitely some holes that can be plugged in your processes.  And the

  representative should be able to escalate any issues or complaints to a manager, instead of the consumer having to contact their bank and the BBB in order to

  get some type of resolution.  

  At this time, ********** has tried to re-coop these payments on my behalf.  You said that ***** refunded 4 of the payments.  The Tribune ***  agreed to refund 1 payment.

  I would like to ask that you also refund the 6th payment as well. I don't know if this this was an error on the representatives part or purposely.  Whatever the case may be, it

  was not an error on my part.  When I logged in to your website to try to investigate the matter, it said:  Recurring Payments- No.  That means I didn't agree to have recurring

  payments debited from my account.  And the Tribune *** took advantage by doing it anyway.

  Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *****************************

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩