A Newspaper Story

 My wife likes to get the paper copy of the Bergen Record. We've subscribed to the paper since the mid 1970s. She also gets the Sunday New York Times but this is about the Record.

Back in the beginning of July my wife got a renewal bill which listed the following items:

Change in Del. Service, Rate or Length: $10.50

09/01/21-08/31/22 Service: $624.06

Paper Statement Fee: $5.00

Additional Charges: $60.00

Total: $699.56!!!

Given all the electronic news services that are available online for free or for nominal subscription fees you can see why print newspapers are struggling.

Just to add to the confusion I had no idea what "Change in Del. Service, Rate or Length" or "Additional Charges" were. But my wife liked getting the paper so I wasn't going to make a fuss about it.

As for the "Paper Statement Fee," that was new and they said I could get rid of that if I set up "EZ Pay" which allowed them to hit my credit card rather than send a bill. That sounded like a reasonable idea.

So I called the number provided, set up EZ Pay and a $5.00 credit promptly appeared on my "Payment History" in my account.

So far, so good.

I was expecting an immediate charge for $694.56 but it didn't happen. I called after the July 15th due date passed and then called to inquire when they were going to hit my charge card. They said to give it 24 or 48 hours.

Nope, didn't happen so I figured maybe they're waiting for August 1st and forgot about it. Hey, it wasn't a problem as long as the newspapers kept coming.

August 1st rolled around and, sure enough, a charge appeared. The only problem was it was for $706.26 and not $694.56. I scratched my head a bit but I couldn't figure out where the additional $11.70 charge came from.

I thought about ignoring it but there's an old rule which says always know what you're paying for and I had already violated that twice by not investigating the "Change in Del. Service, Rate or Length" and "Additional Charges" items on the original bill.

I wasn't going to violate it a third time so I called.

Now one would think that a business could explain this easily. If they generated a charge then they must know what included in the charge right? Apparently not.

First I was told it was a charge for the "Special Edition" insert that would be included in the Sunday edition once a month. But after some digging it turned out this was a $5.00 charge which would amount to a lot more than $11.70 and there was no explanation as to why it wasn't on the original bill.

After going around O'Holihan's barn a few more times we concluded that the $60 "Additional Charges" actually covered the "Special Edition" even though there were apparently only eleven planned and not twelve and no one had ever asked if we wanted it. Apparently getting the Sunday paper without it wasn't an option.

Then I was told it was "Change in Del. Service, Rate or Length." When I pointed out that a line item covering that for $10.50 was already included in the original bill they had no answer.

What it came down to was if I had just paid the paper invoice it would have cost be $699.56, but, going to the "money saving EZ Pay" option, it was going to cost me $706.26 instead.

That wasn't going to happen.

By this time the customer service lady must have just wanted to get me off the phone so she offered me a credit for both the $10.50 charge and the mysterious $11.70.

I refused because the $10.50 was at least listed on the original invoice (even though I still didn't really know what it was for). So instead I took a credit for $11.70.

The "credit" duly appeared on my "Payment History" in my account but without an itemization of charges next year (I thought I would get one electronically this year and so far I haven't) I would have no way of knowing if I actually got the credit. I see another conversation with these people in the future.

If they run their business anything like this than no wonder newspapers are closing all over the country. If it wasn't that my wife really likes getting the paper I would have told them to go to hell and canceled.