Mcclatchy

Nasty "customer service". They botched my subscription and will not give a pro rated refund. I subscribed on line to my local newspaper--they somehow switched it to some newspaper 1,000 miles from me. They will not refund. Man on line was dismissive--very hard to understand him as well. Get your act together you pathetic organization.

If you are in one of the 30 U.S. markets where McClatchy operates a news company, this might affect you--especially if you cancel your subscription. It happened to me in North Carolina, but I was told by an executive that the corporate company in California was directing the effort to collect from delinquent accounts. Well, delinquent accounts are hardly those who cancel a subscription, are they?

As a former journalist, I have been a local subscriber all my life. I switched to digital in recent years but still took a physical newspaper on the weekend. The paper was dwindling, and the digital service was unreliable. For more than a year, I squabbled with local techs there about the fact that McClatchy's own ads for events were covering the content. Then, there also were McClatchy ads about subscriptions. It made no sense to me to have these ads since I already did subscribe. It was a pointless exercise.

Finally, earlier this year, I canceled the subscription. I paid June 15 for another quarter. By September, I was officially blocked on the website. Despite what I did, the papers kept coming on weekends. I tossed them into a recycling bin.

In late October, I received what looked like bill from McClatchy. It was from A. R. M. Solutions Inc., a collection agency. I was being dunned for $46.31, which covered another quarter. I was furious and called the local publisher. Within 30 minutes, someone called me back. I told him that I did not owe money. I had canceled the subscription a while back.

The executive said that the McClatchy corporate office was doing this to all "delinquent" subscribers. He said he would take care of the charge, and he did. But then he sent me a special deal on a subscription to review. It is still sitting in my queue. I have other ways to get local news. And really would anyone sign up again only to have content blocked and have another bill from a collection agency in their future.

No wonder some newspapers are going under. This is not way to resolve problems. If you do subscribe, check the ownership. If it is McClatchy and you decide to cancel, put it in writing to the local publisher and to the corporate offices. Let the reader beware.