Free Lance-Star Publishing

Revdex.com: I have reviewed the offer and/or response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] , and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below MR [redacted] was part of your company when he promised to cancel the ads, how can you still charge for something your employee promised to cancel ? I am very disappointed in your company and the way does businessa few other dealerships asked about you guys and I don't know what to tell them because of all this Regards, [redacted]

I had been a 50 plus yrs loyal subscriber to the Free Lance Star until last week when I cancelled my subscription. I have 6 months of e-mails with delivery personnel concerning the poor customer service from the carrier. The FLS has a guarantee of 6 a.m. delivery Mon-Sat and 7 a.m. on Sunday. Never have I come close to those delivery times. I asked to have delivery by 6:30 a.m. During the week, the paper was delivered 6;45, 7 or 7:30 a.m. and sometimes closer to 8. On Sunday the paper was never delivered before 8. I got tired of being told they were "working" with the carrier, or it was so hard to find carriers. It became quite obvious to me that no manager at the FLS had the power or guts to motivate the carrier to deliver papers in a timely manner. I live it in the city so it should not be too difficult, especially when I have friends and family in Spotsylvania and Stafford who receive their paper between 4:30 and 6 a.m. Also, this summer I requested and paid for four vacation packages which were never delivered to me. If the FLS continues the poor customer service and more 50 plus yrs subscribers cancel their subscriptions the FLS will go the way of so many other newspapers - out of business.

To Whom It May Concern The Free Lance-Star takes great pride in providing our customers with excellent customer service and care. We also take any complaints from customers very seriously and we appreciate this opportunity to respond to an inquiry from the Revdex.comThe
Revdex.com complaint arose from a customer who signed a long term contract for advertising. The contract allowed for the advertiser to cancel so long as they advertised for at least consecutive weeks and provided a written thirty day notice informing the FLS of their intention to cancel after the initial term. The advertiser did not follow the cancellation terms of the agreement. Moreover, the advertiser requested a credit card charge back for all advertising published while the contract was in force.The FLS allowed the advertiser to cancel the agreement without a written noticeAnd the FLS decided not to bill the advertiser a penalty for cancellation which the FLSwas entitled to under the terms of the signed agreement. The FLS, however, did insist upon the advertiser paying for all advertising published (at the contracted rate) Upon review of documentation provided by The FLS to the advertiser's credit card company, the credit card company agreed with the FLS and denied the charge advertiser's back request.*** *** Advertising Director FLS Digital Agency Services, Fredericksburg.com, The Free Lance-Star, The Star Weeklies

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's offer. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to meI will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolvedIf the company does not perform as promised I can get back to you at: ***
Regards,
*** ***

Revdex.com:
The company has fixed their problem it seems, because now we're getting our Sunday paper as we'd paid forIn the message from the business, they stated that one of our complaints was that our paper was thrown on the groundThis was not the case, as papers are typically delivered into your driveway and we wouldn't expect them to do anything other than throw them into our parking area as close to the house as possibleIt seems as though someone has instructed them to take our paper up to the house and onto our front porch which is nice, but not necessary and not something we'd required or discussedHowever, we're happy to be getting our Sunday paper again, and hope to continue to do so
Regards,*** ***

To Whom It May Concern
The Free Lance-Star
takes great pride in providing our customers with excellent customer service and care.
We also take any complaints from customers very seriously and we appreciate this opportunity to respond to an inquiry from the Revdex.com
The Revdex.com complaint arose from a customer who signed a long term contract for advertising.
The contract allowed for the advertiser to cancel so long as they advertised for at least consecutive weeks and provided a written thirty day notice informing the FLS of their intention to cancel after the initial term.
The advertiser did not follow the cancellation terms of the agreement. Moreover, the advertiser requested a credit card charge back for all advertising published while the contract was in forceThe FLS allowed the advertiser to cancel the agreement without a written noticeAnd the FLS decided not to bill the advertiser a penalty for cancellation which the FLSwas entitled to under the terms of the signed agreement The FLS, however, did insist upon the advertiser paying for all advertising published (at the contracted rate)
Upon review of documentation provided by The FLS to the advertiser's credit card company, the credit card company agreed with the FLS and denied the charge advertiser's back request*** ***
Advertising Director
FLS Digital Agency Services, Fredericksburg.com,
The Free Lance-Star, The Star Weeklies

*** ***, Circulation Services Manager of The Free Lance-Star, spoke with Mr*** on Tuesday, 3/3/(4:45pm). He is a Sunday only subscriber.He explained that the few papers he had received had been thrown on the ground, then completely stoppedHe also explained that
he was not going to keep trying.She offered to send this week's edition out Wednesday 3/and extend his account for the missed papersHe was assured that the Circulation Manager will make sure the paper is delivered on Sunday and every Sunday in the futureMr*** will give us one more chanceHe also is expecting a follcall next week from ** ***, Circulation Manger confirming that the problem has been resolved

Thank you for your help. I recieved the refund check today, 12/02/16.  The check and the postage both dated 11/30/16.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the offer and/or response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
MR. [redacted] was part of your company when he promised to cancel the ads, how can you still charge for something your employee promised to cancel ? I am very disappointed in your company and the way does business. a few other dealerships asked about you guys and I don't know what to tell them because of all this
Regards,
[redacted]

Mr. [redacted] is a seven day subscriber to The Freelance Star. It is unfortunate that he had some delivery issues with his newspapers and that those issues were not resolved in a timelier manner. Our goal is to provide a quality product and delivery to each of our subscribers and we missed that mark...

with Mr. [redacted]. Our Circulation Director, Fred G[redacted], did speak with Mr. [redacted] on Tuesday June 6th concerning his delivery issues. He apologized and expressed his concern over his missed newspapers and assured him that the problems would be resolved moving forward. Mr. [redacted] did state that received his newspaper the morning of June 7th.  Mr. G[redacted] gave Mr. [redacted] his personal contact information if he had any other questions or concerns. Mr. G[redacted] will also discuss with the District Manager for that area and the independent contract carrier for his route. We will have someone follow-up on his delivery and make sure he receives delivery every day. We also processed a refund of $[redacted] for Mr. [redacted] for his missed copies. I hope this answers your questions and please feel free to contact Mr. G[redacted] if you have any other concerns.

Review: This is our second time signing up with this newspaper, and this is now the second time that we've paid them and then not gotten a paper that we've paid for. The first time, we signed up for a regular 7 day subscription, and we got the newspaper for a few weeks and then they just stopped, and we soon got a bill saying that we owed for our paper, so we called and told them we weren't going to pay again since we didn't even finish getting the papers from our previous subscription. So, several months go by and they call us offering Sunday paper only (which is all we wanted) for $1 per week if we paid for the year up front. So, we paid for the full year and explained to them our problems with their service in the past and were reassured that we'd not experience the same problems. Well, we only got the paper for about a month, and then they stopped again. It's been over a month now of not getting the Sunday paper like we're supposed to, and still nothing. We've spoken to a couple of people there about this and nothing has changed. We called a left a message several nights ago and still have yet to hear anything back or get a Sunday paper. This is highly frustrating since this is now the second time we've experienced this with them. When we signed up originally, I remember a woman telling us to beware that we might not get our paper and we thought maybe she'd had an abnormal experience, but it's looking like this is how they operate. I don't know if it's by fault of the delivery driver or by fault of the company itself, but we have attempted to reach out and heard nothing back, so that totally falls on the company. in a day where the internet has mostly taken over, you'd think they'd want to keep their customers paying for printed paper, but apparently not. I'm just disgusted that we've now paid twice for subscriptions that we haven't gotten, and we've not gotten any money back either, so we've just been expected to eat the loss on them.Desired Settlement: I'd like a refund at this point. I have no idea how much we've now lost because of them between the two subscriptions, but it's increasingly frustrating to continue to give them chances to make this right and they haven't. I want my money back, they should be able to see in their files how much we've paid, and refund it. I really wanted to get the Sunday paper since it's more convenient than having to go pick it up somewhere, but it's looking as though that's a lost cause at this point. I'm beyond ready to be done with this company.

Business

Response:

[redacted], Circulation Services Manager of The Free Lance-Star, spoke with Mr. [redacted] on Tuesday, 3/3/2015 (4:45pm). He is a Sunday only subscriber.He explained that the few papers he had received had been thrown on the ground, then completely stopped. He also explained that he was not going to keep trying.She offered to send this week's edition out Wednesday 3/4 and extend his account for the missed papers. He was assured that the Circulation Manager will make sure the paper is delivered on Sunday and every Sunday in the future. Mr. [redacted] will give us one more chance. He also is expecting a follow-up call next week from [redacted], Circulation Manger confirming that the problem has been resolved.

Consumer

Response:

The company has fixed their problem it seems, because now we're getting our Sunday paper as we'd paid for. In the message from the business, they stated that one of our complaints was that our paper was thrown on the ground. This was not the case, as papers are typically delivered into your driveway and we wouldn't expect them to do anything other than throw them into our parking area as close to the house as possible. It seems as though someone has instructed them to take our paper up to the house and onto our front porch which is nice, but not necessary and not something we'd required or discussed. However, we're happy to be getting our Sunday paper again, and hope to continue to do so.

Regards,

Review: In April of 2012 I wrote out a check to the Free Lance Star for $27.00. I do not remember how many weeks this was supposed to pay for, but it was supposed to be a one time thing. I recently found an automatic debit on my bank statement for $9.00. I began to look at my other statements and discovered that the Free lance Star has been doing this monthly since July, 2012. As I indicated, the check was for a specific amount and not intended as authorization for automatic drafts to be taken from my account. I am very upset that this was so easy for someone to do to me. They have been delivering the paper on weekends, but I did not authorize this and feel that at least some of the money should be returned to my account.Desired Settlement: The Free Lance Star should find out which of their employees did this and find out if he's done it to anyone else.

Business

Response:

The Customer Service Representative set up the account incorrectly and the customer was refunded [redacted].

Review: we started advertising with free lance star back in feb or march we have not received one call I asked [redacted] my sales person multiple times to show me reports but never got anything I contacted in late may to cancel he said no problem its 2 week cancellation I was fine with that. he said he had a great opportunity to create more sales I said no problem he showed me a mailer I said no problem lets do a memorial day sale mailer he no its too late he said lets do 4th of july I said no problem but lets cancel the weekley ads he no problem in july and august we received a bill we talked to debbie which pretty much blamed us [redacted] doesnt work there and I guess its my fault that I didnt follow up when I have a million dollar operation that a salesperson cancel a contract I will not pay for anything its not fair for our company to pay for something thats not my fault and the companys fault they didnt follow up with [redacted]s promises and requests iam very upset and telling every dealer to avoid themDesired Settlement: I want all my money back

Business

Response:

To Whom It May Concern