August 31, 2017 Tavares, FL
I depend on the Orlando Sentinel for local news, but their billing practices suck and seem to mis-represent the true cost of a subscription.
The Sentinel will LIE about the true cost of a 13 week subscription, then mysteriously reduce your paid issues to pay for "Premium Issues" buried in the fine print. If you mistakenly signed up for autopay you would not know about these stealth fees and stealth reduction in your issue count.
Back in around January, I subscribed to the Orlando Sentinel using one of their booths at a festival. The guy specified a price of $38.99 for "13 weeks" then magically, there was an additional "setup" fee he did not disclose but was added when I submitted a credit card.
Right now, if you go to THIS website, it says you can subscribe for 7 issues a week for $3 per week, which for 13 weeks, is $39 (plus in TINY print it says there is an added $4.95 setup fee), so the initial 13 weeks would actually be $43.95. Nowhere do they say anything about costs for added "Premium Issues" they will automatically add to your bill. The webpage says "You will have an option to receive 13, 26 or 52 weeks at the same discounted rate. Last, you will place your order via our (secure) checkout using a credit card, and we will email you a confirmation with your order details."
Then the next quarter I renewed by phone for the period Apr 20 to July 20 for $38.99 which I wrote down. But a mailed invoice said in tiny print they would also be adding fees for "Premium Issues" like Festival inserts, football inserts, etc. These are really advertising sections but they want the subscriber to pay added charges for them. I told the operator I would not pay such charges and she agreed not to charge me. They wanted me to approve autopay at the end of each billing cycle, but I insisted on a one time charge.
In July I received an initial invoice for this new quarter (see Invoice A below) which describes the added "Premium Issue" fees. They ask for a payment and conveniently don't mention the START period of the cycle, but only the "Pays through" date. Already, on this invoice, you can see they reduced the expected subscription period to the first week of a month from about the 20th but they don't show any deduction or details on them doing that.
Then this week, I received a reminder bill (Invoice B below) for that quarter for $38.09 (not $38.99) without describing the period being paid for. This is where they misrepresent how much you are billed, by not disclosing the actual billing period. So I called their number in the Phillipines, had to hang up on two operators I could not understand. Then I got one that spoke better English, and insisted on knowing what period the billed amount was for. Sure enough, they had applied at least one "premium charge" to the prior period, thus the new billing cycle was to start for July 3rd, not the expected July 21. They had SHORTED my expected issue county by about 18 days to compensate for a hidden "Premium ssue". I requested they remove the unapproved "premium charge, and magically the new billing cycle starts on the expected July 21, and runs 13 weeks to Oct. 19. AND, she wanted $38.99, not the $38.09 printed on the invoice. Since that is the original amount I paid per 13 weeks, I paid it but again only a one time payment since I DO NOT TRUST THE ORLANDO SENTINEL'S BILLING SYSTEM. She could not explain why the printed invoice was inaccurate but would not honor that lower price. "Maybe you got a misprinted invoice" she said.
My summary and recommendations:
- The Orlando Sentinel should be ashamed of using these stealth billing practices for hidden fees.
- What do you think - is this just a smart way of billing while not citing the true cost of the subscription, or intentional consumer fraud and misrepresentation?
- If the quarterly subscription fee quoted is $38.90, but they add $39.90 per year for "Premium Issues" (10 times $3.99 each) that means they are charging about 125% of the original quote. (You are paying the cost of five quarters for four actual quarters of issues).
- They include hidden charges like the "Premium Issues" advertising section, which are expected to be about 10 per year according to Invoice A. They subtract it from your prior payment, by REDUCING the number of issues you thought you paid for. They don't actually add the $3.99 to your invoice total. They may not tell you they are optional so you have to demand they be removed.
- They intentionally send out printed invoices which conveniently don't show the start and end period you are paying for, hoping you don't notice the reduced issue counts due to the hidden fees. Invoice A shows the "Pays Through" date and doesn't actually specify the actual week or issue count you get. Invoice B doesn't even say what period or issue count you are being asked to pay for. Thus you think you are getting 13 weeks, but they reduce the issue count to account for the stealth "Premium Issue" fee.
- They try to move you to a credit card autopay system so you won't notice the hidden fees or shorter number of issues than you expected.
- Thus you should document everything with subscriptions to the Orlando Sentinel, and DON'T ever approve autopay or "special section" fees. And instruct them you will NOT PAY for the "Premium Issues" which apparently add about $40 to your annual costs (10 Premium Issues time $3.99 each). Similar to dealing with Comcast, you might have to call them every quarter to demand they remove costs for the unethical method of charging for "Premium Issues".
I forwarded this to Attorney General Pam Bondi's Consumer Protection Division for investigation.
Attached are copies of Invoice A and B so you can see for yourself. Florida doesn't allow me to record phone conversations or I would have done so when calling their Phillipines call center.
Vance Jochim
www.FiscalRangers.com
Vance Jochim
[email protected]
YouTube Channel "FiscalRangersFlorida"
