The (almost) great newspaper robbery

This week, my commentary is not about politics, but it damn sure is about  dishonesty, what I did about it, and how there is a lesson in my experience for everybody. So please pay attention.

 Last week, I was paying bills as always, when I noticed something very weird.

 One of my credit card balances wasn’t going down as it was supposed to, even though I’ve been paying a good chunk of change to lower it every month. I had already paid off one card, and was looking forward to doing the same with my second card.

 Upon closer inspection, I noticed that at least $500.00 had been charged to my card, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why, or for what.

 Don’t you hate that feeling, when money is just flying out of your pockets and you don’t know how or why?

 Well I’m flat-out lazy about a lot of things, but not about this. Not about that kind of money with my name on it going somewhere without my permission, or even knowledge.

 So I carefully checked the credit card statement, and found the culprit - a $514.79 charge from “N&O Subscription" with the name “G. Jimenez@ MCCL NC” attached.

 Folks, I get to see The News & Observer Newspaper on occasion because my wife gets it on her phone, so I don’t need to subscribe anymore, and haven’t for some time. I knew for a fact that I had cancelled whatever subscription I did have in an effort to trim household expenses months ago, so owing them any money, and certainly $514.79, was simply out of the question.

 At first I started to call the credit card company, but I realized all they would do is tell me to call the N&O, so that’s what I did, determined to fix this bad boy.

 $514.79…out of MY pocket…without MY say-so? Uh-Uhhhh! Someone was going to talk to me about this!

 Needless to say, finding the customer care number was a chore, and then dealing with the recorded customer care choices that didn’t allow for my particular complaint to be considered was also a drudgery, but finally I got a live customer care agent on the phone.

 It was difficult communicating with the so-called "agent," which made my task twice as hard as it should have been. After registering my complaint, and how I wanted every penny of my $514.79 back, this “agent” then asked me if I had proof that I ever cancelled my N&O subscription?

 Well what kind of “proof” am I supposed to have? I called or emailed, cancelled my subscription before renewal, and you folks stopped service. Simple. And it has been stopped ever since. In fact, since you asked for “proof,” I can’t get into your website to read any stories now, and it’s been that way since the day I cancelled. So there’s your “proof,” I declared. You say you have in your records that I was once a subscriber, but you don’t have in your records when I cancelled?

 Well guess what? That’s your problem! I just want the money back you took from me last week, I demanded.

 Then came the part that really made me mad!

 “Sir, I’m sorry this has happened to you, but you have no proof that you ever cancelled your subscription, and I have no proof of it on this end in my records either,” the N&O agent said.“So what I can do is offer you maybe a $270.00 refund…..”

 I swear I didn’t hear the rest of what the poor guy said, because I was NOT interested. I was NOT going to compromise on getting back ALL of my money taken, and I was absolutely insulted that homeboy “agent” was even talking such rubbish.

 That’s when my mother, GOD rest her soul, came out of her eternal grave, grabbed my heart, mouth and spine, and turned me into someone I rarely am in my old age.

 Her.

 See, when I was a kid, my mother had a nose for folks who tried to flim-flam her, and made them pay with a considerable piece of her mind for just thinking about taking her to the cleaners. Mom suffered no fools back in the day!

There would be NONE of that, NOT while she was still breathing, and if she taught me anything, as long as I drew breath and had a family to support, I should NEVER tolerate it either.

 So I wasn’t going for that agent’s $270.00 "deal," NOT by a long shot!

 I immediately demanded his supervisor. Mom taught me don’t waste time with the small fry, either

Go to the Big Fish when it comes to getting your money back. So even though the agent was none too happy with my insistence, he eventually put his supervisor, “Alex,” on the phone.

 I calmly explained how my $514.79 apparently found a new, but undeserving home with the N&O subscription service, and I wanted my money back pronto. But now Alex tries out his “let me talk this sucker down” spiel too, which really made me mad.

 Again with this, “What evidence do you have that you cancelled your subscription, sir, because I have nothing here in our records to prove that ever happened” business. Alex then told me they can’t use my name to track down proof (though they apparently used it to prove that I once had a subscription, and used it again to rip off my credit card). So he suggested that I at least give him my phone number to see if there was a recording on file of my calling to cancel sometime in the past.

 OK, I gave it to him, knowing good and well this was just another stalling tactic. But while Alex was away, supposedly using my phone number to scan his records for a recording of my subscription cancellation call, I decided to check my Google email account, which I rarely use, to see if there was anything there.

 And sure enough, an email from N&O Subscription dated March 7, 2022 - over two freaking years ago -  saying “We don’t want to see you go, but as you requested we’ve canceled your subscription. Please keep this for your records.”

 Over that sentence was “NOTICE OF CANCELLATION” in big white letters against a Duke blue banner. Boy, was I licking my chops when I found that!

 As expected, supervisor Alex came back to inform me that unfortunately the search of his records per my phone number yielded nothing, and just as he was about to hit me with his “Here’s $270.00 sir, take it or leave it” b.s., BAM, I hit him with the cancellation email from the March 7, 2022 email I found.

 I can’t tell you how dejected Alex suddenly sounded after I read it to him. He instructed me to forward the two-year old email to him, gave me the email address to send it to, and assured me that he would take it from there.

 So I did, as I felt my dearly departed mother smiling on me from above.

 As soon as I did, and Alex, who never left the line, acknowledged receiving it, he sent back a confirming email promising to put my $514.79 back on my credit card within 7 to 10 business days.

 To be clear, it was a form email, where only the first line had to be filled in.

 Oh, and before we ended the call, I asked Alex if he was in Raleigh?

 No, Colombia, South America, he replied.

 Damn, the N&O in North Carolina, outsources its subscription service to Colombia, South America? Fancy that!

 So I’m waiting, folks, and I’ll let you know when I get my full refund.

 But what concerns me about all of this is that these folks were all too ready to either keep my $514.79, or at the very least half of it, knowing good and well that I most likely, like most people, would not have readily retained concrete proof of when I cancelled my subscription (luckily I did).

 How many people do they do this too, and how often?

 And they never told me what the $514.79 was for. Was it for past subscriber service they never collected on? Was it for current service I was never charged for? They never justified the $514.79. All they said was because I couldn’t prove that I ever called in to cancel my subscription, they were "rightfully" going to put on their bandit’s mask and make off with my money. Hey, suppose I just cancelled by email? Apparently your records didn't show that either. It's all too slick by half!

No letter or email of warning, no nothing before they just took my money! I consider that a scam, folks!

 There was absolutely NO reason for the N&O to arbitrarily choose me, a former subscriber out of many I'm sure, to use my credit card information with which to erroneously charge me  $514.79, unless there’s an angle or hustle to it.

 The hustle being that we are going to first kidnap your money, then keep half of it solely because you can’t prove when you cancelled your service with us. They keep at least half the money they’ve already taken, and you get nothing for it! I consider THAT a cold-blooded scam of the $514.79 kind!

 They already know that you’re going to call them to complain, and they’re ready with the flim-flam when you do. This was not a mistake, except one - messing with my mother’s son.

 And to think that The News and Observer - whose parent company is the highly respected McClatchy Newspaper chain - allows this kind of racket to happen in their name, especially with a South American outsource.

 Folks, we’re in an age where because of computers, the financial flim-flam can happen at anytime, TO anyone. And these folks think they have an absolute right to do whatever it takes, to get your money, and make you beg for it back.

 Well, I’m NOT in that business, and nor should you be either. 

 When you cancel a service, any service, make sure you insist on a written record of the transaction, and make sure you hold onto to that record for at least two to five years (create a file on your desktop). Make sure your record of said transaction reflects not only the company or service, day, date and amount if any, but the name of who you dealt with if you can get it (make sure you ask).

 And as I learned, one of the best repositories for such records (though certainly not the only one) is your email. That will automatically give you day, date, and even time, in addition to who sent the email, and what the transaction was about.

By the way, for several days thereafter, even on a Sunday, a number of  "agents" from the N&O here locally called me, saying they had a "special discount offer" for me to resubscribe. I told them point blank, "I have no interest in doing business with the N&O as long as you have $514.79 of my money, and you have until Oct. 4th to return it. I'm counting the days. Other than that, we have no business with each other!" The nerve and gall of these people!

 Call me rude, but I was NOT going to allow myself to get into a worthless conversation with these folks. My money is NOT their money, and the sooner they realize that, the better!

 DON’T LET THESE CROOKS STEAL YOUR MONEY JUST BECAUSE IT CONVENIENTLY RESIDES IN YOUR WALLET!!! Realize what happened to me, can easily happen to you, and be proactive, if possible.

 And trust me, if I don’t get my $514.79 refunded to my credit card within the time promised, I’m going to the next level with this. This is not the way a major North Carolina newspaper, or publisher in Raleigh, should be conducting business! And if anyone there sees this commentary, FIX THIS, even if you have to travel all the way to Colombia, South America to do it!

 I am NOT the person to pull this mess on, and none of my readers should be either!