thestar.com

The long saga of trying to cancel a Toronto Star subscription

The long saga of trying to cancel a Toronto Star subscription.I took out a great priced home delivery subscription in February 2022.It expired at the end of February 2023. Then I noticed the amount they billed my Visa for March 2023 was 40% higher than February. I called and asked it to be cancelled and was assured it was done.April Visa statement arrives.... I CALLED AND ASKED AGAIN IT BE CANCELLED.May Visa Statement arrives.... I called and...... you get the idea.I called again towards the end of May and was advised that NO ONE HAD CANCELLED THE SUBSCRIPTION.... I asked for them to reverse the charge. I was told that they would. But that never happened.So I called Visa on June 5th, and filed a dispute on the transaction. Visa reversed the charges on two of the payments. May and June. The next day, June 6th, no paper was delivered. However, I did get an email with the subject: "We Want You Back!" offering a discount to re-subscribe. Clearly they knew Visa had blocked payment. Then I was contacted by Visa saying the Star was trying to recover the two reversed payments. I sent Visa all these details. Visa decided NOT to allow the Star to re-collect the two payments based on that.August 6 I received a bill for $32.50 from The Star. (Trying to recover the reversed charges?) I emailed them the info regarding the Visa and told them I'm not paying it because they kept delivering papers for 3+ months after I cancelled. They didn't reply.September 7 I receive another bill. This time for $65.00. I PHONED THEM.After much discussion - and them trying to get me to pay half of the bill - the person spoke with someone else and came back to the phone and told me I don't have to pay the bill. That it's been cancelled. (They won't give names or employee numbers when you talk to them. I tried, EVERY TIME.) Let's see what arrives in the mail around October 6-7th....NOTE: It took several questions to eventually get the person on the phone to tell me they don't work IN a Toronto Star building. I could hear noises in the background suggesting she is working from home. (I heard kids and dogs in the background the previous times I called so this must be common practice.)The ethics behind this stink. Give a good deal and then technically refuse to cancel the subscription by claiming every time that "No one called previously to cancel this subscription".AVOID TORONTO STAR HOME DELIVERY UNLESS YOU WANT TO GO THROUGH THIS TRYING TO CANCEL IT.UPDATE: I said I'd have to wait until October 6th to see if it was finally cancelled. They were off a bit. They sent the next invoice out on October 12th and I received it on October 19th. As expected, it is STILL not cancelled as I was promised it would be. They still want $65.00.The incompetence of this company is unbelievable! And I'll add that I suspect everyone I spoke with has been told to ignore cancellation and similar requests making it virtually impossible to cancel your subscription, so they can just keep hitting your Visa account. I may have to look at taking legal action as they will likely pass this on to a collection agency and mess up my credit rating.Rick A.

Date of experience: Oct 16, 2023