Asheville Citizen-Times
reviews and complaints

Terrible outsourced customer service and very uneven delivery service. Constantly having to call to resolve issues. A huge disappointment! Please see above and below.

I HAVE BEEN CALLING TRYING TO GET MONDAY THRU SUNDAY PAPER DELIVERED FOR 7 MONTHS! MY DAUGHTER CALLED YOU, MY NEICE CALLED YOU, WE CALLED YOU!.STILL DON'T HAVE ONE! ITS QUITE DISCUSTING CUSTOMER SERVICE.

Constant delivery issues. Constant increasing rate from rate that was promised. Increases of 30% or more. Worst customer service group I have ever experienced in my life. Years of trying to get paper delivered as promised. Years of having rate increases of up to 50% at a time, with reversals to old rate promised and then several months later another increase. Chased by billing dept who claim I owe money, and telling me they have nothing to do with service. *** is trying to destroy this paper.

$59.21 TAKEN FROM MY BANK ACCT FROM NEW DEBIT CARD ISSUED 1/5 ORIGINAL CARD MISUSED AND CANCELED. NEW CARD NO. GIVEN TO THEM AND $50.21 PLUS $40.00 TAKEN OUT OF BANK WHEN NEW CARD ISSUED & GIVEN TO THEM, 11 CALLS TODAY, 1 LETTER TO JEWEL WALSTON AND NO ONE WILL HELP. WHO TOOK THE FUNDS AND WHY WONT THEY INVESTIGATE. I AM A SR LIVING SOLELY ON SOCIAL SECURITY & DISABLED UNABLE TO GO OUT TO PURCHASE PAPER. CLAIM I HAVE TO PROVE THIS AMOUNT WAS TAKEN OUT OF MY ACCT. SENT BANK STATEMENT TO JEWEL WALSTON & CASEY BLAKE. NO RESPONSE FROM THEM. WHY?

I HAVE NOT RECEIVED A PAPER IN 3-4 WEEKS, CONTACTED DELIVERY AND GUESS WHAT, DELIVERY IN PHILIPPINES. CALLED 4 TIMES AND NO RESULTS. *** OFF I HAVE NOT RECEIVED A NEWSPAPER IN 3-4 WEEKS. I HAVE TALKED TO PEOPLE IN CHARGE OF DELIVERY FIVE TIMES IN THE LAST 2 WEEKS, AND NO RESULTS. COME TO FIND OUT THE DELIVERY IS CONTROLLED BY PHILLIPINOS WHO BARELY CAN SPEAK ENGLISH AND DO NOT UNDERSTAND BASIC PROBLEMS. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY ASTONISHING THAT WE DO NOT HAVE PEOPLE CAPABLE OF DOING THIS SERVICE IN THE USA. I AM TOTALLY BLOWN AWAY. THE IS THE BIGGEST CASE OF BS I HAVE EVER HEARD.

Horrible delivery service, and just plain rude. I am *** my grandfather is ***, he is beyond upset about his services he has been receiveing. I myself can completely understand. You ask for a call and the lady is just so rude. If she even calls at all, and when she does call its like talking to a *** she just doesn't care. I am not sure who she is, my grandfather talks to her. He say, she says...she is the boss. I find this hard to believe, because who would be THAT RUDE and be the boss. If someone could please figure out this issue, it would be GREATLY appreciated.

Since 8/18, ACT has double billed my account on a monthly basis. My wife and I, have called 6 times to get this situation resolved. No Refund. Since 8/18, ACT has double billed us on a monthly basis. My wife and I have talked to the billing/accounting dept. 6 times. The account numbers are: CTXXXXXXX and CTXXXXXXX. The last 3 conversations I have had with a representative, they have acknowledged the amount of $364.79 is due to us and that it will take 5 to 7 business days for the credit. That conversion was on 3/29,4/9 and 4/16. All I get is the same answer: to wait 5 or 7 days!

Since April 4 I have had 15 reported missed papers. There have been other misses that I did not report. Nobody has helped. Since April 4 I have had 15 reported missed papers. I've emailed and talked to a number of people over this year about the problem. Each time I've been promised the problem would be fixed. It has not been. I would appreciate it if someone at Gannett or the Citizen-Times would be honest and tell me that they are not going to do anything. After all, the purpose of Customer Service is to fix problems not make excuses and make promises they have no intention of keeping.

We have had consistent delivery problems with the "Asheville Citizen" newspaper over the last year. The problem is never corrected. Their delivery is sporadic at best. Customer Service assures us the problem will be corrected, but it never is resolved. The carrier never calls us back from ***XXX-XXXX, Regina M We got no paper on Tuesday or Wed., and three were delivered today. It is very frustrating to pay for a product, and never receive it! They tell us it is a carrier problem, but don't do anything! We don't want to ready the paper on the computer! After 40 plus years of taking the the newspaper, we are SERIOUSLY, thinking of dropping our subscription!

Over the past few weeks, my neighborhood in East Asheville (Haw Creek) has had limited delivery of the Asheville Citizen-Times. I understand our carrier (who was excellent, by the way) may have terminated her employment, coincidentally ? around the time of gas shortages; then advised that she was continuing as a substitute until a carrier has been found and for a few days we received our newspapers again. Now, back to the same. Repeat dailycustomer service calls reporting missed newspapers have not helped. Requests for a circulation manager to call back have resulted in no callbacks, although requested more than once with the latest response being that a distribution/district manager would call back. "Courtesy" credit of $ 5 has been issued; credits for daily missed newspapers both supposedly issued. Customer service advised to read the digital edition that comes with the print edition. A review of the website shows no circulation manager locally. Close to canceling. Mgr deliv no.

Apparently they lost the delivery person in my area. I did not receive the newspaper for a week. I called everyday with no resolution I've subscribed to the newspaper for 5 years and with a few exceptions never had issues. However all of a sudden I did not receiver a paper for a week. I called everyday. Their customer service is in Thiland, they all told me the exact same thing. Including they would contact the carrier, credit my account and/or deliver the paper the following day. None of that happened. I know for a fact that the carrier that had this route for 17 years retired at the same time I stopped getting the paper. No one told me they did not have a carrier. I asked to speak to a supervisor several times to no avail. No one contacted me with the truth of the situation and what they were doing to resolve it. Who knows if I will get a credit, they never send a statement or give you any info to determine this. Their customer service is a joke. I could read their responses myself as I heard them with every single person I spoke with.

They told me one price monthly for a year, but raise it incrementally over the months. This has happened twice Told 21 plus now charging 34 plus. They keep raising monthly rate even though the rate I was quoted I was told was for the year. I moved to N.C in 2016 and got introductory rate for Citizens Times. I did not bother looking at the bill for the year till 2017, when I first cancelled. As you can see on the document I started a new deal on 5/9 after getting a quote for a year. The rate continued to rise till I cancelled 9/7. They then contacted me to renew at the lower price for the year as you see on 10/16. Again you see the rate rise till I cancelled again on 6/18. They contacted me to renew again for the 21 dollar rate for the year, and again you can see how they increased the rate till I cancelled today. Every time I've called I've talked to a different person. Today I talked with Sem. I'm sure I'll get another call in a week or two to again renew at a lower rate, but the continued lying about the terms is ridiculous. If their going to raise the price every month, be honest and let people know.

We've been subscribers to the Asheville Citizen-Times since the 1960s & have NEVER had such poor customer service about poor delivery issues. We've been subscribers to the Asheville Citizen-Times since the 1960s & have NEVER had such poor customer service about poor delivery issues. We've had different delivery people over these decades certainly but when a change was made in August or so, things just apparently went to *** in a hand basket. We don't get a paper when there's no snow, we don't get a paper when there's a little snow. Please in Minnesota get papers delivered folks! We certainly want everyone safe but friends in Candler, Black Mountain, Weaverville, Hendersonville have no trouble getting their ASHEVILLE papers when there's a little snow. We haven't had a BIG snow issue this year so that's not what I'm talking about certainly. How people inside the Asheville City Limits DON'T get the paper yet folks outside DO get it is just rediculous! We're always told by customer service that "you can always see everything online" but THAT'S NOT AN OPTION. We always told that we can "have it delivered tomorrow" but THAT NEVER HAPPENS. What a way to run a business. No wonder newspapers are going out of business.

Have not received a paper on the correct day since Feb. 11. Most days I receive no paper & some days I receive papers that are 5 to 15 days late. I am a loyal subscriber to Asheville Citizen-Times for 45+ years. My subscription is for Monday-Saturday via USPS. I never had delivery issues until you started printing in South Carolina. Since then I occasionally miss an issue, sometimes coming the next day, or week, or not at all. The reason for this complaint is that I have not received a copy of Citizen-Times since February 11. I have received random copies since February 11, but 7-14 days late. I have called the customer service number almost every day, and still no paper. Here is a record of deliveries: Feb. 12 - no paper Feb. 13 - no paper Feb. 14 - no paper Feb. 15 - no paper Feb. 17 - no paper Feb. 18 - no current paper but Feb. 12 was delivered Feb. 19 - no paper Feb. 20 - no paper Feb. 21 - no paper Feb. 22 - no current paper but Feb. 14 was delivered Feb. 24 - no current paper but Feb. 18 was delivered Feb. 25 - no current paper but Feb. 17 & 19 were delivered Feb. 26 - no paper Feb. 27 - no current paper but Feb. 15 & 20 were delivered Feb. 28 - no paper Feb. 29 - no current paper but Feb. 21 & 22 were delivered Mar. 2 - no current paper but Feb. 27 & 28 were delivered Mar. 3 - no current paper but Feb. 24 was delivered Mar. 4 - no paper Mar. 5 - no paper Mar. 6 - no current paper but Feb 26 was delivered Mar. 7 - no current paper but Feb. 29 & Mar. 3 were delivered Mar. 9 - no current paper but Feb. 25 & Mar. 2 & 4 were delivered Mar. 10 - no paper Mar. 11 - no paper Mar. 12 - no current paper but Mar. 5 was delivered Mar. 13 - no paper Mar. 14 - no paper Mar. 16 - no paper Mar. 17 - no current paper but Mar. 6 was delivered Mar. 18 - no paper Mar. 19 - no paper Mar. 20 - no current paper but Mar. 7, 9, 10, 13 & 14 were delivered Mar. 21 - no paper Mar. 23 - no paper Mar. 24 - no current paper but Mar. 16 & 17 were delivered