DP Media Network
reviews and complaints

The Denver Post circulation department is consistently bilking customers for higher subscription fees by intentionally mailing renewal notices too late to adjust.I've noticed this specifically with the last two 6 month renewals but I know it has happened in the past. Most recent example:We received a renewal notice dated December 8 on December 13 raising our monthly rate from $45.50 to $62.83, a 38% increase. While we are not destitute, we are retired on a fixed income and these kind of increases are exorbitant in our opinion. Immediately upon opening the renewal notice I called the Denver Post and talked with *** He offered and I accepted a rate of $50.92, a 12% increase. On December 15, two days after receiving the renewal notice and adjusting the monthly charge downward, my credit card showed a Denver Post monthly charge of $62.83. I immediately called and talked with *** She advised that, while the system showed that I had negotiated a $50.92 monthly rate on December 13, it didn't show up until too late to make the adjustment. She offered to "extend my subscription" by the $11.91 difference, whatever that really means. I rejected that and asked for an $11.91 refund. She advised she would send a message to "management", but clearly wasn't hopeful. By January 20, *** mail and called the Denver Post and talked to *** She advised that she saw the note requesting my refund but nothing else. I advised that if I did not receive a refund within one week (i.e. January 27), I would file a complaint with the Complaintsboard.com of Denver as well as Denver TV stations. It is now February 1 and no refund.The Denver Post is deliberately bilking it's customers and blaming the US *** An easy solution would be to back up the mailing by another week to ensure that proper notice of changes to renewal rates are provided. My resolution? I want future proper notice and a refund of my $11.91.

I have been a Denver Post customer since The Rocky Mountain News stopped publishing, Feb, 28, 2009. I rarely had a problem with the News, in which I had had a subscription for over 10 yrs, yet I have cancelled my subscription with the Post four times now because of problems! Almost every time I have cancelled was because of non-delivery of the paper. I even went down to only Sunday's and Holidays, still it could not get delivered. This time I cancelled because they raised my rates, again! Last year I called the newspaper after getting a letter telling me my rates were going up by $3.00, the price of a Sunday paper. Before I had even had time to call them they had already charged the increased amount on of my credit card. I called the Post and was told by Heather that I was suppose to be given a month's notice of an impending increase in the rates, clearly I was not. My rate stayed the same after talking to her, so I did not cancel at that time. July 21 I received in my mailbox (according to the USPS Informed Delivery program) a letter from the Denver Post, dated July 19, informing me of a rate increase. July 6th the Post was paid my normal rate. July 20 my credit card was charged again, the new rate, which was $5.42 more than I normally pay. I called and cancelled my subscription, and told Ross to make sure he put a note to never call me again! Today I received a phone call from the Denver Post! When I told the person that the Post had taken money out of my account without my permission, he wanted to explain how the subscription service charges customers! Seriously, I have a college education, my husband has a college education and used to do financial counselling, I think we can grasp the basics of subscription services that I have paid to some company or another for over 35 years. If I want the poorly edited, ad filled newspaper on Sundays, I will go to a store and buy it there, & know I have a dry, unwrinkled mess of a paper to read! In the meantime I will get my news from possibly the Denver Gazette.

They recently raised their Sunday subscription service to $21. This is no longer an amount that I find to be valuable, so I called on 29 May to cancel my paper. Please keep in mind that I had not received any newspapers for this period of my subscription. I received no papers for the 31st or the 7th. I called on 8 June to determine what the problem was. I was told that my account had been turned off and I wouldn't receive any more papers. I explained that I had paid for the month, and expected either the papers or a refund. The representative said that she could process a refund and I thanked her for her time. Today is 23 June and I have not received the refund that I was promised. I called the customer service line today and was told that the refund was sent to the refund department and that I would need to continue waiting for it. This answer is unacceptable so I asked to be transferred to a supervisor. The supervisor told me that the customer service representative closed my account on the 29th and that I would receive no papers for the money that I paid. I explained to her that I should either receive the papers that I paid for or the refund that was promised. She told me that the account should not have been closed and I would need to pay another $21 to receive the papers. She explained that I should have canceled my account before I wanted it canceled. I explained that there was no specific date that I wanted it canceled, just that I no longer wanted to pay the extreme price that they have implemented. The representative chose to close it immediately, not me. She told me that there was no record of the two missed deliveries prior to my call. I don't understand why that is my fault. I told the representative that I had not received the papers, she chose not to record it. The supervisor insisted that it was my fault that there was not record of the missed papers. She made it very clear that under some policy, she felt that I had done something wrong to justify that they could charge me for a service, but not provide that service.She said that she would restart my service. When I asked if she was going to charge me again, she hung up on me. I feel that these people try to eek out as much money from their customers as possible. Instead of innovating and attempting to provide a service that someone would want, they continue to operate in a dead industry and flip the public off for not wanting their horrible product.

I subscribed to the Denver Post earlier this year, for Weds and Sun delivery. It is now December and I have never received a single paper. I called them in July to report that I had not received a paper. The person I spoke to then offered me a partial refund for the missedmanager I spoke to actually told me there was no way to refund my payment, but I could call my bank to try to stop payment. Are you kidding me? I was truly flabbergasted by that one. I am owed at least $78, and likely another $13 on top of that for the payment t deliveries, and then said she would ensure the paper was re delivered. Of course, I never received the paper. I do not believe I received any refund either; I can not find a record of it in my bank account. Today, I called again to finally cancel my completely worthless subscription. The customer service agents were rude and robotic. It is not their fault, I am sure they are just following the DP policy, but I was honestly taken aback. No one so much as said "I am sorry you have experienced an issue." or anything like that. Here I am, having to take time out of my day because the DP takes customers' money and then does not fulfill their end of the bargain. And they acted like this was somehow my fault, because I did not contact them enough times to complain! I have not experienced such poor customer service in years. There is no excuse for any business to be rude to customers, ESPECIALLY when the business has screwed up! Like everyone else complaining to Complaintsboard.com, they flat out refused to issue me any sort of refund. In any amount. I asked for a partial refund, and I was told no. With no explanation, and no offer for any alternative resolution. Even though I called today and said I want my subscription cancelled immediately, that did not seem to be an option somehow? So, basically, they get to keep my money, and I get nothing in return. That sounds illegal. At the very least, it is wrong! All they wanted to do was to make feeble attempts to get me to stay as a customer (again, without apologizing or offering any response whatsoever to my complaint), then offer to "escalate" my complaint (which i already did the first time I received no papers, and it very clearly did nothing, so why exactly would I want to do that again?), and tell me they would not refund anything. I was not offered any valid resolution, and I am very unhappy. The account hat they "couldn't stop or refund" that was supposed to go through today.

Until recently, I thought my nightmare with the Denver Post had finally come to an end. But no, despite promising to not bother me anymore, I am still getting spam calls from them, and that has reignited the frustration I've felt for over half a year and reminded me how terrible an experience I've had with this business. I signed up sometime last October or so. The representative who signed me up convinced me it would be easy to cancel at anytime and ultimately enticed me with a gift card to another establishment. It was a great interaction. Two months later, after I had encountered some serious financial hardship due to a false arrest, I called to cancel my membership. You can only cancel via calling their customer service call center. I called and waited over 45 minutes w/ no one picking up. I elected to try again the next day as I had work to attend to. The next day, it still took over 30 minutes for someone to answer. I explained I could no longer afford a membership. They advertised a cheaper service of theirs, to which I said, "that sounds great, but I can't really afford anything right now." The agent eventually came around and said everything was cancelled and I'd be all good to go. So naturally, when I saw a charge on my card about 5 weeks later, I knew something was wrong. I called again, and still had to wait a ridiculous amount of time to speak to someone. When I finally managed to get someone on the phone, I explained what happened and asked to get a refund and to be sure my information was no longer with their publication. The representative proceeded to NON-STOP argue with me and tell me that their cheaper service was VERY AFFORDABLE and refused to cancel my membership no matter what I said. I called again, this time asking for a manger (which I very rarely feel like I need to do). The manager was great, apologized, but still told me it was impossible to get me a refund for my cancelled service because there was "no record of the call in their system". Fine, I thought, whatever - I pleaded with her to just get me unaffiliated with the publication and to ENSURE I wouldn't be contacted or charged again after such a terrible string of customer service incidents. She agreed and I thought it was over - but, no. I am still receiving calls from them, on a level that boarders harassment. I've worked for a small town newspaper. I know funding is tight, and I know adapting to the digital world is incredibly difficult. That does not give anyone an excuse to straddle the line of scamming their customers. My whole interaction started with the promise of easy cancellation. But no - after charging me for services I did not authorize, I still get incessant calls from them. After 135 customer complaints through the Complaintsboard.com (no idea why I didn't think to come here before) and 26 scathingly negative reviews, how on Earth does this publication that has no regard for their customers still have such a high rating here? What happened to me is not an isolated incident. I explained the situation to some friends and they had very similar stories - being coaxed into signing up with a gift card, and then having it be basically impossible to get out. It's infuriating and I can never in good conscious let any friends of mine sign up to pay for this publication. This is not what a better business is.

This complaint is being filed on behalf of my elderly mother in law (86 years old) Denver Post advertises a rate of $31 per month for home delivery of the newspaper online. They do not say this is a new subscriber rate or make any other claims as to this being a special or promotional rate. People who take a subscription to the newspaper can do so at a $31 rate. They choose the subscription term through payment - up to 1 year for $364. Nowhere does it say this is a promotional term or rate. (7 day home delivery with on line access as well) People who are long term subscribers are put on the *** automatic billing. They received a postcard offering a free magazine for moving to ***. It is promoted as a convenience billing service for the subscriber and the newspaper. What *** actually does is authorize the newspaper to automatically bill and automatically increase pricing without additional subscriber approval. It hides massive increases in newspaper pricing in small letters. Once people are in the system, their rates continuously get increased and billed to their credit card on file. My guess is that by providing a magazine (which by the way was actually never delivered), the newspaper gets away with massive price increases. My 86 year old mother in law did not realize there was a rate increase from ~$30 to ~$48 (6 months later) to ~$82 (6 months later) to $103 per month (6 months later) over a two year period with the increases automatically billed to her credit card. The notice provided by the Denver Post looks like junk mail and a magazine advertisement - It is a glossy promotional mailing with magazine pictures on the front and back of the tri-fold advertising piece. The rate increase notification it is not in an envelope or presented as a bill or official notice. Older people do not recognize it as a increase in their bill or a rate increase in their newspaper pricing. The notice gets discarded along with all the multiple other magazine offers received in the mail daily. Presenting the rate increase this way is deceptive and predatory. The rate increase is in small letters, probably 10 font, while the magazine references are is what I would estimate as 16 font. There are multiple magazine references and a single rate increase note in small print. In the magazine selection area, there is an *** disclaimer in 6 font that says by putting your name on the magazine offer, you are authorizing *** to assume the above practices. Older people cannot read the small print. In my mind, this is a deceptive practice and very predatory on older people who may not see the rate increase notice in the small print next to the multiple large pictures of magazines. The notice is meant to deceive. It is designed as a magazine promotion, hiding the authorization and rate increase. It took me over 4 hours to talk to a person who could help me at the Denver Post - I called the number provided in the advertisement and hit the we are very busy recording. After a 20 minute hold period listening to music, I selected call me back. #0 minutes later, I received a call back with nobody on the line and waited another 15 minutes. Tony came on the line and said he could only take new subscriptions so put me back on hold for customer service. After 20 minutes, the music stopped and the line dropped. I restarted the process and after a lengthy hold, talked to Eli who said the same thing - he could only do new subscriptions - and I was forwarded to customer service and put on hold. I finally reached Heather in customer service who told me they were authorized to do what they do. She said the pricing advertised on line is only to obtain new customers - even though this is not documented in the on line pricing. After a lot of arguing and frustration, I was able to cancel *** billing and unhappily settled for a year subscription price that was almost 2X what is advertised on-line. On-line advertised pricing is $30.33 and my mother in law will now pay $54.41 per month. At her age, without her husband - who passed away, with hearing loss and difficulty seeing without a magnifying glass, my mother in law would have no hope of resolving this with the Denver Post. She is housebound and has read the newspaper for 75+ years. It is a highlight of her day. Having the Denver Post adopt these practices when a large portion of their readers are elderly is sad and in my mind criminal (even if they have legal loopholes built into their process).