TwinCities.com / St. Paul Pioneer Press
reviews and complaints

My elderly grandmother has been subscribed to the Pioneer Press for many years and paid for a 13 week subscription in September. She has been several weeks without a paper even though it was paid for in advance and has called multiple times when her paper was not delivered, but was assured it would be.

As her granddaughter, I called the Pioneer Press on behalf of my elderly grandmother since she never received $400 worth of paper since this fall. Their customer service was incredibly rude and did not make any attempt to resolve the problem in any way. The Pioneer Press has continued to deny being accountable for their mistakes of not delivering the paper as promised.

They said that they have a non-refundable policy and refused to refund my grandmother's account for the $400 of paper she paid for but never received. They said it was her responsibility to file a formal complaint every single day that a paper was missed. The Pioneer Press said that they use a third party to deliver the paper so they have no way to check if the paper was delivered or not. It seems unethical to collect people's money without checking to see if the actual product has been delivered and then to not provide any refunds when it hasn't arrived.

I strongly advise anyone against subscribing to the Pioneer Press due to their lack of integrity and accountability because they have affirmed multiple times that they would handle the situation but never did. We are extremely unsatisfied with the lack of customer service and respect they have demonstrated and have had only negative experiences with them.

Since our delivery person resigned two weeks ago, we have not been receiving our paper every morning. In fact, we have probably only received three papers on time in that amount of time. Sometimes we get them a day late, and sometimes not at all. Please try to resolve this delivery problem. We would like to continue to receive the Pioneer Press, but would appreciate credit for all the missed or late issues.

I had delivery service at my previous address, 1399 Tulip Ln, Baldwin, WI 54002. We moved and wanted delivery at our new address, 597 217th Ave, Somerset, WII 54025. The paper stopped getting delivered at the old address 4 months ago but never started at the new address. I am still getting billed every month on my credit card... when we called to get it stopped or delivery started again, they told me they had no record of my account. My credit says it is the Pioneer Press billing the card... how do I fix this?

Augustine Rangel

[protected]

Twin Cities Pioneer Press call for a renewal, I told them absolutely no, I do not want your paper anymore. The paper continues to be delivered late and tossed (when on time) against my aluminum garage door waking me up! The front door not just three feet away.

Today I called and was informed that not only was my subscription not canceled but I owed them $9.00 for past deliveries. I asked if the calls are being recorded can you go back and listen to when I said NO MORE! He said it doesn't work that way (yeah, NOT to there advantage) So, I paid the stupid $9.00 because they would upset my credit over this.

however, telling them no didn't work the first time why would it work now... No assurances. So, I have I guess no recourse than to complain here and send a letter to the attorney generals office. Over I simple stupid time wasting B.S. I'll also post to every public media available to me so I have now got plenty of witnesses.

The guy on the line kept trying (in vain) to have me re-subscribe just thirty cents a paper. I told him stop trying to sell me - i'm done!

We are long time subscribers (30+ years) to "Sunday Only" St. Paul Pioneer Press. Our usual, prompt, courteous, always reliable delivery person, 30+ year veteran Bill Schlecht, recently retired. The most replacement delivery person has, for the last two consecutive weeks, made delivery errors that we cannot tolerate:

1. Last Sunday, (3/6/22) the paper was found suspended outside our mailbox. We live in a high crime, "neighborhood watch" neighborhood and passers-by (both pedestrians and motorists) love to 'help themselves' to a free-for-the-taking newspaper. Hanging the paper outside the box is like ringing the dinner bell to Pavlov's dog passing by.

2. Today (3/13/22) rather than receive a Sunday St. Paul Pioneer Press, we received a Minneapolis Star and Tribune. We do not care at all what happens in Minneapolis and much prefer our subscription to be restored to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

I realize this is a new paper delivery person on the job with perhaps hundreds of deliveries to be made. I also realize papers are sorted in a communal fashion with (probably) hundreds of other subscribers, hence, mistakes will be made. However, be alert to this ; whoever it is delivering our paper, this is "strike two". One more and we will certainly purchase our paper from a local vendor and avoid this hassle.

I am writing again to you to help me secure my refund from the St Paul Pioneer Press. I have been dealing with this company since last November. They took my check and cashed it but never delivered my paper. Everytime I called they promised to bring one out. That never happened. Then they would promise to deliver it the following week. That never happened. I wrote to you before and did receive a text from the St Paul Pioneer Press saying they would refund my money. That never happened either. I cannot deal with the rude employees down there anymore. Please help!

There has been no delivery of my (paid for in advance) subscription newspaper in the last five days. William J. Davis Account: 3159606
1878 Sheldon St. Falcon Heights, MN. 55113
And... when the paper is delivered, many times I find it in the middle of the street or in the neighbor's yard.

We seem to have a large problem with the delivery of our newspaper here at 5200 Pathways Ave, White Bear Lake, MN 55110, this is a condo building and personally we have not received our Sunday newspaper for the last 2 Sundays, July 4 and July 11, I have phoned numerous times but never received either Sunday issues.

And again today, July 13, no newspaper and it is never here before 8 am.

Sincerely,
The Hamstads, unit 206

I have been a newspaper subscriber with the St Paul Pioneer press for 23 years. I could go on about the 50 or so emails I have sent and numerous phone calls to what they refer to as " customer service " . It is anything but that. I finally met the delivery person in my driveway ...delivering a newspaper at almost 12 noon. He looked like he just crawled out of bed. He was driving a heap of junk for a car. Its pretty obvious at this point that ( at least in my delivery area) the Pioneer Press is paying a pitiful amount of money to subcontractors to deliver the paper. The delivery person knew about my complaints and obviously has chosen to ignore them. He gave me a lame excuse of some kind.
Its really sad. To add injury to insult the Pioneer Press said they would not refund the remainder of my subscription! I have talked to an actual agent on the phone and told them they have 2 choices:
(1) Deliver my newspaper in the morning as advertised.
(2) Refund the remainder of my subscription.
This was ignored by them.
I repeatedly either don't get the paper at all or get it late in the day. This has been going on for a year.

We Have now been with out the Sunday News Paper for 8 weeks. I have called on the missing days received a credit and called to ask about having it looked into only to be told that the following week there will be a correction.
This has yet to be done.
We will Not be renewing our subscription with the Pioneer Press News Paper. False promises are not a good business to practice to have with your customers.

The Pioneer Press customer service department is a disaster. They have owed me money for over a month now for a subscription I cancelled in early June after which they kept billing me. Emails to them have proved fruitless in my quest to get the money they took from my account for the cancelled subscription. I even contacted the Better Business Bureau to which the PP replied "We will look into this ASAP." Well, ASAP to them must mean "whenever we feel like it" as there has been no action on this at all. They have an average rating of 1-star in the 58 reviews on the BBB website and there have been 222 complaints lodged against the them. Almost all are concerning the same problem I am having or worse. Many complaints are new subscriptions who say they keep getting billed but are receiving no newspapers. Then the Pioneer Press has the gall to send these subscribers to the collection department. It seems the wheels have come off this company. Subscribe at your own risk!

We stopped getting the paper daily because half the time we didn't get it. We did want the Sunday paper so agreed to the Sunday and Thursday papers. We still don't get it half the time and when we do it's out on the main sidewalk or on the boulevard. Why is it so difficult for us to get a paper twice a week? If you are losing subscribers that is the reason why as we are now thinking of switching to the Strib.

I'm getting sick of having to rekey my complaint, so I'll try to keep this simple. My new subscription is not living up to the conditions I stipulated. Because my wife and I are handicapped and can't go outside to look for and retrieve the deliveries, I had stipulated that all deliveries would be into my blue paper box at the front of the house. This was an agreed to condition. Not today. The delivery ended up on a sidewalk in front of my house. My planned solution to this problem is to request redelivery. I did this today but I still don't have a paper in the blue box (as of 1:25pm).
My contract is with the PP and I hope the PP gets its act together pronto. I was promised blue box delivery and until I get it, I plan to request a redelivery each time it happens.

My paper had been delivered by someone throwing the paper over the front gate into the yard. Unacceptable service. Now someone is delivering the paper down on the curb next to the street. I had asked that the paper be put in the mail box attached to the gate, it has never gotten there. Unacceptable service. This service is for the Thursday and Sunday papers.

I paid for 5 coupons for the dailydeals for tiuccis restaurant that was available on 10/11/2018. When i went to print them out they expired on february 13 2018. I would like to get 5 unexpired coupons as i noticed the offer was in the newsp paper again a few days ago. I first called you on 10/12/2018 and then sarah called me yesterday but i missed her calls

Recently, our 7 day a week newspaper has been tossed at the end of our driveway instead of being delivered to the front door. We have been paying customers for 28 years at this address.

I have called and talked to customer service reps many times, and have been promised that the carriers manager would be notified and that this would be corrected. It is still a problem. This should not be my problem as I am paying for this service.

What is next? Do we cancel the newspaper after 28 years? Is there someone with authority who cares and will correct this problem?

Jerome Pihlaja - [protected] Hickory Hill Drive, Eagan MN 55122
[protected]@gmail.com Account # 651396

When will this paper shut down their hateful comments section? I have seen the same right wing racists spewing hateful bs every time I open the comments section for many years. Is this all your paper stands for, hate? Is racist money all you're interested in? I have canceled my subscription several times in disgust. Shame on your greed! Shame on you! We need a better local newspaper.

We have not received our paper both on Friday and today (Saturday). I am positive that we have paid our subscription and would like our account credited. In addition, we would like the delivery people to know that we have received this paper 7 days a week for over 5 years and find the absence of the paper unacceptable. 17397 Inland Loop, Lakeville, MN

I quit the Pioneer Press Sunday delivery about 1 year ago due to delivery problems almost every Sunday.
I then subscribed to the Mpls Tribune.
Missing the Pioneer Press I re-upped my subscription and cancelled the Tribune in April 2018.
First 2 or 3 times, the paper was here - sometimes in the Pioneer Press box and sometimes in my driveway. Today nothing.
I am not willing to go through stressful delivery events again. Very unhappy.