I also signed up for a "trial" subscription because some cute kid came to my door looking to sell subscriptions as part of a scholarship service.
I gave him a check for $10, and he told me I would receive a call from the Times within 2 days to verify my order. They never called. Papers never came. I forgot all about it since I didn't even want the paper anyway.
Two months later I received a bill for $50 for all of these papers I had never received. I tried several times to call their customer service line, but it was after hours by the time I could get away from my job.
Next notice comes along saying my account and delivery (hah! What delivery?) has been suspended due to nonpayment and that it will be going into collections shortly.
This time when I called I got through, and was stonewalled by their customer service agents, who basically stonewalled me. They said that they had sent out two bills (I only received one) and that if I hadn't received any papers why hadn't I called? I tried to explain to them that I had only received one bill, that I had tried several times to call them, and that I had not received a single paper.
Their response to everything is "there's nothing we can do about it once it has gotten to this point." They refuse to pass you along to someone with more authority, instead saying to send a letter to the head billing department, who, they inform me, will only "throw out" the letter.
The day after I called them they sent my account along to their collections department, having made no mention in my file that I had contested the charges.
I finally chickened out and paid them off to avoid the neverending drama of having it go on my credit report and having to write endless letters to credit agencies and collection agencies contesting the charges. I am totally disappointed with myself for caving in, since I just paid them for services they never provided!
Why don't they have any way of tracking delivery? I asked them to show me the delivery guy who had been delivering papers for the last 3 months!"Oh we can't do that, " they tell me.
Buyer beware!!! The LA Times sucks!!!
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