The Charlotte Observer News Paper Unethical solicitation of business Charlotte North Carolina

We have been suscribers to the Charlotte Observer (CO) for over 20 years however as the paper content shrank, adverstising inserts got larger and the price of the paper surged we decide to end our relationship.  At the end of a billing cycle we decided not to pay and let the subscription cease.  We paid nothing and called no one as it only makes sense that if you do not pay you will not recieve the product.  The delivery of the paper continued...we thought it was simply "playing out the string" until our money expired on that account effectly ending any type of contract with the CO.

For the next month we received 2 more mailing form the CO in the form of bills.  We again did not pay.  We then got 2-4 phone calls from the CO stating that we had an outstanding bill for the papers THEY decided to continue to deliever as a courtsey to us.  We told them that we did not ask for these and considered our "contract" to be terminated at the end of the orginal billing cycle.  We didn't pay so in turn we did not renew!  In the old days if someone sent to you or delievered to you an item you did not request you were not required to pay the service provider and that is how we felt about this issue.  So they finally stopped delievery and we heard nothing else.

Three weeks ago a sales rep for the CO called wanting our business back and made several appealing offers to have delievery started again.  The lowest rate (that in our opinion is good) caught our eye and we decided to start a new delievery with them at that new rate.  We were told that there would be no catches to the New subscription. Tto get the delivery at the lowest cost you had to put it on a credit card.  We decided to do this.  We were told delivery would take place in 7 to 10 days and our credit card would be billed $19 for the first months rate.

Three weeks after the new agreement we had not received a paper.  My wife called and enquired about why we had not received the paper.  She was told "to receive delievery we would have to pay the previous balance" and it would have to be put on the credit card.  If we decided not to do this then we would lose the first months payment.  My wife was flabergasted and upset by this strong arm tatic but agreeded to the demand.

In my opinion, a fraud took place by solicting the new business, on a new contract, at a new price; paying for it and then having that payment  held hostage for a bill that they took upon themselves to incur as a curtosy to the customer.

If that is not fraud then it is highly UNETHICAL to utilize a sales pitch to COLLECT an (in their opionion) outstanding bill.  I do believe that would be violating state law regarding bill colletion policies.

Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you or someone regarding this matter.

Mike Grant