Bay Area News Group

NEVER give them your credit card! You will not be able to cancel your subscription without a whole world of hassle. You can't cancel online, you have to call. When I spoke with them, it was already after the Merc News renewal period and they wanted a new credit card for the $1.22 balance. I asked them to mail me a bill and they refused, it had to be a credit card over the phone. I only gave the credit card after she assured me it would not be charged further. And, what do you know - a week later it was charged for another year's subscription! When I called to get it refunded, they said they had to review the recording of the earlier call to make sure that I actually said I wanted to cancel. If they don't refund my money, I will have the charges reversed by my credit card company, but what a hassle! These are unethical business practices.

Scam. Avoid at all costs. They will try to fraudulently sign you up for memberships and will pester you with calls.

I can't get through by phone
I ordered 4 books celebrating the Giants, Niners and Warriors showing their accomplishments over these years
ONLY RECEIVED ONE BOOK!!!!
Charged for all ones ordered
These are Christmas gifts and the set for myself
FURIOUS
Can't post no stars. One is too good too

I ordered the East Bay times for my elderly mother, hoping to engage her mind a bit more in current events, and after seeing the paper, untouched on her kitchen table for three days, I called the paper to cancel. I was placed on a lengthy hold, funny how quickly they answer the phone when you are trying to place a subscription, when I finally got through to Frank, he said that I was paid through January and that the subscription was non-refundable. I was never informed that it was a non-refundable subscription and will be contacting the Better Business Bureau. When I asked to speak to a supervisor Frank told me that he was the "Floor supervisor" though I am sure he is only supervising his floor at home. I asked for another supervisor and was placed on another lengthy hold. Looking at the Yelp review for this organization it looks like their shoddy practices are business as usual.

Yesterday, the Bay Area News Group published a full page ad in the middle of the local section, asking "Are you a longtime reader of this paper? Tell us what you love most about reading your newspaper. Yelp us..." Okay, I guess I can write about my experience with this newspaper. I am shocked to see there aren't any reviews.

I am a longtime reader of the newspaper published by the Bay Area News Group. My reading the paper goes all the way back to a time when the late Robert Maynard was the editor of the Oakland Tribune. Back in those days I enjoyed reading the paper. Bill Fiset's column was witty and humorous. Perry Phillips offered an abundance of information on dining out and the night scene. Then there were columns written by William Wong, Brenda Payton and Martin Snapp. I didn't read much of the sports section, except on occasion I read articles by Carl Steward. Wednesday's edition had several good recipes in the cooking/baking section. One of the recipes I clipped from the paper was Fresh Peachy Tart, which I used to prepare a fresh peach cobbler. Gone are the days of preparing peach cobblers since I have to watch my sugar intake for health reasons. Another recipe that I still have in my possession (clipped from the Trib) is Al Attles' macaroni 'n cheese. Fast forward to nowadays.

After numerous telephone calls from telemarketers, I finally subscribed to the Oakland Tribune. They had a deal that I could not turn down or refuse. It was get the newspaper for six days a week for $2.10 a month. The only day I did not get a copy of the paper was Monday. I still have the same subscription. The monthly charge has gone from $6.00 to $6.20 to the current rate of $8.00. This monthly fee is charged automatically to my credit card, which is fine with me.

It was in April of this year that the newspaper had a name change to East Bay Times. Basically it is still the same format.

The Sunday sections that I like are the food and travel. The sports section could be better. I don't like to wait until Sunday to see the prep football scores when games are played Friday evenings. Then I like to see a calendar schedule of upcoming games of the local professional sports team (Raiders, 49ers, A's, Giants, Sharks). The SF Chronicle sporting greens has a calendar schedule.

I don't have a problem with the delivery person. He delivers the paper about the same time in the morning. Thus, I seldom call customer service to get an issue resolved.

Overall, the East Bay Times, which is part of the Bay Area News Group, is somewhere between "meh" and A-OK.

Terrible door to door solicitation tactics. Young adult will show up at your door pushing a newspaper subscription to help him/her with whatever life goal they have. If you decline, they can be pushy. They have fake documents to try to show you that people have signed up or they have an acceptance letter to wherever.

If you do not want a subscription, they will ask if you can instead donate money to them. If they get your name, they will sometimes forge the paper work to sign you up for a subscription. This happened to me. Beware.

Got my bill today:
24wks for $277.91

Seems like a lot of money for newspaper, so I asked my neighbor what he is paying, his bill:
52wks for $219.91

You read that right, unflipping real. So I called them and of course the guy on the phone says "today only, ~please don't tell your neighbor~ I can give you 52wk for $182.00"

So to review:
You're running a dying business, with mostly hack writing and you pull this crap on customers... 2 words for you East Bay Times, FU!

I got scammed by San Jose Mercury News (SJMN, aka Bay Area News Group) when a young male claiming to be a local high school student showed up at my door, asking for a "donation" that would help him pay for college textbooks. In return, I would get a temporary subscription to SJMN. I made it clear I did not want to do more than a one-time payment, that's it, and he said that was totally fine. I made sure I did not check off any of the subscription boxes on the form, I did not sign the form, and I wrote "Donation" on the check. I still have the form receipt and a copy of the check from my bank.

First, I never received a single newspaper. I told SJMN this several times when they would call and ask if I had received it. Then I get a bill in the mail for an outstanding balance. I call and tell them the situation, and the customer service woman said there was a mistake and she would remove the balance due and close the account. This was in December or early January.

I am now getting daily calls from a collection agency on behalf of SJMN, demanding that I pay. I called SJMN customer service AGAIN and the man I spoke with told me that my account was still active and a balance was still due. I told him that was supposed to have been resolved more than a month ago. He agreed to cancel the account and remove the balance due. I asked for this in writing, as I had already done this once before and nothing was resolved. He told me he could not send me written notice but gave me his Badge ID#.

Still getting calls from the collection agency, who would not tell me they were a collection agency at first, but I persisted.

I filed a formal complain with the BBB today. Will see what happens.

I was mislead by a salesperson who approached me at Pleasanton Walmart. I walked in and he offered me Walmart gift cards totaling $20 and a coupon book for the price of $14 something. He was annoying about it but I was convinced I could use a coupon booklet. So I paid the $14-something, got the gift cards and never got a coupon booklet. Instead I started getting the newspaper. When a rep called to ask how I was enjoying the newspaper I explained how I wasn't enjoying it because it's not what I thought I was paying for. They apologized and gave me a number to complain/cancel. That number they gave didn't work. I called a general contact number, complained/cancelled over a week ago. Still haven't seen a refund and they're still delivering the newspaper. The Bay Area News Group is a wheezle crooked business.

I've subscribed to the digital version for about a year now and was offered a free upgrade to receive the Sunday printed paper for free two months ago. I've yet to receive a single paper despite calling every week, and every week being promised they will fix the issue with the delivery folks. I strongly, strongly suspect they are selling 'free' upgrades to the Sunday printed version to falsely inflate their subscriber numbers for ad revenue. I do not recommend any Bay Area News Group papers, and hope another paper looks into this issue of counting subscribers but not delivering the actual papers to them.