Im being harrassed by the L.A. Times...?

Question

ok, so last june i was approached by a man at my college who tried to get me to sign up for some free 6 week trial of the newspaper, claiming he was trying to raise money for scholarships by collecting subscriptions. He was very pushy, and i was trying to avoid him. But being the nice guy that i am (and naive) i reluctantly agreed to sign up, especially since he stressed that it was free. Well as soon as thoes newspapers arrived they started billing me and sending invoices to my house and of course i got in trouble with my dad. I am a broke college student and have no credit or debit card to pay these invoices (they refuse to accept cash) so i begain to ignore them, hoping they would leave me alone...boy was i wrong! they started calling me trying to collect money and i explained my situation but the teller was completely indifferent. at the most she canceled by subsctiption which i didnt know was still active. but i still owe about $32 for whatever reason. these bills get higher every month. I wonder if i should try to pay them off eventually or just continue to ignore them. Has anyone out there experienced this before, and did you resolve this issue?

Answer 1

>he stressed that it was free.



SO! All he would have to say is signing up for the subscription is free (you still have to pay for the newspapers). You don't have any proof he said anything so unless you have something in writing I'd start saving my pennies. Look if you aren't squeamish find a local plasma bank that pays for blood if your blood is clean and you're in good health most places offer $25-$55 a pint.



http://voices.yahoo.com/first-person-experience-selling-plasma-money-11490612.html?cat=5



Pay the money it is a small price to learn that the next time someone tries to railroad you into anything show some backbone. Now when someone tries to pressure you into something you'll know why. I NEVER EVER sign up for "free" stuff because it is NEVER FREE!!! Even if they send you some free crap they are selling your personal information to mailing lists or using it to steal your identity and usually there is some fine print catch that allows them to charge you if you don't complete some vaporware cancellation procedure in a specified time.



If you keep ignoring this bill it will be sold to a collection agency and then they will start pestering you for $32 + interest and their $50 collections fee. This can also mess up your credit rating way out of proportion to the debt you owe and that blemish on your credit will last for years.

Answer 2

So you signed up for a subscription out of ignorance.



Didn't pay the bills, ignored the constant reminders, and you think they're the problem?

Answer 3

Write a terse ltr stating your intention to sue the paper for negligent/fraudulent misrepresentation by their agent, who obtained your consent for delivery on the strength of an offer of free service. The offer (give any details of agent who pitched delivery - date, time, name if poss) of free service was merely that - it was never clothed with consideration/payment of any kind and is therefore not an enforceable contract. Any continued efforts on the part of the paper to extract payment on the strength of agent's apparently negligent/fraudulent offer may become a matter for both civil and criminal courts and that you expect to hear no more about it. Please remove your name from any and all contact lists or that, too, may become a matter for the courts.