Cancelling a Süddeutsche Zeitung subscription

Hi everybody,

some months ago my bf got caught on the street by somebody who was giving away 'free' samples of the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), one of the best German daily newspapers. The guy told him that he just had to give him his name and address and my bf unfortunately did
This guy told him that in case he was not interested in getting the newspaper, he just had to write an email to the subscription service of the SZ, specifying that he was not interested in getting the newspaper. My bf wrote this email few days later and he even got an automatic reply to confirm that the email was received.

Some weeks later my bf shifted apartment and the whole story was forgotten. One month later he received a letter forwarded from his old address containing the first bill from the SZ (55 euro), he than wrote a second email specifying that he already wrote that he was not interested and that the bill was a mistake. He got no answer to this email, not even automatic.

After two months he received per post a second bill from the SZ, again 55 euro. He then started to get worried and called the SZ Hotline, where they told him that he had a running subscription for more than 2 months, that he was getting the newspapers (to his old address of course) and that they never got any cancellation from him. They suggested him to send a third a cancellation email, attaching the two emails that he wrote in the past.

After some days my bf started to get calls from the billing department of the SZ and they told him that he did not pay 2 bills. He repeated the whole story again and they suggested him to send a fourth cancellation email.

When he asked to talk directly to the person in charge of terminating the subscription, both the billing department and the hotline refused to say who is responsible for this, they just said it is their 'fachabteilung' (special department).

We even wrote a fax to the SZ, using the fax number published on their website, but we found out that that number is not correct, because they claimed that they never received the fax and gave us a different fax number.

I cannot complain about the quality of the newspaper, but I am complaining about the way they are fooling us and making us lose too much time for such a stupid issue .
They do not even have a signed contract from my bf to justify the subscription!
We are about to mandate a lawyer to deal with them, but why the hell should we spend money on this?

My recommendation to everybody is: never give your details to anyone on the streed (especially to the SZ!) unless you really want to have the subscription!

Any hints for us? Anybody from the SZ out there who can help us???
Thanks

Just ignore it and wait until they send it to collections. When you get that notice, send copies of everything you've sent the SZ in the past, tell them you want a copy of the written contract where you signed up for the paper and wait for the response.

You won't ever hear from them again.

If he never signed anything, and never even wrote an e-mail asking to get a subscription or confirming that he has indeed taken out a subscription, it seems to me that they have no legal claim whatsoever. What could they possibly base their claim for payment on? (though normally, they want you to fill in a form the size of a postcard and sign it. That might be a different story. Still, if he has a confirmation of receipt for his cancellation e-mail, plus a fax receipt of a fax sent to a fax number specified on the SZ website, the cancellation should be crystal-clear as well)

Since they haven't received emails and fax, send them a registered letter (with return) including copies of all the past correspondence. That way someone has to actually sign for the letter, and you have actual proof that they have received it.

Why even bother to spend money on a registered letter though?

Because you don't want a messed up credit rating, and dealing with an aggressive collections agency can be very stressful. A registered letter doesn't cost all that much, and it is impossible to ignore.

You don't have to sign anything in Germany for a contract to be binding. I have ordered stuff by phone and never signed anything. I have ordered stuff on the internet and never signed anything. A signature is not required for a German company to start sending you a product and asking for payment. But a signature is usually required to cancel a contract.

bipa your advice is spot on.the point of sending a letter registred post is because they have to sign for it and confirm receiving the letter.with an e mail they can always buff you off saying its not been received.

Yes, you can enter into a valid oral contract. But they still have to prove that you actually entered into the contract. A little hard for them to do, if there is no signature, no e-mail or other form of communication via internet, no telephone recording... But agreed - to be on the safe side, sending a registered letter can't hurt.

If you got a confirmation of receipt of the e-mail (as stated in the original post), that should count for something.

The reply he got only shows that the mail server they use received the email. It doesn't mean it actually got to the company. The server could be owned by another firm, could have crashed, could have been infected by a virus, could have exploded... whatever... before someone in the company actually opened and read the email. AFAIK, emails are not legally binding anyway which is why many cancellation policies specify they want notice in writing with a signature.

I've mentioned this before, but I'll repeat it. If you are ever offered a free trial, be certain that you actually do want the service. If you don't cancel in writing with signature within the allotted time (often 2 weeks or a month) then you could end up locked into a full one year contract EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED ANYTHING! Heck, you don't even have to agree to the free trial! I got caught that way a while back with a Premier subscription. The only way I finally got out of it was to write a registered letter to the President of the company.

So just send a registered letter.

Update: we called again the SZ hotline and the German operator shouted at my bf, saying why did he give his data if he didn't want the subscription (!!!).
He could not stop her for several minutes, she just kept shouting at him like a crazy .
I am sorry that I do not have her name... otherwise it would be nice to inform her boss and the SZ readers of such a behaviour...

Yer in Germany micia, her boss could not care less what you think.

Send the registered letter and forget about this nonsense. They don't really give a rat's ass about this whole thing.

We'll write a registered mail, thanks for the hint.

If this story comes to an happy end, SZ should at least offer us a one year gift subscription for all the troubles...
Despite I like reading SZ, I don't know if I would accept it... I am sure they would later send us the bills and they would automatically conver it in a 10 years subscription !!!

Strange thing is, the stuff they used to offer at their stalls is a free two week trial subscription that ends automatically. No need to cancel.

Seems they changed their policy?

I'm not sure if they have. It used to always be you had to un-subscribe by a certain date but any I have had recently (Münchener Merkur) have ended automatically and I got a phone call asking me if I was interested in a subscription. A polite "No" and that was that.

I did take this 2 weeks trial also... But it seems that it does not stop anymore...

Should I send also a registered mail for cancellation?

I think it is a good idea... (unless you are ready to pay 55 euro per month)

Strange, why do they charge 55 €? According to their website, it's only 37 € per month...?

(considering that they publish roughly 25 issues per month, 55 € is more than 2 € per newspaper, considerably more than the newsstand price)

I do not know why 55 euro...
Perhaps they charge the 18 euro extra for the weekly 'Wissen'.
(despite you can usually buy the current edition on eBay for 1,85 euro each)
Or perhaps the bills are for more than one month... no idea: we never received any edition and we do not know when they started to deliver it exactly.

UPDATE: Registered mail has been sent.
Today came the first admonition letter to pay (something like 90 euro).
The hotline operator said to ignore it, since they (or she?) recognize it was their mistake. Shall we believe her ???
We asked her to send a letter to state that the case is solved, but I don't think we will ever get anything ... perhaps more admonitions ...

This is a bigger deal than it is to you -- really. It's just over. I've had a half dozen of these situations and a letter ended most.

Last week my bf received a call from the SZ and the woman on the phone wanted to know from him about his experience with the free 2 weeks subscription .
She had absolutely no idea of all the chaos and all the problems we had!!!