I sometimes wish the Free Press would print its 3 daily crosswords on the front page and the last page of section A to spare me the disappointment of opening it up. I realize the newspaper industry in general has gone downhill, but the Freep seems to have plummeted more than most. It used to be a decent paper but Gannett really has stripped it to the bare bones. Sports and soft news usually rule the day with serious, important news relegated to small blurbs buried as far as its small heft allows them to be buried. I sometimes enjoy Stephen Henderson's column, and if you are lucky they'll reprint a syndicated Leonard Pitts Jr. piece but 99% of the stuff you'll find in here is a bunch of corporate media approved pablum. I've heard the Free Press described as a local version of Pravda - a bunch of rah-rah b.s. A local sports team makes a long run in the playoffs? Don't expect serious news on the front page for a month. One time the headline on the front page simply said "Seger!" in letters big enough to announce the 9/11 attacks. And don't get me started on Mitch Albom. He's hands down my least favorite writer ever. He's got that ham-fisted, annoying writing style that often nearly makes me throw up inside my mouth. It will be a great day when that Napoleonic douchebag retires. I only buy the Free Press because it's less conservative than the Detroit News with which it shares a conjoined Sunday edition - the beginning of the long, painful decline of this rag, and because I like looking through a newspaper while I eat. (And of course those aforementioned 3 big crosswords!) New York Times is $2.50 and not widely available, but a way better deal for the money. I might even choose Gannett's parent paper, USA Today, over the Freep were it not for those 3 big crosswords. One more than the News and two more than USA Today. Good thing I have Yelp. I don't have to be an angry old crank writing letters to the editor that Gannett will never print. I can just post my thoughts on this paper here. read more

I will never subscribe to the Detroit free press again. no one knows there job they lie to you they charge your credit card and then they say no refunds.They lie when they say you owe nothing then charge your credit card. I talked to 4 different people and got for different answers. when you don't receive a paper and report it they don't credit you. read more

The Freep is one of those sleazy sites that while you can easily sign up for a sub online, UNsubscribing is nearly impossible and, in fact, cannot be done online at all. You have to call in and go through redirect hell to get to the right person. highly unethical and very sleazy. I had planned on unsubbing temporarily, but when I found out how difficult that was, I decided to never, ever subscribe again. read more

You're going to talk to someone in the Philippines and your delivery issue will not get resolved. I've been trying for 2 months!

I called the Detroit Free Press a week ago to cancel my subscription because the price keeps going up and it's not worth the $400.89 a year they were charging for online edition plus Sunday delivery. The customer service agent offered me a deal, $17.99 a month for the same subscription, to be automatically charged to my charge card monthly. That is $215.88 a year, so the price came down almost 50% with a phone call. However, on February 1 I was charged $400.89. I called to request a refund of the $400.89 that I was erroneously charged and was told it would take 5-7 business days for them to process a refund to my credit card even though I was charged in error. Poor management and poor customer service in my opinion. If a business expects you to "auto pay" to a charge card then they need to be able to refund immediately if they charge you in error. Update: February 9 - Gannett/Detroit Free Press credited my charge card $255.62, not the $400.89 that I was charged. I called billing and was told that was the highest amount their system would allow. Apparently the remainder is for the special editions. However, you when you subscribe, you have to pay for the special editions. I filed a dispute with my credit card company. read more

This company makes it very easy to subscribe and impossible to cancel. Buyer beware unbelievable hold times claim they can't find my account, they sure could when they had to bill my credit card I had to cancel my debit card and get new numbers to get them out of my bank. My next recourse is to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office and Better Business Bureau. do yourself some homework on this company. It is unbelievable the wealth of information about their sorry ass business practices, I never received one copy of anything. Digital or Print. read more

Absolutely horrible online viewing. They offer a subscription for a dollar and then make you Wait a couple of days to access the newspaper. Their customer service is also horrible. Not even worth a dollar. read more

I accepted a low price trial of the Free Press. Then began trying to cancel a week before the subscription was supposed to end but website was "down" for days, cannot cancel without talking to customer service in person via the phone number and chat got no response ever. Then they billed me for the next month a day before my subscription was supposed to end but do not respond to my requests for assistance. If offered the Free Press, know that while the local news is good their system sucks!! read more

Let me first say I have been a loyal subscriber to the Sunday only edition of the Freep for many years until today when I canceled my subscription because I was charged $31 for the last two months which included two special editions that I did not request nor can be credited back to my account because they are automatically included WHAT THE HELL? The second reason I am canceling is that my rate went from $8 a month in January to $19 in March just ridiculous and do so without notification of the rate increase. just seem unethical so today I canceled guess I'll be using my IPad more for news now, I'll miss it but the charges I didn't authorize and the price have just gotten out of hand now I understand why paper subscriptions are almost extinct. read more

I paid in advance, DetFreep cashed my check. They never delivered any Sunday paper for three Sundays. I decided that this DetFreep is pathetic, demand for refund. They did refunded me but not the whole amount I paid. I demand to refund me $3.96 short of what I paid. They said that they the refund was correct. No it's not! Because, you never delivered a single issue of the Sunday paper! Please avoid doing business with DetFreep! Avoid,avoid, they are going down very soon! I will be reporting this incident to BBB for the record! I always get good results after I did this! I encourage everyone who got short change to report them to BBB! read more

Billing system is crazy. Normally pay $12 for the eEdition. In June was automatically charged $12 on the first then again on the third. There was another charge pending on the fifth but after I called and chatted online, that one fell away. Called again and their guy said he couldn't see it and finally filed a dispute with Discover Card. The charge was reversed but later reinstated with no explanation. Then in July I was charged $24. Chatted with the paper and he said $12 would be credited. We will see. Next step will be to cancel my subscription. read more

I grew up with the Detroit Free Press and I think that the content is generally of good quality. What I do not like is the app. 1/3 of the "stories" are ads. If I am paying for a subscription, why am I seeing ads in my news feed? The app does not allow me to stop these fake story ads. read more

Don't waste your time with a subscription. Read their own free app. Yes it doesn't show the except copy of what the newspaper would look like and instead it's just written stories but guess what IT'S FREE!!!! Horrible customer service. Raise rates and when you cancel they put into their system the reason for the cancellation is "couldn't afford it." It wasn't that I couldn't afford it's because they raised their rates for Sunday edition only from $15 plus tip to $26 per month plus tip. Then they stopped my service for the month after I had already paid for the entire month of delivery. When I asked for a refund or my last Sunday paper they said "we don't do that" and "we don't refund anything less than $10." Well that's great but you made me pay a month in advance for papers I had not received. That arrangement works fine until you cancel. Then after cancelling they keep begging me to come back by dangling "great offers" and free month of subscription "due to your frustration". Haha. I think the rep meant to say due to our incompetence we are trying to get your business back. The person I most feel sorry for here is our carrier. They are awesome and just trying to make a living. Too bad their employer doesn't care read more

I would give 0 stars if I could. My husband and I have tried numerous attempts to get the Detroit Free Press to stop delivering their free paper: Select. We never requested this paper and don't want it. They throw it right on the driveway even in the winter. When it snows, it covers the paper and you cannot see it. My husband got it stuck in our snowblower because of this. I have called their customer service numerous times to see what they are going to do about this. I keep being told that a supervisor will call me back and it never happens. I have sent numerous emails and still nothing has been done and we keep getting the paper. This is littering on my property and has caused damage to property (snowblower). This is unacceptable and very inconsiderate. The lack of responsibility they have taken to this issue is unbelievable. read more

Detroit Free Press - Print Media Near Me - Detroit, Michigan

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Long time subscriber, but very bad service has me ready to cancel. Charge for three day delivery is supposed to be $29.74. but they have tricky way to pad the bill. On top of monthly charge. they add $12.00 for premium edition automatically, even if you don't request or authorize. I don't trust them & won't sign up for auto pay, so another $5.00 for paper statement. These people have scams to over charge their customers. Beware & check your bills. read more

Can I give less stars? They now charge over a hundred dollars for "special editions." They send bills and do not honor the legal 21 minimum to pay and then they cancel the subscription. NOT LEGAL. Of course, they only send out bills once a month... they can't even honor their own time frame. Call customer service? Who cares... not them. They put you on indefinite hold in hopes that you will hang up. I was ordering for a business, so I am not the one who pays it. But I was told that if I paid a dollar, it would restart.... guess what, it didn't.... Called customer service again and got no service. Placed on hold endlessly again. TONS of undelivered papers throughout the year. Never again. It's like this company does everything they can to get people to cancel. No wonder newspapers are dying - the newspaper company is contributing to the problem read more

Their customer service is absolutely terrible. They kept me on hold for over 3 hours and then disconnected with me after 5 minutes. I only wanted to cancel my subscription. They do not have an online way to do that which in this technological world is just asinine. I will never ever again be doing anything involving the Detroit News. read more

Their customer service has very limited hours. They don't allow you to cancel the service on-line. They raise the prices and surprise you with invoices. All these were good in the 80's but useless in 2019! Nobody reads the paper newspaper and to get this kind of crap is a GREAT reason to kill the relationship. Today I was able to get out of the relationship and will NEVER subscribe to this again. read more

Bought 5 papers this morning all of them are missing coupon inserts and ads (each paper is missing different ones), the best part is they will not do anything to right this issue! I spend 15 dollars every week on these for the soul purpose of coupons! Horrible customer service! read more

If you contact customer service the people at the call center in India will be very friendly as they read their script but your problem will not be resolved. If you ask for the local delivery person's name you will be told that they can't give it to you because of privacy concerns. If you ask for a manager's name in the United States they will tell you they don't have access to that information. If you call the main Detroit number you do not get a person just a menu sending you back to India. I have called and emailed many times during the past two months and still the problem persists. For a communications company it's pathetic. read more

In Detroit there are two closely connected, but very different, major daily newspapers: the Free Press and the Detroit News. I think the Free Press is the better of the two. While there are well known columnists (Mitch Albom, Terry Lawson), I was won over by their recent display investigative journalism prowess: the Free Press broke the HUGE story on Seigneur Kilpatrick's indiscretions. Also, the Freep offers a Sunday issue, while the News does not. Two qualms people may have: (1) It is traditionally politically liberal (2) It employed scab workers during the newspaper strike. read more

I'm writing this more for a visitor to our city. The two major newspapers are the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News. I've grown up reading both and both now may provide different perspectives from a political perspective at times, but I like that both are around. I had thought that the Free Press sometimes does a better job covering local human-interest stories. For example, Mitch Albom writes for the Free Press. However, the Detroit News I think has been much better than the Free Press recently (Neal Rubin typically has good columns although one recent one was criticized for being racially insensitive). I think the Free Press has better sports coverage. It's much broader in my opinion than that of The News. Over the last two days the Free Press has had stories on the University of Michigan basketball team and schedule as well as new hires on the staff, Michigan State University basketball roster changes, articles on new additions to the Detroit Pistons basketball team, current Detroit Lions players offseason activities, former Lions players in the news, the Detroit Tigers season and possible trade additions, and then local and national stories relating to recent NBA free agency. However, I think that the News has excellent columnists. Many have been around for years. The Free Press has excellent coverage of the local music scene and an excellent travel section that I think is as good as any national travel section. What it does not have is a local movie reviewer which is a shame as the Free Press used to have excellent local movie critics. The Detroit News also used to have some great movie critics and I do really like the most recent one, although he is less traditional and very different from some of the previous ones in style. If you are looking at the web content rather than the printed paper, I think that the Detroit News website is cleaner to look at in my opinion as they use a columnar format at the News. It's easy to also find the latest headlines and most popular stories at the News site. I also think that the Detroit News has better photography or at least does a better job of displaying local places and people. The Free Press does photograph a lot of events but most seem to be about the "big" party at the bar or nightclub. I like to see the communities I live in and what efforts people are making in those communities. I don't think either of the papers are perfect or even close. Both papers do a very poor job showcasing the diversity of our area. I know it may not be popular to talk about diversity in an area that is highly segregated. However, let's start to at least be like most other cities I've visited in the U.S. (big and small) and not hide it. Southwest Detroit, Hamtramck, Dearborn and other cities have some of the largest respective immigrant populations outside of their home countries. To be a major, respected city in this country again you have to write about those populations and areas too. The major newspapers and print media in Detroit are much worse than the local television stations in this respect. It also doesn't have to be "fluff" articles praising everything relating to diversity but it should be balanced reporting with all parties allowed to have a voice at the table. It's also very difficult to find old articles through the News and Free Press. This is very frustrating. Typically I get a broken link or page not found when I try. Then I get a request to pay some crazy amount to read an article that should be free. That's crazy. I live here so why should i pay for something you told me a few weeks ago! Even for a visitor think of what a headache that could be. Thankfully the Free Press and News don't charge for access upfront for all old articles (like the Wall Street Journal or New York Times sometimes do) but in a way it's the same because they want you to pay too. These are newspapers I grew up with (newspapers that have a role to serve the community and share our history with each other). I'm sad to see that I don't get these papers delivered to my door on a daily basis any more, but I love how they have adapted and created excellent websites. I hope that they thrive, but I also hope that they realize that they have room to improve and should bring the community along in that improvement process. read more

Terrible customer service in India! I signed up for the 4.30 a month for three months subscribtion special...didn't get 2 out of 4 papers my first month, both times I called on not receiving the paper, I was told by someone in India my account would be credited. Not only was my account NOT credited for the missing papers, they sent me a bill for 21.00 AFTER I already paid the subscription fee. WHAT A SCAM COMPANY, OUTSOURCING JOBS TO INDIA & SCAMMING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE FOR THEIR MONEY $$$ FYI THE DETROIT FREE PRESS IS OWNED BY USA TODAY (SHOULD'VE KNOWN BETTER!). read more

Went to buy a paper at the airport and some weird women from behind the counter of some place ran over and opened the box and said you can't pay for the paper in the machine you have to let me ring it up. She tried to get me to pay $5.00 bucks for a $2.50 dollar paper?? Take your boxes out of the airport if I can't buy a paper out of it. Down by gate 30 read more

I tried for months to get them to stop leaving the Free Press Select in my driveway. I called the official number which takes you to India, I called the main number in Detroit, I wrote snail mail letters including letters to the man based in Detroit who is in charge of circulation. I have never dealt with a company that has such complete disregard for the public. For safety I can stop the mail when I travel but this is impossible. read more

Detroit Free Press over billed my credit card repeatedly. I called them to change from daily to just Sunday delivery. They continued to bill for full service. When i called them, they said they had no documentation of my call to reduce to Sunday delivery and ensured me they would implement that change the next month. Instead they billed me for full service again. I disputed the charge with my credit card company, and was reimbursed by Visa and received a new charge card. I sent a letter to the Freepress to cancel my subscription, since speaking to them on the telephone does not work. Detroit Free Press double billed my new credit card. The bank said that Freepress pays to access new/changed credit cards! Bank agreed to block Freepress from billing me again, but said it takes 30 days to place the block. It is no use calling Detroit Freepress again; it's like Russia...you can't believe anything they say. read more

A little over six months ago I took the Free Press up on a specisl offer.The sunday edition at one dollar per week for six months.I discovered that they started charging me 8 t0 14 more for my subscription per month for four months. I contacted them and they admitted that they overcharged me and that I would geta refund in seven to ten business days.Instead on March 16 they deducted another thirty three dollars.I contacted them and the cht person said that correct charge is fifteen dollars per month.Thw regular rate is two dollars per issue.She refused to explain that to me and discontinued the chat.I also cancelled my subscription two weeks ago but they are still charging me Most horrible experience that I have ever had with a business.I rate them ZERO. read more

How I wish I could give a negative number! Have tried and tried to cancel my subscription, they tell you the system is down, then they will talk to a manager, won't give you a full name, I think they just keep making up names. Don't sign up, because it is like the Hotel California, you can check in, but you can never check out!!!! PS if you don't take my advice, enjoy the long, long hold times! read more

I use to be a subscriber, but this paper has really gone down hill quickly... they don't seem to care about the authenticity of the story they are reporting on and in some cases, appear to even have a vendetta against businesses or sports teams. It's really quite sad as this use to be a great paper. Until some serious changes happen and they get better reporters, I don't see things getting any better... read more

Zero stars is more like it for the worst customer service, over and over for two months and across many interactions, of my entire 63 years of life. I subscribed for decades (almost three if memory serves, and I've read the paper since early adulthood), so you'd think they'd try to keep a loyal customer happy. Nope. Their customer service is beyond abysmal. The nightmare started when they took almost $200 out of my account -- unauthorized by me! -- on March 11th. This was about a week after a rep offered me a rate of $10 a month so I wouldn't cancel. The rep had even laughed in surprise when I said I wanted to pay by check/mail. No problem, she assured me! They'd send me a paper bill, and I could pay by check. Except they took almost $200 out of my account the following week, even though I'd never agreed to automatic withdrawals. Surprise! To add insult to injury, my Freep account showed I was paying $28.50 a month, not the $10 the rep and I had agreed to the previous week. Unbelievable. Trying to get my money back has involved about 20 emails, calls, and chat sessions -- not to mention so much anger that I thought I might stroke out. I was lied to repeatedly by chat reps, and their stories changed left and right. The refund check was mailed on April 1st! It was in process at the end of April! They even stopped delivery in mid-April without explanation or a refund and seemed confused that I expected some satisfaction. Finally I got most of my money back last week. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing at this company, and customer service is a joke and an insult. They lie, they cheat, and they steal. So I advise anyone and everyone to never ever, under any circumstances, sign up for a subscription with Gannett/USA Today/Detroit Free Press/Detroit News or whatever they call themselves. Also put a stop payment on your bank account so they can't steal your money. The quality of the newspaper itself is up for debate, but that's not the point. You simply can't reward a rotten company like this one with your business. read more

WARNING - Don't call to cancel the balance of your subscription and think you will receive a refund. Oh, no. I learned the hard way that the Detroit Free Press doesn't issue credit card refunds for anything under $10! It's too small an amount to waste Accounting's time processing. When I challenged this policy by pointing out that even companies as large as Amazon refund amounts under $10, the snippy rep informed me that "we aren't Amazon". She got me there - Amazon isn't in danger of going out of business. So the Free Press WAS able to cancel my subscription (print AND online) immediately. They just couldn't be bothered refunding the money they owed me. Now they have ZERO opportunity of getting my online subscription business back. read more

If I could give the a BIG FAT ZERO, I would! I've called 3 TIMES (1 of which they acknowledge) requesting they STOP throwing their "select" ads in my driveway. It's now close to snow season. In the previous two years; this TRASH buried under that snow has thus far DESTROYED 3 of my snow blowers. They to this point have REFUSED to stop LITTERING my driveway with this TRASH. I call it TRASH because I have requested they STOP!! I would recommend No one do business with them under ANY circumstances! read more

I've been a subscriber for years, but that will most likely be coming to an end soon. Since May of this year I have been attempting to provide updated payment information for my subscription on both their web site and via phone conversations with their customer service (3 of each type). All of the instances have resulted in the same end: Assurance that the data given has been recorded and that all is now fine; yet no payments are processed (though two of the web attempts did generate test transactions); papers remain undelivered; data is not saved or recorded; no trail exists in customer service for them to refer to. On the last phone attempt I even received a confirmation email, thanking me for my payment. I replied indicating that I had as yet seen no payment processed - crickets. Given that both their IT and CSR departments seem to be staffed by incompetents, I have to wonder about their reporting in general. read more

today I received no paper called at 10 03 I was told that they couldn't send a paper because they have a 10 00 cut off. what great customer service,jack in prudenville read more

The Free Press has several parts to make one organization. From production, reporting, distribution, advertising, and control one section out of control and the entire group falls apart. In the Free Press organization they have the most dysfunctional, unhappy group of individuals. You could be the best reporter and if your product does not reach your news hungry population who are willing to pay for your product and you can't deliver, you are through. I cannot expect the Free Press to last 6 more months. 100% of the blame goes to their incompetent delivery department. That is a total shame to see 100 years of history to fail strictly because of the horrible home and news stand delivery. read more

A great newspaper is interesting, informative, takes a stand, and defends the public. The Detroit Free Press is none of these things except for their sports coverage. The great Mitch (no last name required) is a first class marketer - of himself and a traitor to working people everywhere but especially here in Detroit. With the sports scores available online or on your smartphone the $1.00 this paper costs can be spent better elsewhere unless you need it to line a pets cage in which case it is a great value. read more

My review is because of lowly sales tactics from peripheral sales people in stores not because of the paper itself which is just fine as far as information and advertising. I usually only occasionally pick up the Sunday paper at the store. I don't take a regular subscription because I don't like papers laying around and frankly don't like wasting trees for something I can read online. Well one day at Kroger I let a Salesman talk me into it by giving me $30 in Kroger gift cards which was a great incentive and now after saying I did not want automatic renewal they have saved and are using my credit card info to automatically charge my bank account even though I have called to tell them to cancel the paper and stop charging me. The lady in customer service was the sweetest person on the phone so I know it's not her fault but I will be calling my bank and telling them to block further charges! Do not sign up for this in stores!!! read more

The only thing I enjoy about the Free Press are the puzzles. A warning to subscribers: If you want to cancel your subscription, you have to call them. If you don't, papers will continue to be delivered for several weeks after the subscription ends, and then the phone calls start, demanding that you pay for those papers. I have been told that this requirement is stated on the bill, but I don't remember seeing it, so I have requested a copy. Sadly, I think this is a sign of their desperation, but I'm getting tired of the fight, so I'll probably pay. I have been assured that every customer is their number one priority and they value my business, but their actions could not be more opposite. I subscribe to several other papers in SE Michigan, but this is the only one that has not gone out of their way to keep me as a customer. I will not shed a tear when they go out of business, and I will certainly never subscribe again. read more