This is not about Houston Chronicle as a publication. There are a lot of excellent writers contributing to the excellence of the publication and I am happy to read it. However, as a paying customer, the Chronicle falls short. I signed up for a deal of .99 cents for 6 months. After ballooning up to $25.66 and feeling like I only read a few articles a month, I decided to cancel. Tiffany was my support person and initially was extremely cordial and offered everything down to the point where it was $0.99 a week, but once I mentioned I wanted to cancel again, she became cold and tried to rush me off the phone. Did not offer any kind of confirmation via email and said she's unable to do so. It helped me understand that I was actually making the right decision after all. The cancellation process was a nightmare. One can only cancel over the phone (#1) and the waits were extremely long. There was no indication of how long the waits would be and the automated prompts were frustrating to deal with. Eventually the phone line would disconnect after 20 minutes and I only learned recently that the phones are only open till 5pm on weekdays. To add to the frustration, their digital support service via email (#2) does not quickly reply. Eventually, I was able to call in the mid afternoon and cancel my subscription over the phone. They offered me as low as $.99 each week for 3 months, but given the technology woes, the inability to view billing statements online, and the hassle it took to cancel I declined. ___________ (#1) (713) 362-7211 (#2) digitalsupport@hearst.com / help@houstonchronicle.com read more

How is this company able to keep running these subscription fraud services? We need to all direct our complaints to the Attorney General of Texas about this company-Hearst!! How you gonna charge me 19.96 10 days prior to the monthly digital subscription expiring locking me in for a whole new month at a new price of 19.96. No email notices or nothing!! How is this legal!! In Texas talk "Ya'll" need to stop!! read more

It appears that Mr. Marley requires further professional development. My interaction with this supervisor was highly unsatisfactory, characterized by unprofessionalism and an overbearing demeanor. Despite my request to speak with a higher authority, I was denied, leading me to infer that he holds a significant position, possibly as the owner of the Houston Chronicle. I explicitly stated on a recorded line that I had an unrecognized charge and sought clarification. I provided my phone number and name, yet Mr. Marley insisted on an email address that I do not possess. I reiterated my concern that this might be an unauthorized charge and requested its cancellation. Mr. Marley's conduct suggested a significant lack of professionalism, and I question the appropriateness of his role in handling supervisory calls, given his apparent lack of comprehension and poor listening skills. At this juncture, I am considering escalating this matter to the Better Business Bureau, local news outlets, and the Attorney General's office. Furthermore, I intend to disseminate this experience across all relevant social media platforms to highlight the issues within the Houston Chronicle corporate office concerning Mr. Marley's conduct and BEWARE OF HOUSTON CHRONICLE UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR read more

I wanted to support local journalism, so I signed up for Houston Chronicle's $0.99 for 6 months of digital access, planning to cancel before the $4.99 per week regular rate kicked in. However, the cancellation process was an absolute nightmare. You cannot cancel online--you're forced to call (713) 362-7211, which is misleadingly listed as open until 5 p.m. on weekdays. This wasn't the case for me as the calls never went through. The automated prompts make it incredibly difficult to reach a human, adding to the frustration. This feels deceptive and makes me not want to support them at all. If a company is confident in their product, they shouldn't make canceling a subscription this difficult. read more

Wish I would have read all the complaints on yelp and many in the BBB, not to mention other sites as well. This company is shady. Had a subscription for 19.96 then they overcharged me for the thanksgiving edition I DID NOT ASK FOR!! Now they won't refund my money. Also pretty mad because, one Sunday the paper never came at all or you get the paper around noon. I canceled the subscription immediately! I may have to get a new debit card because it appears they keep charging customers after they canceled! read more

The digital subscription is a Scam! It's my belief that they make it intentionally difficult to cancel. They responded to my BBB complaint and indicated they sent me an email notification of pending expiration and renewal. That's an outright lie! Scam! read more

The Houston Chronical next to gate A25 at IAH is the worst. At 3:25pm on Aug. 10th 2025 the employee is blasting religious music so loud that it's painful to walk by this place to get to your gate. This company needs to deal with this read more

Thumbs Up: The Houston Chronicle is one of the few major newspaper publishers in the country. Thumbs Down: However, the price of the newspaper has skyrocketed--rising nearly 300% in less than a decade--without any noticeable improvement in the quality of its articles. Thumbs Down: The Sunday paper costs $5.00, yet it lacks the sale ads and coupons most people expect from a Sunday edition. Thumbs Down: As for content quality, some of the food-related "articles" read like paid advertisements (or bribes) from the restaurants themselves. Worse, many of these so-called "Houston" restaurant features include places over 40 miles away from the city. Granted, Houston covers a vast area--larger than Rhode Island or Delaware, and even bigger than some European countries. But when an article claims to highlight "Houston restaurants," readers shouldn't be seeing recommendations from another major city (and county)... like Galveston. Thumbs Up: The Houston Chronicle was an early pioneer of online newspapers with the launch of Chron.com. Thumbs Down: Unfortunately, the website is overrun with ads--so much so that it slows down page loading, causes errors, and makes the site frustrating to use on any device. Even paying customers who are logged in aren't spared from these issues. Thumbs Down: Speaking of logging in, the website constantly signs users out, often between reading one article and the next. This makes for an incredibly frustrating experience. Thumbs Down: The search function is completely broken. Even if you type the exact title of an article, it won't show up in the results (pictured). Thumbs Down: Customer service hours are limited. If my weekend paper isn't delivered, I have to give up sleeping in just to request a replacement. With the price of the paper increasing nearly 300%, you'd think they could afford to extend customer service hours. Or, at least have real people available to assist, rather than just an automated system. read more

Houston Chronicle - Useless online search function. - Print Media Near Me - Houston, Texas

Subscription services are a SCAM. I have been charged for 5 months and have not receive a newspaper yet, only to be told I can not receive a refund for non-receipt of services. I am a working individual and had difficulty remembering to call during their business hours to complaint. When I did finally get a representative and a supervisor, I was told no refund was available and I never reported a complaint. When I finally reported a complaint through the automated line, it stated the missing publications would be delivered the next day. That hasnt happened either, the supervisor then rudely stated; we have to allow 72 hours for resolution. So reporting the issue is a waste of time, energy and money! The representatives and supervisors are rude and only provide a resolution to continue the service at no cost until the period is covered. There is no way to gaurantee service will be provided during that time frame either. The subscription service is trash and they are stealing money.​ read more

If I could leave a 0 star review I would. I signed up for .25 cents for three months. Literally cancelled the subscription the next day. Checked my bank account only to find that they charged me anyway the $19.97. Called customer service where they argued that I never cancelled and spent 5 min trying to convince me why I should keep it. What a joke of a company. Outsource their customer service department and have no "customer service" read more

Can we leave opinion pieces for non-news sources? Get them out of the paper and off the digital news site. Opinions aren't facts or news. Cancelling a subscription is a major hassle, which is why I haven't done it for my grandmother yet, but I may have to soon. Their pricing is insane nowadays. Our latest bill is $140--that's for a paper every day for 8 weeks, plus a "premium edition" that I know my grandmother didn't ask for. It used to be below $100, and frankly, it's not even worth that. The only good thing about the paper these days are the crossword, comics, and the sections going over restaurants. I'd leave everything else out, if I could. read more

Beware: Things can go haywire with Chronicle subscriptions and they may refuse to correct the situation!!! A few years ago, I tried to share a subscription to the Chronicle with friends, one of whom was paying for the subscription (this was advertised as a valid option for a paid Chronicle subscription). That didn't work and I was never able to access the paper online as promised. Subsequently, I subscribed to the online version and that went fine with the Chronicle billing me every 4 weeks up until September 2024. In October 2024. when I tried to sign in to read the paper, I got a message that my account was canceled. Today I learned that the friend I tried to share with years ago is being billed for my subscription, which I can't access. I called the Chronicle and they agreed to cancel the subscription and stop charging the friend. However they refused to refund the incorrect (and possibly fraudulent ) charges to the friend's credit card. read more

If I could give zero stars, I would. Absolutely AWFUL customer service, AWFUL delivery service. I received my newspaper 5 times of the month and a half I've been subscribed. Supervisor Chris, Ana and Roy were ALL so unhelpful, trying to correct me and making it difficult to cancel my subscription. I told Ana I hadn't received my newspaper in a month and she said I was lying because there were no notes on my account. The Supervisor was no help, I asked for a confirmation email of my cancellation and he refused to provide one and told me to just log into my account and I'll notice that I can't get in. Absolutely HORRIBLE - not worth the $30 a month, wouldn't let me speak with anyone else. Biggest SCAM of a newspaper company. read more

Crooked deceitful business practices. Difficulty canceling subscription and even after they continue to bill you and refuse refunds

This review is about their poor customer service/business practices, not the product itself. I signed up for a 6-month promotional trial subscription for 99c. I was led to believe I could cancel at any time before the renewal date. TEN DAYS before that renewal date, I am charged in advance the full amount for the upcoming month's subscription. I was never warned this would happen (no text, no email, no snail mail, nothing), and it was never made clear to me they would do this. Despite easily subscribing online, the only way to cancel a subscription (at the time of this writing) is to call them. After frustratingly navigating their phone tree, I finally get to human, who tells me they do not give refunds. What a "great" business practice! I politely but firmly asked for a refund, so I was transferred to a supervisor (was he really? who knows), who canceled my subscription and said he'd put in a request for the refund. I asked if I could get an email confirmation of all this, and he said no, their system doesn't send out email confirmations of any kind. Sad times, because some of Houston Chronicle's articles were decent, but definitely not worth this bad customer service and making me feel like the company has shady business practices. I'd strongly recommend getting your subscription news from somewhere else. read more

Do NOT waste your money on this news paper. Writing and content are poor. $20 a month for substandard content. Full transparency, I would not be writing this review if their customer service was so horrible, rude and not helpful at all!!!! Never again!!! read more

Customer service sucks and hard to cancel. The representative I spoke to was aggressive. Super annoying

Horrible experience with the Houston chronicle, tried to cancel multiple times and kept getting charged for the service. They still continue to call me and try to get me to sign up for services read more

I signed up to read 1 article and had to pay. I thought it was a 1 time payment, but I kept getting charged a monthly subscription. I don't even live in TX, so I don't use the site. I found it VERY hard to cancel. I was unable to find my subscription online. I sent emails but did not get a response. You have to call in, but the hours are limited and are early in the day, while I live in a different time zone. I finally reached them and they cancelled, but refused to refund any months of service. read more

The print edition of Houston Chronicle is an inferior product for $80/month. A city newspaper delivered to my house within 30 minutes to the Houston Chronicle didn't report a winner of the hub city's mayoral election...it is noted on the e-edition but the print edition will be cancelled tomorrow. Fourth largest city in USA and we have a terrible print newspaper...shame read more

This is sad, because I looked up to the Houston Chronicle for many years. After going through with signing up for a trial subscriptions, I am convinced they are dishonest and bring shame to Houston TX. It was very easy and seemed quite risk free to sign up with such a "trusted" name in our city. After weeks of being a digital subscriber, I realized I didn't want to continue. Even though I was paying for this news site, I couldn't bring myself to be interested in reading articles by them. They have some very talented writers, but here are some of my reasons: 1) It seems like atleast half of their home page is full of sports related stories, and I don't care to follow pro sports. 2) Of the remaining articles, there was an overwhelming amount of "opinion pieces". I'm interested in real news, such as large purchases and development project deals that have been inked, and not a bunch of jock and fluff pieces. The biggest news to me in this whole deal was how unbelievably deceptive and low the Houston Chronicle has stooped. I don't know if they were always this way and I didn't realize then, or if it happened after Hearst Publications bought them. Here is the call of me trying to cancel my subscription, and you can have a listen to just how easy it is to "Cancel Anytime": https://youtu.be/nNNN3UBU5KM I will also attach a screenshot of a Houston Chronicle Subscription Sign Up pop up to prove that they are misleading consumers with text that says "No Commitment" and "Cancel Anytime". It was deceptive and I fell for it because they have (had) a certain degree of trust with me. Again, I used to respect the Houston Chronicle very much. Not anymore. read more

Houston Chronicle - Print Media Near Me - Houston, Texas

My parents before me subscribed to newspapers all my young life and I have continued to that. Now nearing 70, I cancelled my Houston Chronicle. I started having delivery problems with non-delivery of my daily newspapers several years ago and the complained about the delivery. Several times I was told that my area delivery manager would call within 3 days but that never happened So I cancelled my subscription. A week later, a young lady showed up at my home holding up a phone for me to talk to someone since she could not speak English. I stayed cancelled. It was hard for someone like me who was addicted to the paper. After a while I decided to buy a tablet and subscribe to the electronic version. I would download the paper and read it where I ate breakfast where there was no wifi. The interface, even offline, was relatively easy to use. Now, the company who provided the online part went out of business (as per the Chronicle's customer service dept). The replacement interface is not nearly as easy to use. The sections are not listed so that you could touch it and it would appear. Now this functionality is available through menus, but not right on top for easy selection. And there is no interface for the offline downloaded version. Just a long PDF file that you have to scroll through all the pages. Houston Chronicle, this is an inferior product and you should be ashamed to offer such. I called and had to yell at the customer service rep. to get him to cancel my subscription. He kept trying to lower the price, but would not listen to me when I said No, why should I pay for something I will not use. His name was Irvin. He was terrible and Houston Chronicle, you should not treat your customers that way I was treated. I cancelled I am going to subscribe to the Wall Street Journal. read more

I signed up for a subscription in December 2024 and received one paper beginning in January 2025. I received zero papers for the rest of the month. I contacted them in February and was told that they were looking for a new person to deliver on my route. I paid my subscription from January to April when I canceled my subscription. Houston Chronicle refused to refund the money I paid although they didn't deliver. read more

You should make canceling a subscription something we can handle ourselves online, instead of forcing us to make a phone call and keeping us on hold forever. It is very disrespectful of our time. I get what you're trying to do--have some annoying person talk us out of subscribing--but I don't live in Houston, and there is nothing you can tell me that will get me to keep this subscription (I wanted to read just one article). If you don't answer my call soon--I have been on hold forever--I will cancel by disputing the charge through my credit card issuer, and that is not good for either of us. Please change this policy. Thank you. read more

Subscription Department is the Antithesis of Service - I just started subscription paying $30 for four months and then they sent me an email with a $0.25 for three months promotion. I called on the first day of my subscription to avail of this offer they just sent me and they said it is only for "new" subscribers so I was out of luck. I argued my case and then they became very rude, ill-mannered and discourteous. I had to remind them that I was the customer. And then they offered $2.50 off per month and gave me a very disrespectful ultimatum on whether I want the new discount or not. This tells me that the Houston Chronicle is not predicated on being a service and customer-oriented company if their manager from the Subscription Department are trained like this. read more

Decent journalism, APPALLING customer service. They charged me a week early after a promo I did not intend to continue subscribing after. I called to get it fixed and representative was horribly rude, incredibly scammy, gave monologues and wouldn't let me interject, and refused to acknowledge that they'd charged me earlier than allowed. It's hard to support local journalism when the customer service is impossible to work with. read more

The Chron! This big time newspaper is the shining gem of the Hearst media conglomerate, with the highest readership of any of their publications. They serve the Houston greater area, which is huge! This ain't some small time newspaper. This place employs thousands of Texans! However, this is pretty much the last newspaper standing, so their standards have kinda slipped. When there's a news monopoly like this, they've grown complacent, and relies on City Hall to report itself instead of being investigated. I enjoy the comics that this newspaper gets and the crossword is always appreciated. The news can be a bit on the liberal side, but at least it's not as flagrant as some. Be sure to look out for those Mattress Mac ads! Of course, this newspaper can be read online, or you can pick up physical copies at most gas stations or libraries. read more

We subscribe to the print edition of a national newspaper. That paper is delivered each morning by the same carrier that delivers the Houston Chronicle. Several times in the last year, the Chronicle has been delivered to us erroneously rather than our national paper. After ceasing our subscription to the Chronicle multiple years ago, it has now been affirmed why we did that. In the recently delivered copy of the Chronicle we received, I observed: Very few staff writers. I counted that there were a grand total of 5 articles written by staff (read between the lines -- LOCAL) reporters. Every other article in the edition I read (if you can call it that) were from: The NY Times, AP Wire Services or The Washington Post. Yikes! Op Ed section -- written exclusively for Democrats. What about those of us that live here that may be Independents or Republicans? Oh, yeah. We don't exist in reality, do we? Either that, or we are just plain being ignored. Comics section is scant and heavily printed with black ink. Hard to read. Back in the day, the comics section was what introduced me (and my children) to the newspaper. I guess my grandchildren are not important, because they sure are missing out with what the Chronicle publishes. What a travesty that we are one of the largest cities in the nation and we have such a horrendous newspaper available. I'd be embarrassed to publish this glorified bird-cage liner. So grateful we cancelled our subscription. We don't miss it at all. read more

Worst customer service department I've ever seen. I called five times to get my papers deliver from a vacation hold. Every time I was told they will be delivered and the problem escalated to a supervisor. Apparently they're either no supervisors or they don't work because no one has done anything to rectify this issue which I might add is a very simple issue. Hearst publications is extremely lucky they are the only game in town otherwise they would have been out of business a long time ago. They SUCK!!! read more

DO NOT EVER GIVE THEM YOUR INFORMATION! I signed up to read ONE article back in Feb/2023 & I immediately did what it said to cancel my subscription (they had a free promo going on & you had to cancel beforehand to not be charged). Imagine my surprise when I get a charge for $19.99 from the Houston Chronicle in the end of April. I immediately reached out via email and got an automated reply saying that they will get back to me in 2-3 days. I had to wait until they were open to call & try to get my money back. I spoke with one gentleman, then asked for his supervisor. According to her, she COULDN'T DISCUSS THEIR POLICY & THEY DON'T REFUND digital subscriptions. I want to remind you, I had zero clue that I even had a subscription since I canceled it back in February. She absolutely refused to refund my money. I told her to check my account as it's obvious that I never used the service, but her comeback was, "You had the ability to use it." How am I going to use a service that I have zero clue I have b/c I canceled it months ago? Their customer service is the absolute worst. She could have refunded my money; she just chose not to. When I asked to speak to her boss, she said there was nobody higher than her. That's garbage. I've worked in the service industry most of my life & I know that "Supervisor" is not the top of the food chain in a call center. This company is shady as can be & their articles are certainly not worth this type of scam. You can read far superior writers on other news sites. read more

Unethical Business Practices. You can't cancel the free trial online. You have to call during their business hours - lots of people work those hours. They have also structured the first billing date for the free trial in such a way that it will draft well before when they say the trial will end. They have very clearly set everything up to take advantage of and cheat people. There's no way they're not doing it on purpose. read more

Beware: once they get your CC information that automatically hits your card, you cannot remove it without calling 713-362-7211 and enter call enter hell complete with long wait times and awful repeating music that saps your soul. Good luck. You'll get the usual stalling tactics where they repeatedly make you verify your email, phone#. address, etc., then only to transfer you to a dead end or- if you are very lucky- they simply hang up on you right away instead after 45 minutes of waiting ( don't ask me how I know). They wont let you cancel online. You can't remove your credit card information once they have it, as they hide what you entered the initial time to prevent you from deleting it They make you call. I called 4 times and they hung up on me 4 times, even when I gently asked to speak to a supervisor. No accountability or any resemblance of professionalism, but the recurring charge hits your credit card consistently- like a champ. Deceptive and borderline fraudulent business practices. I had to call my CC company and have the billing department block the HC. As a lifelong Houstonian I am disappointed in the decline of this once veritable institution. I wont even talk about their quality of reporting. read more

Houston Chronicle - Why would I call and waste an hour when this option should be online? - Print Media Near Me - Houston, Texas

I signed up to receive the paper 7 days a week. On 10/28/24 I decided to cancel because I don't read it and I'm moving. I called 9 times (713-362-7211) and no matter which option you select the recording drops the calls. I then went to their website, submitted the cancelation request, and no one responded. I then sent an email from my personal email and no one responded. Then on 10/30/2024 I get changed $30.00. I called again 6 times; again recording answers but the call drops. Then on the 7th try @ 3:44 pm Anthony answers the phone. I told him the situation (as explained above) and he canceled my subscription, but would not issue a refund - even though I've sent emails, called, and they are non responsive. I then requested to speak to a supervisor and spoke with Sam (supervisor id# 1493). He told me that it doesn't matter that I sent emails because he doesn't know who checks them, to bad about their phones, and even though I am moving the new tenants will continue to receive the paper until December 7th, and there will be no refund. My problem is that I was calling them for days, I sent multiple emails, and as an organization they are completely non responsive and now they are charging me for the paper to be delivered for another 5 weeks. Additionally, when I signed up at Spec's the agent said it was a monthly charge of $30.00 - I was billed on October 2nd, and October 30th, which is twice monthly. Anthony told me the information provided by their field agent was wrong and it's every 4 read more

Completely unreliable delivery. 2 weeks in a row we had to call because we didn't get the paper. We ONLY get Sunday - 10 year old kids used to ride their bike around and did paper routes before going to school AND this was more accurate. This is the last time we a requesting that someone come and drop off today's paper. Last chance. read more

I have to say this is the worst company to deal with, it took 4 weeks go get my news paper delivered then, when i cancelled it the person i talked to removed the credit card and did not cancel it and said i had a credit until march but it would cancel by March 11,2024 They then proceed to call me months later and say I owe them money for the news paper. 3 months of news papers. So I get on the phone with billing and the lady told me that I called to cancel in October, but the person only removed my credit card and they wanted $50.00 for back payment. i then proceed to talk to a supervisor and she said i had to make payment. i then asked for her supervisor or an email, phone number and she said they do not use email and have would have to use general email because her director did not use email as well . I have to say i find that very hard to believe in todays world they don't have email. and by reading the over reviews for this company, I am not the only one who has a problem with their services. (delivery, Billing, Cancelling department ). Becca H- Houston Texas read more

They never deliver the paper and also when I call to cancel they said is not refundable even if they do not delivery, so Im ask to cancel and no charge my account again that happen 2/27/25 and by me surprise they charge 30 dollars in my account again 2/28/25 when I call they said can cancel till March 8 and since a new charge was accredit to my account the new cancel time will be April 15 Im said why the new charges ? Im said cancel now 2/28/25 This business steal your money hope soon do not have to have a bad business like this , they said no refundable we can give you the weekend paper till July but I said no and you will-take money for my account for a paper that I never received not choice for me only to cancel my card to keep my money safe be very very aware they. get you when you tire or busy and no thing about it next time someone ask me I walk away and be as rude as they are to steal you hard working money read more

I signed up in Sprouts to support the dying medium and decided to cancel my trail subscription after two weeks. I called in to cancel and was asked why did I even create an account if I was only going to cancel after two weeks? And kept repeating the questions as if I were obligated to answer his questions. Ummm sir, I'm sure that's not part of your prompts. Absolutely rude. read more

We may cancel for 2 reasons. I think we have a new delivery person as it's not consistently found. The person we had for years got it very close to our door. And it gets delivered sometimes 10:30 at night. PM !! Second, the news is no longer "current". For instance, the Astros won last night (Wednesday) and the article will be in Fridays paper. That's been going on with sports, news, etc. for some time. So what good is it getting news 2 days later. Very frustrating. read more

Have been trying to cancel my subscription for two weeks and they are playing games with me. Do not subscribe to them.

WARNING ! Watch your auto-bill charges. I subscribed to Digital (with Sunday print edition) for $6.00/month. I just found them charging me anywhere from $12.95 to $18.95 on several months. After a long wait for customer service I was informed the up charges are for "premium editions" we never agreed to nor received ! Worse yet they have a firm "no refund" policy on auto-bill accounts (HOW CONVENIENT!!!). Needless to say they have lost this customer ! read more