Thank you for your responses
All of your imput has been helpful. I have been doing some research on my own into to this matter my calling the actual newspaper, the district manager in charge of the carrier and I even applied for a carrier job.
This is what I have been able to come up with.
I was a Pay by mail (PBM) customer for the last 4 years. When my prepaid subscription was up I would get a bill from the newspaper and I would pre-pay for "x" amount of weeks. After a pre-paid cycle is up, the daily form that the carrier receives says "Carrier collect" instead of "PBM". The Carrier is now responsible to collect money from the customer. The newspaper will reimburse the carrier for up to 2 weeks of non payment. There reason for allowing up to 2 weeks is to avoid this situation. The newspaper realizes that a customer may not want the paper anymore and suggest that the carrier contact the customer within two weeks after a change of status. I use the word "suggest" because they really have no control over an independent contractor. It is up to the carrier to handle their own business. If the subscription is renewed my mail the status will change to PBM.
I had no clue that my subscription was up. I paid for a specific amount and expected to receive the paper for that time period. When my pre-paid Sunday paper was up, it stopped coming. I received a nice little note from a different carrier saying your subscription is up, if you would like to renew call the paper, if not, please leave 1.75 for this issue next week. That was it and the Sunday paper never came again.
The newspaper is telling me they are not responsible, it is the carrier and the district mangers problem because they are independent contractors. They recognize that this is a poor practice on the carrier’s part and that I should have been receiving at least monthly bills. The district manger will not return my phone calls; I have called once a day for the past week and left pleasant messages.
I never signed a contract with the carrier; I always dealt directly with the Newspaper. I never handed any money to the carrier, I even prepaid my tip.
If I start delivering Sports Illustrated to my carriers house once a week can I collect money from her at the end of the year?
On top of this all, she has already been paid for the two weeks of non-payment from the newspaper but is chagrined me for those two weeks.
She buys the paper at a wholesale price but is asking for the retail price. If I lose the case, can I ask the Judge to pay her for the wholesale price, minus the two weeks already paid by the newspaper; because that is the only money she is out.