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Terms of service and sale

Terms of service and sale

Effective October 30, 2026. Plain words first; questions to support@erstwhilecourier.com.

1. Who we are

The Erstwhile Courier is published and sold by Ambrette Technologies LLC, doing business as The Erstwhile Courier. In these terms, “we” and “us” mean the seller, and “you” means the person who uses this site or orders from it.

Write to us at support@erstwhilecourier.com or by post to PO Box 397, Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004. We answer within two business days. By ordering, you agree to these terms and to our privacy policy.

2. What you are buying

The Erstwhile Courier is a weekly newspaper. Each issue covers one year of history. It runs for about fifty years, a year a week: 1933 to 1982 (50 issues). Every reader starts at issue 1, the first year, and receives one issue a week after that.

  • Print and digital plans send a printed paper weekly and include the digital edition.
  • Digital plans include the digital edition only.
  • The order form shows what each plan includes, its price, its price per issue and, for print, the date your first issue goes out. That page forms part of these terms for your order.

3. Prices and payment

  • Prices are in US dollars and are charged exactly as shown on the order form. We do not add sales tax at present; if we are ever required to, we will show it before you pay.
  • You pay on a payment page run by Stripe, our card processor. We never see or store your full card number.
  • An order is accepted when the payment succeeds and the thank-you page shows your order.
  • A code from a card or flyer tells us where you heard about us. It does not change the price.

4. Subscriptions and automatic renewal

Print plans that bill every 4, 13 or 26 weeks, and digital monthly and yearly plans, renew automatically until you cancel. Before you pay, the order form shows the price, how often you will be charged and how to cancel, and you tick a box to agree. We keep a record of the exact words you agreed to, with the time, so either of us can check them later.

  • A print plan that bills every 4, 13 or 26 weeks charges the same price on that cycle from the date you first paid. It ends after paper 50 of your run, with a smaller last charge for the papers left, which the order form shows. It ends there. To keep reading, place a new order.
  • The whole-run print plan is one payment for all 50 papers of your run. It does not renew.
  • Digital monthly plans charge the same price each month on the date you first paid. Digital yearly plans charge each year on that date.
  • For yearly plans, we email you 15 to 45 days before each renewal with the date, the amount and how to cancel.
  • If we change the price of your plan, we will email you at least 30 days before the new price applies, and you can cancel before it does.
  • If you reach the last issue we have published, we will not charge you for weeks in which we have no new issue to send.

5. How to cancel

You can cancel at any time, without calling anyone:

Canceling stops the next charge. Your plan then runs to the end of the period you have paid for: your paper keeps coming, and the digital edition stays open, until then. You keep every issue you have received.

6. Delivery and first-issue dates

  • Printed papers mail to US addresses only, including US territories and military addresses.
  • Every print offer states the date your first issue goes out. New readers start on the first Monday of a month, and an order makes a Monday if it is placed by the Wednesday before; never before the first mailing. Allow 3 to 7 days for the post after that. Print is not sold until its first mailing date is set.
  • If we cannot mail your first issue in the week we stated, we will tell you before that week is out and offer you a new date or a full refund. If you choose the refund, or the delay runs past the new date, we refund you in full.
  • The digital edition starts on the day you order, with issue 1 ready to read, or on the first issue day if that is later.
  • Papers that are lost or reach you damaged are replaced free: write to us within 30 days of the week they went out.

7. Gifts

  • A gift is one payment and never renews. You are the buyer; the person you give it to is the reader.
  • You choose the week the gift starts: any Monday from the first week shown on the order form, up to 365 days ahead. The reader starts at issue 1.
  • A gift runs for the number of issues shown on the order form, but not past the end of the run. The run has 50 issues, so a whole-run gift sends 50 issues.
  • We send the gift card by post with the first issue, or by email, as you chose.
  • You give us the reader's name and address (and email for a digital gift or an emailed card). Please only give us details you are entitled to share. We use them to deliver the gift and nothing else; see the privacy policy.

8. Birth-year issues

  • A single issue for any year from 1900 to 1999, as a PDF to download or a printed paper. One payment; nothing renews.
  • The PDF is for your own and your family's use. Printed copies mail to US addresses, in the week the order form states.

9. Community Edition

The Community Edition for senior-living communities and other groups is sold by invoice under a separate written agreement, not through this site's checkout. That agreement, not these terms, sets its price, copies and term.

10. Refunds and problems

  • Refunds on print orders. Before the first paper goes out, cancel for a full refund. After it goes out, email us by the end of your second paper's delivery date (your confirmation and first-paper emails give it) and we will refund your first payment less the price of each paper already mailed (each paper is that payment divided by the papers it covers), and end the plan. After that date, payments already made are not refunded, but you can cancel a renewing plan at any time so that nothing renews. Gift refunds go to the giver. One refund per household or payment card.
  • Community Edition card orders (5 to 24 copies a week, every 4 weeks or a prepaid year) follow the same rule. Before the first paper goes out, cancel for a full refund. After it goes out, cancel by your second paper's delivery date (the day it is sent plus our longest delivery estimate; your confirmation gives the date) and we will refund your first payment less the papers already mailed: each paper is that payment divided by the papers it covers, 4 for a plan billed every 4 weeks and 52 for a prepaid year, and every copy of a week counts as that one paper. Any refund ends the plan at once, and nothing more is charged. After that date, a period already paid for is not refunded and a prepaid year is not refundable; canceling a plan billed every 4 weeks stops the next charge, and a prepaid year does not renew. Refunds go to the card that paid. One refund per community or payment card. Orders of 25 or more copies, or for more than one community, are invoiced and follow the invoice's terms.
  • Community Edition 2-week trial. One payment; it does not renew. Before the first paper goes out, cancel for a full refund. After it goes out and before the second goes out, we refund half your payment. After the second goes out, there is no refund. One refund per community or payment card. To cancel or ask for a refund, email support@erstwhilecourier.com from the address you ordered with. Starting a plan afterwards is a separate order with its own consent and refund terms.
  • Digital-only orders: within 14 days of ordering, cancel for a full refund.
  • Digital yearly renewals: if you write within 30 days of a renewal charge, we refund the issues not yet sent in the new year.
  • Plans that bill every 4, 13 or 26 weeks, and digital monthly plans: canceling stops the next charge; we do not refund part of a period you have paid for.
  • Birth-year issues are made to order: once a PDF is sent or a print is made we cannot take it back, but we replace or refund any that are faulty or damaged.
  • Refunds go back to the card you paid with, within one billing cycle. Nothing here limits rights you have under the law where you live.

11. Using the site and the paper

  • The words and design of the paper belong to us. You may read, keep, share with your household and give away the copies you receive. Please do not resell them, republish them or put the digital edition online for others.
  • Pictures are in the public domain or used under license; each one's source is recorded.
  • Every story and individual claim in the paper is checked against its sources, and each issue's sources are listed online, one page per year, such as the sources for 1945. If you find a mistake, tell us and we will correct it.
  • Do not misuse the site: no attempts to break in, overload it or collect other people's information.

12. Our responsibility to you

We take care to get every paper right and to the door on time, but the site and the paper are provided as they are. If something goes wrong, our responsibility for any claim is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before it, and we are not responsible for losses we could not reasonably foresee. None of this limits anything the law does not allow us to limit, such as liability for our own fraud or negligence causing injury.

13. Changes and disputes

  • We may update these terms. The date at the top shows the latest version. Orders keep the terms they were bought under; for a change that matters to an existing subscriber we will email you at least 30 days ahead, and you can cancel.
  • If you have a complaint, write to us first and we will try to put it right within 30 days.
  • These terms are governed by the laws of Pennsylvania. You may bring a claim in your local small-claims court, or in the courts of the state where you live.