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Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it

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Re: Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it

#421

Post by aligray »

lostlogin wrote: post #372
px43 wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I closed my Wells Fargo account, they took out all my money, charged me some account closing fee, which over-drafted and fell back to a credit card which now had a balance on it due to the overdraft and they told me they couldn't close my account. I think I ended up paying something like 130 dollars of fees just to close my account, but at that point they'd already screwed me over so many times that I just paid…

I closed a bank account in the UK in about 2001. I emptied it at an atm then walked into the bank to close it. The cashier gave me all the cash I’d already taken from the account.

I really hope this is true, always nice to hear about the robbing happening in the opposite direction.

Re: Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it

#422

Post by [deleted] »

cbracken wrote: post #166
rthomas6 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can people in the UK not send outgoing letters by putting them in their mailbox and raising the little outgoing mail flag? Is that a uniquely American thing?

As a Canadian who has been in the US close to 10 years, this is the first I've heard of this! I had always assumed the flag was meant to be set by the letter carrier in some bygone era as a courtesy to let residents know they had mail. Thank you, kind internet stranger. To answer the question, this service doesn't exist in any other country I've lived in -- Canada or Japan, in my case.

[deleted]

Re: Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it

#423

Post by rndgermandude »

rthomas6 wrote: post #134
frading wrote: post #14

This reminds me of the French newspaper lemonde.fr, which I had subscribed to, and then wanted to unsubscribe after a couple months. There was simply no way to do so online, not to reach any customer support. The only option was to send a letter via post. This was during our first lockdown in UK, so no way I would go to the post office for that. I'll simply never be a customer again.

Can people in the UK not send outgoing letters by putting them in their mailbox and raising the little outgoing mail flag? Is that a uniquely American thing?

Does not exist in Germany either. Most of our regular mail delivery is done by foot or bicycle, except in very sparse rural areas. And our mailboxes have locks anyway. So it's either the post office or a street mail drop-off box/pillar box. Nobody I know does regularly post letters anyway, it's more in the range of 1-2 letters a year if even that.

Re: Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it

#424

Post by mahnouel »

And that's why I prefer the closed system Apple provides (even though I might pay the 30% premium publishers forward to their users): Being able to cancel any subscription the same effortless way and seeing clearly when it will renew and what I will pay.

Re: Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it

#425

Post by bof_ »

drzoltar wrote: post #376
chmod600 wrote: post #278

I just cancelled and it was relatively painless, to their credit. When they asked the reason, I said that political coverage was unfair. Left is OK, unfair is not. I don't consider myself "on the left" but I really don't mind a publication being left of center or right of center. If it's good, I will pay for it (I subscribed tp The Atlantic at least twice, and the New Yorker once, and probably others in a mix of prin…

Which other paid news publications do you prefer over the NYT?

https://spectator.co.uk is decent

Re: Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it

#426

Post by sliken »

flovec wrote: post #259
whoisjuan wrote: post #25

Imagine having a business model so fragile that your only line of defense is to obscure the cancellation process through these tactics. Do they really think that they can curve their churn this way? I mean best you’re doing is getting maybe another month or so of revenue from a customer who is just pushing the pain of cancelling because they are busy or lazy. And at the end instead of getting what could be a dormant…

I've had success pursuing bad i.e. potentially illegal cancellation practices by filing a complaint through the attorney general's office where the company is located. In my case: 1) First I had a rough time cancelling my account _in person_ at a T-mobile store. The remote T-mobile employees in charge of cancellation kept hanging up on the T-mobile employees calling them from the store because cancellations are bad.…

Wow, had similar. I cancelled online, they said my account was in good standing, nothing owed, and killed my t-mobile.com account.

A few months later I got a collections notice for $500 from t-mobile, went to a t-mobile store, said that my account looked weird, and they had recorded me as not owning my phone, despite a clear account history that I paid full price for the phone and didn't owe anything.

Still get collection notices, but it's now over 7 years, and my credit card recovered by some 70 points or so when it aged out.

Re: Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it

#427

Post by t_von_doom »

wickedsickeune wrote: post #417
andix wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It only works if you didn't give them your name and address. At least in Europe some debt collection agencies will track you down and charge an enormous fee, and will leave you with a bad credit score.

There's a "credit score" in Europe???

From the UK here:

Yes we all have a credit score - it's mainly used to measure your ability to borrow and repay debt and will influence whether a company loans to you and the interest rate on said loan.

It's not (yet) as aggressive as the social scoring system in China if that is what you were alluding to...

Do you not have a similar system where you are from? How would the above be decided for you?

Re: Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it

#429

Post by Ygg2 »

doubleunplussed wrote: post #242
Ygg2 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, yes. Treat others as souless automatons option.

Even though the individuals are humans, they are reading a script given to them by a soulless automaton (also made of humans, but the result of an inhuman optimisation process). Those writing the script are taking advantage of your aversion to skip social graces when they decide what questions the low-ranking representative will ask you. The only winning move is not to play. It's not the individual's fault, but neith…

Right. But that just means company is wasting your time and manipulating you.

The script they have doesn't work anymore. If it's designed to make you stay it has backfired in spectacular way.

Re: Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it

#430

Post by colourgarden »

Closi wrote: post #398
mikepurvis wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience with this was having a dormant Chase account with like $100 in it, which they chipped away at, withdrawing the $4/mo fee or whatever, until the balance was at $0, whereupon it was immediately closed. I'm not sure if this really counts for much in their favour.

I closed an account with Santander and they sent the remaining monies in it to another bank account. Then they accepted a charge on the account from a subscription I had forgotten to move, even though the account was closed, and because my account was then in deficit decided to reactivate my account without letting me know. Then they charged me an overdraft fee and daily penalties, and then eventually sent me a bill…

Did you close the account manually or via the Switch Guarantee service? https://www.currentaccountswitch.co.uk

If signed up to the scheme (most are, including Santander), your old bank is responsible for passing on any deposits directly to your new bank account and the new bank is responsible for processing any transactions made using your old details. This carries on for, I believe 12 months.

I found the Switch Guarantee service to be excellent and believe it's a significant driver of innovation and competition in UK banking (which is far ahead of many other European countries in my experience).

My payees from my old bank were even transferred over to my new one.

(Current account = checking account to any non-UK readers.)

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