Nearly a third of new subscribers to news publications cancel in the first 24hrs
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Re: Nearly a third of new subscribers to news publications cancel in the first 24hrs
#2Subscribe and cancel is what I do with anything that doesn’t let me turn off auto-renew.
Re: Nearly a third of new subscribers to news publications cancel in the first 24hrs
#3I am surprised this isn't higher... I always cancel immediately for auto-renewals.
Re: Nearly a third of new subscribers to news publications cancel in the first 24hrs
#4I think the subscribtions are just too expensive for a lot of people. For example, $7 a month to listen to somebody's paywalled podcast is $84 a year, just to hear that one person alone. For some people that's a drop in the bucket, but, for many, it's just too expensive. Makes more sense to subscribe once a year for a month, go through all the content, come back in a year and repeat the process.
Re: Nearly a third of new subscribers to news publications cancel in the first 24hrs
#5Some newspapers require subscribers to call a phone number to cancel their subscription.
I refuse to subscribe to any service I can't unsubscribe from in a few clicks, regardless of the content.
Re: Nearly a third of new subscribers to news publications cancel in the first 24hrs
#6This is just lack of auto renew protections. Consumers are wise to this, and they’re not really canceling. I bet if you could turn off auto-renew they wouldn’t cancel.
But, to nobody’s surprise, the MBAs don’t like options where the user doesn’t give away money by accident.
Auto renew is one of those things that should be illegal to default users into.
Re: Nearly a third of new subscribers to news publications cancel in the first 24hrs
#7This is just lack of auto renew protections. Consumers are wise to this, and they’re not really canceling. I bet if you could turn off auto-renew they wouldn’t cancel. But, to nobody’s surprise, the MBAs don’t like options where the user doesn’t give away money by accident. Auto renew is one of those things that should be illegal to default users into.
I'm currently subscribed to something for a year because of auto renew. The subscription is something useful but was going to use a competitor but once I'd paid it they made it so painful to back out I let it go, turned off auto renew properly, and will never use them again once this one lapses.
Re: Nearly a third of new subscribers to news publications cancel in the first 24hrs
#8Some newspapers require subscribers to call a phone number to cancel their subscription. I refuse to subscribe to any service I can't unsubscribe from in a few clicks, regardless of the content.
Had that happen with the WSJ, will never subscribe to them again. Plus they had limited hours in one time zone.
Re: Nearly a third of new subscribers to news publications cancel in the first 24hrs
#9What I hate about subs for news media these days is the trend to have hidden tiers for subscribers.
Basically, you pay a monthly/yearly fee and then all of the sudden you realize that are certain publications that are Exclusive for 'Gold' members or whatever! what a scam. They took a page from the SaaS business-space.
Re: Nearly a third of new subscribers to news publications cancel in the first 24hrs
#10This is just lack of auto renew protections. Consumers are wise to this, and they’re not really canceling. I bet if you could turn off auto-renew they wouldn’t cancel. But, to nobody’s surprise, the MBAs don’t like options where the user doesn’t give away money by accident. Auto renew is one of those things that should be illegal to default users into.
The internet is full of these dark patterns. It really should be illegal to use tricky language to get people to opt into things they’re not really interested in. In this case auto renewal but often it’s sharing contact info or tracking without explicit consent.