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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

#171

Post by [deleted] »

_coveredInBees wrote: post #56
1shooner wrote: post #28

Most of this chatlog is "you" adding more noise than is necessary for this transaction.

Exactly. I was cringing so hard because he kept engaging with the rep on lines of questioning that were so obviously going to go down the path they did. I've cancelled my NYT account in the past and it was rather painless because I was consistent in my response and communicated clearly that I just wanted to unsubscribe. I've since renewed my subscription, but cancelling service with an ISP or even Amazon Prime at thi…

[deleted]

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

#172

Post by nkozyra »

vincentmarle wrote: post #75
Spivak wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is some danger to this since just because your card is declined doesn’t mean that you stop owing them money. Gyms like to take advantage of this.

Getting collections to your door for not paying your internet bill is mostly a European thing. I haven’t seen it in the US.

What does "to your door" mean here, because it's exactly how the process works in the US.

Typically if don't pay a bill you'll get a few months to rectify with fees tacked on, then internal collections will happen or it'll be sold to a collection service.

In both cases you'll get letters and eventually if the amount is high enough or the debt other otherwise motivated, a summons for pre trial mediation and then a civil suit.

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

#173

Post by iammiles »

walrus01 wrote: post #169
JohnTHaller wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I said the phrase "I want to cancel cable but keep internet" 23 times to a Time Warner retention specialist then their supervisor, and I may have talked to her supervisor, too. They get paid to ignore you and read back canned responses like "but what about your favorite channels?", "what about watching sports?", etc. It was the first time my girlfriend had ever seen me angry.

If you ever need to cancel comcast, time warner or similar entirely and quickly, just tell them you're going to prison. No joke, it works.

I told AT&T I was moving out of the country. The very valiant retention specialist still offered a discount on text messages for a year.

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

#174

Post by busterarm »

I used to work at a Cable company with commissioned CSRs and that has to be the alltime peak for dirty cancellation tactics.

I wasn't a CSR but my office was next to theirs and what I heard was tragic. The commissioned nature of the CSRs and the penalties they received for cancelations created all sorts of perverse incentives.

I used to listen to reps who would drag out a particular person's cancelation for hours, days or even months. People would beg to cancel their service (usually because they were seniors who couldn't afford it) only to be given endless runaround.

A couple of nasty reps in particular would browbeat the customer for a while but then cancel them and note down the customer's information. Then at the end of the grace window that was built in for people to un-cancel service, they would go in and reactivate the person's subscription.

I'm pretty loathe to sign up for anything with recurring billing these days.

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

#176

Post by walrus01 »

smachiz wrote: post #170
walrus01 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you ever need to cancel comcast, time warner or similar entirely and quickly, just tell them you're going to prison. No joke, it works.

"I'm going to prison, but I'd like to keep my internet"

Note the part about 'entirely'

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

#177

Post by rawtxapp »

gaoshan wrote: post #164

That's it? I mean, it IS annoying but that's utterly painless compared to any number of other financial interactions you may be faced with online. Take almost any medical related billing issue, for example.

Just because something else sucks more shouldn't normalize this. NYT (and all other subscription based businesses) should make it easy to unsubscribe online without requiring customer service.

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

#178

Post by CrazyStat »

mikepurvis wrote: post #159
astura wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banks and credit cards cancel inactive accounts.

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.

Wells Fargo "accidentally" failed to close my account when I went in person to close it--though they did give me a check for the balance and told me it was closed--and then when I realized six months later it wasn't actually closed, they tried to make me pay them 6 months worth of monthly fees before they would close it.

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

#180

Post by annexrichmond »

pottertheotter wrote: post #151

I had a similar issue with the Wall Street Journal a few years back, and despite having spent the majority of my career working on Wall Street, I’ll never buy a subscription again. I signed up for a really good deal for 6 months of digital + paper delivery, but my paper always arrived a day or two late, so before my 6 months were up I tried to cancel, but couldn’t figure out a way to do so on their website. I message…

I was able to (temporarily) cancel my WSJ subscription with a couple clicks last year, so looks like they've improved on that front.
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