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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

#241
post #189

Not surprising, and honestly I didn’t think it was that bad comparatively speaking. Try canceling you home cable or your mobile service and see how that goes :) That’s no excuse though, ideally we would be able to cancel any service we want through an online form, but in reality that is a pipe dream. Most companies will take this as a opportunity to make a pass on you with a sales person. And honestly, it is their pr…

> be able to cancel any service we want through an online form, but in reality that is a pipe dream.

Not if you use a service like Apple Pay or google play. They don’t let companies hold your financial information hostage.

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

#242
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Stick to the business at hand: this is who I am, this is how you can look me up in your system, this is what I want to do. Feedback doesn't help, they're not going to take your advice, don't waste your time. For example: "Please tell us the reason for your call today?" Should be met with the answer, "Please cancel my subscription." "May I ask why you want to cancel?" "Please cancel my subscription." "Have you ev…

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 neither is it fair on you to play along. Be polite, but direct, and don't play the game.

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

#243
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't call this generosity. This is the normal conduct of normal honest businesses.

Normal? What other business does that? I can’t think of one.

Mine sometimes does. We also tend to refund recent payments liberally if, for example, someone who hasn't been using the app in a while asks to cancel just after they've renewed for another period.

Sure, it's a principle thing, treat our customers as we'd like to be treated ourselves. But it makes sense from a purely business point of view as well.

In return for giving up some small amount of subscription revenue by putting through a cancellation that was going to happen anyway a bit sooner, we generate positive sentiment. We often get a nice thank-you message back, with extra information about why someone was cancelling or hadn't been using the app recently.

We know for a fact that we have sometimes gained new customers from referrals by those people we helped out a little. Sometimes a former customer's situation changes again later and they come back to us, too.

And the reality is that particularly with online payment methods, there's also a small risk that someone will do a hostile chargeback without bothering to even try cancelling, particularly if they forgot about a subscription and changed their email address or something like that. Even if you've done nothing wrong and provide evidence accordingly, you have a good chance of losing a dispute anyway, and one way or another it ends up costing you more than it would have done to preemptively cancel a subscription that you knew wasn't being used for a long time.

This is from the perspective of a small business in a niche market, where there is definitely a sense of community and reputation does matter. We've met some of our customers in person, and there are many more mutual connections or friend-of-friend kinds of relationships that might be relevant one day. Maybe things work differently when you're running a huge business with a strong brand in a huge market; I've never done that, so I wouldn't know. But I honestly can't imagine why we'd want to run things any other way. There are few things more valuable to a business like ours than a good reputation in the community we cater for.

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

#244

This is amusing but if you aren't trying to make memes, just email unsubscribe@nytimes.com, include all the necessary info about your account (account number, billing address), and in my experience they'll do it right away. Of course my experience has N=1, but there it is. Don't waste your time, use email.

I feel this is maliciously burdensome compared to the relative ease of signing up.

Indeed. It should be a requirement that it's as easy to unsubscribe to a service as it is to subscribe.

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

#245
I know its not good but this is not different from most companies. All of them force you to speak with a human to cancel. Its possible people hang up when they have to jump through hoops and some others will be uncomfortable cancelling with a human.

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

#246
post #189

Not surprising, and honestly I didn’t think it was that bad comparatively speaking. Try canceling you home cable or your mobile service and see how that goes :) That’s no excuse though, ideally we would be able to cancel any service we want through an online form, but in reality that is a pipe dream. Most companies will take this as a opportunity to make a pass on you with a sales person. And honestly, it is their pr…

It's surprisingly easy back in my home. Furthermore, they even offer me a discount for 6 months if you want to change your mind, and let you keep their card if you want to subscribe again.

Do you mean for canceling cable? Yeah, I’ve gotten many fully free months of cable in the past when trying to cancel.

Offering discounted or free months is a good sales tactic for them because the cost for them to keep you on is basically zero. Then they hope you will forget/ or lose the motivation to call back in six months to cancel and keep paying.

If you do actually leave, the chances of you coming back are approaching zero as far as they are concerned. Any good sales person will throw you a card just on that slim chance it will generate a commission in the future.

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

#247
post #48

I've never been able to cancel any subscription with ease, so nowadays I always use Privacy to get temporary credit cards. When I want the subscription cancelled, I try the provider's website, if it doesn't work, I just cancel the card all together.

Woah, I had no clue that Privacy existed before but it looks really cool! What do you think of the service? Have you had any problems with it?

[deleted]

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

#250
post #189

Not surprising, and honestly I didn’t think it was that bad comparatively speaking. Try canceling you home cable or your mobile service and see how that goes :) That’s no excuse though, ideally we would be able to cancel any service we want through an online form, but in reality that is a pipe dream. Most companies will take this as a opportunity to make a pass on you with a sales person. And honestly, it is their pr…

> be able to cancel any service we want through an online form, but in reality that is a pipe dream. Not if you use a service like Apple Pay or google play. They don’t let companies hold your financial information hostage.

Sure, but not everything in life can be purchased through your Google or Apple accounts :)

I meant it’s a pipe dream, because many companies will put a lot of effort into paying sales people to try and retain your business. So I wish it was the case, but easy cancelation of a service without getting a talk from the sales department is a rare find.

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