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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

#341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another related dark pattern: When cancelling a Prime trial, Amazon makes it appear as if you're going to lose the Prime benefits immediately, not at the end of the trial, to keep you from cancelling early. (It seems like you DO keep them until the end of the trial, but you only get told that after cancelling) Together with their decreased support quality (agents barely understanding what I write + the typical "tell…

I've experienced the opposite with Amazon. If you complain about a product you've gotten they simply refund the full purchase price, no need to return the item or anything. I've even gotten months of prime refunded by telling them I forgot to cancel. I assume that eating the cost of a bad purchase is cheaper for them than upsetting a long-term customer.

I've never had that experience with Amazon UK, they've always demanded that the broken / damaged item be returned.

On one occasion when I had to return an item I ended up £30 out of pocket because it had to go by courier instead of post, due to length. I had to argue with their customer support to obtain recompense despite it having been them who told me to send it courier. The item was only worth £80.

Nowadays I just use Amazon as a price baseline but shop elsewhere.

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

#343
The NYT is a pretty crappy newspaper. I subscribed to it for years, then I subscribed to both it and the WSJ for a few months. If you saw a guy on BART with the NYT and the WSJ every morning, it was likely me.

WSJ's Opinion page is total crap but the rest is good. NYT's Business page is okay and their Arts&Culture are good, but the news is fucking garbage. Their rare centerfold articles are great but everything else is trash news. Just the lowest quality of journalism.

The WSJ reports much more accurately on way more issues than the NYT. It's not about the politics. They wrote about subversion attempts against the CA EPA and the laws in CA keeping the coast free. The NYT is just a lot more like those American news anchors you see who have this obvious slant to their reporting.

If you're foreign, you know what I'm talking about.

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

#344
post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Privacy.com for this reason and to not worry about my cards getting leaked. I create a card per-subscription and set the monthly limit to exactly the cost of the subscription. When I want to cancel, if it's not easy I just destroy the virtual card.

I'm confused how they make money, the free plan has up to 12 new cards a month which seems like a lot. Even on the lower pro plan the cashback can exceed the $10 per month you pay.

I'm not sure but what I've read is that they keep part of the fee that usually goes toward rewards or points in other cards. I don't mind this at all because I think they are providing an amazing and much needed service that I've been wanting for years. Their apps and web extensions are also great. Last time I had to cancel a card because some website got hacked it took me weeks to resolve and change it everywhere I needed. I would happily pay let them have all of the rewards to not go through that again. Sorry if I sound like a shill, I swear I have no relationship with them. I just really like the service.

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

#346
post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

what about moving to a cabin in the mountains, or actually just find a city where this ISP is not available?

The good old Walden story :)

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

#347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I know you don't want to self-promote yourself needlessly here, but do you mind if I ask the name of your company?

With a positive attitude like yours, it seems like something I would want to know about.

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

#349

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 use Privacy.com for this reason and to not worry about my cards getting leaked. I create a card per-subscription and set the monthly limit to exactly the cost of the subscription. When I want to cancel, if it's not easy I just destroy the virtual card.

Cancelling a card and not paying a bill doesn't mean you no longer owe the underlying debt. A real company like the NYT will still pursue collecting the debt

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

#350
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.

Beeminder

https://help.beeminder.com/article/25-how-do-auto-canceling-...

https://blog.beeminder.com/autocancel/

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