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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

#401

Post by Silhouette »

seer wrote: post #364
Silhouette wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

What a great attitude! I wish more businesses were like that. I had to leave a startup once, that I as a senior dev managed to drag to profitability, because I saw how they treated their customers. It was such a sad experience- while helping out with the customer side I was wading through emails _begging_ to cancel their subscription. Some people were closing their bank accounts to do that, because the founders inten…

I was wading through emails _begging_ to cancel their subscription. Some people were closing their bank accounts to do that, because the founders intentionally introduced dark patterns to hide the unsubscribe functionality.

I personally don't think routine cancellation policy should even be up to the business. Deliberately preventing customers from cancelling a subscription that they are entitled to cancel, or making it unreasonably difficult or intimidating to do so, should be grounds for legal or regulatory intervention to protect consumer rights.

A basic rule along the lines that subscription services must provide a means of cancelling that would normally be no more demanding than the means of starting the same subscription seems fair to me.

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

#402

Post by HenryBemis »

8note wrote: post #294
xxxtentachyon wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They say this, but your credits aren’t actually thrown away immediately (at least they weren’t in 2018 or thereabouts). I learned this by ending up in exactly the position you describe - trying to get rid of credits before canceling - except I gave up with one or two left. To my surprise, they were still there once I was done canceling.

When I cancelled audible, it wouldnt even let me use the app, let alone use credits I had

Stating the obvious here: it is a Service. When you stop the provision of a cellular service, you immediately lose access to the the service. If you have not consumed the remaining of your points/credit/etc. I find it hard that the service provider would be nice enough to let you consume them points/credit/etc.

Exceptions will exist, but the general rule is such.

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

#403

Post by hnick »

dealforager wrote: post #344
hnick wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It does look great, I'm not a US citizen so can't use it and the banking landscape is very different over there which could be how they make money like you said.

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

#404

Post by woko »

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…

This confirms my impression: the conversation does not have to go sideways about advertisements. It is kind of a deflecting trick to provide customer support instead of cancelling the subscription. Once you step in their trap, then it is slightly more cumbersome to go through the cancellation process.

I guess people try to be polite and come up with a reason for cancelling their subscription, and this reason could be solved by customer support. It is not being polite to try to please Tony from customer support, he is just doing his job and does not care about polite reasons for cancelling, his job is that you do not cancel. It is important to know what you *really* want before contacting them (or any other company), in case they use this kind of trick to confuse you.

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

#405

Post by oliwarner »

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…

Incidents like this make me wonder why there isn't an appetite for better consumer rights in the US.

If this had happened in the UK, you'd have the option to pro-actively block the payment, recover it, and legal standing to defend getting your money back.

Letting companies redefine the rights of their customers seems bizarre to me.

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

#406

Post by rswail »

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?

I've never heard of it outside the US.

In Australia, you post something by putting it in a post box, they're located in shopping areas and have specified collection times, usually daily on weekdays.

Of course, you can also go into the post office and deal with a human who will take the postage $ as needed.

These days, the number of times I've posted something can be counted in low single digits per year. Mostly dealing with government forms that need signatures because stupid reasons.

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

#408

Post by lostlogin »

growt wrote: post #396
lostlogin wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do. I bought a house with a cheque. It was the only cheque I’d ever written and it bounced. The bank had closed the account without telling me. Fun times.

So did the bank close an account with a lot of money in it, or did you write a cheque for an empty account?

Ive slightly misstated it - they closed the cheque function on the account (although the account is still called a ‘cheque account’ now, 10+ years later). The account was active but no longer had a cheque book associated with it. However I had a physical cheque book.

Cheques basically don’t exist here in NZ now.

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

#409

Post by vinay427 »

dingaling wrote: post #341
slang800 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 jus…

On returned items, both Amazon US and Amazon DE have been quite helpful. I think Amazon US is even more over-the-top, but I think the local retail standards for this are much higher in the US so it makes sense.

On memberships, I don't mind the Prime cancelling issues very much because they seem to always credit back a month if you later tell them you forgot to cancel. Unfortunately, there are annoying dark patterns when signing up, hiding the "No thanks" button when trying to get through an order, etc.

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

#410

Post by OJFord »

hkt wrote: post #400
ddalex wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps that's why they are shutting down?

I've no experience with the bank named and assume it is in the US, but for what it is worth, in the UK people hardly ever pay for bank accounts. It does appear to be viable, although I'm not sure how it works.

Revenue from account fees must be peanuts, they make their money lending/investing/etc. deposits, in normal times interest rates are positive, so they might even pay for custom, getting more deposits, giving them more capital to make their money from.

Charging for bank accounts in North America is just like commission on retail brokers - everyone else is doing it, so why not? Eventually probably 'fintech startup challenger banks' with the novel idea of not charging will gain too much market share, and the big boys will scrap the fees too in order to compete (and barely feel it).

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