Live data from Hacker News

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

imgur.com

441–450 of 845 posts

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

#441

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

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…

Reminds me of that angry guy trying to delete his Blizzard account after the Blitzchung controversy.

https://i.imgur.com/dPLVwn6.png

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

#442

Imagine having a business model so fragile that your only line of defense is to obscure the cancellation process through these tactics. Do they really think that they can curve their churn this way? I mean best you’re doing is getting maybe another month or so of revenue from a customer who is just pushing the pain of cancelling because they are busy or lazy. And at the end instead of getting what could be a dormant…

This isn't the first time I've seen NYT cancellation process in my social feeds. It has to be a negative feedback loop cycle. People that read HN are absolutely the type that would consider paying for NYT (or at least the two cohorts have great overlap). This cancellation process never considered the impact of internet cancel culture and rage reactions. It's far easier to damage a brand than it is to build it up.

> People that read HN are absolutely the type that would consider paying for NYT (or at least the two cohorts have great overlap).

?? I automatically assume that articles that are written by NYT, NewYorker, and The Guardian are complete BS and should be ignored.

0 journalism found there.

Wanna spend money somewhere? Spend it on The Atlantic or Bloomberg.

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

#443
post #147

I just unsubscribed using web form. There are some dark patterns involved but not too dark. E.g. first option is the chat with representative, second is the call by phone and third option is the web form. After I have navigated 3 pages using "default button" for canceling the unsubscription process - it is done. It's not the best experience, but not the nightmare the OP described.

They only have the form for people in California or Europe. long live strong consumer protection laws

I wonder if subscribers in other states could change their address and then cancel.

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

#444
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?

In the UK, there's normally a postbox serving a whole street that people can put letters in to send (distinct from the letterbox in each house's front door). GP's nearest postbox might have been inside their local post office, or they might just have needed to buy stamps.

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

#445
post #400
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.

It's subsidised by eye watering fees on unarranged overdrafts. When the FCA and CMA looked into it several years ago, the banks claimed they couldn't reduce overdraft fees or they wouldn't be able to afford to offer free bank accounts any more. Some challenger banks wanted it to be forbidden to describe such accounts as 'free'.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/business/20...

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

#447
post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which other paid news publications do you prefer over the NYT?

https://spectator.co.uk is decent

The Spectator is usually classified as centre-right. Amongst my peers ("creative" millennials in London) that makes it a bit of a non-starter, unfortunately.

I think it's a mostly respectable magazine with a high degree of journalistic integrity (e.g. the recent High Court case). They have some fantastic contributors. Like any publication there are some that are a bit "out there" for my tastes, Delingpole comes to mind, but they pale in comparison to some of the opinion pieces the Guardian publishes. But because of its mild association with the word "right", I know many of my peers would be unpalatable.

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

#449
post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that invalid "debt" was still on your credit report you'd just file a dispute to have it removed.

When you remove an invalid debt, make sure that the bank doesn't sneak it back in. The banks "push" to the credit scoring companies on regular intervals, so although the credit scoring company-ies may remove it, unless the bank/source removes it from THEIR systems, it will be re-pushed 1-3-6 months later. (source: Dave Ramsey's mentioned that in many of his radio shows/podcast episodes)

And then you have a slam dunk FCRA claim.

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

#450
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?

Most houses don't have an external mailbox, the mail goes through the front door and into a basket. A lot of houses on terraced streets have no front garden and open directly onto the road, especially in cities.

There is doorstep letter and parcel collection for less than a dollar.

https://send.royalmail.com/

Post reply on HN