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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

#491

Post by cletus »

chmod600 wrote: post #289
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.

I was a member of a well-known gym for more than ten years straight. Once, my card expired, and when I went to work out they said the membership had lapsed. No problem, right? I'll pay up on the account, re-activate, and work out. Nope, they wanted to charge me a reactivation fee. I said "no" and left. Never paid them another dime. What a stupid business.

A gym's ideal customer is one who pays but never uses the facilities. One can imagine that if you often used the facilities, particularly at peak times, they almost want to discourage you,

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

#492

Post by softgrow »

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.

That seems really good advice. Next time I try to cancel my NYT subscription, I'll try that. I managed to do it entirely by email, but took 3 emails back and forth. Then in all the excitement of the 2020 US presidential election I subscribed again ... so the cycle will repeat.

P.S. there probably going to get a lot of people "going to prison" in the future so the scripts will include questions to out the fakers, who want to cancel without trouble.

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

#493

Post by yoaviram »

Alternatively, if you live in California or the EU send them a data deletion request and job done. Not sure how to do that? Try this: https://yourdigitalrights.org/d/nytimes.com

Disclaimer: I created YourDigitalRights.org precisely for this sort of cases. We now send about 500 deletion request a day.

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

#494

Post by colourgarden »

Closi wrote: post #440
colourgarden wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you close the account manually or via the Switch Guarantee service? https://www.currentaccountswitch.co.uk If signed up to the scheme (most are, including Santander), your old bank is responsible for passing on any deposits directly to your new bank account and the new bank is responsible for processing any transactions made using your old details. This carries on for, I believe 12 months. I found the Switch Guar…

Ah, that's good to know for the future - I closed it manually. I wasn't told about this and didn't know about it - mind you it was a few years ago so not sure if this is a newer service.

Since 2013 although I don't know if Santander was in it from the start. I'd guess yes.

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

#495

Post by hijp »

There should be a law that you can cancel via the same method that you signed up.

For example you can sign up for recurring paid channels on the Amazon app on Roku, but have to log in on the computer to cancel.

What happens is my 80-year old parents try a week of HBO, Starz, Showtime, Britbox etc. Then can't figure out where they actually signed up. Was it under roku, under amazon, under a new app? What credentials did they use? Then they forget about it and are billed in perpetuity.

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

#497

Post by captn3m0 »

sumedh wrote: post #457
neop1x wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I cancelled Netflix account 7 months ago and haven't used it since. A few days ago I received "Action needed: Reset your password" due to allegedly "suspicious sign-in". After changing the password and looking into the Recent activity, I couldn't see any suspicious recent login there. So I contacted the support and they said cancelled accounts are deleted after 10 months since cancellation. So now, with…

Damm, same thing happened to me. I initially thought I was going crazy that my password was hacked but something did not feel right about that suspicious sign in email.

I got one as well.

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

#498

Post by miga »

I had a similar problem, but the chat was unresponsive so I simply asked my bank to stop honouring their receipts. They sent me spam for another year, before I finally made a lots of GDPR threats to get cancellation.

Is it even legal to ask for a zip code to cancel when there was no zip code in their system?

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

#499

Post by vinay427 »

icedchocolate wrote: post #432
vinay427 wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This does exist for credit cards in the US. There are guidelines by which credit card issuers must abide by customer requests, and they're seemingly always happy to side with the consumer when it's even somewhat reasonable. > Letting companies redefine the rights of their customers seems bizarre to me. Maybe it's just what I was used to, but I think it's far more annoying in many European countries (not sure about th…

Speaking from Australia, we have outstanding customer protection and rights, and no massive hoops or hurdles to go to get it that would be more significant than anything in the US. It’s really much more just. Fraud or improper charges are also easily immediately rescinded if using a credit card. What kind of cover for fees for international use are you talking about?

> Fraud or improper charges are also easily immediately rescinded if using a credit card.

I'm not sure how exactly it compares, but every credit card at least in my lifetime in the US has been bound by these same protections.

> What kind of cover for fees for international use are you talking about?

Sorry, this is more of a tangent that I should have denoted, as it's not specifically related to fraud or consumer rights. At least compared to the major European and Asian countries in which I've traveled or lived in, credit card and bank/debit card offerings in the US are extremely generous in benefits, rewards, fees, etc. I actually still sometimes use my US card in a European country because my US bank offers lower fees than my domestic bank (in the home country) for ATMs, currency exchange, card replacements, etc.

> Speaking from Australia, we have outstanding customer protection and rights, and no massive hoops or hurdles to go to get it that would be more significant than anything in the US.

I'm honestly not sure how this compares to the US or elsewhere as I've never been to Australia. I'm regularly surprised by how inflexible businesses seem in much of continental Europe, however.

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

#500

Post by eythian »

macNchz wrote: post #158
tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #63

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…

Same story with a full Prime subscription, not just the free trial, they use several dark patterns to confuse you about what will happen when you actually hit the cancel button. When I found myself slowly buying fewer things on Amazon a few years ago and decided to cancel Prime after many years as a subscriber, I was so grossed out by the cancellation process that I’ve actively avoided ordering from them ever since.

Curious, I cancelled mine yesterday because they messed up my billing and wouldn't/couldn't unsuspend it¹, so the CS person suggested to cancel and resubscribe. I did have to confirm about three times that this is what I wanted to do, but in no case was it hidden or not obvious.

¹ it was a bit of a mess, they first tried to bill an empty credit card, but only notified me after several attempts when prime was actually suspended. I added a regular credit card, but they don't conform to the new EU rules about authentication so it just got declined. Again, they didn't tell me they were even trying. So I added a SEPA account which is possible through the UI, but apparently they required a credit card. In the end I just cancelled, and re-signed up under the amazon of the country I live in (which is fairly new, hence not doing it the first time.) At least I get another free trial month for the hassle.*

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