Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it • Hacker News Board

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

#521

Post by passtheglass » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 12:00 PM UTC

jopsen wrote: post #377

rrdharan wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you change your address to one in California, they expose the cancel option, because they have to by law: https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-unsubscribe-easily-from-WSJ-o...

The problem is that this is a lack of respect. They are actively trying to scam me. Why would I want to be a "customer"?

I agree, it's particularly egregious that they spent the extra development time and money to only have this feature in locales where they are legally forced to.

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

#522

Post by polote » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 12:01 PM UTC

jb775 wrote: post #353

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…

> they want to persuade me to hold a set of opinions Glad more people are realizing this. It's harder to spot/acknowledge for people on the left since the biased coverage feeds into their worldview...in my opinion it's artificially solidified their confidence on how "correct" they feel they are about political topics. The next step in this realization is nothing to do with one-sided reporting, it's the massive scale…

The pandemic made me realize how much newspapers have impact on people opinions. If they keep telling a vaccine in unsafe, a big part of their readers will believe the vaccine is unsafe. If they keep telling a vaccine is safe a big part of their readers will believe the vaccine is safe. And that no matter what the reality is.

I'm not american but reading NYT during the elections, I was astonished by how much NYT was blaming Trump for everything, and never say anything positive about him. Now I treat newspapers as propaganda.

I actually stopped reading any news at all except bloomberg a month ago and can't be happier.

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

#523

Post by benrapscallion » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 12:02 PM UTC

Here’s an NYT cancellation tip I read on Reddit: switch the payment to PayPal and then cancel through PayPal.

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

#524

Post by freetime2 » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 12:03 PM UTC

lostlogin wrote: post #372

px43 wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I closed my Wells Fargo account, they took out all my money, charged me some account closing fee, which over-drafted and fell back to a credit card which now had a balance on it due to the overdraft and they told me they couldn't close my account. I think I ended up paying something like 130 dollars of fees just to close my account, but at that point they'd already screwed me over so many times that I just paid…

I closed a bank account in the UK in about 2001. I emptied it at an atm then walked into the bank to close it. The cashier gave me all the cash I’d already taken from the account.

In the US, they would reopen your account without telling you and start charging you fees and/or interest on the amount they overpaid. I know this because it happened to me last year when American Express mistakenly refunded a credit to me twice when closing an account (one check and one bank transfer). I never even cashed the check but apparently that didn’t make a difference to them.

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

#525

Post by nagaj » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 12:04 PM UTC

I subscribed to NYT annual plan and cancelled it within 3 months. There was no refund for the remaining months. I tried to resubscribe after a month and had to pay 12 months fee again. Weird!

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

#526

Post by whywhywhywhy » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 12:06 PM UTC

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…

Journalists are pretty honest about what they do if you listen to them talk candidly about their profession. It's not really about reporting reality or facts it's more they see themselves are a class above the regular people who have a moral obligation to make sure we think and believe the right things we're supposed to for what they consider the greater good.

Not saying if that's the right thing to do or not but personally it's not something I'd ever pay for.

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

#527

Post by bluenose69 » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 12:06 PM UTC

I had a similar experience, and it is what keeps me from signing up again, despite the fact that I really want to read that paper. Frankly, the experience motivated me to drop by subscriptions to other USA papers. I still subscribe to some overseas papers, which seem to respect their customers more.

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

#528

Post by devsatish » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 12:07 PM UTC

To their credit it was pretty fast for me to cancel. All i said was “ I have a subscription from work and don’t need personal subscription anymore “ . They cancelled right away , no more questions asked .

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

#529

Post by thinkingemote » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 12:08 PM UTC

pembrook wrote: post #489

thinkingemote wrote: post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking at the USA from European eyes, there are no leftist publications, nor any left mainstream politicians there!

Someone in China could say the same thing about Europe. There’s hardly any communist mainstream politicians and publications there!

However people in the USA talk about the left as a bloc and people in Europe don't talk about communist media or politicians (although there are a small number).

You would have a better analogy if you used "socialism" rather than "communism".

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

#530

Post by estaseuropano » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 12:09 PM UTC

wickedsickeune wrote: post #417

andix wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It only works if you didn't give them your name and address. At least in Europe some debt collection agencies will track you down and charge an enormous fee, and will leave you with a bad credit score.

There's a "credit score" in Europe???

In the UK maybe, not most countries. There are some corporate databases that consumers eill mever hear about, but certainly nothing even close to US credit scores.