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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

#791

Post by oblio »

pembrook wrote: post #585
oblio wrote: post #541

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of them is a authoritarian regime where the press is controlled by the state and the others are a collection of countries with some of the highest democracy ratings in the world, by most scales, including for freedom of the press.

That's my point. The farther left you go the more things the state has control over. It's all relative. From a communist perspective, most of Europe is a laissez faire free market. Private control of the press!? Hah! From Europe's mildly-socialist perspective, America is a laissez faire free market. Private control of healthcare and education!? Hah! I'm not making value judgements. Just pointing out its a spectrum.

> That's my point. The farther left you go the more things the state has control over.

Is this true, though? With full socialism isn't control supposed to be pooled by citizens? If anything, it's more akin to libertarianism, just that instead of citizens self-organizing in groups to manage bits and pieces they self-organize in groups managing everything.

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

#792

Post by dv_dt »

macksd wrote: post #84
dv_dt wrote: post #69

In theory signing up online in California gives a consumer the right to cancel online, but I don't know how closely that's enforced, or if a non-resident of the state can vpn the signup.

Would this not count as "online"? Or is the law specific that a person not be in the loop?

I'm not sure. This is a reference to the law I had in mind:

https://blogs.findlaw.com/common_law/2018/07/what-to-know-ab...

It seems to imply the subscription had to be a "click" affair.

"If the subscription was started online, consumers must be able to cancel it online. No more dealing with fruitless or contentious phone calls with these businesses! One click of a button, and the service is canceled."

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

#793

Post by goatinaboat »

dahart wrote: post #738
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…

> I also think they are breaking GDPR by keeping the account for 10 months after cancellation. Do you live in the US? GDPR does not apply to US companies serving US citizens. If you live in the EU, you might need to request account deletion, I think GDPR doesn't require that data is deleted, it gives Europeans the right to have their data deleted upon request. (I've read the entire code before but I don't remember th…

If you live in the EU, you might need to request account deletion, I think GDPR doesn't require that data is deleted

GDPR also requires you to be able to cancel by the same way you signed up, so any company that doesn’t let you cancel online is in flagrant violation.

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

#794

Post by elefanten »

Shacklz wrote: post #728
jb775 wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

As a regular European reader of the NYT, even the stronger left leaning columns from people such as Krugman/Kristof contain mostly opinions that are often considered "common sense" on our side of the pond. Maybe your opinion has more to do with how weird and dispatched from reality American politics has become and less with how the NYT wants to brainwash you, or whatever you think they're doing?

Interested to know what you’re referring to. If it’s social or economic policy, I’d get your view. But if it’s culture wars / identity politics you’re referring to, I’d be surprised and expect the opposite in Europe.

My sense is many (most?) of the commenters here are off-put by the latter category.

Edit: the reference to Krugman as significantly “left” just registered, and I don’t think that’s what people are referring to —- or even that most of NYT’s new guard would consider Krugman to be a leftist

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

#795

Post by goatinaboat »

PoignardAzur wrote: post #560
Fuzzwah wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an outsider to US politics (in that I'm Australian), but I'm really interested to know what widely held "left" views you think are "incorrect"? The topics I understand as being pushed by the left in the US just seem so centerist to me, based on the political landscape that I'm living in. Single payer health care, minimum wage increases, increases in social support nets... So many topics I'd love to hear the argum…

The minimum wage increase that Biden is pushing for is radical . He wants a 15$/hour minimum wage, which if I believe Wikipedia would be the highest minimum wage in the world right now. Not saying that's a bad thing, but I think it would qualify as left-wing in most countries. Agreed about social safety nets and most other policies. Sometimes it feels Americans don't realize how uniquely chaotic and inefficient their…

The minimum wage increase that Biden is pushing for is radical. He wants a 15$/hour minimum wage

By 2025, and only for Federal workers. The small print in that promise that only came out after the election.

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

#796

Post by macksd »

dv_dt wrote: post #792
macksd wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would this not count as "online"? Or is the law specific that a person not be in the loop?

I'm not sure. This is a reference to the law I had in mind: https://blogs.findlaw.com/common_law/2018/07/what-to-know-ab... It seems to imply the subscription had to be a "click" affair. "If the subscription was started online, consumers must be able to cancel it online. No more dealing with fruitless or contentious phone calls with these businesses! One click of a button, and the service is canceled."

I think their analysis is mistaken. I think NYT lawyers could successfully argue that virtual chat complies, at least enough that they'd get a slap on the wrist at worst. From the law linked in your article:

(b) A business that makes automatic renewal or continuous service offers shall provide a toll-free telephone number, electronic mail address, a postal address if the seller directly bills the consumer, or another cost-effective, timely, and easy-to-use mechanism for cancellation that shall be described in the acknowledgment specified in paragraph (3) of subdivision (a).

Edit: I do see a later clause that says transactions that start online have to be endable online. But there's no stipulation that it be a simple "click". Even though I think this is scummy, I think they're within the letter of the law.

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

#797

Post by LorenPechtel »

flovec wrote: post #259
whoisjuan wrote: post #25

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…

I've had success pursuing bad i.e. potentially illegal cancellation practices by filing a complaint through the attorney general's office where the company is located. In my case: 1) First I had a rough time cancelling my account _in person_ at a T-mobile store. The remote T-mobile employees in charge of cancellation kept hanging up on the T-mobile employees calling them from the store because cancellations are bad.…

T-mobile can be dirty. The law specifically prohibits holding numbers hostage--but they found a way to try anyway. My employer had gone under, I wanted to keep my number. No problem with my employer, they released it. The problem was I was trying to port the number to a pre-paid T-mobile number (at the time you could buy 1000 minutes for $100/year, the unused minutes rolled over. For light use it was the best deal out there.) The port kept failing, though, puzzling the employees. I finally got the truth out of someone in a call center--there was a big bill owed (duh! But I wasn't the responsible party.) I pointed out that what they were doing was illegal, the person I was talking to didn't care.

A letter to the regulators, though, a few days later I got a call from a much more friendly person who made it work like it should have. It's amazing how much better companies behave when the regulators come calling.

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

#798

Post by goatinaboat »

Shacklz wrote: post #728
jb775 wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

As a regular European reader of the NYT, even the stronger left leaning columns from people such as Krugman/Kristof contain mostly opinions that are often considered "common sense" on our side of the pond. Maybe your opinion has more to do with how weird and dispatched from reality American politics has become and less with how the NYT wants to brainwash you, or whatever you think they're doing?

mostly opinions that are often considered "common sense" on our side of the pond.

The NYT’s views on race relations are so far from normal Europeans that Macron called them an existential threat to France.

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

#799

Post by [deleted] »

Shacklz wrote: post #728
jb775 wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

As a regular European reader of the NYT, even the stronger left leaning columns from people such as Krugman/Kristof contain mostly opinions that are often considered "common sense" on our side of the pond. Maybe your opinion has more to do with how weird and dispatched from reality American politics has become and less with how the NYT wants to brainwash you, or whatever you think they're doing?

[deleted]
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