<story><title>Before buying a NYT subscription, here&apos;s what it&apos;ll take to cancel it</title><url>https://imgur.com/a/K8m7p2t</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pottertheotter</author><text>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.&lt;p&gt;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 messaged support asking them to not renew my subscription, and told them that the paper always arrived late. They responded back that they were going to give me a free subscription until they could figure out the paper delivery. I should have held firm and cancelled, but it seemed lke they were trying to provide good customer service.&lt;p&gt;Nothing changed with delivery, and I followed up a few times to see what was going on. I was told they were looking into it.&lt;p&gt;One day, out of the blue, I received a large bill from them. I called to see what was going on and I was told that my trial was up and since I hadn’t cancelled that it had renewed. A proceeded to tell the about my problems with delivery and that customer service was supposedly working on fixing the problem and not charging me until they could. The person on the phone told me that that’s not possible since they don’t provide same-day delivery to my address. I recounted exactly what had happened, and they basically told me I was a liar, and would not refund the charge because the user agreement says they don’t have to, even though I called within a few hours of the new charge and subscription renewal.&lt;p&gt;The part that really stung was that I was a PhD student and could get an entire year for less than what they charged me for a month. I’ve never had a company treat me so poorly before.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>oliwarner</author><text>Incidents like this make me wonder why there isn&amp;#x27;t an appetite for better consumer rights in the US.&lt;p&gt;If this had happened in the UK, you&amp;#x27;d have the option to pro-actively block the payment, recover it, and legal standing to defend getting your money back.&lt;p&gt;Letting companies redefine the rights of their customers seems bizarre to me.</text></comment>
<story><title>Before buying a NYT subscription, here&apos;s what it&apos;ll take to cancel it</title><url>https://imgur.com/a/K8m7p2t</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pottertheotter</author><text>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.&lt;p&gt;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 messaged support asking them to not renew my subscription, and told them that the paper always arrived late. They responded back that they were going to give me a free subscription until they could figure out the paper delivery. I should have held firm and cancelled, but it seemed lke they were trying to provide good customer service.&lt;p&gt;Nothing changed with delivery, and I followed up a few times to see what was going on. I was told they were looking into it.&lt;p&gt;One day, out of the blue, I received a large bill from them. I called to see what was going on and I was told that my trial was up and since I hadn’t cancelled that it had renewed. A proceeded to tell the about my problems with delivery and that customer service was supposedly working on fixing the problem and not charging me until they could. The person on the phone told me that that’s not possible since they don’t provide same-day delivery to my address. I recounted exactly what had happened, and they basically told me I was a liar, and would not refund the charge because the user agreement says they don’t have to, even though I called within a few hours of the new charge and subscription renewal.&lt;p&gt;The part that really stung was that I was a PhD student and could get an entire year for less than what they charged me for a month. I’ve never had a company treat me so poorly before.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pmcollins</author><text>also had a similar experience with wsj. never again.&lt;p&gt;and with a new subscription to the economist. tried to cancel a few months ago, mostly because i didn’t like how they would charge my card without warning or an invoice. it was all just super stealth. worst part was you couldn’t cancel online, you were supposed to call. but you couldn’t call either because their phone staff wasn’t working due to covid. so convenient for them. had to file a formal dispute with my card. also, never again.&lt;p&gt;ironically both free market publications. may the free market flush these awful, consumer hostile companies down the toilet.</text></comment>