7 ms·

I canceled mine last week exactly because of those dark patterns. They also show ads even if you have a subscription, which sounds very backward to me. I'd love

I canceled mine last week exactly because of those dark patterns. They also show ads even if you have a subscription, which sounds very backward to me. I'd love to support them, but those practices don't belong in 2018. EDIT: Oh, looks like the cancellation didn't go through and they charged me for one more month, sweet. I might just go to my bank and tell them to block the source. Or even better, I may have found a trick. You can switch your payment to Paypal, and then Paypal let's you block/cancel reccuring payment. Let's see if that works.

jagger27 8y ago
The PayPal trick worked for me.
unixhero 8y ago
Watch out. There may be dragons with that PayPal approach. Although ingenious, and I commend that, you have achieved to end the payments but you have not correctly ended the contract. You may still be liable for the subscription fees, although you're not paying. Probably best to call and terminate the contract the right way.
- gonvaled 8y ago
  He has already called them and terminated the contract. They have just not processed the request. Not paying is a sensible path in this case I would say.
  - unixhero 8y ago
    So, no dragons then. Lol.
  - ataturk 8y ago
    You can checkout but you can never leave.
cm2187 8y ago
That’s why I don’t complain that much when my bank wants to replace my card every 18 months or so because of whatever fraud concern they have. A minor inconvenience but the benefit is that it automatically terminates all the subscriptions to services I don’t really care about or that I forgot I even had.
- interactivecode 8y ago
  you have that many subscriptions that this is a thing?
Rjevski 8y ago
Go to your bank and chargeback/dispute the transaction. This will make NYT’s card processing fees go up (and enough chargebacks will cause their acquirer bank to drop them).
joekrill 8y ago
> They also show ads even if you have a subscription, which sounds very backward to me. So are you also cancelling your cable subscription, any magazine subscriptions, physical newspaper subscriptions, no longer driving on toll roads with billboard...? I'm not saying it's right, or good, or valid--but the standard practice, for as long as I can remember, for most mediums, is to still show ads for things you pay for. So I'm not sure how that makes it "backwards".
- swebs 8y ago
  >So are you also cancelling your cable subscription Yep >any magazine subscriptions Yep >physical newspaper subscriptions, Yep Don't forget about Hulu. Ads are my #1 reason for canceling most paid services.
  - spookthesunset 8y ago
    You are an outlier though.... (but I must admit, if I did pull the plug on cable the primary reason (besides we really don't use it much) would be the fact I pay big bucks to watch a fuckton of advertising)
    - ectospheno 8y ago
      You have a different definition of outlier than is used in statistics. He hasn't been an outlier for years now regardless of how many advertising executives still want to think that he is.
  - bytematic 8y ago
    What is so bad about advertising?
- r3bl 8y ago
  Because you can open a private/incognito/porn tab and view the same article without actually paying for it, and a premium should offer you something worth a constant amount of money draining from your account. Paying 15 euros per month to get a daily crossword + cooking section (or 9 euros per month to not get them) is something not a lot of people are interested in.
mrfredward 8y ago
If you're paying with a credit card, dispute the bill. Card companies can actually be quite pleasant to deal with on this stuff, and if you win you'll get your money back and NYT will owe the card company a fee for the chargeback. If you don't win, you'll at least cause the company a headache for their illegal billing practices.

jagger27 8y ago

The PayPal trick worked for me.

unixhero 8y ago

Watch out. There may be dragons with that PayPal approach. Although ingenious, and I commend that, you have achieved to end the payments but you have not correctly ended the contract. You may still be liable for the subscription fees, although you're not paying. Probably best to call and terminate the contract the right way.

gonvaled 8y ago
He has already called them and terminated the contract. They have just not processed the request. Not paying is a sensible path in this case I would say.
- unixhero 8y ago
  So, no dragons then. Lol.
- ataturk 8y ago
  You can checkout but you can never leave.

cm2187 8y ago

That’s why I don’t complain that much when my bank wants to replace my card every 18 months or so because of whatever fraud concern they have. A minor inconvenience but the benefit is that it automatically terminates all the subscriptions to services I don’t really care about or that I forgot I even had.

interactivecode 8y ago
you have that many subscriptions that this is a thing?

Rjevski 8y ago

Go to your bank and chargeback/dispute the transaction. This will make NYT’s card processing fees go up (and enough chargebacks will cause their acquirer bank to drop them).

joekrill 8y ago

> They also show ads even if you have a subscription, which sounds very backward to me. So are you also cancelling your cable subscription, any magazine subscriptions, physical newspaper subscriptions, no longer driving on toll roads with billboard...? I'm not saying it's right, or good, or valid--but the standard practice, for as long as I can remember, for most mediums, is to still show ads for things you pay for. So I'm not sure how that makes it "backwards".

swebs 8y ago
>So are you also cancelling your cable subscription Yep >any magazine subscriptions Yep >physical newspaper subscriptions, Yep Don't forget about Hulu. Ads are my #1 reason for canceling most paid services.
- spookthesunset 8y ago
  You are an outlier though.... (but I must admit, if I did pull the plug on cable the primary reason (besides we really don't use it much) would be the fact I pay big bucks to watch a fuckton of advertising)
  - ectospheno 8y ago
    You have a different definition of outlier than is used in statistics. He hasn't been an outlier for years now regardless of how many advertising executives still want to think that he is.
- bytematic 8y ago
  What is so bad about advertising?
r3bl 8y ago
Because you can open a private/incognito/porn tab and view the same article without actually paying for it, and a premium should offer you something worth a constant amount of money draining from your account. Paying 15 euros per month to get a daily crossword + cooking section (or 9 euros per month to not get them) is something not a lot of people are interested in.

mrfredward 8y ago

If you're paying with a credit card, dispute the bill. Card companies can actually be quite pleasant to deal with on this stuff, and if you win you'll get your money back and NYT will owe the card company a fee for the chargeback. If you don't win, you'll at least cause the company a headache for their illegal billing practices.