5 ms·

This reminds me of the French newspaper lemonde.fr, which I had subscribed to, and then wanted to unsubscribe after a couple months. There was simply no way to

This reminds me of the French newspaper lemonde.fr, which I had subscribed to, and then wanted to unsubscribe after a couple months. There was simply no way to do so online, not to reach any customer support. The only option was to send a letter via post. This was during our first lockdown in UK, so no way I would go to the post office for that. I'll simply never be a customer again.

brendoelfrendo 6y ago
Ha! I had this experience years ago. I subscribed in college to practice my French, but ended up wanting to unsubscribe because I had more important uses for the money. Sure enough, I had to use my rudimentary language skills to write a letter to unsubscribe and mail it off to France.
- frading 6y ago
  Glad that worked! I hope that didn't put you off learning French. Personally, I stopped trying to write such letters after a couple instances where the recipient company claimed they never received any letter from me. Then I learned you should always send a letter with a signature to have a proof of reception, which is a bit more expensive. And then one kept charging me anyway, and still claimed the letter didn't reach the right department (after more time spent on the phone with them). Bottom line is if a company wants to make it difficult for you to leave the relationship with them, there are tons of tricks in the books for that. Therefore I blacklist them after any sign of dishonesty.
jimmaswell 6y ago
Being too afraid to make a quick trip to the post office sounds like major overkill to me. Besides that couldn't you have ordered stamps and envelopes online?
rthomas6 6y ago
Can people in the UK not send outgoing letters by putting them in their mailbox and raising the little outgoing mail flag? Is that a uniquely American thing?
- cbracken 6y ago
  As a Canadian who has been in the US close to 10 years, this is the first I've heard of this! I had always assumed the flag was meant to be set by the letter carrier in some bygone era as a courtesy to let residents know they had mail. Thank you, kind internet stranger. To answer the question, this service doesn't exist in any other country I've lived in -- Canada or Japan, in my case.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - nkrisc 6y ago
    > I had always assumed the flag was meant to be set by the letter carrier in some bygone era as a courtesy to let residents know they had mail. Even as an American I used to think this, but because I grew up in a large city where all mail collection was from a mail box at the corner of the block. It wasn't until I moved to a sprawling suburb did I have my own mailbox at the end of the driveway and I got to use that little flag thing for the first time.
- jinglebells 6y ago
  Most houses don't have an external mailbox, the mail goes through the front door and into a basket. A lot of houses on terraced streets have no front garden and open directly onto the road, especially in cities. There is doorstep letter and parcel collection for less than a dollar. https://send.royalmail.com/ https://send.royalmail.com/
- rswail 6y ago
  I've never heard of it outside the US. In Australia, you post something by putting it in a post box, they're located in shopping areas and have specified collection times, usually daily on weekdays. Of course, you can also go into the post office and deal with a human who will take the postage $ as needed. These days, the number of times I've posted something can be counted in low single digits per year. Mostly dealing with government forms that need signatures because stupid reasons.
- 6y ago

brendoelfrendo 6y ago

Ha! I had this experience years ago. I subscribed in college to practice my French, but ended up wanting to unsubscribe because I had more important uses for the money. Sure enough, I had to use my rudimentary language skills to write a letter to unsubscribe and mail it off to France.

frading 6y ago
Glad that worked! I hope that didn't put you off learning French. Personally, I stopped trying to write such letters after a couple instances where the recipient company claimed they never received any letter from me. Then I learned you should always send a letter with a signature to have a proof of reception, which is a bit more expensive. And then one kept charging me anyway, and still claimed the letter didn't reach the right department (after more time spent on the phone with them). Bottom line is if a company wants to make it difficult for you to leave the relationship with them, there are tons of tricks in the books for that. Therefore I blacklist them after any sign of dishonesty.

jimmaswell 6y ago

Being too afraid to make a quick trip to the post office sounds like major overkill to me. Besides that couldn't you have ordered stamps and envelopes online?

rthomas6 6y ago

Can people in the UK not send outgoing letters by putting them in their mailbox and raising the little outgoing mail flag? Is that a uniquely American thing?

cbracken 6y ago
As a Canadian who has been in the US close to 10 years, this is the first I've heard of this! I had always assumed the flag was meant to be set by the letter carrier in some bygone era as a courtesy to let residents know they had mail. Thank you, kind internet stranger. To answer the question, this service doesn't exist in any other country I've lived in -- Canada or Japan, in my case.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- nkrisc 6y ago
  > I had always assumed the flag was meant to be set by the letter carrier in some bygone era as a courtesy to let residents know they had mail. Even as an American I used to think this, but because I grew up in a large city where all mail collection was from a mail box at the corner of the block. It wasn't until I moved to a sprawling suburb did I have my own mailbox at the end of the driveway and I got to use that little flag thing for the first time.
jinglebells 6y ago
Most houses don't have an external mailbox, the mail goes through the front door and into a basket. A lot of houses on terraced streets have no front garden and open directly onto the road, especially in cities. There is doorstep letter and parcel collection for less than a dollar. https://send.royalmail.com/ https://send.royalmail.com/
rswail 6y ago
I've never heard of it outside the US. In Australia, you post something by putting it in a post box, they're located in shopping areas and have specified collection times, usually daily on weekdays. Of course, you can also go into the post office and deal with a human who will take the postage $ as needed. These days, the number of times I've posted something can be counted in low single digits per year. Mostly dealing with government forms that need signatures because stupid reasons.
6y ago