NZ Herald deactivated online digital subscription cancellations

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surfisup1000

4704 posts

Uber Geek

#269702 3-Apr-2020 10:05

I subscribed to the NZ herald $1 a week deal -- this goes back to full rate shortly so I went to cancel my subscription online.

But, the online cancellation function has been removed, ad they are making you PHONE them to cancel subscriptions.

So, I phone them, and after a long wait they answer, I ask to cancel but she can't do this immediately.

I have to wait for someone to call me back to process the cancellation -- she says 2 working days, which means over the weekend and my credit card is going to be billed for the next months subscription.

I asked her why they cancelled the online subscription functionality and she wasn't able to or wouldn't answer the question, just saying it was no longer available and that they are sorry.

Just seems weird to remove a function that was working just fine and replace it with the call center.

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#2453586 3-Apr-2020 10:17

That's blatantly ripping people off.

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SirHumphreyAppleby

1285 posts

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#2453591 3-Apr-2020 10:22

No need to panic just yet. If you've told them to cancel, I'm sure they will refund the subscription charge next week if you ask them to.

coffeebaron

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#2453756 3-Apr-2020 13:36

Put your credit card on hold for a bit.

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surfisup1000

4704 posts

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#2453761 3-Apr-2020 13:39

I don’t care about the payment so much. that’s just a bit of an annoyance to arrange a refund.

Primarily I object to them making us phone them so they can talk us out of cancelling.

dafman

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#2453772 3-Apr-2020 13:50

... but they've still have retained the online option to subscribe!

"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it."

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mattwnz

16356 posts

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#2453798 3-Apr-2020 14:17

If it was me, I would request that they email to confirm that you have contacted them to cancel it. Then you have it in writing. Or at least get the name of the person you are talking to, so you have a time/date/name record of who you discussed it with.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
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#2453803 3-Apr-2020 14:24

surfisup1000:

But, the online cancellation function has been removed, ad they are making you PHONE them to cancel subscriptions.

So, I phone them, and after a long wait they answer, I ask to cancel but she can't do this immediately.

I am of the view companies do this kind of things to retain customers and keep charging.

I am a pessimist.

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tehgerbil

706 posts

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#2453814 3-Apr-2020 14:39

freitasm:

I am a pessimist.

Being a pessimist is awesome. You're either right, or pleasantly surprised.

richms

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#2453823 3-Apr-2020 14:45

Charges initiated online should be cancelled online, with no exceptions allowable. IMO its another area where credit cards are so damn weak compared to paypal. I can cancel a paypal subscription right inside paypal. Whereas unscrupulous companies which I assume the herald is one will just charge again if it fails because you have your entire card suspended at renewal time as a way to prevent the theft of your money by them.

Richard rich.ms

Geektastic

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#2453824 3-Apr-2020 14:47

The Telegraph or The Times does the same - I forget which.

I did a live chat with their CS people and in order to stop me cancelling the slashed the monthly sub by 50% for 6 months!

Benjip

718 posts

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#2453903 3-Apr-2020 16:04

Can you choose a billing address overseas?

I know that Americans often do the "California" trick whereby they update their billing address to somewhere in California, where it's illegal to not provide an online cancellation function for online subscriptions.

antonknee

311 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2453919 3-Apr-2020 16:27

Wow! That’s really terrible on their part. I understand wanting to retain subscriptions but you’d think in these trying times they’d make things as easy as possible - and reduce the number of contacts required (and therefore cost) for customer service.

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surfisup1000

4704 posts

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#2453964 3-Apr-2020 17:09

antonknee: Wow! That’s really terrible on their part. I understand wanting to retain subscriptions but you’d think in these trying times they’d make things as easy as possible - and reduce the number of contacts required (and therefore cost) for customer service.

I'm guessing the paywall is a failure and they're trying to figure out reasons or convince people to retain their membership.

I just had someone call me back... They started the spiel about 'why are you leaving' 'does it cost too much' etc, my polite and unarguable response was "no reason".

She tried to engage me with further 'open' questioning but I wasn't interested in that fish hook and just asked her to go ahead and cancel the subscription.

I really prefer online cancellation :)

bmt

564 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2454182 4-Apr-2020 09:33

Has there actually ever been an option to cancel online?

I did the discounted sign up deal and then cancelled too and I have found my email from 22nd of January with the main text of the email being "The fact I have to phone or email to cancel is reason enough to cancel in itself."

It is definitely scummy and the reason I use the simple Firefox extension to browse the Herald for free :)

JimmyH

2674 posts

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#2455177 5-Apr-2020 15:51

It's very deliberate on their part. Quite a few companies do this. They want to make it easy to sign up, but more difficult to leave. So you can signup online, but have to phone to cancel.

They want to make you jump through a few hoops, and deal with their specialist retentions team in person to see why you are leaving and whether there is anything they can do to keep you. Essentially, they just want to make sure that they have their best shot at minimising subscriber loss.

It's annoying BS, but you will have to do it their way.

Just tell them that you want to cancel, keep re-stating that, and refuse to answer any other questions if you don't want to. Also tell them you want the cancellation to be effective as at the date you first asked for it, and that if they don't refund any subsequent charges after the date you cancelled within 3 working days you will do a chargeback on your credit card (which costs them money, and also potentially causes problems for them with their payment processor if they start to get too many). Your bank will probably do this quite painlessley - all you have to do is tell them it's an unauthorised charge.

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