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Comment by wonderwonder | Hacker News Reader

Strange that this hit HN today. 2 days ago I wondered what the cancellation policy was for the WSJ and checked. At the time I did not plan on cancelling but after finding out that it was "call to cancel" I called at that moment. I cannot stand the policy where it takes 3 seconds to sign up online but you have to call in to cancel. If I can help it I wont give money to companies that do it. In WSJ defense (barely) it was a quick process, probably took 5 minutes.

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5 minutes is still 4 minutes and 55 seconds too long. There's no good reason it should take 59 times longer than it ought to.

No argument from me. They asked why I was cancelling and I told them it was because I had to call to cancel.

Next time pay for the subscription by check (mail it in). They can’t bill you again automatically.

Is this legal? I assume if they wanted to (which admittedly is unlikely) they could send you to collections for not paying for the renewal that you agreed to when you subscribed.

In short, no it's not legal. Just because they can't take the money from you doesn't mean you don't have to pay them.

The subscriptions are fixed terms. Not lifetime. Why should they be allowed to bill me beyond the subscription term?

That depends, if the subscription is until canceled, then yes, it's a lifetime term.

You’re subscribing for a year or whatever is the fixed period. How is it illegal to pay for it with a physical check?

It's not illegal to pay for it with a physical check; it's illegal (unless your original agreement automatically terminated after a year) to not then pay for the automatic renewal at the end of the year.

Happy to break the law in self-defense.

At least you admit now that it actually is breaking the law.

I have wanted to cancel WSJ for over a year now but their process kept me from doing it. I started a few times and then was like I really don't have time for this nonsense right now. I wonder if I do it now if I can get my subscription fees refunded.

I tried canceling WSJ and they wouldn't take the call outside business hours. So I just called their Hong Kong office and cancelled with them, and refused to discuss anything but the immediate cancellation, and stopped them in their track when they veered off.

You have to be firm and terse. They try to drag you into a sales dialog and offer a much lower rate. Tell them, “I don’t want to discuss why I’m canceling, and I’m not interested in continuing, regardless of your rate.” Just keep repeating that.

Now that I think about it I think they did try and convince me to not cancel but I have become so disassociated from human niceties since I started working from home the last few years I just interrupted them and told them to stop and I wanted to cancel. Kind of worrying that I did it without thinking or realizing. Might be time for me to reintegrate with society.

> Strange that this hit HN today.

these 'exciting' new dark pattern strategies spread very quickly among firms. many people are suddenly dealing with them. not strange imo

I just canceled the WSJ. It is not terrible. They will try and convince you to cancel but will eventually let you cancel. The worst is SirriusXM Radio.

I was waiting for SXM to pop up. Literally one of the worst companies for this and I say this as someone who sadly worked for them for a little bit. You can manage everything in the web portal but to cancel you click a button and it tells you to call them. I know they have content and some people use them but they literally have so much friction in cancelling that it is a huge part of their business.

Just out of curiosity: what would have happened if you had just stopped paying them after sending them an email informing them that you wanted to cancel?

Its the online version so they have my cc on record and charge me monthly. I guess I could have changed my cc to an invalid one but not sure if they have some sort of authentication process before accepting a new one, likely. If that was possible likely they would cancel it after a couple declined charges but you always run the admittedly small risk that they will just send you to collections which is no fun at all. Even if you are in the right you still have to deal with a ton of annoyance and try and get your credit restored if they report it to the credit agency.

You could probably also have let them charge you and then disputed the charges with your credit card company with your email as proof you shouldn't have been charged.

Getting the physical WSJ paper is ridiculous, but the digital subscription to the WSJ is great.

It's the only one I pay for happily.

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