To refuse The Times offers

[GreyBlossom]

I signed up a while ago on one of their reduced for 3 months offers. I know they do it hoping you'll forget or cba to cancel or that by then you'll have decided you can't live without it.

I did quite like it but I wasn't using it often enough to justify the cost.

So I went to my account to cancel. No, can't do that. You can manage everything else about your account online, but you can't cancel.

I tried calling a couple of times, long waits.

FGS, I thought, I'll just cancel the DD. No, can't do that either. No idea how, but that the only DD in my list that doesn't have a cancel button in online banking.

So, I called again. Finally got through and was subjected to 15 mins of him telling me why I'd miss it and did I want this or that other deal instead, then he could do me a discount to stay. In the end I was quite sharp and said "look I've told you I just want to cancel" but he still persevered until I said it again.

Daft thing is I might have been interested in one of the "lite" offers or might have gone back to it later, but knowing how hard it is to cancel, definitely won't ever consider it again.

Presumably they think this is good business?

Oh OP I had something very similar. I have had a full (paper and online) subscription for many years but they wanted to put it up to £60. So I emailed them and asked them to change it to the digital only subscription which is about £26.

They said please phone to discuss your options.

So I emailed back and said I don't need to discuss my options, I know which sub I want so please change it from October.

No they said, you have to phone. So I just emailed and said I'd cancel the direct debit.

I was able to cancel the direct debit in my case. And I have resubscribed via Google Play for the digital subscription. Which is very easy to cancel, you just press a button in your Google account.

It's just another form of "dark pattern" - phone us, we won't pick up and if we do we'll give you the hard sell. Very sharp practice in my view. I did email them to complain but didn't get a sensible response back.

It’s how all these things work. I got rid of beer 52 by telling them I’d been getting it for my boyfriend and we’d split up. He didn’t know what to say so it was a lie but it shut him up 😂

I hate things like this. Thankfully, professional, long-sighted companies with half a brain know that NOT incentivizing their customer service staff to hit high targets for "cancellation turnarounds" is much better for long term business and customer satisfaction.
Seriously what century are they in? Why do they want customers who don't want to be there? It's so silly.

I have been tempted to subscribe a number of times but don’t for this very reason! I can’t face the bother if I eventually come to cancel.

Don’t worry, if you had a physical paper subscription they are so useless that they will continue to send you voucher booklets for months after you eventually manage to cancel your subscription!

Use Apple or Google to subscribe instead and it's dead easy to cancel. Assuming you only want the online version.

I also signed up for the discounted rate, and hadn't realised until I saw this how difficult it was to actually cancel. I have gone into my account and there is nowhere to actually cancel online. I tried the "contact us" button, but surprise, surprise, that doesn't work either. Keeps telling me there is an error.

I expected better of the Times!

It’s really crap at the moment. We have a delivery and online subscription and are on the verge of cancelling since it went up to £65 a month.

Our paper often doesn’t arrive until after 10am now which is just pointless. Plus you have to phone to put in a holiday stop which is a massive PITA.

But, when DH got made redundant during covid and I rang to cancel they did give us 3 months half price to tide us over which was appreciated.

I’ve cancelled a paper subscription for the Times within the last month. Yes you have to call and they will try and give you the half price offer (which I took earlier this year) but if you are clear you want to cancel they don’t go on that much. I certainly wouldn’t let them talk on for 15 minutes, waste of both your time.

I had the digital subscription and my tip is do not ever sign up with a credit card instead of a direct debit to your bank because the only way you can cancel it is to cancel the card. If it is with your bank you can usually cancel the DD.

Decided this week I’d had enough of the Times and had to wait 25 minutes in the queue. Having called the “cancellation number” I was not pleased to be told I had to wait again to speak to their cancellation department. I then got “Rosie” who asked “do you mind telling me why you decided
to cancel?” and I said after waiting for more than half an hour to get to this stage I am not discussing anything with you! She then said ok I will cancel immediately.

Just managed to cancel my subscription. I contacted the Times via email and got a reply with the phone number 0800 018 5177 (Option 3). Got straight through to someone and cancelled straight away.

I did say how disappointed I was by the Times making it difficult to cancel, but that fell on deaf ears!

Having got caught by a similar set up I will only subscribe to things now via Paypal. It's easy to cancel via the dashboard. No need to contact the company.