Daily Telegraph-what a crock

[pollyglot]

Trying to cancel my online subscription from aboard... it's like that scene in Asterix and the Twelve Tasks, where they go to The Place That Drives You Mad. Lesson learned: DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO THE D.T. They will never let you leave...

Cancel your direct debit.

Cancel at the bank

I presume those of you who believe me to be unreasonable think that I should just trot off to the bank and get it done. Well, some of us live beyond the black stump, not easy physically to access the bank, and it doesn't respond to online enquiries for 48 hours. The DT is being deliberately obstructive, IMO. Its online cancellation facility is a joke.

Just went through similar trying to cancel the Guardian Weekly.

The office of circumlocution could learn something from media subscription services…

Did it with the times. Had to phone them!

Can you not do it through your online bank account?

I presume those of you who believe me to be unreasonable think that I should just trot off to the bank and get it done

I thought most banks allow you to cancel DDs online?

I was eventually persuaded to stay for a very very very bargain basement subscription rate. But only once I'd been through a whole series of online 'please stay... please stay...' screens. If you phone them, it's apparently quicker.

Thanks for the warning. The DM website has become impossible since they started a subscription option. I won't subscribe to newspapers. Thry make enough money as it is.

i think The Times only lets you cancel by phone. do you Twitter, OP? that often works.

Or send an email to their "consumer champion" columnist?

Newspaper subscriptions were specifically mentioned in an article re “nudge vs sludge”. Basically nudge is when the process is designed to make you do something that is beneficial ( so for example take up of workplace pensions is higher when it’s opt out rather than opt in). Sludge is when companies or the system make it difficult to do something they don’t want you to do, like cancel a subscription. The article was focused on whether laws need to be amended to prevent unnecessary sludge.

You should just be able to change or cancel DDs via your online banking app though.

I found that too, I called to cancel when they tripled my price and they dropped it so I stayed! I subscribe to both the times and telegraph and it's a repeating transaction on my Amex so not as easy to stop

I just stopped it via my PayPal subscriptions and then waiting for the discount offers to roll in

Why did you sign up to it in the first place?

I had this! Impossible to cancel without calling. the barclay brothers protecting their sark assets.! After a call (mid afternoon. As morning 25 people ahead of me) . Polite young man agreed a new fee. The bank told me I couldn't cancel through them as a subscription. Not direct debit

I thought you were going to tell us the obvious...that it's totally biased in favour of the right.

Give over 🙄

Oh really? How?

😁😁

Well you might not want to read it because it risks sullying the purity of your left wing thoughts but not so long ago it was considered good practice to read widely across the spectrum.

I loathe the DT system too. You basically have to pick up the phone once a year. But I've learned to live with it because if you just keep saying no to everything they eventually offer you an absolutely knock down price. Eg £10 for the year. I just think if it as a game now.

It’s not a direct debit it’s a recurring card payment. You have to cancel the subscription with the company but some banks do have the ability to block future payments.

Thanks - I better check what method I’ve signed up with…

Try cancelling Amazon prime. You get screen after screen where you think you’ve cancelled, but when you scroll to the bottom it asks you to confirm “again”. You know it’s just a ruse to make people think they’ve cancelled and for them to not have completed the whole process.