Annual subscription silliness

[georgina]

It happens every year. I pay $4 a month for online access to the NY Times. Just got an email that my rate will go up to $12/month, so I log in to cancel it, and they say - wait! don't go, you can keep it for another year for $4/month. Weird.

 

[MillauFr]

It happens every year. I pay $4 a month for online access to the NY Times. Just got an email that my rate will go up to $12/month, so I log in to cancel it, and they say - wait! don't go, you can keep it for another year for $4/month. Weird.

I played the same game with my Cable TV 20 years ago. They kept increasing the price and I would call to cancel. They would cut my price for a year and then I would call again. I did it for 3 or 4 years but then started asking why am I paying $50 a month to watch commercials? I finally canceled.

 

[Christine]

I have to play this game every year with Sirius XM.

 

[CynBeth]

My local paper years ago had gone up to $70 something and I have friends who also get it every day the paper version not digital we still are old school and were only paying $30 something so I called and got it down to $32 and change plus tip but every few bills it goes back up and I have to call. It is all offshore including managers and say there is no way to stop this from happening and no one onshore I can talk to. The paper has gotten smaller and a lot of times on parts the ink runs so hard to read and other times there are delivery issues or if it rains the carrier does not double bag and it gets ruined. Customer service sucks. If you ask for a replacement it does not come. So I am not paying any more than this.

 

[jo-jo]

Well it didn’t work with cancelling Disney plus. I cancelled and got sorry to see you go. About a week later,I was offered a 3 month deal with ads. Nope. I’d rather pay for a month 3-4 times a year without commercials.

 

[leebee]

I think they are figuring most people ignore these kinds of email and they can raise the price, unnoticed.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I do this with Wall St Journal, which is occasionally useful but mostly they freeze me out of logging in so I think I'm out :/

 

[tvguy]

I have to play this game every year with Sirius XM.

There is another thread on Sirius, never thought to negotiate the rate. What are you paying?

 

[barkley]

There is another thread on Sirius, never thought to negotiate the rate. What are you paying?

I have not paid more than 30 odd bucks per six months by threatening cancellation. I refuse to provide a credit card so they can't do an auto renewal charge.

 

[auntfrannie]

There is another thread on Sirius, never thought to negotiate the rate. What are you paying?

This happens to me every year as well. This year I said if you can't match my current $7/mth I would cancel. They said their lowest was $8 so I cancelled. After two weeks of going without service, they sent me an offer for $5 per month. It's ridiculous.

 

[mikehn]

I called in to cancel my Southwest credit card and they offered to waive the annual fee so I took them up on it.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

There is another thread on Sirius, never thought to negotiate the rate. What are you paying?

In November I did web chat and had my rate lowered to $16.86/mo (total with tax) for our 2 car radios. Prior to doing the web chat I was paying about $43/mo. I didn't threaten to cancel I just said it's expensive and asked for a better rate. This is for 1 year then it goes back to the $43/mo and I will try asking again.

 

[tvguy]

In November I did web chat and had my rate lowered to $16.86/mo (total with tax) for our 2 car radios. Prior to doing the web chat I was paying about $43/mo. I didn't threaten to cancel I just said it's expensive and asked for a better rate. This is for 1 year then it goes back to the $43/mo and I will try asking again.

I pay $102 quarterly for two radios.

 

[tvguy]

I have not paid more than 30 odd bucks per six months by threatening cancellation. I refuse to provide a credit card so they can't do an auto renewal charge.

Interesting. Never had a paper bill option that I know of.

 

[Nayan]

You may have to play hardball but you can get Sirius to either give it to you for $4.99/month or try to get them to give you 3 years for $99. I let mine cancel and got the $4.99 for Platinum offer two weeks later.

 

[barkley]

I pay $102 quarterly for two radios.

ouch! I checked-last renewal was the same as priors $5 per month plus taxes for a 6 month contract (1 car). our new one came with 3 months free and they've already hit me up to keep it for $5 per month plus taxes (I'll take them up on it but will be cancelling the other when it expires).

Interesting. Never had a paper bill option that I know of.

you need to request it. they do like a $2 fee for paper billing but even though I set a calendar control to call them a few weeks before renewal I figure if I space on it, absent a credit card they can't take a much higher renewal fee from me that I have to argue to get refunded.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

I called in to cancel my Southwest credit card and they offered to waive the annual fee so I took them up on it.

They did that for me once, but then I cancelled it the following year anyways. The main benefit of the SW card is the signup bonus.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

I'd call it desperate over weird.

 

[Lumpy1106]

I think they are figuring most people ignore these kinds of email and they can raise the price, unnoticed.

THIS
I had DirecTV for a while. The first year they included NFL subscription, including Red Zone. No problem, I don't mind it, certainly wouldn't pay for it, but I did like Red Zone and watched that. Well, the next year they auto-renewed the NFL subscription (very pricey), but didn't include Red Zone. I didn't see Red Zone, so figured I was no longer subscribed. Nope - and they would not reverse the charge. DirecTV lost a customer over that one.

 

[elgerber]

I have not paid more than 30 odd bucks per six months by threatening cancellation. I refuse to provide a credit card so they can't do an auto renewal charge.

Me neither. When we did use them, I refused to pay more than $5 or $6 a month.