Hard-to-Cancel Subscriptions

Users vent frustrations about the difficulty of canceling online subscriptions, especially for news outlets like NY Times and WSJ, which often require contacting support or navigating multiple screens instead of offering one-click cancellation.

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6,308
Comments
19
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#7956
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2008
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2010
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2011
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2012
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2016
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2018
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2021
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2022
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Keywords

NY e.g ESPN apple.com GF brilliant.org PayPal HT202039 TV ALWAYS cancel subscription subscriptions click apple sign subscribe credit card canceled credit

Sample Comments

manuform Jun 23, 2020 View on HN

Same here, I'm trying to cancel now and they actually don't have a one click to stop the subscription.

znxster Jul 14, 2023 View on HN

If its one click to subscribe .. it should be one click to cancel.

Double_a_92 Jul 11, 2022 View on HN

Even if I bought a subscription, why are they allowed to just cancel it?

dorkwood Dec 15, 2023 View on HN

Interesting that they make you contact support to cancel your subscription, but don't make you contact support to sign up for one. I wonder why the discrepancy.

anaganisk May 9, 2023 View on HN

Don't u just end the subscription at that point? What am I missing.

amatecha May 4, 2023 View on HN

Thanks, this reminded me to cancel a subscription to service I only meant to sign up for for one month. Accidentally ended up 3 months. I had to click through 6 different screens to cancel.

Veen Jun 17, 2022 View on HN

It's a little easier now. They have a chat interface. When I cancelled recently I included "I'm not interested in offers for reduced price subscriptions" in my first message. They didn't push it and my subscription was canceled 5 minutes or so.

ProAm Mar 11, 2022 View on HN

Please go after the NY Times next, its impossible to cancel with them

insane_dreamer May 13, 2025 View on HN

Why should it be so difficult to cancel a service?

welfare Jul 13, 2022 View on HN

I "almost" cancel my subscriptions periodically, they usually have a "wait before you cancel" offer in the last step