[Note: this post gets a lot of traffic, presumably because ft.com is still a bit difficult to unsubscribe from. Please note that it was written several years ago and their subscription model has changed a bit since then. Please don’t take this as a guide to the current process]
I was trying to get the text of an article on ft.com, which is a subscription-only site. Being a cheapskate I thought I would take out a 15-day free trial subscription rather than pay £75 for a year.
I signed up for the site and of course I had to give them my credit card details. I was expecting this and wasn’t surprised. They said they would begin to debit my card once my 15-day free period had ended. I was also reassured by the message on the signup page that I could cancel my subscription at any time by clicking on Edit Your Profile.
Having gone through the registration process and logged in I immediately clicked on the Edit Your Profile link to cancel my subscription. I then clicked on Cancel My Subscription.
You guessed it: the next page said “To cancel your subscription please call this number: 020 xxxx xxxx”. There is no reason why this process could not have been made electronic. The only reason for forcing people to speak to a human is to add an extra hurdle to cancelling your subscription and, maybe, to give them a chance to change your mind.
I spoke to their telemarketer and cancelled my subscription. He didn’t bother trying to change my mind. What a waste of time, mine and theirs. How much must it cost to keep a squadron of telemarketers on call just to cancel people’s subscriptions? What a soul-destroying job for them.
I now feel ill-disposed towards ft.com because of the deception involved. Their marketing tactics have been counter-productive as far as I’m concerned.