Cancelling a Times subscription

Stubee

Has anyone else had to deal with the times and trying to cancel a subscription.   The only way you can do it is via the phone, I spent almost 2 hour this week stuck in a queue trying to get through to their cancellation team but gave up as I was working and had other priorities, I therefore e-mailed them and told them I was cancelling my PayPal approval and I received the reply below.

Thank you for contacting us in relation to cancelling your subscription. 

I am glad that you have brought this to my attention however I am sorry to hear that you would like to cancel your subscription to the Times. I would be more than happy to advise on how to cancel your subscription today.

In order to cancel your membership you will need to call our team on freephone 0800 018 5177 (Option 2), as we are unable to accept a cancellation over email. We require 2 days notice of your billing date before cancelling your subscription to ensure no further payments would be made on your account. 

The department opening hours are:

8am - 7pm  Monday - Friday

8am - 4pm Saturday & Sunday

Please be advised, cancelling your payments will not cancel your subscription. This will remain active and will continue to accrue charges until it has been cancelled.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your week and have enjoyed having your Times subscription. If you need anything else, please don't hesitate to contact us at The Times and The Sunday Times.

Surely in this day and age you should be able to cancel by e-mail or there should be an online option where you just click a button to cancel.  I remember not to long ago where all cancellation had to be done in writing and you'd get a letter back confirming your request.   Surely this isn't write, I will ring again but I'd like to highlight this to someone is there someone I can write to about this. 

 

Sandtree

Companies can broadly set their own cancellation policy and looking at the T&Cs on their website it clearly states that cancellation must be done by phone. Unless you have a copy of the T&Cs as you signed up to them and it shows they were different then this is what you agreed to.

On the plus side its a freephone number so just leave a phone on speaker phone and get on with life until they answer. 

Stubee

Just managed to get through on the phone,  they put such a hard sell on you to try and get you to stay.  They offered me half price for six months and when I reiterated that I'm not using the service half price is still too much for something I'm not using.  Had to explain multiple times that I wanted to cancel,  I wonder how many people just give in and remain subscribed?  

Sandtree

Stubee said:

 I wonder how many people just give in and remain subscribed?  

Enough people that it makes it worth while for them to pay for you to have to telephone them rather than accepting your cancellation by email

Aylesbury_Duck

It's owned by Murdoch's lot, the same bunch of lovely folk that own the Sun. Did you really expect anything other than sharp practice?

Stubee

Aylesbury_Duck said:

It's owned by Murdoch's lot, the same bunch of lovely folk that own the Sun. Did you really expect anything other than sharp practice?

I hadn't realised the Times were part of that group to be honest.  Now you've said it I'm even happier that I've decided to cancel.  

Stubee

Sandtree said:

Stubee said:

 I wonder how many people just give in and remain subscribed?  

Enough people that it makes it worth while for them to pay for you to have to telephone them rather than accepting your cancellation by email

Hadn't though about that before but that must be a lot of people.  

BadWulf_2

To bring this up to date, just tried to cancel a 3 month offer.  Bloke was incredibly pushy despite my repeated request to just cancel and that i was trying to get out of the door, he threw a hissy fit in the end and said he would, but no email received yet.

Unbelievably rude and unprofessional.  sounded like a third party somewhere as got transferred from standard CS line.

we will see. I certainly wont be taking out a future subscription.

born_again

BadWulf_2 said:

To bring this up to date, just tried to cancel a 3 month offer.  Bloke was incredibly pushy despite my repeated request to just cancel and that i was trying to get out of the door, he threw a hissy fit in the end and said he would, but no email received yet.

Unbelievably rude and unprofessional.  sounded like a third party somewhere as got transferred from standard CS line.

we will see. I certainly wont be taking out a future subscription.

Contact your bank, tell them you cancelled on date. Ask them to block further payments.

timor-j

I've had a subscription to The Times since 2015 but decided to cancel so called the 0800 customer service number. In response, I received a confirmation email which stated:

I can confirm that your subscription has been cancelled. The service will remain active until ****** and no more payments will be taken. There is no need to cancel your payments with the bank as we will arrange this automatically on your behalf.

Checked my bank account this morning to find a direct debit payment to Times newspapers. I called and spent 15 minutes talking with agents before being advised that though my subscription had been cancelled, another two payments would be taken. Also, as the second payment would be outside of a 'discounted period' this payment would be double the amount.

The email confirmation I received after my initial call to cancel my subscription, advising my subscription had been cancelled and 'no more payments will be taken', would seem to be misleading.

I have asked that my request to cancel be escalated and have suggested that The Times examine their misleading communications.

eskbanker

timor-j said:

I've had a subscription to The Times since 2015 but decided to cancel so called the 0800 customer service number. In response, I received a confirmation email which stated:

I can confirm that your subscription has been cancelled. The service will remain active until ****** and no more payments will be taken. There is no need to cancel your payments with the bank as we will arrange this automatically on your behalf.

Checked my bank account this morning to find a direct debit payment to Times newspapers. I called and spent 15 minutes talking with agents before being advised that though my subscription had been cancelled, another two payments would be taken. Also, as the second payment would be outside of a 'discounted period' this payment would be double the amount.

The email confirmation I received after my initial call to cancel my subscription, advising my subscription had been cancelled and 'no more payments will be taken', would seem to be misleading.

I have asked that my request to cancel be escalated and have suggested that The Times examine their misleading communications.

If the DD was taken after written confirmation that the contract had ended and no further payments would be taken, then you should be able to get the payment reversed via a claim to your bank under the Direct Debit Guarantee.  It would also be worth cancelling the DD mandate at your bank yourself, if you haven't already done so....