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Remember my I’ve-had-it-and-I’m-putting-my-foot-down post about canceling my subscription to The Washington Post?
Well, it didn’t exactly work the same way with The Philadelphia Inquirer. Maybe it’s because I lacked the emotional investment. I didn’t have anything against the PI. I had subscribed when they offered me 12 weeks of the digital product for the same amount the Duke brothers bet on whether they could destroy Winthorpe’s life in “Trading Places” — a dollar.
At the time, I thought it might be nice to be able to closely follow my second favorite baseball club through its hometown paper — the way I do with my favorite through The Boston Globe.
But I didn’t. At all. I don’t think I read a single story in the paper in all those weeks. Just too much to do.
So I gave myself a deadline to cancel before I started having to pay the normal rate. The time arrived, and I reached out to the paper. Of course, they didn’t make it easy to find out how to cancel, but I expected that. I persisted until I got as far as an online chat.
How did it go? Here are a few screenshots from the conversation, once I got past the initial bot:
Somehow, I forgot to save the last screen, when she suggested that I simply deal with it next time the same way — by chat, and I responded with something like, “Yeah, because that worked out so well for me THIS time.”
But I wasn’t really irritated. I was impressed yet again by how desperate newspapers are not to lose a single reader — even if it they don’t make any money from it. Of course, when it comes to money, they have begging. Note that part of the first image at the top of the post where it says “Make a Donation.”
They have a special button for that on the homepage:
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Sad, huh?
But hey… the thing is, I don’t like to cancel newspapers. I think of the PI as a really good paper. It was back in Knight Ridder days, anyway. I knew some of the people. So if I can string them along for a few more weeks for just a buck, why not?
Nice work there, Brooke. You got one…
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Same happened to me with The Charlotte Observer. If I remember correctly the bill crept up to over $80/month. No way. I read it maybe once per week. Could not find how to cancel. i think I finally called a number and the guy said to the effect “OK, how about $2 per month.” Must be the case where they want to tell their advertisers they have a high subscription rate.
I miss the box scores, obituaries, columnists, op-ed and all, but I can’t pay $80/month for a shell of a once great newspaper.