Roughly, like this:
2018 The New York Times Company
Please wait for an agent to respond.
You are now chatting with Priscilla.
Priscilla:
Hello, my name is Priscilla from The New York Times. Whom do I have the pleasure of assisting today?
Greg:
My name is Greg Laden
Priscilla:
Would you mind providing me the account number or email address on file, please?
Is this for your home delivery or digital account?
Greg:
[REDACTED]
Digital subscriber
Priscilla:
Thank you, while I am looking up your account please let me also pass along that you can visit https://myaccount.nytimes.com/at any time to review your account, change contact information, or update newsletter settings.
Greg:
I know, but you can’t cancel from there.
If you there it says to call you.
Priscilla:
Thank you, Greg. I was able to verify your account with your email Greg: . Thank you for your support with your Basic digital Subscription
I am sorry to hear we will be losing you as a member. I will have to transfer you to our account management team they handle cancellations.
Greg:
It an ethically questionable policy, making cancellation difficult.
Do that with haste, please.
Priscilla:
Before I transfer you may I ask why? So I can pass that information to them
Please wait while your chat is transferred to the appropriate group.
You are now chatting with Rachel.
Greg:
I just entered the reason, but it vanished.
[Editor’s note. The reason given was as follows: “I subscribed to several news sources as the election season ramped up, and now that it is over, I’m cutting down. I’ll resubscribe next election season to those newspapers that make cancellation easy.” ]
Greg:
hello?
Rachel:
Hello, Thank you for contacting the New York Times. My name is Rachel, I’d be more than happy to assist you today. May I have the email address associated with your New York Times account so that I can better assist you today?
Greg:
[Redacted]
digital
cancelling
reason: because you don’t make it easy to cancel.
Rachel:
Thank you. Please allow me one moment while I access your account information. While I locate your account, is there a specific reason you were looking to cancel your subscription today?
Greg:
reason: you make it too hard to cancel. This is a protest cancellation.
Rachel:
I was able to locate your digital account associated with the email address you provided for me, [Redacted], Greg as well as the account number [Redacted]. I want to personally thank you for being a Basic Digital Access subscriber!
Greg:
Well, I’m cancelling, but you are welcome.
Rachel:
I apologize that you have experienced trouble cancelling. I wanted to inform you of the many benefits to being an Basic Digital Access includes: Basic Digital Access, Access to the NYT Archives,Unlimited Articles on any device at anytime,Times 360, and Times Watching.
You are eligible for $1.00/week for 52 week rate we currently have going.
Greg:
I would like to cancel any and all paid services from the NYT. Thank you.
Rachel:
By terminating your account with The New York Times, you will be limited to only viewing certain articles per month. Are you sure you’re willing to give up unlimited access to our award winning journalism?
Greg:
Yes, I’ll give it up. I don’t like your editorial policy regarding climate change, and I really do like the Washington Post, if you must know.
I would like to cancel
cancel my subscription.
Rachel:
You will continue to enjoy all your subscription benefits for the rest of your billing cycle, which ends on January 10, 2019. Unfortunately we cannot issue any credits or refunds for the remainder of this billing cycle. You can view these changes at myaccount.nytimes.com. Is there anything else I can assist you with today?
Rachel:
Your subscription is canceled.
Greg:
That is all, thank you very much.
Rachel:
Thank you for being the best part of The New York Times. Have a wonderful day!
Have you read the breakthrough novel of the year? When you are done with that, try:
or Paperback
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I feel your pain. I was recently notifiedby my Electric Co. that they could not access my Meter and could I schedule a Reading or my power would be turned off. My Meter is outside. Of course they declined to answer their Customer Service phone. Twice. They did respond to an email. Just last week they sent me a notice saying I had to re-activate my online account or my Power would be shut off. I clicked the link, which promptly took me to ‘Pay MY Bill’. No account rejiggering needed. I would change if I could but they are a monopoly. At least you have WAPO.
Power lines should be public electricity highways (as should be all data cables or lines).
“Power lines should be public electricity highways (as should be all data cables or lines).”
Would that entail renewing or cancelling an affiliation with Solar Roadways, Inc.?
I actually like the New York Times better than the Washington Post.
First the NYT has better commenting software. With the Post, I have to reload the page to get the comments to come up — sometimes 2 or 3 times. Also, despite having paid for a year’s digital subscription, I get all the ads. They constantly shift the text I’m trying to read upscreen. It’s annoying. And each page takes minutes to settle down (but that’s a general complaint about almost all Web sites these days.)
The NYT, by contrast, is quite stable. My main complaint is that they close commenting on op-ed pieces after 48 hours or less.
By the way: Just for sheets & giggles, I refer you to the late Gordon Dickson short story, published 1965, “Computers Don’t Argue.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computers_Don%27t_Argue
I feel your pain. Loyal subscriber for over a decade but when our newspaper carrier retired, they went through a series of new people, some months it didn’t arrive more days than it did. After numerous “this will never happen again” scenarios, I gave up only to find that cancelling was an ordeal unto itself. Their last line “thank you for being the best part of ….” cracked me up.