The Wall Street Journal

WSJ not does not notify when they've submiitted your account for a new subscription promo, they don't send the digital product so you dont realize you have unknowingly been enrolled in their scam unless you scrutinize and question WSJ charges, and finally, they don't notify when the monthly charge balloons ~900%

MORAL: KEEP OFF THESE CROOKS' RADAR

Offering no option to cancel your subscription online, only on an overcrowded callcenter where no one answers. Very low standard and questionable way of trying to trap people in subscriptions.

My wife had some work published in The Wall Street Journal, and wanted to see the layout. The WSJ offers a 3 month subscription for $1, so she thought she'd just cancel immediately after seeing her article.

Turns out there is no way of cancelling a subscription online, so she emailed customer support. When they didn't reply, she followed up.

Exactly 3 months after the subscription was made, she received an email from them saying that to cancel a subscription - you had to call them on the phone. This email came on the same day they charged our card, so was obviously deliberately timed as such.

We have called the bank, who have informed us that we have to cancel the debit card, and get a new one, as they are unable to block a specific company from taking any funds from the card. Super inconvenient.

Upon doing further research and reading anecdotal accounts on Reddit - it turns out this is standard practice and in fact part of their business model.

Some people on Reddit even suggested changing the billing details to a California address, as this brings up a subscription cancelation option - meaning that they were legally required to provide this service in the state of California. Meaning that it's not a "security issue" like they try to suggest it is.

This means that Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal is knowingly and willingly acting in bad faith.

As said by other reviewers these guys are crooks. Terrible customer service and no heads up about your subscription being renewed at a higher price. And no refund. Crooks who wrote about crooks.

Do NOT Subscribe (here's my N of 1 experience):

Just to get this out there, I love the news. I typically use NPR, etc., but I got WSJ for a class because it has an Economics emphasis. Well, after the class, I cancelled my subscription. Curiously, I was still charged the next month, so I call customer service, who can't give me a refund, (they're very, very sorry, though) so they offer me a free 3-month subscription and cancel the account. Well, come May, 2021, and the charges kick up agian. Frustrated, I call back and say, "Cancel my account!'.
"Oh, very sorry sir, that's cancelled now! So sorry about that inconvenience,"

(still can't offer a refund). Come to realize they're still charging me down through December. I haven't used the account in over a year at this point. I call back and Karen-demand a refund.
"No, no, we can't do that. I assure you, the account is now cancelled."
"Yep, I've heard that before. Sorry to be a pain about this, but what I'd like to hear this time is, 'and we'll return your money,' thanks."
" A refund is not possible. I can offer you a 3-month subscription at no extra charge, though!"
*10 seconds later* "... Hey, Mia..."
"Yes, sir?"
"I'm gonna hang up now. Have a good day." *click*

They may charge you until your *grandkids* are in college; don't subscribe to WSJ- think of the children.

So you are all now Trumpsters at the Wall Street Journal by publishing a letter from the FORMER President that is filled with lies, untruths and wild conspiracy theories and now you expect me to trust you with money decisions? Go to hell Wall Street Journal. I've read your last publication and will not be reading anything you ever publish again since you support one of the biggest and dangerous pathologically liars ever to exist on the American Political Scene.

24 different Sections to click on (see screenshot below). Unmanageable! Spend more time clicking than reading.

I typically prefer to keep negative reviews to myself as a choice, but I couldn't help writing this one.
So I tried to cancel my subscription and I was told that I must call to cancel for security reasons.

Now, I have an idea of risks, and I do not see any such security risks or concerns that exist at cancellation, that didn't exist, even more so during subscription. Rather, I only see an effort to make cancellation of existing subscriptions difficult and force subscribers to stay.

Therefore, I think it is rather disingenuous and a very poor service to have an available service for SEAMLESS online subscriptions, but then have a compulsory requirement to make a call (with applicable charges) to cancel an existing subscription.

I honestly do not know why this sort of thing is not termed illegal and why the publication is able to get away with it. As I write this, I have not been able to reach the contact number I was asked to call, not to mention that I have do make this call internationally considering where I live. It's indeed terrible coming from a publication that out to be bigger and do better.

All I can say is, if you are planning to subscribe, note this little detail before you go further. I have had to resort to blocking the payment card registered with them, so that they never get access to it again.

Forget the paper- once you cancel, you get multiply daily emails for their products. When you unsubscribes,
It takes 10 business days, during which, they spam you hourly. I now hate this paper.

Delivery of the print edition of the WSJ is inconsistent at best. I haven't received the paper once this week.

I'm going to help y'all out. If you want to cancel online change your address in the customer center to a California address, residents in CA ca cancel online, if you want a refund (prorated) tell the customer services rep you want to downgrade to online only or if you only have online say you want to upgrade to print+digital they will then cancel the current subscription and refund the remaining balance when they start to set up a new subscription tell them you changed your mind, now you got a refund, if you want a cheaper rate simply call in and say you want to cancel, they will then transfer you to the subscription management team where they will offer you lower prices and if you keep declining offers eventually you will get a cheap rate, if you want to cancel and they tell you, you have to wait 180 days you can call back 30 days later and get the promo price again... YOU'RE WELCOME

This company has awful customer service. I had to get a subscription in order to read a couple articles for school. There was no option to get a student subscription. I tried to cancel the day before I was charged, and the customer service person hung up on me after I said I wanted to cancel. I called again the day I was charged, and it took forever for the person to find my account, then they had to transfer me to cancel and the next person had to find my account again. I explained I wanted to cancel because I'm no longer using it for school. He then kept telling me he'd keep my subscription and change it to student, even when I said I 100% wanted to cancel, over and over again. I'd get refunded and charged the student rate, but that'd mean I'd have to call and cancel again. Finally he accepted that I was canceling, but would not refund me even though I was just charged a couple hours prior. I emailed customer service and they said the same thing. I've never had such a poor customer service experience with a subscription company. They must be doing poorly if they have to screw over poor college students. Also it's ridiculous I couldn't just cancel online like every other company out there- another strategy to keep people from canceling. Especially when it's also so difficult to convince customer service to actually cancel the subscription. I hope they're at least paying those people well because they sure have them trained to make canceling as difficult as possible.

Only getting one star as newpaper info itself is good. However, they are SUBSCRIPTION CROOKS. Beware -- they will lure you in with a $4 month rate, then it will creep up to $20, then they will start doubling that -- all without notification. If you can get past a chatbot, to a live human outside of the USA, they will also attempt to not let you cancel until after they have taken another month from you at the doubled higher rate. All the while, the supposed out of country agent, will not provide you with a copy of your agreement they say you signed online, nor will they provide you with proof of cancellation with the actual date. It will refer to "Cancellation at the END of your term" which is left open-ended and vague to suit their crooked subscription practices. Turns out that means the end of another month. Consumers need to make sure they turn off automatic payment each month, as they will keep charging your card. Actually, you should do it every month so they cannot snatch another month when you try to cancel. Let them fight you for your money. They should be prosecuted for predatory, unscrupulous consumer subscription tactics. At least California has a subscription cancellation law in effect due to companies such as the WSJ/Barrons.