The Economist Reviews 

They will not allow you to stop your subscription. Complete scam
Edit: The economist tried to get this taken down. So a bit more detail. I tried to cancel, but they took that ability away. You to contact them, but even then they wont let your do it. You have to talk to someone for 20 minutes where they stall, and if you sit through all of this, they let you leave

They are deceptive in their cancellation process. Like any company, when attempting to cancel through their website, they off you perks/special offers and ask multiple times if you are sure. Fair enough. After getting through that and confirming that I would like to cancel, it takes you to a landing page with phone numbers and an opportunity to chat. I thought I had canceled the subscription months ago, only to realize today that I have been continually charged for months. Extremely deceptive. I explained to the person via chat that I had canceled months ago and asked that they review my activity to see that I hadn't logged in in months, but of course they couldn't do that. I can't stand shady practices like that. I understand confirming multiple times and making offers before cancelling. Every company does that, but making it appear as if you have canceled is downright unethical.

This app is very sneaky. It is impossible to cancel your subscription from the App.
We had to go through hoops to finally get it cancelled.

I’m still on the chat line with a customer rep. At 10:48 I asked to cancel my subscription, it’s now 11:06 and I’m still going back and forth waiting. Awful, awful customer service experience. Would not recommend EVER.

Like seemingly everyone else here terrible experience.

Had no idea my subscription auto renewed.. I think it’s cost me around £500 to read two articles..

And it’s so hard to cancel!
The lady I eventually spoke to sounded like a robot.. and in the middle out of nowhere asked me how I was with no trace of irony or any emotion as it was obviously scripted.. very odd, very disingenuous and very expensive.
If I was the owner/ boss I’d be horrified to know this was how they treat honest readers.

And I’m very much looking forward to the robot replying to my review with a totally useless meaningless apology.. Thanks Economist.

Two attempts to cancel my subscription perhaps succeeded today after an hour and eighteen minutes on their wonky chat line. Unbelievably unprofessional and amateur. To answer their endless questions, no, the journalism is not that strong. I have found it very light and shallow. The depth that we now get with US media is not there.

I have been a trusted subscriber since the past 7 years. Similar to all others before me, I experienced the same awful process having to cancel my subscription. First I had to wait for someone to answer the live chat (I was on queue with a number 250 - I kid you not!) then all of a sudden the link dropped. Then when I tried to reach them, I was kept on hold for 25 minutes until an "agent" picked up and attempted all tried and tested methods to convince me to stay, to a point where I had to say "I do not need a discussion but cancel my subscription" and that I needed an email confirming it right then and there. It's such a pity that a well written, authoritative magazine such as the Economist should resort to these low tactics to stay in business. I have already shared my poor experience with 2 friends and will continue to share it with others. This is what one gets for being sleazy.

terrible cancellation process. No way to do it in your account, you have to speak to an agent, and it takes 30+ minutes to get in touch. Awful, awful, awful.

Seriously? What is the ever living hell is wrong here? Trying to cancel my subscription was nearly impossible. I don't know who needs to read this at The Economist - but you aren't doing yourselves any favors by making cancelling that painful. I for one will never re-subscribe.

Whatever goodwill may have existed, they've destroyed it with their asinine cancellation process. An honest company offering a good product would make it easy to cancel. Not The Economist. You have to use their Live Chat, which never has enough agents, or call, which is also a waste of time.

They've made something that can be accomplished with a few clicks a total waste of time where you have to sit and wait to speak to an "agent" or call someone, for no other reason than they want people to become exasperated and give up.

Fleeced me out of £50 so far as I'm unable to cancel subscription on my account despite 20+ attempts. This for someone who's classed as a lower income person has been detrimental to my well being

I love the content of this magazine (5/5) and would really like to maintain my subscription. I try to read it on my iPad mini. Unfortunately, that app is APPALLING (0/5). The legacy app was totally reliable on ipad mini but the new one is awful. After the success of the legacy app on an old ipad, I moved to a Samsung mini. Economist App was worthless so I tried again with a new iPad mini.
This is just as bad as with the Samsung. Rarely allows me to download the edition. Jumps forward and back from one article to another.
Need help or I must cancel the subscription.

The magazine full of pre-paid publications. Today it "showed interest" in ageing housing issue in Istanbul in the context of current mayoral campaign. Obviously, the article indirectly shed the light of negativity to the current mayor. Who asked The Economist to show this type of interest? And why?
Thanks that we have not been reading it for years now but still get their headlines online.

The content and the apps are good, but if you ever want to cancel your subscription for any reason... you'll have to go through chat support. There's literally no other way. Having this kind of experience in 2024 is intolerable, I'm sorry.

Just awful. Tried a trial to see what the content was like. It was OK, but for me not what I felt was worth the subscription fee. Now comes the cancellation dance. You can't cancel online, you're forced to go through to customer service. Why, I don't know, it's ridiculous and had I know I never would have subscribed in the first place. It allows you to click through to cancel, then the last step after you confirm you want to cancel your subscription, it then tells you you have to speak to Customer Service. I did this via chat, it it's obviously directed to an overseas digi contact service. To be fair the consultant, no doubt just following direction but I had to ask about 6 times for it to be cancelled, before I was told that it would be cancelled. I ever wrote to the effect of saying "please take this as confirmation I want to cancel". However, it wasn't cancelled. I keep receiving emails so I went to check it again today, and it was still active and I had to go through the whole dance again. Such an underhanded process, I suspect bordering on illegal. I've downloaded the transcript from this call (suggest you do also if you are engaging with them) and should they fail to act again, off to Fair Trading I go. Save yourself the grief, there are better options available without the shenanigans on cancellation.

Updated: Whilst I appreciate the response from The Economist, I stand by my position that this was an awful experience, and that it you're serious about making it better, making cancellation of subscription a self service process. I explicitly (in writing) expressed my instructions to cancel my subscription, however it wasn't done and I had to waste another half an hour.

Yes, you read the headline correct. I received the periodical for many years, but they decided that my city address was "undeliverable" and quit delivering without notice. This went on for six months. Despite the fact that I had been a customer for many years, they decided that I was unimportant and that they were not going to give me any credit for the issues they did not deliver. This amounts to theft. Do NOT trust them.

I love the Economist’s content, but trying to cancel your subscription is just so awful. After logging in and proceeding to cancel a subscription, you have to go through to a live chat to confirm you want to cancel!! This live chat is automated and just a colossal waste of time for the customer. It also makes me never want to renew a subscription with The Economist again because ending that subscription is so unnecessarily time consuming. Reminds me of Chandler trying to quit the gym in Friends. Only less funny. Shame.

If you take out a free trial, you'll have to jump through so many hoops to cancel. Unlike most subscriptions where you can simply login and "manage" your subscription, the Economist will only let you do that if you want to upgrade or take out a subscription. If you want to cancel, you have to go through four screens (three to triple confirm your cancellation and one to ignore the offer they give you) and when you finally confirm for the fourth time you don't want your subscription, it tells you to contact them by phone or chat. The entire process took me 45 minutes when it should have taken 45 seconds.

Don’t like being forced to speak with a customer agent before being allowed to cancel. And they don’t give you reasonable warning before taking money out on renewal. As a publication that sets its self up as an arbiter of right and wrong - it just feels hypocritical. Do better.