Perhaps The Economist has relocated its subscription fulfilment centre to Pyongyang? The magazine used to claim to ‘value’ its subscribers. Now it treats them as hostages. Signing up is easy. Cancellation should be a simple matter of submitting a request, ticking the requisite box and getting an acknowledgement by return.But they deliberately make it difficult and time-consuming. Cancelling your Economist subscription involves a tussle with a ‘chat agent’ who tries to make you change your mind by offering a half-price discount, access to blandishments such as an ‘Expresso’ daily email newsletter - unhelpful if your reason for cancelling is information overload - sidesteps your polite request to cancel then, in my case, fails to cancel the subscription and ends the ‘chat,’ requiring a further lengthy encounter the following day, this time resulting in cancellation (hopefully) but no confirmation apart from a ‘no-reply’ email informing me that ‘case number 00107224’ is now closed while inviting me to complete a two question ‘customer satisfaction survey.’I have subscribed, off and on, for over forty years, but I’ll never do so again.
