How to cancel online subscription to Fine Woodworking?

[Carl Garner]

Yes, I've been an online subscriber for years now, but I'm going to have to cancel my online membership.

I cannot find by looking through the various menus how to cancel. Would someone please let me know where to find the right page on their website to cancel?

I sure would appreciate it. and thanks so much in advance.

Carl

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Most subscription websites require you to sign in and then go to "Manage your account" once you are signed in.

[Carl Garner]

Thanks, Ken. I have found that to be true on other sites, but sorry to say, not on Fine Woodworking. Maybe I should try Tauntons, the publisher, but if anyone has done this before with FWW, please let me know. I know I can wait until Monday, and do it by phone if I have to, but just wanted to check it off my lift of things to do.
Thanks

[Nick Decker]

I just had a look and they do make it hard to cancel. If there's a way to do it online, I can't find it. I hate that kind of behavior.

[Frederick Skelly]

I called Taunton to cancel mine.

[richard b miller]

carl,
i just went to the taunton press website and the only thing i see is the "contact us" link.
in the past when i wanted to cx a mag, i'd send them my name and address as it is on the mailing label AND
your subscription number and say i want to cancel the magazine.
they make it hard to cx magazines, because thats what pays their bills. i remember one birding mag we cx'd
and we would get magazines on and off for 18 mos AFTER i sent them notification.

http://www.taunton.com/contact_us.asp

[Bob Grier]

I also ended up calling Taunton.

[roger wiegand]

Call customer service: 800-477-8727

[Carl Garner]

Thanks so much, guys. We tried. I will call them tomorrow, but as much as I've learned from Taunton (not just FWW, but FHB, too), I can't believe they'd not conveniently have a convenient link to cancel an online subscription. I'll speak with their rep about it when I call them, but alas, it'll do no good imo.
Carl

[Mike Manning]

I'm also one of those people who don't like nor appreciate this kind of BS. Where companies make it very difficult to cancel their services. Not good on Taunton IMO. This is good to know. Almost every time I get the ads to become a FWW subscriber I give it serious consideration. I can now throw those away without a second thought.

[Peter Aeschliman]

I used to work at a company with a subscription model. Not a magazine, but an online-based subscription business.

Many years ago, we required customers to call in order to cancel, but of course made it very easy to sign up online.

There was a great deal of fear that making it easy to cancel would result in a high cancellation rate. But eventually the case was made that it was a bad way to treat customers, and that cancellation rate is driven by the customer's experience with the product, not friction in the cancellation process. Plus, phone support is really expensive.

So we eventually made it possible for users to cancel online. And sure enough, the cancellation rate remained unchanged, our customer support costs plummeted, and we made fewer customers into enemies. We had a lot of customers who would cancel and sign back up multiple times, so it only hurts your business to leave a bad taste in their mouths...

So I hope FWW changes its practice. It's not a respectful way to treat your customers. Part of me wishes that there was a consumer protection law that requires the friction of cancellation to equal the friction to sign up. It should be just as easy to cancel as it is to sign up, IMO...

[Nick Decker]

FWW has a little test coming up with me. I'm currently near the end of my 14-day free trial, although I did have to give up my credit card number to enroll. Their come-on said that at the end of the free trial they would notify me before charging me for my regular subscription. We shall see...

[Simon MacGowen]

I agree that is a bad business practice The optics is bad at least even for those who don't plan to cancel their subscription right away. As for the thinking that making it hard for someone to cancel a service will make them stay is nonsense in the 21st century. If I wasn't happy with something and had to discontinue it, nothing would keep me from doing it, even if it meant I was put on hold for 30 minutes on the phone. Look at what people are now saying about FWW: it is being bad-mouthed because of its cancellation difficulty. I never try anything that needs my credit card #, no matter what the vendor promises...unless the CC is not mine. :D

One more thing, direct deposit arrangement is the worst, because it requires the vendor, not the bank account holder, to cancel the regular withdrawals once it is put in place.

Simon

[Nick Decker]

I signed up with the idea I would subscribe, but if they try to charge me without notifying me, I'm gone. And it'll be no problem telling Amex to erase the charge. I've had to do that before, and it was easier than I imagined.

[Buck Williams]

I called Taunton to cancel mine.

That ended up being the only way that I could find to get out. By design, I suspect, it took an exhaustive search of "manage you account" etc, " contact us" , (nobody replied to my email), easy to get in and have your card charged, tough to opt out.

[Bruce Page]

This reminds me of when I cancelled my AOL account many years ago. It was a months long ordeal. Hopefully Taunton isn't that bad.

[Brian Henderson]

This is one reason I will never sign up for anything with recurring charges. If I want to cancel, I just stop paying them. Then it's up to them whether they want to keep sending it for free or not. Some do. I stopped paying for the stupid AAA magazine Westways decades ago and they still send it to me. It just goes in the recycling bin.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Most banks will issue you a temporary CC for these types of circumstances. Let it drop after purchase and then they can't renew as CC is void. We just went thru this with AT&T. FIL died, as in DEAD, in Oct. Canceled service at end of already paid for portion. Canceled CC. Remember he is DEAD! For next four months, At&T sent letters saying the couldn't debit his CC. He's dead, so I wonder why?

[Bill Sutherland]

About once a year I change my credit card number and this has helped me from potential hacks and recurring membership charges.

[mike wacker]

FWW is pretty messed up. I tried to subscribe this afternoon to the on-line version. Would not take my money. Now that's bad customer service. Eventually after talking to 4, yes 4 customer service agents I was able to access the site. If you have trouble with some of the customer service numbers try 886-452-5141. Touton (sp) Press is supposedly reorganizing their customer service division and that number goes straight to the electronic division. Also they do not support AOL as a brouzer (sp) so pick some other poison.

[Dan Keeling]

Another way to prevent cancellation hassles is to use a Visa gift card or equivalent. Also no worries about CC/personal info being stolen.

[Ilija Pavlic]

The subscription can be cancelled by going to "Customer Support" link at the very bottom of the page. You need to log in again with a combination of Account number and email, ZIP and email, or Full Name and address. I found it once and had to spend 15 minutes more to find it today. In any case, customer support reacted to my email which I sent in the meantime in ~5 minutes.

I don't think it's intentional. It's likely because they are Taunton's and their software implementation is bad.

[CPeter James]

Taunton is a print media company, not a digital media company! When they first come out with the back issues on CD, they had all kinds of problems. You had to have some odd ball software or something to read it as I remember. Maybe in the future they will hire some young person who knows computers to fix the problem and not rely on old men who are "expert" woodworkers, but know very little about modern digital media.
CPeter

[Adam Chesser]

Using the Customer Support link under the Menu worked for me, took me about 10 minutes to find it...

[Rich Riddle]

Not to revise the dead, but I just canceled the online Fine Woodworking subscription. You cannot do it from the Fine Woodworking online area. You have to log into the Tauton website and cancel it there. It took about five minutes to find the right web site and area, but it was painless. After a few years it just seems like they don't offer much new information.

[James Biddle]

Where do you find you account number? In account settings, they only give you a user number, but no account number. In order to access anything at Taunton, you need the account number. There is no account number listed in the online signup receipt either.


Never mind, I thought I had to lag in at the first tab to get to the second...turns out you can log in at the email/zipcode tab.

Hopefully, it really did cancel.