Unsubscribe Me, Please!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I was listening to an episode of either The Indicator or Planet Money (because everything I know comes from NPR) and they were talking about SaaS - software as a Service. It started with big companies, who found it more expedient to subscribe to the software they needed rather than build and run it on their own. (The current state of this? All those damn AI chatbots and summaries we can’t escape from.)

 

Of course, we use the same SaaS, even if that’s not what we call it. We don’t own movies, or music, or sometimes even books anymore. We subscribe to them. We subscribe to credit monitoring agencies, and email platforms, and productivity software, and cloud storage (the digital version of those self-storage units gobbling up real estate everywhere.) We subscribe to auto-ordering, so the dog kibble and paper towels arrive right on time without us having to think about it.

 

Not to mention the “memberships” that renew annually and monthly - Costco and Sam’s Club, Amazon Prime and Netflix, AAA and House Beautiful magazine. (Those last two are me, byw.)

 

It’s become so prevalent there are businesses whose sole purpose is to go through your financial records and eliminate all the zombie subscriptions you never use, but faithfully pay for. And - you guessed it - you can subscribe to the anti-subscription service.

 

How about you, Reds? Do you know everything you’ve subscribed to, or are some of the services lost in the fog? And have you ever had to jump through hoops to get out of a subscription? (I’m looking at you, New York Times.)

Genuinely evil

 LUCY BURDETTE: Oh lordy no Julia, if something happened to John, I would have no idea what television applications we’re subscribed to. What about Substack? That is complicating my life even further. Everyone wants you to be a paying reader, which I get. Writers deserve to be paid! But then how to keep track of who you’re paying what? And, what about all the apps on my phone? I’d like to go through and delete the many I don’t use, but I’m still a member on their site, right? I’ve lost track of those too!

 

Ps It’s Crate and Barrel I can't get rid of currently, and I’m quite sure I didn’t buy anything from them!

 

RHYS BOWEN:  I like to think I know everything but every now and then I get a message saying “Your subscription to x will renew” and i’m surprised because I didn’t know I had it. I try to write them down in my agenda to make sure they are part of my taxes: Lifelock and Norton and travel evacuation and password storage and Zoom professional and Calm and Dropbox etc etc etc. It certainly adds up, doesn’t it. Not to mention Netflix, Britbox, Peacock, Prime… 

 

I’m smiling today because my travel cancellation insurance finally paid up after months of wrangling after John couldn’t travel in September. They wanted to see tickets when all i had was online confirmations. They wanted to see railroads writing to say that my ticket was non-refundable when it says so on their site.I tried pointing out that since I was showing them the cancellation of the flight across the Atlantic John could not have taken any train trips or flights within Europe!  Finally I got so frustrated I told them that if I didn’t get paid now I’d write to the CEO of Chase and the Better Business Bureau. Got paid the next day!

 

 DEBORAH CROMBIE: Good for you, Rhys!! Julia, it was just this morning I actually had to think about what streaming services we subscribe to! Too many, I’m sure. And to many on Substack–those $5 a month subscriptions add up, but I somehow haven’t managed to find the time to cancel the ones I don’t read. (Or to read the ones I really want to read…) I’m patting myself on the back for finally not renewing our subscription to Rolling Stone, because we never read it, and I have no idea who most of the artists are. But every time I cancel a newspaper/magazine/substack, I think about how important good journalism is and how I should support it.

 

 HALLIE EPHRON: I keep a pretty close eye on my expenses in general, and subscriptions are just one piece of it. I stick to Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Britbox for streaming. And would drop one of them if I decide to take a ride on HBO Max or Disney. It adds up. Plus, how much TV can you watch??

 

ACK: Substack. I keep thinking I should be more conversant with what’s there but I’m not. 

 

Am I the only one who’s noticed some up-to-now “free” news aggregators are now making you subscribe and pay to stay tuned in?

JENN McKINLAY: Hub and I recently discovered we had TWO Amazon Prime subscriptions and have had them for years. Also, the Hooligans have subscriptions tied to my accounts that I have no clue about and am afraid to cancel - what if they need it for school? And of course, I keep forgetting to ask. I think this answers your question. I am the WORST. I am going to end up in the poor house over a $19.99 monthly subscription I forgot about - I just know it!

 

 HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: What a great topic, Julia. But good grief, I am the WORST! I have no idea. I am sure it is TRAGIC–like, I have Disney Plus. Do I watch Disney Plus? Heck, no. But what if I wanted to?

 

 And don’t suggest I “get it free for two weeks”because I will never remember, and so much for that idea.  I am very tempted by the anti-subscription service, but it has to be a scam, and even if not, I am not giving someone all the  info they’d need to do that.

 

I think I pay about a billion dollars a year for the NYT games, but I can never figure out what’s what so I leave it. 

 

Roku, and New York, and the New Yorker, and how much am I paying for zoom and dropbox and streamyard and masterclass? Oh, whatever. 

 

JULIA: Okay, dear readers, are you also THE WORST?? Or do you keep a tight fist on your subscriptions?