The Athletic HQ Reviews 264

Truly appalling! I received no notice of a subscription renewal and suddenly £59.99 has been taken out of my account. I cancelled immediately and contacted them, only to be told (by an automated system) there are no refunds! Absolutely disgraceful to take money without warning. Steer clear and do not sign up for anything to do with this site.
Edit: I have since had my money refunded, which I appreciate, but renewal reminders should be sent out!

If I could give a score of zero I would. Terrible service. Similar to a number of others had the free trial which was never used. Tried to cancel but charged £59.99 and refuse to refund. All I can say is stay well away.

Never ever subscribe to this. I never used the free trial of logged in. Then 12 month's later they took £60 from me. Emailed them BEFORE the £60 was taken from my account and hold I had no account as I kept getting marketing emails. The STILL TOOK the money eventhough I didn't have an account.
Completely shocking. If anyone has a contact number for them I would appreciate it as the eMail correspondence is awful. Total disgrace of a company.
Since writing this review I have now had a refund.

Absolute disgrace of a company. Complete scammers. Took a free trial out which I never used. Fast forward 12 months and they have taken £60 from me. No refund policy, absolute low lives.

The Athletic UK edition started off specifically specializing long form football articles and was producing some very interesting content. But these days it mainly copies and pastes 2-300,word press association releases.

Stay away from site! Even if you cancel your subscription they will charge your credit card and then tell you they don’t give refunds. If you cancel I would suggest removing all credit cards and bank accounts from your account profile.
Update; After posting this review and sharing it with the Atheltic, they have fully reimbursed my credit card.

The best football site, bar none.

For all those talking about auto renewals, that’s what you signed up for. Little hint, put a note in your diary/ outlook and take some responsibility for your life. You’ll find that cancelling before the auto renew will reveal an offer for £12 a year.

Do not take out a subscription to The Athletic: they send no reminder emails and it's almost impossible to cancel your subscription. They keep taking money out of your account and there is no-one to talk to. Absolutely terrible company that you should avoid giving your bank details to.

Auto renew scam. No notice of payment being taken & no refunds.

Absolutely disgusting. The journalists working for this outlet should be deeply ashamed of themselves. No reminder email for subscription. Charged £60 without a reminder and then when you try and get a refund you get a generic email. Try to cancel through the convoluted website to be offered the £60 subscription for £12. Will never get a penny more from me. I hope you go under.

Signed up for a free trial a year ago. Never used the service. Completely forgot about it. Now I’ve just been stung with a £60 charge for the yearly subscription. Absolutely disgusting that companies can do this without giving a warning. Times are hard enough as it is. I haven’t got £60 to throw away. I’m not going to be able to pay my rent this month thanks to this. No way of contacting other than Twitter or LinkedIn. Absolute joke of a company.

Auto renewal scam artists.

Cancel your auto renewals they’ll charge you with not option for refund even after a ‘free trial’.

I got a free six month subscription to The Athletic via a T-Mobile promotion. Within the first month, I saw the site was not for me. I sent an email asking them to cancel my subscription. I never got a response. After six months had passed, I got charged $60 to renew my subscription. I wrote another email, asking for help. Again, no reply. So I called AMEX and disputed the charge. Instead of being gracious and refunding me the subscription fee, The Athletic sent AMEX over 100 pages of documents to prove I owed the money. Even the customer service rep I spoke to at AMEX said, "Wow, they really want your money."

The sportswriting is competent but indistinguishable from other sports outlets. But the customer service is worse than non-existent--it's predatory.

I checked the box at the bottom of this review to let The Athletic know what I'm writing here. They said they will send the review to the same email addy I already wrote twice and never heard back from. Here's betting I once again never hear back. SMH

I have just been charged £59.95 for annual subscription . Not aware I had auto subscribed ! They haven't sent proof I have done so. I could cancel now but you lose the entire year immediately. Most sites allow you to forward cancel.

not only is the content poor and few are far between, the buggers make it almost impossible to cancel. leave them well alone.

I subscribed on a free 6 month subscription. Just before that ended, I tried to cancel. I spoke to the crew down at The Athletic and they referred me to the webpage that showed my profile - that web page offered no place to cancel and rather showed that I had not yet subscribed. So I thought that the 6 month trial had not initiated any payment and I did not need to do anything.

But then I found out that they were still charging me...

I think this was pretty disingenuous. They conceal pretty well any way to cancel subscription. So beware, especially if you are on a trial. It will most likely be extended beyond the trial whether you like it or not!

Here I am again, a year later. For those reading, heed the warnings on this site! 3rd year running, 3rd year billed. This, despite numerous attempts each year to cancel my account / unsubscribe (without replies in each instance - over 20 messages sent). I go through my bank each time to recoup my funds; you will likely have to do the same if trying to disengage.

Just terrible. No priori warning that I was due to be billed, and when I wrote to them explaining my circumstances had changed and I could no longer afford the service, I got bot replies that did not provide any sort of answer, before I received a very rude response from Hailey. Especially in the cost of living crisis I find this morally deplorable. Would avoid at all costs and it’s created significant issues for me at a time when I am financially unable to be spending £60 on a sports subscription.

Hiked subscription massively without permission, essentially stealing. No customer service and auto canned response emails. Avoid!

I have attempted to get a refund following a change in my circumstances and they have refused, I had no warning that my renewal was due so warning to cancel ahead of time.