The Wall Street Journal Reviews 361

After my WSJ subscription price jumped up to $38.99, I called 2 times,2 months apart, spoke with agents, and requested that my account be closed. Both times,the agents told me that they canceled it as we spoke ( and had no records of my previous request). The charges kept coming. Finally, I disputed the charges on my credit card. I couldn’t get my money back from WSJ, because I could never get them to send me a confirmation email of closure request ( despite being promised this email twice). My credit card required this as proof, before reversing the charges.
The status of my subscription now says “expired” on my online account. I hope that means it’s finally stopped, but I’m not holding my breathe.
The WSJ has sunk down to the level of a cheap tabloid, in my opinion, with these shenanigans.

I am very satisfied, especially from section "Per-Share Earnings, Actuals & Estimates" / Research & Ratings

I've received two newspapers since I started my subscription 5 weeks ago. I've logged 5 complaints with customer service and have had no resolution to this ongoing problem. Horrible customer service

Be aware that the WSJ will ONLY let you cancel your subscription if you phone into their Customer Service line IN PERSON. You will wait for up to 30 minutes of awful hold music and then be asked a long list of questions. Then you will ask to cancel your subscription. But that person cannot help you. You will be put through to another department who will ask another long list of questions. It is an outrage that they will take your subscription money so easily but make it so difficult to cancel. Some might say this is smart business but it is really a very low and intensely annoying trick. Shouldn't the Journal be above this?

I signed up for a discounted 12 month trial period to WSJ Digital for 4.99 per month. They made zero attempt to contact me or alert me before the trial period ended and instead started charging me full price at 39.99 per month. I was charged twice before realizing the problem. Then I had to actually call them to cancel since why make things easy on the web site, and of course they aren't open Saturday evenings or Sundays. Got through today and they did not apologize or offer to refund me the difference. Instead they tried to lock me into another trial period where no doubt at the end they would forget to remind me and charge me full price yet again. Tone deaf customer service reps and unscrupulous "negative option billing" policy means they have lost me as a customer for life.

It's amazing the poor customer service. You would think a business newspaper could learn how to do business.

Scammers. Never subscribe to a free trial.. they will charge you without consent and will keep on charging you. They won't allow you to cancel the subscription.

Impossible to cancel it by phoning them. No cancellation option on account setting. They knew what they are doing. A con.

The WSJ editorial board denies climate science, provides a platform for deniers, permits Trump to sell the big lie, and promotes anti vax, sentiment under the guise of "freedom", and not talking science.

I tried for 6 weeks to unsubscribe. I am from Ireland, Europe, so after 6 weeks, I was informed after many hours of phone calls, to the US, that I would need to phone the UK.

Their business model is to bring in subscribers with seemingly good deals, and then make it near impossible to unsubscribe.

I will be making a complaint to the Irish, UK and EU regulators.

Another senior CITIZEN screwed out of precious finances by this disreputable business. They did an auto-billing without warning raising my historic $4 m0onthly bill to just under $35 ON THE WEEKEND. 1 day later I called and canceled but they would not refund.

WSJ is a great place for news, but don't expect them to treat you honorably when you cancel your subscription and ask for a refund.
They are horrible...

not able to cancel the subscription online. Company accepts cancellations only per phone even if you don't have one.

In the above reviews I have found a tip that if one changes billing address to a California address, the option to cancel online will appear (per CA law).

It helped me. Hope it will help more people to avoid this scam.

One year ago I signed up for their $4/mo promo that I'm sure was outlined in tiny print only lasted for one year. I was then charged $38.99 on 11/10/21 for ONE MONTH. Nearly 10x the amount I was paying. Fair enough I suppose.

The real kicker was that I was then told I could be refunded the $39.00 if I signed up for a new lower rate ($19.00/mo). I declined, and reiterated that I wanted to cancel and get my $39.00 refunded. Then the story changed and I was told that I could cancel but that my $39.00 was non refundable. Not sure how that makes any sense.

Clearly a play to grab nearly 10 months of their old rate out of me since they knew I wasn't coming back. Oh, I forgot to mention - you have to call to cancel, can't cancel anywhere online like every single other business allows in 2021.

Don't do it!

It's a scam company that illegaly asks you to call to cancel your membership
Signed up for a free trial:
1. extremely poorly-written content - no close anlysis of the news, no detailed articles about the current stock markets;
2. the app is absolutely useless - every 2nd articles opens in browser where it asks you to sign in and then redirects you to the app. This loophole goes on forever;
3. random articles open up and ask you to subscribe, even though you are already subscribed;
4. all conent is basic and written from one perspective, it does not explore any issue from multiple points of view and it does not provide alternative opinions;
5. no way to cancel without having to call their office. It is borderline illegal in many European countries to complicate the process so much. If signing up was done online, cancelation should also be done online.

Any free website is a better alternative to this! I would be ashamed to work for such a company where the management probably pays minimum to employees but scams subscribers out of money.

Merely confirming the abysmal WSJ policies regarding cancellation.
First phone call, a hold time of over 30 minutes was announced.
Second phone call, on hold 25 minutes and 10 minutes of attempts to try to get me to not cancel.
What a scam. Just the aggravation of attempts to cancel is reason to never re subscribe.

It's idiotic that one cannot cancel online. I was on hold for nearly an hour and never got anyone on the line.

I found a tip that if one changed one's billing address to a California address, the option to cancel online would appear (per CA law) . Even with this option, there was still 5 or 6 times that cancel confirmation was requested.

This was such a pain. I will never return.

CANCELING DIGITAL SUBSCIPTION IN PROTEST OF TRUMP'S 10/27/21 LETTER TO EDITOR STYMIED

1) You can only call -- no emails accepted

2) When you call, after selecting "Cancel Subscription" option, you get transferred to a Voice-over-IP (Internet) line where sound is so garbled it sounds under water.

3) Waited 15 min for Rep, who I could barely hear because of the VOIP connection.

4) After 5 minutes of giving my name and additional unintelligible back-and-forth, I FINALLY got a "yes" to my repeated question "Am I unsubscribed?"

5) I asked that my cancellation reason (Trump's LTE > WSJ credibility) be passed onto management, but have no faith this will be done.

5) Fortunately, I got an email confirmation of my cancellation ... and have this Yelp opportunity to add my voice to others' re apparent incompetence.

BTW: I signed up for Digital to get one particle article. Despite my subscription, I was only able to display the 1st paragraph of this piece. I was then subjected to their inane Help-bot (Membership Virtual Assistant) that initially terminated due to a "technical issue", then repeatedly directed me to rephrase my issue, then finally sent my issue to their "email center" to respond next day.

Aaargh! Is anybody in charge here?

Same as many others, frustrated by the lack of a simple unsubscribe option. How can this be? I will fight for a refund via my credit card company.

Edit: Also the contact number for Australia is invalid, so I can't even phone to cancel!

I can't remember the last time I was not allowed to cancel a subscription online and had to call customer service (that isn't 24/7 by the way) to do so. Never renewing with them after this.

My husband was required by a class to sign up for two months. Of course he missed the fine print where they charge nearly 40 per month automatically. I thought he had to pay it for school... he was so busy he wasn't following the credit card. 700 dollars in... he never used the "service" and they refuse to refund the money. This is bad business... unethical and greedy. I will NEVER look at this company with any respect.

Absolutely shocking that you can't cancel your subscription online. Tip to anyone with the same problem: change your billing address to a California address and you're able to cancel online.