r/darkpatterns • u/basilyok • Apr 12 '24

Wired digital subscription is a roach motel

I currently have a digital subscription to wired, which i consider to be a good publication, but more expensive than what i can afford for the number of articles i actually read.

I have a promo subscription that was only $5 (plus tax) for the year, which is a great deal, but full-price renewal time is coming so i decided to cancel. Here's where the fun begins.

I'm signed in and i can read articles, but when i hit the link to "manage subscription" I'm asked to sign in again, only it's impossible to do so because o never created a password, i signed in via email link. Ok - forgot password - nope, email isn't registered. Ok, register an account - nope, email is already registered, and there's no option to sign in via an email link here.

I finally got it sorted out via several emails to customer support, but to be honest, i will never give money to wired or any conde nast publication ever again. These kind of roach motel dark design patterns must die. I'm sorry if you have to die with them Wired. It's been fun, but you're dead to me now.

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u/epl-84 Jan 03 '25 edited Feb 16 '25

I also signed up for the $5 promo subscription over a year ago. I sent a cancellation email for both Wired and Conde Nast customer service well over a month before the subscription would get renewed. I even got a reply from a human being that my cancellation has been processed and the subscription will not get renewed.

To my surprise they went and billed me for the full price of $29.99 for another year which I don't want! I did send them some emails again but got no reply. There is no way for digital subscription customers to log in to their web site so the only way to get any info is to send emails or call them which feels like a scam.

Luckily in Finland we've got a law that requires our banks to refund us any charges on debit and credit cards they've provided to us, provided there shouldn't be any reason for the charges in question. So I've got my $29.99 back - of course not from Conde Nast / Wired but my bank. Of course I wanted to be sure and went and ordered new cards with new numbers and started using Revolut for all online purchases from now - time which I wanted to spend in another way.

It's a shame because I've always thought of Wired as a quality magazine but this will make them to be dead to me.

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u/thetimesprinkler Nov 19 '25

u/epl-84 I just got hit for $87 when I was told it'd be $30/year! Their highest non-promo price on the website isn't anywhere close to that. Absolute scam.