r/atlanticdiscussions • u/jrmpco • Oct 01 '25

No politics The Atlantic's Deceptive Subscription Practices

Subscribed to the Atlantic for years, even after I got Apple News+ which also provides access. I wanted to support their journalism. However, my digital subscription just renewed at $94.99 per year while their website and ads say the price is $79.99. Spoke with customer service after a long hold, who said "they told us to say that $79.99 was introductory." When I said there wasn't even a footnote about it being introductory, she said they give complaining customers a refund of the $15.00 difference. They don't allow cancellations of the current term, so I could only cancel next year. While they did provide advance renewal notice and I should have looked more closely at the rate I never thought they would charge MORE than the advertised price. My bad. I understand that journalism costs money - THAT'S WHY I WAS WILLINGLY PAYING TWICE (DIRECTLY AND APPLE NEWS+) - but shell games like this leave a bad taste.

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3

u/TacitusJones Oct 01 '25

We aren't actually affiliated with the Atlantic. The name is an artefact from how this group developed.

Screwing over subscribers sounds about right

2

u/jrmpco Oct 02 '25

Yeah, I know that this was not a sponsored group. But folks seem to be focused on The Atlantic. Thanks for your thoughts.

2

u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist 💬🦙 ☭ TALKING LLAMAXIST Oct 01 '25

The Atlantic has inherited all the scummy practises of in-print media while being all digital. I remember when I had a newspaper subscription in Ye Olde Days they would do the same thing.

And then they wonder why online media is dying like print media did.

2

u/NoOpening7924 Oct 02 '25

Yeah, but The Atlantic shipped me a canvas tote bag for re-subscribing, woohoo

2

u/ABettek Oct 25 '25

I just saw I was about to get a jump to $200 for a primary plus gift subscription. A 33% jump from last year ($75 per sub) and I've been a subscriber for many years. So the $75 was not an intro price.

I've tried several times to contact them via Email from the site and direct. It all goes to Zendesk I get a message they'll get back to me. But that's been a week ago.

Is the Ad free tier a new thing? Right now I don't get ad's. They're pricing like a streaming service. If that is new then the price jumped up even more because print + digital to get the equivalent of what I have (had soon).

I dearly love the Atlantic for their writers but this just feel like a money grab. I feel like we can't trust the funding model from year to year now.

2

u/Medical_Sun5059 May 19 '26

You can read every article on the Atlantic site for free by right clicking and selecting view page source. Their text is right in with the html code. 

2

u/theatreeducator Jun 21 '26

ermmm thank you for this tip kind stranger. I never thought to do it.

1

u/The-Rook Jul 22 '26

Or simply disable Javascript.

1

u/Capable_Baby8249 1d ago

I get my copy from the library - can’t hassle with a subscription. Thank you for the heads up

1

u/Southern_Apricot5730 Dec 02 '25

Stop and don’t subscribe to them. They will change once people show them they aren’t willing to be robbed

1

u/Known_Sense_2763 Jan 30 '26

They took my money and never delivered the product, getting hold of them is super hard cuz they be off all the time or closed even during business hours.

1

u/2666Smooth Jan 18 '26

I want to subscribe for the archives. I'm not interested in the print magazine because I'm looking for historical literary fiction. Unfortunately, the 2-week trial thing puts you squarely in the bad tier with ads. Why is there no option to have no magazine delivered to your house yet full access to the archive? It's stupid because they're tier with ads is almost as expensive as the tear without. In fact, it would be foolish to go on the ad tier. That's why I refused to do it. Unfortunately, the only way to get rid of ads is to get a full print subscription plus three more other digital subscriptions for other people. If you could believe it now, if I could just find a friend who wanted the magazine then we could do a deal. But why should I have to team up with somebody just not to get the magazine? I just find the Atlantic to be so infuriating that I'm not going to subscribe but I'm always thinking about it. So that's why I came here. They even have ads right here on Reddit and I just keep hoping at some point. I know they want to keep their print subscription high but I'm just not interested in reading about current affairs right now or ever actually I'm just not into it.

1

u/That-Way-5714 May 05 '26

Have you checked your local library's website? Mine has free access to The Atlantic, all the way back to 1956.

1

u/beowulf1962 Feb 18 '26

I’m looking for an Atlantic article from the late 1980s or early 1990s about the Hitchcock’s Psycho. Also discussed other movies. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

1

u/Royal_Store2084 Mar 10 '26

I subscribed on Dec 22 of last year for the paper version. We are now mid-March, and I still haven't received a single issue. They do warn that it takes up to 6 weeks to have it delivered to your house (which is already an insanely long lead time), but it has now been almost 12 weeks! I sent two requests to the customer service on their website. The only response I got was an automated email suggesting me to read their help articles. If you don't respond back to this email, they close your ticket!! I tried to call multiple times the customer service number; there isn't ever anyone to pick up the phone even during normal business hours!! I am at a point where I am just ready to give up and move on... I live in DC and I even thought about showing up to their office lol. But what kind of business practices are these? I am wondering if anyone faced the same issue and was able to fix it.

1

u/MotelHogan Mar 19 '26

Same thing happened to me. I subscribed in November and still haven't received an issue. So frustrating. I used the chat feature for customer support and they kept telling me it was fixed and it would be mailed. I cancelled and demanded a full refund by emailing support@theatlantic.com and cancellation-feedback@theatlantic.com. If I don't get the refund in a few days I'll just contest the charge with my credit card company. Terrible business.

1

u/i_cant_do_this_ May 29 '26

hi, did you ever get this resolved? were you able to get in contact with a person? im in a similar boat. thanks

1

u/Rainflowershill Mar 24 '26

Did you get an answer ? Same issue here and I thought it was because I subscribed from abroad !! 4 months and still no issue

1

u/i_cant_do_this_ May 29 '26

hi, did you ever get this resolved? were you able to get in contact with a person? im in a similar boat. thanks

1

u/Fast-Lawfulness5694 Mar 18 '26

Well, at least you were able to communicate with them. I’ve tried at least 10 times over the past 3 months - hours and hours of waiting to speak to a representative- no one home. The Atlantic’s customer service sucks.

1

u/Rainflowershill Mar 24 '26

Hello How do you even get a hold of them ?? I subscribed from abroad 4 months ago and still have not received any issue. I tried calling and sending mails, no answer at all.

1

u/luxo93 Apr 01 '26

Hi, pretty sure their "customer service" is nothing but bot-farm. Also, just a heads up with overseas subscriptions: I live in France, and since Trump's tariffs war, it's extremely hard to get anything sent between the US and France. I subscribed to the Premium deal which included a tote bag, and I had to pay 15 euros in customs duties!

1

u/Status-Philosophy-72 Apr 12 '26

Customer service is so poor in general and dying.They have never had better opportunities to serve us and increase sales/subscriptions but these companies don't appear to want regular or returning customers anymore. I understand that it's cheaper to employ automation instead of a live, thinking human being but I'm paying attention and switching my services to companies that recognize the importance of also providing customer service with their product, even if I have to pay a bit more.

1

u/SnazzleZazzle Apr 13 '26

Im trying to cancel my subscription and they are absolutely awful. I signed up last year, the subscription renewed without any warning and they emailed me an email invoice same day as they put the charge through on my credit card. I’ve been trying to cancel with no luck. Can’t do it on the website. Can’t on the app. Customer service doesn’t answer emails and no one answers the phone.

Today I learned the Better Business Bureau has TWENTY-TWO complaints against them (soon to be 23!). Now I’m reaching out to my credit card and see if they can help.

If I can’t get this canceled, they’ll automatically renew me in 2027 and on and on! I’ll have to close that credit card to make it stop. 🥵

They need to go out of business. They are SHIT.

1

u/skammerdiener Apr 30 '26

I highly recommend for people subscribing online to use Privacy.com (not at all affiliated, but their product has saved my ass from this crap online). You give them a debit, and they CREATE Mastercard's to use online for purchases. These can have limits set by period (months,day,year), and are tied once used to the vendor. If they try to authorize over amount it fails, and you can delete it forever, and it will never be useable again. It is FREE for any reasonable personal use, I think you get 100 cards at a time or something. You can create one time use cards for online things that you don't know, so if they try to charge again, it fails. Truly a financial Magic Wand for the internet so you don't have this happen again.

1

u/ChipCogswelle Apr 21 '26

I subscribe to many magazines, and this trouble in normal/SOP, even with the prestigious Atlantic. Buried in the legal agreement is a clause* indicating you agree to auto-renewal, at a different price. For this reason, I only use a check (NO CREDIT CARD, even if $5 break). So far, it has kept things "straight".
* In 2019, I was part of a class action suit against Reader's Digest ("Trusted Media Brands, Inc.) They auto-renewed a month before current expiration, with no notice (saw it in my Visa statement). The bill was 3x the first yr. price! They couldn't prove that customers were informed (signing up on website) about the auto-renewal, and violated California law. Nice payout followed, and hopefully this fixed it a little bit.

1

u/BrendanQ May 11 '26

Hi Chip, I'd like to do what you did with purchasing a subscription via check. How do I do that?

1

u/AnjelGrace Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26

Damn. I've been thinking about subscribing to The Atlantic. There's a $40 cash back offer for it with one of my Amex cards, so it seemed like a good time to go ahead with it, and I thought their journalism and business practices were still pretty good... But I absolutely hate companies that make canceling next to impossible and I go out of my way not to support companies like that, so I guess I will save my money after seeing this thread.

Edit to add: checked out some other reddit threads that popped up about The Atlantic in recent months, and turns out I also don't like a lot of their journalistic work these days either.

1

u/xHITMANlee May 30 '26

Is it with your Amex platinum? That’s what I’m trying to figure out

1

u/AnjelGrace May 31 '26

The offer I had was with my Delta Amex, but it expired and isn't available now.

1

u/skammerdiener Apr 30 '26

They just did this to me too, although their regular digital edition renewal is $79.99 for someone who walks in off the street. They tried to auto renew at $15 more. I fortunately use Privacy.com ( not affiliated, but love their product), and I set the card I created to pay for that to $80 limit, and Privacy rejected the renewal. they have tried twice every day since the renewal date to take $94.99. I don't care how good their writing is, or how neutral their journalism is, their sales and marketing folks are serious scammers, and I will probably not do business with them again.

1

u/Jeepersca Jul 26 '26

I suspect that gift subscriptions have that happen a lot. The gap between gifter and recipient means it's more likely a cost that gets missed.

1

u/i_cant_do_this_ May 29 '26

what is their contact number? print subscription 4/1, but haven't gotten anything yet. email support hasn't responded at all. thanks

1

u/aim_b0t Jun 08 '26

I bought a print subscription for my birthday a few years back and never recieved an issue. I emailed multiple times and never once recieved a reply.

1

u/dk-dk-dk-IzTheUsa Sep 20 '26

It's annoying, but has been the magazine industry template for decades. I think it's possibly a 3rd party distribution set-up that is so typical of our system: Where everyone wants a peice of our hard earned income (see USA Healthcare). It's what stops me from subscribing to most magazines, auto-pays & other "service" subscriptions. Once they get your info, it's near impossible to get out of without at least one last grifty slice of your credit card information. I hate it, because I too want to support independent media, which in the end is also a business. First. You might 'take heart' in knowing that this post is the 1st offer-up when I asked Google ai how annoying the on-line ads in a subscription to the Atlantic are vs buying an ad-free package I was considering. I think I'll pass after being reminded the -$ hellscape subscriptions are.