The Economist: the Last Days of the CSA?

I've subscribed to The Economist for many years. I bite my tongue when its young writers superciliously tack between trendy-nonsense and what they take to be yesterday's reactionary-nonsense. I appreciate the science and technology articles, and the too-few articles of neutral economic analysis.

Two years ago, in March 2022, I paid for a three year digital-only subscription. Until now all has gone well: on Thursdays the new edition would arrive on my phone and tablet; during the week articles would pop up daily. When they're good they're often very good.

A couple of days ago to my surprise a physical hard copy came through my door. I checked online and my account now says: "Print+Digital". Surely nothing could be easier than to contact The Economist and ask them to revert my account to purely Digital. After all, they have just unilaterally incurred the extra costs of mailing stuff to me.

My first attempt - a phone call - collapsed in confusion at their end, at the call centre. The person seemed to have no idea what I was talking about and no concept that there could have been a data glitch in The Economist's systems. I noticed that they outsourced their call centre to some global purveyor of such services.

This morning I tried again using Live Chat: here is the transcript.

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(09:19:43 AM) (System) said : Someone will be with you as soon as possible.

(09:19:43 AM) (System) said : You’re 0 in line, and we will be with you as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience!

(09:19:48 AM) (System) said : Welcome to The Economist. Hi this is Rima. How can I help you?

(09:22:06 AM) (ME) said : Two years ago, in March 2022, I paid for a three-year digital-only subscription. Yesterday, for the first time, a physical hard copy came through my door. I checked online and my account now says Print+Digital. I would like to revert it to digital only.

Rima has joined the conversation

(09:24:03 AM) (Rima) said : Hello, I understand that you wish to change your subscription to Digital only. I will certainly help you out on this swiftly.

(09:24:25 AM) (Rima) said : Before I can proceed, for your account security and to locate it, I would need a few details. May I know your full billing address?

(09:24:57 AM) (ME) said : [I give my address].

(09:26:52 AM) (Rima) said : Thank you for the information! Please allow me a quick moment as I look into your account.

(09:27:06 AM) (ME) said : Thank you.

(09:29:52 AM) (Rima) said : While your account details are loading, may I know how are you doing today?

(09:30:19 AM) (ME) said : I'm fine, thank you.

[Note: at precisely this point in the previous phone conversation the call centre agent asked precisely the same thing. I hate these pseudo-friendly scripts!]

(09:32:18 AM) (Rima) said : I'm glad to hear that, Nigel!

(09:32:30 AM) (Rima) said : I can see that you are on Print + Digital Subscription which shall be auto renewed on Mar 12, 2025. If I change your subscription from today you will be charged on a pro-rata basis and you will be charged £1.55 instead of £199.00.Would that be okay?

[Me neither].

(09:34:28 AM) (ME) said : So you are saying that the one year extension from March 2025 to March 2026 would be charged at £1.55?

(09:36:56 AM) (Rima) said : The following is the charge until your current renewal. If we make the changes today, this will be valid until Mar 12, 2025.

[What does 'the following' mean?]

(09:39:13 AM) (ME) said : Don't understand. I have already paid until March 2025. Why would I need to make any further payment simply to revert from Print+Digital to simply Digital? In fact, logically I should expect a refund! I am not asking for a refund as I think there has simply been a computer error at The Economist. Recall that I never ordered Print+Digital. I ordered Digital only. For two years I've been happy with digital delivery only. Then yesterday, mysteriously, a print copy arrives. I just want the print copies to stop!

(09:44:20 AM) (Rima) said : I understand, however the following has been a pro-rata charge from the last payment made. As this seems to be an error from our end, please allow me a moment to check with my internal team and see what I can do for you here.

(09:48:45 AM) (ME) said : It's not the end of the world! By default the print issues will just get put in the recycling.

[Note: there is a five minute gap here, which I take to be the escalation referred to below].

(09:49:23 AM) (Rima) said : I'm sorry it took awhile, as a compensation towards our end we are able to provide you a 50% discount for the change in subscription. Post which it will renew at the standard price.

(09:50:32 AM) (Rima) said : If I change your subscription from today you will receive a pro-rated refund of £82.95. Post which your subscription will auto-renew at the standard cost next year. Would you like to go ahead with it?

(09:52:49 AM) (ME) said : I guess. So you will credit me with £82.95 and then I will auto renew for 25-26 at digital only at the normal subscription rate for that variant. Is that correct?

(09:54:27 AM) (Rima) said : Yes Nigel, that would be correct.

(09:55:22 AM) (ME) said : That's kind of you, and it would be helpful of course. Let's do it. And thanks for your help.

(09:56:06 AM) (Rima) said : You're welcome! Please allow me a moment to make the changes on account.

(09:58:17 AM) (Rima) said : I am glad to inform you that I have successfully changed your subscription from an Annual Digital + Print subscription to an Annual Digital subscription with immediate effect and the next renewal will be on Mar 12, 2025 at the standard price. 

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I realise that there are a million call centre interactions which are just like this. Yawn! 

I wondered whether Rima is a real person juggling canned text or a LLM. The AI systems are in-trial at many customer service companies. Perhaps I was dealing with a LLM until the logic got a bit tortuous, at which point my problem was escalated to a human agent with the discretion to cut me a deal.

I suppose I have seen the future and it works - sort of.