Scammers
Scam company. Free trial turns into a £59.99 one time payment. Guess they learned from Adobe how to swindle people.
By Lewis
Monday, November 9, 2026 · Customer reviews of US businesses
The Fair Hearing score
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262 reviews
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Go beyond the box score with quality, in-depth local and national sports coverage from an all-star team of writers. The Athletic is a subscription-based media publisher of smarter sports coverage for die-hard fans. With coverage in most major professio...
The Athletic HQ (theathletic.com) has 262 customer reviews on The Fair Hearing, with an average rating of 1.2 out of 5.
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Scam company. Free trial turns into a £59.99 one time payment. Guess they learned from Adobe how to swindle people.
By Lewis
Auto-renewal scam. I've been a subscriber for a few years, paying $1-2 per month. Today I got a notice that I'd been charged $71.99 from my bank. I got no notice that my renewal was coming up. I get the site's newsletters every day, so they have my contact info. Every other subscription I have tells me when a renewal is coming up. Usually a couple of months in advance. I emailed and The Athletic responded that they "don't refund subscriptions". This is total BS. I've cancelled digital subscriptions before and always gotten a refund for the unused portion. I'm contesting this with PayPal, but I will never subscribe to The Athletic again. This is really shady and slimy.
By Alf G.
Just got done with this auto renewal scam. Surely this isn't legal? To the people that managed to get a refund, how did you do it??
By Kevin D.
Great website but bills after you canceled very poor customer service a fraud
By channa W.
Once again, it's the same story. £1 a month deal which expired. Then 15 months later £59.99 taken without warning. They issue no refunds. It is basically stealing money from people and a very underhand way of running a business
By Neal O.
Free week trial auto turning into a £59.99 annual subscription. Contacted them straight away when this happened and they refused a refund. Really poor customer experience and would never recommend.
By Colin H.
I signed in to my account that I purchased TWICE from two different email addresses....but still - when I try to view a story - I get a cover up and an invitation to...you guessed it...subscribe. Impossible to cancel!! The link (YOU JUST REQUESTED) is expired. Click here for a new link. This is a loop you will enter for ALL ETERNITY! No phone support. The writing seems to be really good but something here is very, very wrong. Calling my bank to cancel.
By Paul O.
ARE YOU JOKING ME?!? I HAD NO IDEA THIS WAS AUTO-RENEW. IVE NEVER USED THIS SINCE DOWNLOADING. IVE HAD ONE REPLY SAYING NO REFUND FOR CANCELATION. SO IVE PAID FOR A FULL YEAR THAT IM NEVER GOING TO USE. APPALLING. HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN TO ALL OF US AND THEY ARE STILL IN BUSINESS?!?
By McFatrick