I have subscribed to this service for almost 9 months now. The terms are spelled out quite clearly, and, all the information you need, including which holidays they are closed on, is on their site:

"How can I cancel my membership?
If you wish to cancel your NewspaperARCHIVE.com subscription, you may cancel online by logging into "My Account" and clicking the "Edit Account Info" button located under your account information. This will show your account information where you can choose "Membership Options", this will begin your online cancellation.

If you are unable to cancel online, you may download the following cancellation form and fax it to 319-390-9442. When cancelling via fax, please be sure your transmission is successful, as NewspaperARCHIVE.com is not responsible for fax transmission errors.

Download cancellation form

Within 48 hours of receipt, cancellation will take effect. You will receive a confirmation e-mail after the request has been processed. If your cancellation request is not received prior to your account's renewal date or before the end of a free trial period, your credit card will be billed. As stated in the Terms and Conditions, NewspaperARCHIVE.com does not refund an account for unused time or any recurring charges made prior to your cancellation. Thank you for choosing NewspaperARCHIVE.com for your research needs."

In addition, when you click on the "Edit account info" button, you receive this message:

"Membership Options
We are sorry to hear that you would like to discontinue your subscription to newspaperarchive.com. For membership options please call 1-888-845-2887. To help us better understand your reason for cancelling, we ask that you complete an optional survey about your experience with us. We will use the feedback you provide to make our archive an even more valuable resource tool".

Being able to find information in newspapers is dependant upon many factors. Sometimes the search engines do not pick up a name. It can be the type of print used, the quality of the image, or, just that the person never got a mention in a particular newspaper. I have a rather long maiden name that sometimes is split in colums, so searching with part of the name sometimes helps.

I have been lucky in that they have many years of my hometown paper, and, papers from other areas I am searching as well. I have found, both for myself and others, many obituaries, marriage intentions and announcements, birth announcements, anecdotal stories about ancestors, school honor rolls, etc.

It sounds like you didn't give it a fair shot. This, by no means qualilfies the service as a scam.