Subscription department issues

I have been attempting to renew my subscription to Model Engineer for some time now, as follows:-

1 7 Aug 2014: I received a letter from ME saying my subscription had two months left to expiry.

2 24 Sept. 2014 I renewed by 'phone 24 Sept. 2014

3 On 9 Oct. I received an email informing me that my subscription had now expired.

4 10 Oct. 2014 I 'phoned the subscription hotline who confirmed that I had subscribed for the coming year.

5 20 Oct 2014 No copy of has since been received.Hence I am now missing ME for 17th Oct.

6 20 Oct 2014 'Phoned the subscription hotline again and was assured my subscription was currently up to date and ME had been sent to me.Later that day I received a letter, from MTM, dated 11 Oct 2014 . This thanked me for my annual subscription!

7 23 Oct 2014 I received another letter,from ME, dated 13 Oct 2014 Stating that : "Our records show that your subscription balance has now expired".

As I have clearly paid my subscription and seen from my bank account the money was paid to MTM prior to the due date of the missing volume,I would like to have this forwarded immediately. Also I think this seems to indicate that the title of this message is valid. I wonder if any other subscribers are receiving this poor treatment.

I am on the case, Mike

Diane

Thanks Diane, I hope this can be resolved and maybe the service improved.

Mike

Hello Mike

I agree entirely with your thead title.

After the digital archives were no longer free i decided to update my subscription to include digital, so that i had access to the archives.

Since this update i have only recieved 1 issue of MEW and was told by Mr Wyatt that i onlyy had digital.

After i phoned i was told i had definitely the Bundle subscription, Printed and Digital.

I an still waiting for the October and November Issues of the MEW and a reply from Neil Wyatt.

You are not alone lol

Ray

Having made a bit of a hoo-hah about the Subs Dept competence earlier, I feel that I should acknowledge when they get it right. I have, today, received my subscription 'free gift' - very handy. So far, also, received two magazine issues so things proceeding as advertised. Many thanks to Neil for his interventions on my behalf - in school report terms, "Could do better" (for the Subs dept, NOT Neil!!)

Rgds

Bill

I have been unwell for several days.

Dealing with subscriptions is not actually part of either Diane or my roles. We do what we can because we are an obvious first point of contact for readers. We have no access to subscription data, and can do no more than pass on requests to others.

Suffice to say that Diane and I are as keen to see things improve as readers are. We would far rather spend our time editing than cleaning the Augean stables.

Neil

Neil and others, I agree with the title of the thread. Neil whilst I appreciate your efforts on my behalf, I find it exasperating that after 4 emails and 2 months I still have MEW 221 and 222 missing and was sent a duplicate copy of 220 which took 2 weeks to come.

Possibly MTM might want to review their use of an agency for subscriptions?

Could I suggest an e-mail contact AND NAME on the FORUM titles so people can contact them directly. I have had e -mails from "Katie" and "Kate" so far but as yet, no joy with the missing issues. Surely there can't be that many people who need to get in contact about missing issues & subscription cock-ups? Or can there???

Ian

Hi Ian,

Kate is the person who manages MTM's relations with the agency. I've made her aware of this thread. In most cases drawn to my attention she's been able to get things sorted promptly, but it's frustrating for all concerned when the agency compound an error e.g. by sending out the wrong replacement issue).

Neil

Neil a couple more things to mention to the subs department when you are next kicking their butt.

When a confirmation e-mail comes though could it come from MHS rather than "Modelenium" so the recipiant has an idea who the sender is and does not think its spam.

Also if they are going to provide a link in the e-mail so you can track your order would it be too much to ask that the tracking number be included in the e-mail as one is not a lot of good without the other.

This was actually from ordering a single issue not taking out a subscription but assume its the same person that deals with it.

J

Edited By JasonB on 29/10/2014 16:23:10

Hi All

Hmmm echoes of my experience, I wanted to update online but finally had to phone in and duly paid - result no access to digital. I tried to set up Pocket Mags but not recognised. Finally phoned in again only to be told an administrative error had been made and it was sorted but was told because I had not subscribed in time I had missed copy no 220. I was told a copy of no 220 would be sent but it has yet to materialise. I lead a busy life and all I want is a subscription that gives me an interesting mag and a digital archive so I left it at that - life is too short

Hmmm, there is something odd with the subscription pages on this site as well.

Afteer clicking my way to define my subscription no, surname and ZIP code I click Continue as I should, but then is alerted by this "error message":

"Sorry. The details you have submitted do not exactly match any of our subscription records.
Please check that your subscription number and postal code are correct. Remember, we need your full postal code."

That's odd as I am copying the subs number from earlier emails with the subs dept, and I still live at the same place in Sweden! Someone needs to fix this.

/Peter

After reading the events as depicted above I can well imagine they check UK postal codes and have no idea that other countries use other formats.

I had the same experience on another place with my telephone number, the site insisted that my phone number is wrong!

Regards, Frank

Frank,

Yes, that was my immediate thought as well, or the fact that it expects both letters and numbers together with spaces. My ZIP-code only contains 5 numbers without space.

Let's wait and see what it really was.

BR

/Peter

Edited By Peter E on 30/10/2014 11:40:34

I was wondering how long it would be before the title of this thread received the 1984 treatment.

MichaelG.

A little more info on my issues with the subscription page issue on this site.

I phoned the subscription dept to ask why and was informed that my subscription was noted just for the print version, not the bundle (print+digital).

So when trying to renew a bundle the system couldn't find it. testing the print only version on the site did work.

The learnings from this is that the web site designers missed one use case, namely ability to order an update from one singel version (print or digital) to a bundle on line.

Whether that has other technical reasons or just being a miss I don't know, I just thought it would be useful for others that want/need to upgrade the subscription to a bundle to know about this "feature".

Speaking to the subs dept works.

BR

/Peter

Well, to that amendment I would have added '- or lack thereof'

Steve

I pay for the print and digital edition of both ME and MEW. Everything seemed to be OK until I checked my tablet this evening and found that both ME 213 #4493 and 4494 digital editions along with digital MEW for November 2014 are not there for download.

No problem with the print editions which I have received OK.

I'd pull my hair out if I had some - grrr!!!

Rik

> I was wondering how long it would be before the title of this thread received the 1984 treatment.

I know it's hard to believe, but the problems reported over the past two months affect much less than 0.1% of subscribers. No consolation to those who have problems, and believe me I am equally frustrated - I have to deal with ALL of these problems, not just one!

But, believe it or not, the system does work the vast majority of the time, it just seems to be poor at putting problems right when things go wrong, and people are working to address this.

Neil

.

Neil,

I happily accept that fact, and acknowledge the enormous efforts that you are putting-in.

... I just feel uncomfortable when I see this sort of "edit" without any record of who did it, or why.

Having been responsible for probity management, and version control in the past; it grates a little.

MichaelG.

If I edit someone's posting, it's recorded. I assume that post titles are just too short to also carry edit information.

Neil