MEW renewal problems

In September I received an email reminder from MyTimeMedia Ltd that my subscription for Model Engineer was coming due. As I have done in past years, I clicked on the link in the email, filled in my credit card details where required, thus renewing for another year. For the most part this was uneventful with only one minor niggle which was of not too much consequence relating to an invalid subscription number which now appears to be corrected.

Unfortunately my attempts at renewing my MEW subscription which expires a few weeks later have been far less successful. Instead all that this frustrating and protracted waste of time has done, is left me extremely annoyed and no closer to having my subscription renewed.

My first attempt at renewing was on the 30th Oct, where like with my ME subscription, I clicked on the link in the email from MyTimeMedia Ltd, supplied my credit card details using the same card as before, and shortly thereafter received the email subscription confirmation which like with my ME renewal did not contain a subscription number, this had instead come a few days later in the post.

On the 16th November not yet having received the MEW subscription number either by post or email I contacted mytimemedia@subscription.co.uk asking if they could confirm whether my MEW subscription had been activated.
The reply I received from contact@secureorder.co.uk was that my subscription had not been renewed so they suggested that I check whether payment had been withdrawn from my credit card account. It transpired that no payment had been processed, so after further communications with contact@secureorder.co.uk to ensure that I would not be double billed, I proceeded on the 24th November to subscribe once again.
As before a confirmation email arrived, but this time it actually included a subscription number which I took to be a promising sign. However by the 27th no debit had been made on my credit card account, so I once again emailed contact@secureorder.co.uk to check on the status of my subscription. They requested that I forward the confirmation email to them along with the last 4 digits of my credit card number, which I duly did.

The absolutely useless response I then received left me astounded: "I can confirm you placed your order via a third party company (subscription.co.uk) and we are still awaiting your order from them. I would suggest contacting them regarding this"

This is NOT good enough!
As far as I'm concerned I did not place my order via a 3rd party, I placed it with MyTimeMedia Ltd via the link in the email I received from them. If MyTimeMedia chooses to process subscriptions via a 3rd party, that is their concern not mine. It is up to them to sort it out if they are actually interested in selling magazines!

Right now I am not feeling the love for MyTimeMedia and seriously questioning whether it is worth expending any more effort trying to renew my MEW subscription. If MyTimeMedia can't be bothered to ensure that the process operates smoothly, then perhaps I am better of reading the magazine in the library instead.

Clive

I must say I sympathise, I really can't see why when so many companies manage perfectly well to cope with the Internet age, RTM are so inept. I didn't renew earlier this year on the basis that I could always buy a copy at Smiths for any interesting articles, most of the interesting stuff is on this website anyway, and actually there are other sites with more useful content on.

Hello Clive,

I'm afraid you have been caught in the crossfire when we changed subscription company.

It's a difficult situation, we wanted to change to another company to address the level of subscriber problems, but you will understand that we had to give notice of the change.

There seem to have been even more problems in September, before the change in October.

I am confident that as the new system settles down, the poor service will become a thing of the past.

All I can do personally is apologise, but if you would like to email me your details and copies of any correspondence to neil.wyatt@mytimemedia.com I will pass them on to our in-house subscription manager who will make sure this is sorted out properly for you.

Neil

Hi Neil,

I appreciate the response. It is gratifying to hear that subscription problems are being addressed. I will forward the relevant emails.

Thanks,
Clive

I would suggest that MTM really sort this out.

Many will not bother contacting this forum as the OP has done. They will simply not subscribe again.

Kudos to the OP for persisting though. Not sure I will, if I get the same treatment when that time arrives.

I've taken out a digital sub for MEW, and received an email telling me to go to www.model-engineer.co.uk/digitalaccess. When I try this I get 'page not available' However I've bludgeoned my way through to pocket mags, the instructions for that are as clear as mud as well, but I'm in and can now read the mag on line, but try as I might I can't see how to download it to my hard drive. Anyone got any idea?

Not recieved my free gift yet, I've got a book on Chaos Theory somewhere, does Neil want to borrow it?

As a business, it is MTM's priority to keep subscribers happy and minimise such problems. We don't gain anything by making it hard for people to buy our magazines!

The change of subscription company was to address some of the customer service issues, but it is true that the changeover has created problems and delays of its own. These are being addressed, but to an extent we need people to make us aware of problems before we can solve them.

Duncan - when I click on the link you give it opens the page explaining how to access your digital copies on different devices, including downloading. It is clearly the correct link, and I'm not aware of any server issues. Is it possible you have some sort of filter or ad blocker that is stopping you from seeing the page?

Neil

Just tried the link again and it worked, perhaps it was having a kip at gone midnight

Thanks to Neil and Holly my subscription problems have been completely resolved.

It appears that I had the misfortune of placing my renewal during the midst of a change over in subscription companies and that the old company though which I had attempted to subscribe were simply discarding renewals rather than passing them onto MTM.

Hopefully with the change over customer service issues will be a thing of the past, and if the service I have had from Holly is anything to go by I am sure that this will be the case.

Clive

Well, I recieved a note (on paper) in the mail today about my paper subscription expiring. No email beforehand even though I usually receive renwals from MEW by e-mail. I have even checked in my spam folder.

Anyway - I read trough the letter and found a URL to renew online. Unfortunately the online form just says that is unable to match my last name og subscription number even if I tried entering the info from the letter several times into the online form.

The error message is: Sorry, we couldn't match your subscription details.

This error message was rather sublime so I missed it the first couple of times until I began searching the form for clues. I am probably spoilt after 25 years in the IT business.

Logging on to my account here, I am unable to find a place to renew. That would have been a nice alternative.

Doing a search in the forums I find this thread and thought I would notify Neil about the issue as something is wrong with the process/service.

As it is - it seems easier to subscribe anew rather than renewing. I'll probably either have to try calling the hotline tomorrow which is always a chore as these most often are manned by non-native english speakers. Being a non-native myself and calling internationally tends to make these conversations rather lengthy and frustrating.

Rolf, have you tried going to "Your Account " at the top of this page, that should allow you to renew.

Failing that e-mail the subs department help@me.secureorder.co.uk

Hello Rolf,

We had someone with a similar issue yesterday.

It turned out that they were using the wrong number as their subscription number, unfortunately another reference (typically starting with 100.....) appears on same communications. Can you check you are using the right one?

The telephone subscription renewal and enquiry service is UK based as far as I know.

Neil

FWIW... my post earlier... 'mechman48'

**LINK**

George.

Edited By mechman48 on 11/03/2016 08:36:17

I renewed in December as my subs ended in Jan, I'm still waiting for the Feb issue. When I phoned up about why I hadn't had it was assured it would be posted out . The March issue came a few days later but still no Feb issue. Its not the first time I have had problems like this. Its time MTM got their act together and did what they say when you speak to them and not ignore the problem. Metalmuncher.

Hello MetalMuncher

Email me the details and I will sort this for you.

neil.wyatt@mytimemedia.com

Neil

Wonder if it's cheaper to buy the subscription "Hook" from a supplier and order the mag from a local newsagent to help promote local trade support?

Stopped subscribing years ago for same reasons, times don't seem to change. Given the fact that the mags are provided by basically an accounts based company only changed by names over the past fifty years, the change to computerised systems has made customer service either more efficient or worse depending on which side of the monetary table one sits.

Regards Ian.

Hi Jason,

thank you for the advice. I have tried to log in there now. I was not successful as my e-mail was not registered and I did not bring the letter with my subscription number to work. Will try again tonight and default to the e-mail service if needed.

Neil,

great to have the attention of the editor Having issues with renewal must be a big concern for the business.

Indeed my subscription number as posted in the letter began with 100xxxx as I remember it. I'll check tonight what the text is - but it appears they got me with that trick. Good one.
I am certain the phone service is UK based, but probably staffed by non-native english speakers for cost reasons.

Thanks for the support.

Rolf I will send your subs number by Private message as soon as I have typed this so you can give it a try straight away and while the subs dept is open.

You can also find it by going to "settings" along the green bar at the top of the website.

Edited By JasonB on 11/03/2016 10:00:50

Wow Jason - that was some real support!

This did the trick. I was now able to use the webform to renew


PS: In case this was not clear - My mother tounge is norwegian. Hence the language issue when trying to communicate in english with somebody in a call center with somalian, welsh or even scot as their mother tounge. 

Edited By Rolf Nilsen on 11/03/2016 10:24:15

Edited By Rolf Nilsen on 11/03/2016 10:25:59

That's what we like - a happy ending

Neil, maybe what is sent out could do with looking at to make it more obvious what number to use and as Rolf said there is not obvious Renewals tab or option when you go to subscrbe.

Edited By JasonB on 11/03/2016 10:21:56