What a terrible ordering web site

I've kind of ignored the posts about the web site up to now, but.

I had an invite to re-subscribe. 4 months early it turns out so you must be desperate for the cash. There was an offer and I thought I'd renew online.

Gah.

Firstly, I had to find (in the letter) and type in a long url. I would have liked a link from the model engineering website. perhaps it's there and I couldn't see it.

When I got there I got stuck. I was asked for the subscription and my surname. OK, thought I, subscription number for renewal and the surname for security. Nope. I had to log in. Now as usual, I have no idea what my password is. I tried a few of my defaults, but I must have been clever.

Forget password! brilliant. enter your email it said. So I did. 'INVALID EMAIL' it shouted back. Several Times. An oldish duffer I may be, but I can spell my email. And I checked it in the main website. Yup I'd not forgotten.

So I abandoned technology and called a nice lady on your number. I even got a slightly better price, which has mollified me somewhat.

I do think some of the technical aspects of this website let you down. Being sent to the top of a post every time you press enter is ridiculous.

Fortunately, we are all model engineers (of sorts, in my case) so we are used to needlessly time-consuming and tedious activities and we cope.

Iain

Hi Iain,

Can't help you with your subscription problems, but you can default to the last page in a thread:

Click Settings in the top green line

Click My Account

Under Website preferences, Thread Start Page tick Default to last

Click the Update Preferences button

Thor

Edited By Thor on 28/04/2016 17:33:57

Thanks Thor.

The problem I have is in writing this post.

When I press enter (at the end of the line above, for example), the cursor should go to the start of this line so I can type. It does not. It positions itself in front of the T of Thanks Thor.

Each time I press enter. It appears others or perhaps all have this issue to. It's silly and annoying.

There it goes again.

Iain (and again)

****PLEASE NOTE****

The subscriptions website is separate from the forum. This is because it is a HTTPS secure website for taking subs details and payments.

I have had subscribers insisting the website is broken because their password won't work.

As I have posted before on this forum:

IT WON'T WORK WITH YOUR FORUM PASSWORD

A look at the subscription website URL will confirm it isn't part of the forum - we just link to it. Click 'subscriptions' on the black bar above, choose your publication then when you get to the subscriptions site click 'my account' right at the top of the page (yes I have asked for it to be made bigger!)

The first time you use the subscription website YOU HAVE TO TICK THE "I HAVEN'T GOT A PASSWORD BOX" so you create a new subscription account. Yes - even if you already have a forum account because it is a different website! You can't use an old subs password either - this website was only set up in October 2015.

My apologies for "shouting", but as it has taken me several days and uncounted emails to convince just one subscriber they need to create a new password. Others have had the same problem, so it's worth labouring the point here!

Obviously too late for Iain, but hopefully this will help someone avoid this pitfall.

Neil

P.S. Iain - this is an issue with some iOS devices, apple changed something and now they don't work quite right with a number of web editors and the one we use is one of them.

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 28/04/2016 18:18:53

Sounds like you were trying to use your forum login details not your subs one, should have read Neil's comments here

Edit you beat me to it Neil

Edited By JasonB on 28/04/2016 18:20:18

Sorry Iain, seems I misunderstood. I can not replicate your problem on my computers, when I press the Enter key the cursor moves one line down and to the left of the editing window.

Thor

HI, Neil.

I get what the situation is, but my point is that the web site does nothing to help you understand this. or if it does, it's not obvious for me. I deal with web sites and software as part of my day job (my comments are actually meant to be helpful as well as moaney), and I have no patience with working hard on the web to do simple tasks!

It seems that you can add Windows 10 'Edge' browser to the list of incompatible systems.

I'm writing this in Chrome which will clearly be the way I do business with the forum from now on...

Iain

That message, as on many websites, doesn't (necessarily) mean that you've spelled your email address incorrectly. Simply that the email you entered is not found in the database i.e. that you haven't signed up to the website - or this section of it - using that email.

Iain,

Yes, I understand that it isn't made clear. The problem is the subs site is provided by the subscription fulfilment company and uses a standard template for many dozens of other publications and there appears to be limited flexibility for adding such clarification at that end. All I can do is try and inform people here and I will also highlight this in the magazine.

Also the login page for this forum does say "Please be aware that registering for a subscription management account does not create an account here, and registering here will not create an account on the subscription management website. If your username and password are not recognised, please check that you have received a validation email from this website, before asking for a password reset."

Neil