Digital Subscription Problems

A note for all of the digital subscribers.

The new company "managing" the subscriptions for Model Engineer and Model Engineer Workshop, Classic Magazines, is having serious technical difficulties.

1) There is no access to the archive for digital subscribers

2) You can NOT view your magazines through their website, luckily you can still view your current magazine by using the 3rd party pocketmags website.

3) The online subscription system is not working, I need to renew my subscriptions and can only select a PRINT only version, not much good as I live in New Zealand.

I spoke to a nice lady on their help desk and she was completely exasperated but could not help me, she just said give it a few weeks and it will hopefully be working. I told her that my subscription will be ended by then and as I am unable to re-subscribe, ME and MEW will lose a valued customer.

Has anyone else had the same experience?

Hi Jeremy - you are not alone. I guess you're not a forum regular because the subject is being discussed already!!!

Root cause is transfer of services from MyTimeMedia to Mortons: different companies, different processes, different computer systems. I used to do this stuff for a living, and it's not easy. Migrating computer systems can get seriously hairy, not just a matter of pressing a few buttons, and even well-planned transfers can come completely unstuck. Usually though, most of the migration is successful, apart from a residue of odd bugs. Some of them take time to diagnose and fix, especially if permission to spend more money is needed!

The advice to give it a few weeks is solid.

I know exactly how you feel: years ago I had the same experience with a magazine, frustratingly failing to renew a subscription whilst they were transferring to a new system. I stormed off in a huff, but have always regretted it: I missed reading the magazine! (Later on I had no problem starting a new subscription: all the problems had been long fixed. )

Dave

I am sure it is no easy task to transfer data from other sources and possibly in another format into an existing system.

However why close down the working system before proving the transfer of data was successful and the new system is working correctly ?

Emgee

Good question Emgee, it wasn't closed down as such, it was an in-house system at MyTime and it didn't come with the transfer, so we are rebuilding from scratch - if you log in now you should see it filling up.

How much time?

it is now September and I pay by direct debits, which are being collected, for both paper and electronic issues and while my paper issues of ME and MEW have been arriving I still cannot access the electronic versions beyond ME 4695 and MEW August 22.

The archive has been available again for about teh last 2 months and filled up as Duncan said it would

Have you entered your new ID number here or on Pocketmags which would have been on an e-mail sent to direct debit customers about 3months ago. It should also be on the cover sheet that is in the plastic bag your mags come in just above your address unless overseas

If you can't find it on that e-mail then contact Classicmags giving your old subscription number and e0-mail and they should be able to help. Easiest to fill in the details on that link and say you are having problems in the message box

Edited By JasonB on 06/09/2022 16:00:06

Edited By JasonB on 06/09/2022 16:07:01

I quit, I'm fed up with the convoluted track that has to followed to access the subscription. It's simply not worth it.