Is it true that our access to the digital archive going to disappear?

[Gone AwayParticipant @goneaway]

Posted by Steambuff on 15/07/2013 13:04:37:

If you have an older Digital Subscription (i.e. one purchased prior to this month) then you won't be able to download issues. (That is what I understand the situation is)

Not true in my case, Dave. My MEW sub (renewal) dates from last May and my ME sub from November 2012 and I was able to access both using the new reader. I used the subscription numbers exacly as shown in [ My Details ] … that is, without leading zeros

[Gone AwayParticipant @goneaway]

Posted by John Hinkley on 15/07/2013 10:44:07:

Has anyone had the same problem and managed to overcome it?

No but I hope your experience with Pocketmags support is better than mine.

I fired off a question about the print icon which was (according to the help file) supposed to be at bottom left in the offline reader but which wasn't present in mine. After a couple of days I got the following reply:

"if you login to the online reader, silverlight version, you should find the option to print."

(It actually didn't matter by then as Diane had said they had updated the reader and I made the icon appear by doing a refresh within the app).

Make sure you are not entering leading zeros in your subscription numbers.

[Gone AwayParticipant @goneaway]

Posted by jason udall on 15/07/2013 13:34:48:

please note If a free service is withdrawn you are entitled to a refund up to the price paid….

You lost me for one ….. what free service are we talking about?

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

Posted by jason udall on 15/07/2013 13:34:48:

please note If a free service is withdrawn you are entitled to a refund up to the price paid….

If it free why was it paid for?

IanP

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Dave/Sid,

I used the cut and paste facility, without leading zeroes, to input my subscription number, so the problem lies elsewhere. Still no reply to my email. Can't say I'm overly worried about it but it would be nice to able search within a whole issue for a specific term. That is assuming it's a "proper" pdf file and not individual page scans.

John

[jason udallParticipant @jasonudall57142]

 

Posted by Sid Herbage on 15/07/2013 14:39:16:

Posted by jason udall on 15/07/2013 13:34:48:

please note If a free service is withdrawn you are entitled to a refund up to the price paid….

 

You lost me for one ….. what free service are we talking about?

 

Posted by Ian Phillips on 15/07/2013 15:07:06:

Posted by jason udall on 15/07/2013 13:34:48:

 

please note If a free service is withdrawn you are entitled to a refund up to the price paid….

If it free why was it paid for?

 

IanP

Ok the free service alludes to the achive facility. if a digital edition was available for say the month of the cover plus say 1 month but no futher back( last months) you would have a digital "edition"..

the use of the achive I see as a free bonus to subscribers.. thus if withdrawn you would be entitled to exactly what you paid for it .. nouwt nil nada zilch 

your milage may differ

Edited By jason udall on 15/07/2013 17:02:13

[Gone AwayParticipant @goneaway]

Posted by jason udall on 15/07/2013 16:59:59:

the use of the achive I see as a free bonus to subscribers

Not really: the Digital Archive is all I subscribe to and it costs me £60 for the two mags. Hardly "free".

Sure, as a sales pitch for paper subscribers you can perhaps say that the archive is "free" with their subscription …. or you could more truthfully say that the price you pay covers the paper magazine and access to the online archive.

[jason udallParticipant @jasonudall57142]

Sid.As I said its only my opinion. .but I am talking about the archive not your current editions
.I think the “archive” is a side effect of providing
digital access/subscription without managing access to “this” month’s only
Truely the archive is a welcome and valuable resource . .

Edited By jason udall on 15/07/2013 18:39:19

[jason udallParticipant @jasonudall57142]

…

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

I've now had a reply from PocketMags. Apparently, I'm a paper only subscriber! Although it is true that I receive MEW in the post, I can also access all back issues of the magazine either through the link, having logged in, or using the "old" iPad app, but not using the PocketMags app. Peculiar situation but I'll live wih it.

John

[Katherine Scott 6Participant @katherinescott6]

Morning all,

Apologies for my delayed feedback, I’m Kate from Subscriptions (introduced earlier in the thread by JasonB). I’ll quote and provide answers to the questions I don’t think have been answered yet below… Please let me know if I’ve missed any!

Best wishes,

Kate

[Katherine Scott 6Participant @katherinescott6]

Posted by Steambuff on 11/07/2013 19:01:20:

Diane … another question for your Subscription manager …

I have just renewed ME (June) …

If I upgraded to the New Print and Digital (i.e ability to download and read current issues offline) –

a/ What would it cost me?

b/ Would I be able to download and keep all issues since the start of my current subscription period, (i.e the June/July issues) or only those after the upgrade?

Thanks

Dave

Edited By Steambuff on 11/07/2013 19:03:46

Hi Dave,

A/ We will be inviting credit card subscribers to upgrade for the remainder of their contract for free as part of our renewals series, at the point of renewal the cost of your next subscription would be £67 if you’re in the UK (because you are renewing, you get a better rate than new subscribers). Alternatively if you would like to upgrade now you can do this for free for the remainder of your subscription by switching to direct debit. This would be £15.50 quarterly and the first payment wouldn’t be taken until your current subscription ends. If you did this it would mean that you start getting access to the digital downloads as well as the Online Archive (which you'll be able to access for the remainder of your current subscription).

B/ You would only be able to download issues from the point at which you upgrade. If you wish to buy any individual back issues downloads then these are available in the App Store/Google Play/Amazon (for Kindle Fire) dating back to September 2012. Individual digital issues can also be purchased via **LINK**.

Best wishes,

Kate

[Katherine Scott 6Participant @katherinescott6]

Posted by SLOTDRILLER on 12/07/2013 06:17:38:

Hi all,

After switching to the digital version i have been mostly happy with the exception that if i wanted to print something i had to do it a page at a time .
I feel i should be able to download the whole issue to my PC and view at my liesure as i have payed for it .
I should not have pay as much as a hard copy subscriber as there are no printing or mailing costs and i also lose the subscription offer as i live outside the UK.

So there could be tiered system :
Basic digital – latest issue only for budget minded readers -no archives .
Basic hard copy – mailed issue no archives as above but a hard copy .
Intermediate digital – latest issue + archives
intermediate hard copy – as above but with printed version.
premium subs – both ME & MEW hard copy + full digital access.

I should be able to download the magazine as a PDF and keep it for future refrence as i wish as i have paid for it .

I found the Digial subs are excellent except i cannot 'click a copy and print the whole magazine .

Ian

Hi Ian,

Thank you for your feedback regarding the package structures, we welcome reader comments on this and do take your views into consideration. We have chosen to structure these new packages in this specific way in order to offer subscribers the best possible value for money whilst accounting for the costs of these products/services. We are starting to look into the possibility of re-introducing an Online Archive only subscription so we will pop a post on here when we have a better idea of when we can re-activate this (unfortunately it’s not as straightforward as just flipping a switch).

We agree that subscribers should be able to download and keep issues of the magazine; hence the introduction of our new digital downloads. We will not however produce these magazines as PDFs as this leaves them at a much greater vulnerability of people breaking copyright law. The same goes for being able to print the digital magazine in one go as well I’m afraid.

Best wishes,

Kate

[Katherine Scott 6Participant @katherinescott6]

Posted by Russell Eberhardt on 12/07/2013 09:09:26:

Dianne,

I have been a subscriber to both magazines for some years and am not at all happy with this situation.

I used to keep all my backnumbers but some time ago we were told that subscribers (to the paper magazine) would have access to the digital archives. Great I thought, I can recover some workshop space by sending my old copies for recycling. Now we are told that the promise made earlier will be renaiged upon and I will have to pay extra for something I have already bought. To my mind this is entirely dishonest and I am unlikely to renew my subscription next time if you continue to treat your customers this way.

I stronly suspect that this proposed move will significantly reduce your revenue and not, as your bean counters evidently believe, increase it. The way to increase revenue is to create happy customers.

Hi Russell

Your current contract is being fully honoured, as your access to the Online Archive will remain for the rest of your current subscription.

Our historic subscriptions only granted subscribers access whilst their subscription was current and although we appreciate that you are disappointed that this element will no longer be classified as part of your current subscription, we feel that the offer to upgrade is a perfectly reasonable one; allowing you to have a digital back up of the magazine that you actually own.

Best wishes,

Kate

[Katherine Scott 6Participant @katherinescott6]

Posted by Jo on 12/07/2013 10:28:26:

I like paper copies of ME: once you have read them you can either give them to the club for others who do not subscribe to read or sell them as volumes.

Digital subscriptions seem very restricted. For instance when I down load a copy can I only keep it on that phone/computer that I downloaded it on to? What happens when in two years time I upgrade my phone/computer again? Can I transfer the file to my other/new computer? I assume I will not be able to because otherwise there would be nothing stopping me sending that digital copy out to all my mates.

Jo

Hi Jo

The Digital downloads are stored by our software development company Pocket Mags; as long as you create a free account with them then all of your issues will be backed up and you will be able to re-download the issues to your device/pc. The magazines are downloadable to an offline reader (or app) so that they can be read without an internet connection (and they can be read after your subscription has ended), but they do not allow you to save a PDF and send it out to other people (this is illegal as it infringes on copyright law).

Best wishes,

Kate

[Katherine Scott 6Participant @katherinescott6]

Posted by Nicholas Farr on 14/07/2013 23:50:17:

Posted by JasonB on 12/07/2013 18:21:10:

I have just been asked by Kate in the Subscriptions department to say that she hopes to have answers to the queries raised by early next week and they will be posted here as soon as they are available.

Diane is off to IMLEC for the weekend so won't be able to add anything further until she returns.

On the plus side Kate informs me that some of the missing issues in the archive are being added as I write this, the rest will follow as they are scanned in. If anyone knows of a specific issue that is either missing or the wrong mag comes up when clicked can they post the issue number here.

J

Hi Jason, I've just looked through the ME archive and 4158, 4274, 4275 and 4315 are missing.

Regards Nick.

Hi Nick,

Thank you for flagging up these missing issues, 4165 was also missing, which I have managed to locate and get uploaded (this was added to the archive on Friday). The other magazines will need to be located in our physical archive and scanned which will regretfully take some time. We will try to get these added as soon as physically possible.

Best wishes,

Kate

[Katherine Scott 6Participant @katherinescott6]

Posted by Steambuff on 15/07/2013 13:04:37:

John,

I assume that you have taken out a new Digital subscription? (The higher cost one)

If you have an older Digital Subscription (i.e. one purchased prior to this month) then you won't be able to download issues. (That is what I understand the situation is)

Dave

Hi Dave,

Just to advise, this is not the case – those with an existing Digital Subscription can access the new Digital downloads for free as part of their current subscription.

Best wishes,

Kate

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Just bumping this back to the top so its not missed as I have just approved Kates posts and they get added according to time posted. Hope your questions are answered

J

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

Posted by JasonB on 17/07/2013 12:41:14:

Just bumping this back to the top so its not missed as I have just approved Kates posts and they get added according to time posted. Hope your questions are answered

J

Jason

Only my curious mind.., but

1/ If Kate is a moderator, why do her posts need approving?

2/ Also why does it need bumping, Kate's reply does that to the thread anyway?

3/ If moderator's posts are moderated presumably there is a hierarchical chain of levels of authority, the mind boggles….

Ian P

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

1. She was probably not aware that she could approve her own postings or maybe the system is not set up to allow someone to approve their own first post. The other problem is that although once you have had one post approved all others go straight to the forum but while waiting for that first post to be approved all others made get held in the admin area. See also No 3.

2. Kates last post was at 9.08, this took it off the bottom of the "latest forum postings" on the homepage as all other posts after that time appear above it. Some people don't click latest posts they just look at the homepage so would have missed Kates posts thats why I bumped it upto the top. As I said the posts don't appear as they get approved they get added to the forum by time posted, I only got in from work at 12.30ish and found her posts waiting to be approved that is why all posts between 9.05 and 12.40 are above her replys.

3. There are different levels of moderation, originally John S and myself were just able to edit posts, we were then upgraded to be able to approve new first time posts, I suppose Kate may only have the former level of moderatiuon and thats why she could not approve her own posts.

 

J

Edited By JasonB on 17/07/2013 13:18:00

[Gray62Participant @gray62]

Hi Kate,

I subscribe to both ME and MEW on a Direct Debit subscription, from one of your earlier posts, I would assume that this gives me access to the digital downloads however pocketmags are telling me I am a paper only subscriber and therefore do not have access to the digital downloads.

Can you please clarify the situation for me.

regards

Graeme

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

Jason

Thanks for a very clear and coincise answer, it does make more sense now.

I forgot about having consideration for people that do not go straight to 'Latest Posts'.

One little point though, Kate's latest reply was not her first posting. I dont think she posted all 7 at the same time.

Ian

[SteambuffParticipant @steambuff]

Kate,

I'm confused

I already pay by annual direct debit …

If I upgraded now, you are saying that I would pay £67 upon renewal (Next June) … but if I converted my direct debit to quartly upon renewal I would pay £15.50 per quarter (From next June)(This equates to £62 per annum)

Have I understood correctly?

How do I upgrade (and convert to quarterly DD)?

Dave

P.S My details still show my ME sub expiry as 28/6/2013 but I have renewed.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

I hadn't bothered with this thread as I thought it was just someone misunderstanding the advertising. Lucky I have now read it.

Rather reminds me of what has been happening with BT broadband. After a major advertising campaign a few years ago you may remember in which a person in bed playing with their computer wiped all their family photos. Spouse pipes up "it's ok I saved then all on the remote archive service." However BT have invented a new storage feature which you have to sign up to and agree to lose your paper bills and go electric billing with no saving to you. Rather than wait for you to join this new service and transfer your files they are just going to wipe them. Deadline is about now. Splat! Gone!. So much for Customer service. They also wiped out your webspace a few months ago.

I think Virgin Media broadband still honour their archive and webspace service………for the time being.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Kate, one other query I have is, suppose I upgrade to Print + Digital and then at the next anual subsciption renewal I wish to go back to just print, or I decide to carry on with just digital, would I be classed as a new subsciber on would I just have to pay what I would if I carried on being just print or what I would have been paying if I were just digital?

Hope you understand my query.

Regards Nick.

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