MBY Magazine Subscription Crap

[henryf]

I just want to add my support for Jack. He really does have nothing to do with the subscriptions, he is a content provider and clearly cares for both the company and what he does for a living. It would be easy to say "not my problem" and do nothing. He obviously wants to see you sorted.

I agree that not offering the subscription at todays lower price was wrong. The December price tapped into the Christmas market and included an email from Father Christmas which never appeared.

Hopefully you can get things resolved. Receiving the magazine each month is a gift that keeps on giving and will be one of this years more appreciated presents

Henry

 

[Irish Rover]

I meant no disrespect to Jack and I’m happy to hear so many posters vouch for his bona fides and high standing. I apologise if I’ve caused him any upset. The lady who called me from SA yesterday said she was going to send me an e mail with a link for a secure payment arrangement. Surprise surprise no e mail. I can’t see how they can survive if they make it so difficult for customers to give them money. At this stage I think I’ll take The advice from Nick101 post #8 and sign up to Readly

 

[jrudge]

I don’t agree with some of the tone in this post - which masks the underlying issue that Time Inc don’t seem to be able to process a subscription in a timely fashion.

Given that subscriptions are the only thing they sell their end of term report would not be very favourable.

Outsourcing is no excuse - that is why you have a team of testers if you run an IT business!

 

[[2068]]

Outsourcing is no excuse - that is why you have a team of testers if you run an IT business!

Outsourcing is very much an excuse.

It usually means that you really don't care about that part of your business, and that you have abdicated responsibility for that area to people that will provide a service at the lowest possible cost. Reliability? Availability? Security? Err, yes, outsourcing providers can do all of that, but sadly you chose the lowest cost option ...

 

[longjohnsilver]

I don’t agree with some of the tone in this post - which masks the underlying issue that Time Inc don’t seem to be able to process a subscription in a timely fashion.

Given that subscriptions are the only thing they sell their end of term report would not be very favourable.

Outsourcing is no excuse - that is why you have a team of testers if you run an IT business!

Maybe I wasn't as clear as I could have been. What I was trying to say was don't blame individuals for corporate faults and deficiencies. It's for the top management to put things right. I suspect Jack and the lady at the end of the phone in SA will have virtually no influence in the way Time Inc choose to run their business.

 

[Irish Rover]

Maybe I wasn't as clear as I could have been. What I was trying to say was don't blame individuals for corporate faults and deficiencies. It's for the top management to put things right. I suspect Jack and the lady at the end of the phone in SA will have virtually no influence in the way Time Inc choose to run their business.

The only people in MBY with whom I've had contact are Jack and the lady in SA. How would it be possible for me to express any opinion or concerns about the level of service from MBY or to document my unsatisfactory experience without referencing the only people with whom I have had contact. I would hope my complaints would be passed up the line or senior management's attention would be drawn to this thread.

 

[sorabain]

The only people in MBY with whom I've had contact are Jack and the lady in SA. How would it be possible for me to express any opinion or concerns about the level of service from MBY or to document my unsatisfactory experience without referencing the only people with whom I have had contact. I would hope my complaints would be passed up the line or senior management's attention would be drawn to this thread.

I expect the revenue streams they care about are the ones from advertisers. Subscribers are secondary as you bring in tiny amounts of money per year. As an individual, you have almost no influence. If they spend more than 5 minutes on the phone with you it's probably blown any money they can make off you as an individual.

I deal with support desks a lot where I work, and generally don't expect to be given detailed RFOs for everything we notice, even when we're paying them substantial sums of money. There's usually a long list of things I could spend time on that would be more productive, and appreciate that it'll be the same on their end and we're all winners if we let things drop.

Where concerned about security of CC details, perhaps best to find alternative ways to pay, or use cards with tight restrictions. Even the best places can get hacked, there's a lot of 0-day exploits out there (places with less turnover might have worse security, but the places with high turnover are more likely to be targetted with novel attacks. In the end i'm not sure where the greatest probability of losing CC details lay)

 

[longjohnsilver]

The only people in MBY with whom I've had contact are Jack and the lady in SA. How would it be possible for me to express any opinion or concerns about the level of service from MBY or to document my unsatisfactory experience without referencing the only people with whom I have had contact. I would hope my complaints would be passed up the line or senior management's attention would be drawn to this thread.

Agreed, so would I.

 

[markc]

I expect the revenue streams they care about are the ones from advertisers.

Agreed, but no readers will eventually mean no advertisers.

I appreciate that the OP didn't get the best service, but impressed that Jack jumped in to try and help. I don't know about anyone else, but I get more shoddy service than not these days, which only makes me spend more on Amazon!

 

[Anders_P42]

Jack PM'd me today, appreciate him taking an interest.

 

[Jegs]

A few details of my experience: I received two emails, some days apart, from them confirming payment by credit card, they then, I believe unlawfully, took funds from my bank because they had the details from a previous cancelled subscription. When I pointed out their error they sent an email falsely stating that I had cancelled my subscription.

I have, of course, asked for an explanation on more than one occasion but none has been forthcoming.

ATB,
John G

 

[Chris_d]

I had subscribed for a few years after MBM crashed, when somebody bought me a years subscription for Christmas without knowing I already had one. I didn't want to upset them so for a year I had two copies arrive. After a year both stopped arriving so I rang them up and they said sorted although Indian guy didn't seem to understand about the two subs, but one magazine arrived for a few months up to my original renewal date then stopped again, direct debit was cancelled!
I don't read MBY any more and given the issues stated here, starting a new subscription with my old details still on their database doesn't seem worth the risk!

 

[jrudge]

They do seem astonishingly incompetent and the fact they don’t defend themselves adds to the plot ! Plenty of unhappy campers

 

[Jegs]

Unsurprisingly, I have yet to receive an explanation, let alone a subscription, & wonder if anyone has obtained a satisfactory result.

ATB,
John G

 

[Irish Rover]

I got another call a few days ago this time from a lady in the UK asking me if I wanted to go ahead with my subscription. She was explaining something about their payment system not being "real time". She also said they had written to me on 19 December saying there was a problem with my subscription payment. I've yet to receive the letter but I'm at a loss to know why they didn't e mail me that day rather than wasting money on paper, an envelope and stamp to Turkey. It would have spared me lying to my daughter on Christmas day as well. I've now signed up to Readly and get MBY and loads of other mags and rags online and my daughter was very impressed when I told her I changed the subscription for environmental reasons.

 

[Jegs]

I got another call a few days ago this time from a lady in the UK asking me if I wanted to go ahead with my subscription. She was explaining something about their payment system not being "real time". She also said they had written to me on 19 December saying there was a problem with my subscription payment. I've yet to receive the letter but I'm at a loss to know why they didn't e mail me that day rather than wasting money on paper, an envelope and stamp to Turkey. It would have spared me lying to my daughter on Christmas day as well. I've now signed up to Readly and get MBY and loads of other mags and rags online and my daughter was very impressed when I told her I changed the subscription for environmental reasons.

Thank you for that, unfortunately I'm an old fashioned sort who likes to have piles [usually below one metre high] of mags. around for future reference - if I can find it!

ATB,
John G

 

[Irish Rover]

Thank you for that, unfortunately I'm an old fashioned sort who likes to have piles [usually below one metre high] of mags. around for future reference - if I can find it!

ATB,
John G

Truthfully I was looking forward to getting the real thing as well and keeping them on the boat to root through when nothing else to do but It just wasn't worth the hassle. If the letter posted 19 Dec still hasn't got here I can't begin to think how long the mag would take to get here each month.

 

[Irish Rover]

Lo and behold a letter arrived yesterday 17 February from Time Inc. It was dated 22 December in an envelope bearing a St Albans address but a Deutche Post stamp from Frankfurt. If a simple letter takes almost 2 months to get here I'd have been waiting a fair while for my magazines if Time Inc had been prepared to take my money. By way of contrast my Boatowners Mechanical and Electrical Manual weighing all of 2.35KG arrived to me last Tuesday 13 February having been ordered from Amazon USA on 05 February and coming from Kentucky via New York.

 

[DTIM]

Im still waiting for my Feb edition, this is after two phone calls from my Father in Law (as it is a gift subscription). The continuous dd has obviously been taken! I dont hold out much hope for March edition.