How to get rid of readers.
Reviewed on 2021-05-13T19:23:45
Just to note that, as with others, my experience of their subscription offer was absolutely dire.I’m not sure what’s going on in sales and marketing, but they seem to have hit on a surefire recipe to get rid of readers.
After my experience, I am always tempted to wish them good luck in this disastrous project, except that I wouldn’t want to see the magazine disappear.read more
Reviewed on 2021-05-02T17:15:05
I signed up for 10 Issues for £10. But now they're telling me it was ten issues on App and Website,which is not what I wanted.
The offer I used is still in my cache. It says: "Subscribe online today and receive 10 issues delivered to your door for only £10."
This isn't good enough. You can't have one thing which actually means another...
But it's the customer service, which took 3 attempts to get them to actually answer my email, that really rankles. It's just a huge waste of everyone's time if the people reading emails don't actually READ them.
Very disappointed. I'm sure they'll post a message here asking me to contact the customer services, but considering the track record, is it really worth it?read more
You start a trial with the intention of…
Reviewed on 2021-04-14T19:11:52
You start a trial with the intention of giving the product a go. You set up a reminder on your calendar to either cancel or continue with subscription.They process the renewal charge more than one week in advance.
No transparency on agreement, poor response from customer services, makes you doubt these products have got any sense of honesty.
They don’t care if you’re a happy paying customer, they just want your money. Better to buy the magazine from the shop and keep control of your money. Avoid subscribing.read more
I was going for 1-2 stars
Reviewed on 2021-04-05T17:13:17
I was going for 1-2 stars, but that would be highly unfair, for a poor customer service is "standard" these days and has been established as the "golden rule" by Amazon: Don't listen to customers,don't read their mails, just send empty apologies that have nothing to do with the problem at hand.
That out of the way: The content offered for the money is good. No, it is not "intellectually challenging science-of-the-day", it's more of a glimpse into recent discussions, semi-more-in-depth essays about what you find everywhere around the interwebs (including all the latest hypes), but for the most part the articles are well written and at least *feel* like reliable first-step-sources. If there were more scientifically founded discussions of opposing views on a matter, less pop-science "for the laywomen", the high price for a subscription would be even more justified.
However, the presentation of that content is poor at best or outright unacceptable. A website from the late 2ks, an Android app that is simply not working properly (see reviews on G's "play" store) and Amazon-like support (see above: Doesn't even READ questions coming in, just sends out copy&paste texts) is NOT what you expect for the money you pay.
Personally, I would prefer more audio content, but for now I am going to cancel my subscription since the content isn't DELIVERED to me. I simply do not have the time or the will to keep "trial and error" my way through malfunctioning apps or slow websites, thank you.
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Response to response from vendor: I did report problems "immediately", first response from support took over three days (so much for "immediately") and was non-sensical. After I gave a negative feedback on the support I received, support escalation clicked in. I provided screenshots and detailed information about the issues I experienced and got back a response that my input was being forwarded.
That happened over a week ago. My "issues" are such that I can not enjoy the content (for which I am paying) and that products offered (the app) malfunction. Over a week of response-time is neither "immediately" as you say nor is it creating confidence in a satisfying customer-vendor relationship.
The copy+paste response published here on Trust-Pilot really nudges me to drop my rating from three stars to zero stars.
-- UPDATE: After way over a month STILL no response to my mails. My fear that "support" is only interested in paying customers and give a bleep once you are ready to go was correct. A garbage app and content you can easily find for free elsewhere isn't worth the high price. Downgraded from 3 to 2 stars.read more
What on earth is going on with costs?
Reviewed on 2021-04-03T10:24:47
I have subscribed to NS on paper for almost 40 years and still look forward to and enjoy the content every week.Good content costs money I understand but the publisher has apparently allowed costs to spiral out of control. May 2019 I paid £37.25 pq, May 20 £47.50 pq, up to £55 pq in Oct 20, and now they want £65 pq from April 21. Almost DOUBLE in two years, what is going on? Are they trying to get rid of customers? Reminds me of the loyalty penalty on car insurance and electricity.read more
Great magazine... when it arrives
Reviewed on 2021-03-15T11:35:18
I subscribed to New Scientist so I had a source of reliable information during the pandemic - this after some 25 years absence as a subscriber - and have been enormously pleased with the content,which is hard to fault. The commentary pages can be somewhat political from time to time, and that's to be expected, but the majority of the content is well written, well researched and a joy to read in these troubled times.
In that regard I can't recommend NS highly enough.
My low rating is solely down to the delivery of the 'paper copy' which is at best erratic and at worst regularly delayed by up to a week.
What is particularly frustrating is that other weekly subscriptions I have consistently arrive on time - delays appear to be peculiar to NS. While I understand that there may be delays due to Covid, an analysis of deliveries since January has shown NS as a significant outlier.
Having contacted Subcriptions and Customer Services, I've either received a stock response, or that delivery is within 3 days of the dispatch and is therefore acceptable (a criteria which isn't in the T&Cs and something I wouldn't have mentioned had they not brought it up).
My advice to NS is firstly to apologise to subscribers when they contact you - "sorry to hear you're not happy" is not an apology - and to perhaps either be up front about continued delays, or even to offer some token gesture to subscribers by way of thanks for enduring the current problems and sticking with the magazine.
At the moment I feel like I'm talking to AI - a far cry from my previous subscriber experience.read more
Great, proactive service, and quality content
Reviewed on 2021-03-05T12:20:18
I came on to leave a positive review and was a bit surprised when I read the other comments for NewScientist.
I signed up for a new subscription last autumn and have been very happy with the magazine and the experience since. Sure, the delivery is occasionally a day or two later, but that seems pretty normal these days.
What prompted me to write a review today though was receiving an email informing that my next issue might be a bit later due to delivery issues. I was really impressed with the proactive communication and thought some Kudos was due, as it's above and beyond the service I've gotten from some other subscriptions recently. This thoughtful update has saved me the worry and hassle of contacting separately to check the status, and fortunately I don't think the pace of scientific development is such that I will be late to the party by reading my updates 4-5 days late for one occasion.
Aside from the above, the quality of content is always really good. There are always thoughtfully written articles on a broad range of subjects that I think are great for people with an interest in science and technology subjects.read more
Reviewed on 2021-02-27T11:54:04
Pretty terrible. This isnt even news media, its advert sales.