PSA - Fine Woodworking's digital only subscription

[Cliff Polubinsky]

I've had the $34.95 digital only subscription to Fine Woodworking for a number of years. I've found it useful for looking up the odd article or video now and then. I don't use enough to justify the $99 unlimited, and I don't want the print magazine. Canceled that years ago. FW has discontinued that particular subscription, but they had said that you can keep it as long as you keep paying for it.

5-6 months ago my credit card was hacked and the bank issued a new card with, of course, a new number. Earlier this month I got an email from FW that they were unable to process my renewal payment and they were canceling my membership. There was a link to reorder my membership and it took me to a page where I could update my card.

Unfortunately that didn't restore my membership and customer service says that they can't renew my digital subscription, I have to resubscribe. Only problem is that there's no option to resubscribe to digital only.

Now, most vendors I deal with in that type of situation send an email saying that they can't process the credit card on file, please update the card. FW didn't do that. They just immediately canceled the membership. (Customer Service insisted that an email is always sent first, but I've checked my inbox, deleted folder and spam folder. There's no email.)

Remember that you can keep it as long as you keep your membership current pledge? It seems to me that they grabbed on to the first excuse to cancel without giving a chance to correct what has become a all too common issue with credit cards, namely they often get reissued. Can you off the top of your head list out every single place your credit card is on file? In particular the ones who only use it once a year?

Yes, I admit that they were acting within the letter of their pledge. If they were hoping I'd sign up for the unlimited plan, they're out of luck. And as I mentioned, I don't want the print subscription. So they've gone from receiving some revenue to no revenue. And left a very bad impression of Fine Woodworking and Taunton in the process.

So if you still have a digital only membership, be SURE to keep your credit card updated. It seems that they're looking for any excuse to clear out those subscriptions.

Cliff

[glenn bradley]

Thank you so much. It would have caught me in a few months. Got it updated.

[Todd Zucker]

That is unfortunate. They seem to have made some really good improvements to their Website in the past few weeks.

[Frank Pratt]

I had a very similar situation with my FWW subscription. It's an incredibly short sighted policy, forcing subscribers to accept an environmentally costly print magazine that they don't want. I raised a stink about it & eventually was offered my original subscription. By that point my feeling was that a company that had a policy like that didn't deserve my business, so now instead of getting $35/year from me, they get nothing. I very rarely even go to their website anymore.

And while I'm on a role here, another example of how Taunton is suffering from bad to nonexistent leadership, is how they let their Knots forum die a slow death. for years it gradually became populated almost entirely by spam posts. One of the admins would periodically post about a new update that would eliminate the spam, but it never did. The last time I visited it a few years ago, there had only been a handful of posts made by legit members.

[Bernie Kopfer]

I doubt the individuals actually doing the woodworking and the editors seeking writers etc are the ones making these membership decisions. While they strive to put together a readable and useful magazine Tauton management is sabotaging their efforts. Sad to have watched that happen over the past few years. Knots was a thriving forum much like SMC until they changed the way it could be navigated making it difficult and cumbersome. The readership and posters fell off immediately and it is barely functioning now.

[Derek Cohen]

Frank, I had a similar thing happen about 18 months ago (changed credit card and the subscription was not renewed). I contacted an editor, and my low cost on-line subscription was renewed.

Incidentally, Knots is alive and well. Thriving, it seems.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Cliff Polubinsky]

Frank, I had a similar thing happen about 18 months ago (changed credit card and the subscription was not renewed). I contacted an editor, and my low cost on-line subscription was renewed.

Incidentally, Knots is alive and well. Thriving, it seems.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Derek,

I'm the OP. Could you please tell me how to reach the editor? I'm not holding out a lot of hope, but it's worth a try.

Cliff

[Derek Cohen]

Cliff, contact Ben Strano.

Here is a link to the discussion I started there: https://www.finewoodworking.com/foru...rated-with-fww

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Meryl Logue]

I was on that thread… just connected the Derek dot ha ha. I had the digital-only version. I finally canceled everything. The big reason was reading that thread (I think I saw a couple year’s worth of posts… lots and lots) and just SMH at the constant circular motion. Plus I hated being bombarded with ads, told to log in etc., all on the first page AND logged in. On top of it, the digital version is a PDF of the print version, so on a phone it was an eye-crossing experience to (try to) read. In 4 years I never read one magazine’s worth of articles. I asked myself if I was able to claim it as a donation to a nonprofit… nope. Fine. When I submitted my request to cancel, I got no question or anything… I got an almost immediate response that it was canceled and a credit issued on my card!

I did not feel appreciated even a tiny bit.