The Age digital–confusing and frustrating

I appreciate that The Age – and other papers – are doing it tough.  I am going to pay them for access to their content. But the process and offerings are confusing.

They basically have 2 ‘digital’ offerings: Website Only or Website plus Tablet. I went for the Website plus Tablet. At $1 for the first month it, was a great deal (then only $25 pm after that)

But what don’t I get?

My first issue is they tell me what I do have access to but – relative to the printed paper – it’s not obvious what I don’t have access to.  It may be buried in an FAQ (which I couldn’t find) or it may assume that somehow I know every section that the printed paper offers, so I can deduce. But it should be front and centre. There’s a line about crosswords being only iPad (I’m Android).

Unlimited?

Adding to the confusion they have included the ambiguous word unlimited in their descriptions – always a dangerous line to walk, particularly in the context of the previous issue.

We value your questions….then ignore them

They aren’t responsive. I was directed to read more at http://knownoboundaries.smh.com.au/blog/digital_subscriptions/  Which I did. That page has a comments section, using which I asked similar questions (see at end of this blog post for copy) and I got acknowledgement that it was “awaiting moderation.”  This was 3 weeks ago – July 14th. And still nothing. Not published. Not answered.

Can’t downgrade your subscription

Until I can clear things up, I decided to go back to the Website Only one for $15 PM. Even then they don’t have a ‘downgrade’ option and their (late!) email said they had to cancel my current one and wait till the next billing period..and I had to manually re-sign for the $15 one. Someone didn’t do their planning well.

I certainly hope they improve this as I want them to succeed and I want to pay them.

Questions of July 14th 2013

Hello. I’m trialling the “All Digital + Weekend” (The Age) but a few things are not clear to do with the Android Tablet app:

1) Is it ALL content from The Age, including all Green Guide (etc) content such as TV Guides?

2) It is regularly updated as stories break?

3) Is it primarily aimed at those who want to ‘download, disconnect and read later’ or is it ‘streaming’ (you must be live on the Internet to read). It seems to be a hybrid. I may have missed it, but it’s not clear when a story is ‘online’. I found myself with no connection (wifi-only tablet, on the train) with some stories readable, but others telling me I have to connect when I try and read them)

Thanks!

Note: I corrected the original ‘are clear’ to ‘are not clear’ with a 2nd comment. Or tried to!