Choice Magazine Option to Opt Out of Post Delivery

Thank you. I should have added that I had no problems downloading the PDF version of the May edition and see this as a wonderful opportunity for ACA to save costs.

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I can only see the April magazine.
I have been a member for so long that Iā€™m a voting member, and a bit cranky to find out that others can see what I cannot!

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I have sent off a request to Choice customer service as to why as a subscriber I do not have access to the online copies of the magazines.
The automated response is they aim to reply within 3 working days.
I await a response.
Not looking much different to the customer response from many companies that many complain about in these topics.

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Hi all,
Thanks for the comments and suggestions. Signing up to a CHOICE membership means that you have full access to the choice.com.au website, including all reviews, buying guides and investigations. You can add-on the monthly print magazine to your online subscription at an additional cost, which covers printing, mailing and distribution. Choosing this option gives you access to download PDF copies of the print mag via the site, as is being discussed here.

While there is a small amount of content unique to the print mag, such as some reader letters, the vast majority of things that appear in the print magazine also appear on the website. Thereā€™s also some cases where weā€™re able to extend content on the website as the same space restrictions do not apply. We donā€™t want anyone to feel that they are missing out on information though, as this is certainly not the case. We understand people have personal preferences for different formats and we try to support this as best we can.

I will most certainly pass on your idea @Resonate, to have a PDF only option rather than a mail out. Weā€™re also happy to help out with any individual memberships enquiries, the quickest way is to give our customer service a call.

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I suspect there are some problems with the gateway to this download as I do not receive the printed magazine but I can download the PDF which apparently I should not be able to do.

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I suggest the variability of member experiences needs to be fed back into an audit of how the entitlements database deploys. Some members see more than they should, other less, and some in-between, or so it seems based on the posts in this topic. A samplingā€¦

But if one does not know it is broken if it is broken rather than just misunderstood what they should ā€˜seeā€™?

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Yes but @BrendanMays, you have explained what should happen. What has not been explained is what is actually happening.
I will not be satisfied until it has been explained why I get no access to the online magazine, when others do.

Well here is a response from Choice support:

Silvana (CHOICE Customer Service)

May 25, 2021, 15:01 GMT+10
Hi Greg,

Thank you for getting in touch.

To be able to download a PDF format is a different membership package its Digital CHOICE plus $119.80.

With this membership package you will be able to download the magazine on our website in your profile and
you will have full online access as well but no magazines will be mailed.

At the moment you have CHOICE magazine $86.00 and CHOICE Online $10.90 if you combine this membership to
CHOICE PLUS its $119.95 annually.

If you would like to change your membership please contact us on 1800 069 552.

Please let us know if thereā€™s anything else we can assist you with.

There is nothing on Choiceā€™s site about a thing called ā€œdigital choice plusā€

So I pay basically the same as now, but loose the printed copies, if I want a PDF copy available.

What sort of scam is this? I am feeling ripped off.

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Well I have moved on from a Customer Service rep, to the supervisor in trying to get a straight answer on subscription options to get access to the PDFs of the magazines.
The story so far:
If you are a magazine subscriber, you get no online, and no PDFs.
If you are a online subscriber, you get no printed magazine, and no PDFs.
If you are a magazine PLUS online you get access to the PDFs but no printed magazine.
Makes absolutely no sense to me, and I will keep trying to get some sort of sensible answer.

Iā€™ wondering if those who are Online only but can see the PDF mag were full subscribers at some point? I never have been, since moving online. When I was getting the print mag it was well before online was an option.

Yes I was a hardcopy subscriber. I was pondering the same possibility, that when I had the hardcopy discontinued the softcopy continued with the online access.

I do apologise once again for any frustration or confusion weā€™ve caused. I know that it is receiving attention from CHOICE leadership, and itā€™s our goal to ensure all the available options are made clear and to give people as much preference as we can facilitate when accessing CHOICE content.

If you donā€™t have access to download PDFs, access to the print mag, or youā€™re experiencing any difficulty with your current membership options, I would encourage you to contact our customer service so we can assist.

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It would still be helpful to provide here as well as on the Choice membership site a matrix showing explicit subscription ā€˜titlesā€™ across the top, and what is included down the first column. The magazines would be one liners. Where does ā€˜downloadable PDFsā€™ come in?

For clarity an example from bitdefender enumerating what free and paid products do.

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I pass mine on. Have had a couple join because of it. Used to put them in medical centres. They were happy for this. Now no more mags in receptions so thereā€™s always someone who will take them. I spread the love around!

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Choice customer support have explained the various subscription options, and they have offered to switch me to the one that gives me access to both printed and online magazine.
As it turns out, it will be a bit less than my current ā€˜legacyā€™ subscriptions. Thanks team for timely correspondance.

Now Choice, why not put the subscription options, and what you get, on your website? I know you are good at it with the comparison tables with ticks and crosses showing features available or not.

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@BrendanMays is there any progress on the question of the anomalous access that seems to affect some subscribers but not others?

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+1 for this. Have been feeling rather frustrated, wanted to subscribe to Choice but got a hurdle that Choice staff wanted me to call them if i wanted the digital magazine :thinking:. I had to ask if it was an option as most of my subs are digital. I donā€™t want a forest to be chipped to print a magazine. Am stuck in prison hotel quarantine so wanted to subs to read about things (eg computer, mobile phones, car, health insurance, etc) I wanted to buy after quarantine release - canā€™t easily call when I donā€™t yet have an AUS mobile. Not really understand the rationale for Choice not putting the digital magazine subs on their website?

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Perhaps it is a work in progress to get the subscription options onto the website. Who knows? @BrendanMays has gone silent on this issue.
Maybe management needs some more ā€˜focusā€™ to tell them that this issue is still of interest to subscribers.

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Welcome @whichchoice to the Community.

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Choice operates on a tight budget, including their IT capabilities. Resources are mostly directed to tests and reports rather than operational and administrative matters from what I can discern. That is probably as it should be when a choice (no pun intended) has to be made about where to spend scarce dollars.

Choice subscription models and presentation on the net have been discussed and more than one Community/Choice member has made similar assertions that the current presentation is wanting.

To date the Choice response has been accepting that there are shortcomings, but seeing improvements seems to be like ā€˜waiting for Godotā€™ in their priorities. Every post such as your own reinforces a commonality that the constituency sees issues and they should address them by means other than ā€˜ring customer serviceā€™, and hopefully at some point the decision makers will see a critical mass and tag some dollars to raise the priority of getting it done.

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