For me, my paid online Choice subscription it is well worth the money and I personally always refer to Choice before making any of my substantial purchases. As an example, in the past year alone I have a purchased a new dishwasher, washing machine and a large TV and have chosen them all based on the Choice guides.
If you paid for a newspaper subscription it would probably cost you more than the $8 a month I pay. I think it is a bit cheeky for people to not want to pay anything and expect free access to the results.
I subscribe to the paper copy, and I resent the fact that I would need to pay again to access Choice info online! It is also sometimes very difficult to reconcile info provided online with that provided in the magazine. It seems the different ‘publishers’ do not talk to each other!!! I wish they got that sorted and gave paper subscribers a ‘special’ price to look at one particular article.
I pay for the online Choice and don’t get the magazine because I find it easier to do my searching online than thumbing through magazines, not to mention storing the magazines.
I may be wrong but the articles are probably the same online as the magazine anyway.
The online articles may be more up-to-date — some don’t seem to make it into the magazine at all. And, there seems to be little correlation between the two: when I search online, find an article and then try to find it in the magazine I rarely find ANYTHING!
My husband likes to read the magazine as well (he’s 84) - and we don’t buy that many things anymore… but when I do need a replacement, I would like to see what Choice says.
So Brendan you’re saying that if we have a magazine subscription, we have to pay to read online reviews and updates, or pay more? That explains why I can’t read the Toaster reviews. Thanks.
I have just paid the annual fee, but when I try to open and read a review, I receive the message that it is available only to members with a subscription. I cannot find any information on this in my membership section. Thank you for your assistance.
When you say you have just paid for your fee, was it for online access or magazine, or both?
Do you have your userid and password set up to enable logon to the Choice site?
Possibly if you do there may be a processing delay in registering your details.
I merged your post into this relevant older topic.
As @gregr posted there are multiple versions of subscription, magazine, on-line, and both. To view the online materials you need one of the on-line accessible subscriptions.
That is another aspect. One needs to log-in to the online site to see member content. If your subscription is one that includes online you should have received an email to set up your username+password. If you have not, check your spam folder just in case.
If you are still having trouble (or chose the ‘wrong’ subscription) ring customer service ( 1800 069 552 ) to get it sorted.
We hope to see you active on the Community, and post again here if you need more help.
When someone becomes a member of Choice, will the cost of membership renewals be pegged at the original fee or subject to increases?
With most annual or quarterly membership fees, there is a general expectation that later fees may higher.
Below is a screenshot from the Choice membership option page. Whilst this example relates to annual digital membership, other options contain similar wording.
This implies that the renewal price will never be more than $83.95. However, the choice T&Cs state “All our prices are in Australian dollars. We may change the price of your membership from time to time but we’ll let you know before this happens.”
The two references are conflicting, which is correct?
It is $83.95 for a year if you pay now, the price after the year is up is not mentioned in the passage you quoted. In describing paying by the year the price is this year, next year it may be different, if it is different you will be notified, the notice re annual payments will be changed accordingly and you get the chance to accept the new rate or cancel before your next renewal. This infers the price to you will not rise during the period you have paid for in advance, it does not say the price will never rise.
I agree with @syncretic that the two are not in conflict. The first statement could be seen as somewhat ambiguous, but it doesn’t actually say there’ll never be any increases. The terms and conditions (which one should read before committing to paying for something) make it clear that the fee can be changed, and how, and with what warning.
Your statements are not correct. In case you missed it, the website states “Your payment method will be charged a recurring $83.95 fee every 12 months”. This means that if someone joins now they should be charged $83.95 today, $83.95 next year, $83.95 the year after etc.
It is a different discussion in the wording was “Your payment method will be charged a recurring $83.95* fee every 12 months” or “Your payment method will be charged a recurring fee every 12 months”.
Additionally, the heading to the quoted section specifies that the Ongoing cost will be $83.95 annually, meaning that that cost applies to multiple years. If it was referring just to the initial payment it should say something like “First year Cost: $83.95” or “Current annual cost $83.95”.
It is your choice to ignore the other sections of the T&C that modify that statement. It is common for sections of such documents to modify other sections, if you insist each section must be interpreted alone you can but I don’t think it will lead you to understand what will happen next time there is a price rise.
I agree with your point. But not the first time and won’t be the last time a Web site is sloppy with information presented.
Misleading or just wrong information can always be explained away by should have read the fine print in the T&Cs.
Although we know that in practice the Choice subscription is subjected to a price increase on renewal, saying that…'your method of payment will be charged $83.95 fee every 12 months until you cancel your membership…’ is clearly stating that the price charged will be $83.95 until cancellation.
Apologies, I thought the fact that I quoted the relevant section of the T&Cs in an earlier post might have indicated that I have not chosen to ignore the said section.
Whilst it is common for T&Cs to add detail to other information it is not common practice for them to clearly contradict other information. In such cases, is there any law to say which wording should take precedence?
Thanks for clarifying this issue.
@BrendanMays - Are you able to confirm whether the current wording (showing a different cost) was used prior to the most recent price rise. If so, after the increase has Choice continued to charge members the older price or was their membership fee increased?
The use of the word ongoing in connection with the annual cost of membership clearly indicates no future changes (up or down). This is what ongoing means. The fact that this is contradicted elsewhere in the T&C does not override this fact; it merely confuses it.
My training in legal drafting says that the use of this word should be avoided, perhaps to be replaced by a paragraph or a page or two of ifs and buts. Which would solve all possible problems when dealing with lawyers. On the other hand, it would confuse the heck out of everyone else, most of whom, I think, know that all subscription arrangements are subject to occasional price adjustments. In the absence of empirical evidence to the contrary (e.g. user polls), it appears that the choice is thus between incomprehensible precision and ambiguous clarity.
If I were writing the copy, and if changes were deemed necessary, I would keep the word ongoing, but add an asterisk pointing to the relevant part of the T&C.
