Comments on: Zinio annoyances include new Microsoft video ads

By: breck lundin

breck lundin — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:18:12 +0000

Hidden cost of Zinio and other software that demands running some sort of monitoring process all the time. If installed on a laptop these things significantly decrease battery life. Because they are running all the time and phoning the home plant who knows how often, one can easily see a 10% - 20% decrease in battery life.

And since I suspect those most likely to go digital on their subscriptions are laptop owners/users one wonders if such readers are actually worth the overhead to the user.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 02 May 2006 10:02:33 +0000

I agree with Rick Kir and ZinioSuxBalls, I’ve never had a worse experience with a product before. Luckily I have a free subscription for 2 years from PC Mag.

Last time I reinstalled windows it took me 3 months to get zinio working again. I had the exact same problem as Rick, once I was able to get the mag, I wouldn’t be able to view it. Couldn’t even read the ones I already had. I can’t remember what I did to get it working, so if it happens again, I have to go through the same BS again. Hopefully it won’t take as long.

My biggest bitch is that you need to be online to view it. People with laptops should be able to read their mags whenever they want, riding a bus, at work, where ever they are. They paid for it, if you have the printed copy you can read it anywhere.

By: ZinioSuxBalls

ZinioSuxBalls — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 07:13:05 +0000

I totally agree with Rick Kir that Zinio’s customer sevice is totally pathetic. I have been subscribing to a couple of publications for some time. Back in the days of Reader Version 1.6 (for windows) you may have recieved some reply in a couple of days. Since the intoduction of Version 3+ reader and the “Ticket” system getting ANY support is a miracle. So far the only success I have had is by approaching the publisher directly - to which you seem to get instant replies and apologies from zinio - without approaching the publishers you will be totally ignored, even if you create 10+ tickets for the same problem over 3 months.

Not that the support people know how to fix any problems with their software anyhow. The usually just send an Automated FAQ style reply or in the event of a miracle and a “real” person responds they will tell you how to uninstall the reader manually and tell you to do a fresh install, which will fix it. Anything past that is beyond their capabilites. They will blame your “setup” if that fails….it seems that they have the opinion that their software is just perfect.

My advice is to stay away from this shitty company of morons and continue to buy your magazines from the newstands.

By: Rick Kir

Rick Kir — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 19:33:30 +0000

Zinio is awful. Every single issue, I have some problem with the software. Either it won’t recognize me, or it recognizes me but won’t download, or it will download but won’t let me read the issue that is legally mine to read. Their customer service is pathetic. It takes forever to get a response. And you have to fill out forms to contact them, which generates a ticket #, but then the site blocks you when you try to check the status of your tickets! I will not renew with Zinio, and in fact, I wish my subscription was already over, as everytime I get a Zinio notice, I realize it’s going to drain my time and energy just to deal with it. What a bad service. And it’s a shame, really, because if it just worked as advertised, I’d have a dozen subscriptions by now!

By: Paul Rezob

Paul Rezob — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 16:27:47 +0000

I have tried several of the digital magazines, including the PC Magazine w/Zinio. I’m not sure that any screen based magazine is a “dream come true”, but I recently started getting MAKE Magazine both in print and digitally. The digital version is provided by Texterity. What I really like about it is NO READER and NO DOWNLOAD. It works on my Mac (Safari) at home, on my PC at work (Firefox) and it works great. The quality is excellent (zooming in is truly awesome - much better than Zinio), and there is NO ANNOYING PAGE FLIPPY THING. Just the pages, and fast. Multimedia for me is fine, as long as I have a *choice* in the matter, I’m fine. See http://www.make-sample.com/make-sample/vol03/ and go in a few pages to see multimedia that you can *choose*…

By: David

David — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 17:06:37 +0000

I think publishers get quite a bit of money for those ads… if you complain directly to the publisher, they’ll like it, because then they’ll go to the advertiser and boost their price even more to play the ad automatically. So basically it’s a publisher decision, unless you universally disable it. Anyway I think it’s good for people to speak up about being annoyed (I agree with you.) I don’t know much about the whole customer service thing. In fact, I don’t speak for Zinio at all, I’m just a server engineer

~David @ Zinio

By: no1san

no1san — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 07:05:13 +0000

Thanks. First time I reply her and somebody is taking action
Nice. thanks

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 22:06:16 +0000

Just forwarded this entry to a friend of mine who works at Zinio. Hopefully he’ll reply here, but if not (with his permission), I’ll let you know how he responds

By: no1san

no1san — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 19:26:36 +0000

I like also the current Zinio service, I’ll hope they expand their business to Europe.
Does anyone know that kind of service in Europe ?

By: W.C. Varones

W.C. Varones — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 17:44:17 +0000

Bad move by the Times. They are going to decrease their readership far more than raise any revenues.

It’s arrogant for them to think their columnists are worth a premium when there is so much great content and opinion for free on the web.

http://wcvarones.blogspot.com/2005/09/farewell-gretchen-morgenson.html