Apologies for my delayed response...we have had very similar experiences with ASM at King's College
London. We subscribe direct and have been without access for over a month (at least). I have
pleaded for grace access to be set up but ASM absolutely refuse to show any goodwill (even though
we have subscrcibed to their titles for years). Our academics are understandably very unhappy -
and I am slowly losing the will to live.

A response from ASM would be much appreciated.

Catrin

On Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:14:26 +0100 Sarah Pearson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hello there,
>
> Many thanks for all you responses to date both on and off list regarding
> ASM access and communication problems. I should now mention that we have
> had access re-instated to ASM journals. However, to date Swets have not
> received any confirmation from ASM that access has been restored. We
> only found this out ourselves by doing a daily check on the status. To
> summarise the issues that have been highlighted on and off list, they
> are as follows:
>
> - no or little grace period over 2007 and 2008 renewals
> - access being removed despite payments being made for 2008 in Oct 2007
> - no communication from ASM with subscription agent or customers
> directly
> - no willingness to compensate customers for sustained lack of access
> - inability to recognise renewals or customer orders in ASM internal
> systems
> - problems processing payments at ASM
>
> From our perspective members of my team have spent a lot of time trying
> to resolve the problems and also placating users who have lost access.
>
> I would welcome a response to the list from ASM to explain why renewals
> are so problematic in terms of loss of access.
>
> Best Wishes
> Sarah
>
> Sarah Pearson
> E-Resources & Serials Coordinator
> Library Services
> University of Birmingham
> Edgbaston
> Birmingham
> B15 2TT
> Tel: 0121 414 5825
> Email: [log in to unmask]
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: An informal open list set up by the UK Serials Group
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tracey Reeves
> Sent: 17 April 2008 03:08
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: ASM package - access problems
>
>
> Hi Sarah,
>
> We've been subscribing since 2005, and subscribe directly via ASM. Our
> 2007
> renewal was a bit of a nightmare, and I found that they weren't willing
> to
> grant us grace access until the payment had reached them, as well as
> this
> the customer service reps didn't seem to know what they were doing, or
> how
> to find customer orders on the system properly. It appears we have had
> trouble right from the beginning with loss of access in Feb/March of
> each
> year.
>
> For 2008, I requested the invoice myself directly from them early in
> December of last year (definitely don't wait for a renewal notice). Both
> for
> 2007 and 2008 they were unable to locate our order on their system, our
> ship
> to address and whether or not you are a member or non member was
> successful
> in assisting them, invoice number also helped. Our access was not lost
> this
> year. Also, definitely ask for EFT details and transfer directly into
> their
> bank account (or advise your agent to do so), it speeds up the process
> and
> eliminates cheques being lost at the subscription office. Using a sub
> agent
> should eliminate the need for having to contact them each year to renew,
> ours at least work on an automatical renewal process unless they are
> advised
> otherwise.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Tracey Reeves
> Electronic Resources Officer
> Barr Smith Library
>
> University of Adelaide, AUSTRALIA 5005
> Ph : +61 8 8303 4783
> Fax : +61 8 8303 8097
> e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
> CRICOS Provider Number 00123M
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>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sarah Pearson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, 17 April 2008 1:00 am
> Subject: ASM package - access problems
>
> Hello there,
>
> We have been subscribing to the American Society for Microbiology e-
> journals package since the beginning of 2007. However, in both years, we
> have had significant problems with lack of e-access, processing payments
> and
> unwillingness to compensate for lack of access. In 2007 when we set up
> the
> subscription, we did not get access until nearly 3 months into the year.
> This was due to problems processing the payment as they refunded us in
> error
> and then had to re-invoice. In 2008 we have been trying to get access
> reinstated to the package for the last month. However, to be fair, we
> don't
> know whether access has been unavailable since Jan 08.
>
> In 2007 we asked the publisher for reimbursement for the lack of access
> we
> had for 2 months and they refused. I am going to progress reimbursement
> for
> this year as well but am not confident.
>
> We have our subscription via Swets and both they and we have tried to
> communicate with ASM without much success.
>
> Is anyone else experiencing problems on this scale with ASM? At the
> moment
> we are paying for nothing!
> Many thanks in advance.
>
> Sarah
> Sarah Pearson
> E-Resources & Serials Coordinator
> Library Services
> University of Birmingham
> Edgbaston
> Birmingham
> B15 2TT
> tel: 0121 414 5825
> email: [log in to unmask]

----------------------
Catrin Sly
Electronic Journals
ISS - Archives & Information Management
King's College London
Information Services Centre
New Hunt's House
Guy's Campus
London SE1 1UL
020 7848 6033
[log in to unmask]