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Hello all, You may remember that last year I highlighted the problems we had with Pediatrics, in particular their refusal to grant any form of grace period to subscribers while payments are being sorted out. This year I was saddened to find that the situation has not improved one bit. The American Academy of Pediatrics, who publish this journal decided to change their pricing model last summer. We informed our subscription agent in good time that we knew about the changing pricing model, and confirmed which tier we were on. We also took the opportunity to move to e-only. On the 15th February, we found we could not access current content in this journal. On telephoning the publisher (and I have to say, their customer services department is not the best in the world) we were told that no record could be located of a University of Leeds subscription. Now I find that although payment has been sent by our subscription agent, the EXACT SAME excuse as last year for not processing payment has been put forward by the publisher. Our agent has confirmed that payment for the correct rate has been sent on to the publisher. However they have been unable to process the payment due to the fact "that they close down all Financial Transactions for the Months end in order to rebalance their finances, and so therefore if the cheque is passed to their processing team within this 'closed down period' they are unable to process this". This means that they are not accepting credit card payments either, which our agent has offered to do in order to get access back for us quicker. They have also advised that once a payment has been processed it can take a further TWO WEEKS for access to begin as this has to been set up by a Data Entry Team. They are unable to set up grace access during this time even though it is their fault they are unable to process a payment. I am extremely frustrated about this, especially since when I highlighted their financial procedures last year, I was told by the publisher there would not be a repeat in 2007. Frankly, it is pathetic, and yet another example of poor practice in the e-journal world. Louise Louise Cole Electronic Resources Team Leader Health Sciences Library Level 7 Worsley Building University of Leeds Leeds LS2 9JT Tel: 0113 34 35502 Fax: 0113 34 34381 E-mail: [log in to unmask]