Sorry Lorna, but this email brightened a rather quiet late evening in
the hospital library. Brilliantly narrated.

Two things,

1) Did Blackwell actually check with you that you in July that you
actually wanted this again - if not - mmmm should you not pay your
subscription agent........???
2) Your birthday is the day after mine....

Andy Richardson
Health Specialist Librarian
Colchester Hospital University Foundation Trust


-----Original Message-----
From: An informal open list set up by UKSG - Connecting the Information
Community [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of McNally,
Lorna
Sent: 15 December 2009 16:13
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [LIS-E-RESOURCES] T&F (Tired & Fed up) - cancellation woes


Extract from the diary of a serials librarian...

August 10th 2009
An invoice arrives on my desk for "World of Learning" for 2010. Note - I
must check the usage of this!

August 12th 2009
Email T&F for usage statistics of "World of Learning" - error message
received. Strange.

August 13th 2009
Email again for usage statistics asking that my query be directed to the
appropriate team as I had already received an error message from my
previous email. No response.

27th August 2009
Emailed T&F again BEGGING for usage statistics - no response.

24th September 2009
Email a named person pleading for usage statistics for World of
Learning.

29th September 2009
Success! A response from T&F.  I now have usage statistics for World of
Learning.  It is not happy reading.  Only 4 searches in the period
January - September 2009.  BUT! I am told in the same email that our
agent, Blackwell, has already renewed our subscription for 2010 in JULY!

30th September 2009
Confirmation from T&F that our usage is indeed low.

1st October 2009
Email to Blackwell instructing them to cancel this subscription.  3
months notice. Surely this is enough?

1st October 2009
Email from Blackwell that they will take care of this.  Phew.

2nd October 2009
Clarification email from Blackwell that they can only cancel from 2011!
15 months notice. What?*?!

6th and 7th October 2009
Emails to our known contacts at T&F asking for help.

13th and 14th October 2009
Various emails between Blackwell, T&F and me.  T&F are looking for a way
to 'trick the system' to allow the cancellation.

14th October 2009
Email from T&F eBooks & Online Sales Executive at Taylor & Francis. He
is meeting with the Blackwell's rep 'in the near future' to discuss the
matter further with her.

16th November 2009
I email T&F eBooks & Online Sales Executive to check on whether the
cancellation has been processed.

19th November 2009
Birthday.  Another year older.

20th November 2009
I email again to check on the status of our cancellation of World of
Learning.

23rd November 2009
Email from T&F eBooks & Online Sales Executive that he and the
Blackwell's rep are to meet on Friday 11th December to "discuss this
matter".

10th December 2009
Decision day tomorrow.  I hope T&F see sense and let us cancel our 2010
subscription to World of Learning.

11th December 2009
D-Day

The following is a quote from the T&F eBooks & Online Sales Executive,
"I'm sorry to say that we will not refund or cancel your subscription
for 2010. We cannot issue refunds on payments already received given the
length of time that elapsed since the subscription was purchased and the
point at which you requested cancellation. Regarding your low usage
statistics, I must allude to the words of my colleagues at Blackwells:
'had this been a printed book we would have been unable to accept its
return because its lack of use did not justify its inclusion in your
collection.'"

His point is correct, any book that was not used would not be refunded.
That would be ridiculous.  If a book is not used, it is withdrawn and
future editions are not purchased.

Surely the point about online subscriptions is that we can check usage.
If a subscription is not used then it is cancelled for the forthcoming
year.  I believe I gave over 3 months notice of cancellation after
waiting quite some time for usage statistics from T&F, surely this is
enough time?

Finally, just a small matter, colleagues may be interested to note that
we found incorrect information contained in 'World of Learning'.

Yours,

T&F (Tired and Fed up).

Lorna

Lorna McNally | Librarian | Information Services |
Glasgow Caledonian University | Cowcaddens Road | Glasgow | G4 0BA
Telephone: 0141 273 1134 | Email: [log in to unmask]





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