Poor service provided to long-standing subscribers

National Geographic is our favourite magazine and we have been subscribers for at least 30 years. Last year we responded to a call to renew our subscription well before the due date to show our support for the magazine and the excellent work they do in terms of educating the public. Not only do we read the magazine for our own pleasure, Bette uses it as a resource for a postgraduate writing course at a local university. In December 2020, National Geographic changed their policy with respect to access to their digital material and suddenly we were no longer to read any of the material online. All attempts to link our subscription to the digital access have failed despite our credentials have been verified. This is not only disappointing on a personal level; it has cut off access to valuable teaching materials as well. We have contacted the international Customer Care Line via telephone at least 12 times starting in December 2020. Consultants have failed to resolve the problem despite promises that the issue would be “escalated” to a supervisor. We have sent 20 emails to the addressed *** and *** in an attempt to resolve the lack of digital access. In most cases we received a computer-generated reply containing a list of FAQs. Several different consultants have sent us instructions via email to update our credentials asking us to submit screenshots of the error message which is returned on the website, www.ngmservice.com, when we attempt to link our subscription to the digital access portal. The situation has deteriorated to the extent that our last email in response to Job *** has not even been acknowledged despite our having sent it twice. According to the terms of our subscription, we have paid for the printed magazine as well as being able to access all the online materials. We are posting a message on this forum as the formal channels of communication with the magazine have reached a dead end. We hope that our message will reach someone at National Geographic who can take the necessary action to link our subscription to allow us access to the digital content. Bette and Selwyn Davidowitz, Cape Town, South Africa.