Salon Premium: Help with the subscription process
If you're already a subscriber click here for our subscriber help page.
If you're not a subscriber or are having trouble subscribing please review the following list of help questions.
What is Salon Premium?How does Premium work?
Are there any special offers?
Can I subscribe with a check or money order?
Can I subscribe with PayPal?
When I try to subscribe the system gives me an error mentioning an "unknown algorithm".
Do you offer Premium articles and features on PDAs?
Am I subscribed?
I received an AVS error saying that you couldn't process my credit card.
Do you offer student or senior discounts?
Do you offer discounts to large organizations?
My question isn't answered here, how can I get more help?
What is Salon Premium?
Salon Premium is an an online subscription to the best that Salon has to offer, daily exclusives from our columnists and reporters in an advertising free environment as well as special features like audio books, mp3 music mixes and more. If you're interested just click here to see the full list of features or click here to subscribe.
How does Salon Premium work?
It's easy. Once you've subscribed, you can have your browser save your log-in information so you don't have to type it in each visit. You can set up your Premium subscription to access it both at home and at work.
Are there any special offers?
We occasionally offer limited time offers as subscription incentives. You can check our special offers page to see if there's a current offer.
Can I subscribe with a check or money order?
Yes, just fill out our check and money order form here, print it out and send it in with your check.
Can I subscribe with PayPal?
Currently we're not offering subscriptions through PayPal but we plan to do so in the future. If you'd like to subscribe with a paper check right now you can do so through this page.
When I try to subscribe the system gives me an error mentioning an "unknown algorithm".
It sounds like you've encountered a problem that a couple of browsers (usually IE 4.5 on a Macintosh) have with our "secure server" technology.
There are three things you can try:
(1) You could upgrade your browser to IE 5, which should work fine.
(2) You could use a different web browser, such as Netscape or Mozilla.
(3) If all else fails there's full instructions for subscribing by sending us your payment through the postal system here.
Do you offer Premium articles and features on PDAs?
Yes! Salon's AvantGo channel is now available to PDA ("Personal Digital Assistant," like Palm devices) and wireless device users who also subscribe to Salon Premium at our $35 annual level. Those subscribers can also access a WML feed for cell phones and wireless devices. To find out more, visit our PDA page.
You can also read Premium articles on your PDA by copying our plain text daily download (you can find an example here) into your memo pad and hot synching. We know that it's a bit laborious but it works.
Am I subscribed?
If you never got to our final "thank you" screen and never got a confirmation e-mail then your subscription was never processed -- and we did not charge your credit card.
If your subscription wasn't successful you most likely hit an "Incomplete Form" page with a notation in the right margin in red on what field was left incomplete. There's also a small possibility that you hit a freak connectivity error and that your enrollment information wasn't delivered.
In either case the best thing to do is to try and subscribe again through either our online form here or our check form here.
I received an AVS error saying that you couldn't process my credit card.
The AVS is a credit card check that our bank requires us to do. It tries to match either the zip code or the address that you entered with the information they have on file from your bank. If for instance you've moved or the address/zip for your credit card is not the same as what you entered this could cause a failure here.
Our credit card verification system occasionally has difficulty processing international postal codes so that could also be the source of the problem.
The first thing to do is double check that the information you entered in our subscription form is the same information on your credit card bill.
If it is the same information then you'll need to write our Premium Help team with a detailed description of what's going wrong including your operating system and browser and we'll get back to you within two working days.
Do you offer student or senior discounts?
We don't offer any discounts to individuals because we arrived at the $45 annual subscription fee for Salon Premium after consciously trying to provide the service at a price that was modest and financially manageable to the widest possible segment of our readership. It works out to about 12 cents/day and, since we're much closer to the newspaper model in that we publish 10-20 stories daily, it's a real deal when compared to a daily newspaper subscription (which works out to $10-$20/month).
We also offer a $6 monthly subscription if you'd prefer to pay by the month. You can email us for more information.
Please also consider using our free Site Pass to read articles without paying but after watching a short ad.
Do you offer discounts to large organizations?
Yes, if you represent an organization that would like to subscribe to Salon Premium please contact our Premium help team for further information.
My question isn't answered here, how can I get more help?
If you're not encountering one of these problems or the solutions here don't work for you please check our FAQ for our most complete list of questions and answers. You can also use our help tool to find answers to common questions and to contact our help team.
