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Has anyone else had the same problem that I encountered while trying to subscribe to the Tico Times? I entered my credit card information as I’ve done hundreds of times when making purchases over the internet, but I kept getting a message saying that my credit card number is not valid. I tried my secondary credit card number and got the same message. Finally I GUESSED that perhaps I shouldn’t be adding the spaces that appear between the four digit groupings of my credit card number. At last, I didn’t get the invalid credit card message, but the next window that popped up didn’t say anything about my subscription being okayed. The url in my address window had “error” as part of the address so I guess my subscription didn’t go through.
If they don’t want the spaces between the four digit groupings on credit cards, they should specify that in their directions, or at least shrink the field so that there isn’t room to include the spaces. EVERY other form that I have used has done this. I have spent nearly an hour now trying to subscribe to the Tico Times and it appears to be time wasted.
It seems as though my best source of information about Costa Rica is welovecostarica.com. The problem is I was trying to subscribe for my mom, who is 93 years old and feels more comfortable with newsprint than with computers. Scott, you are still a young man. Ever think of starting a hard copy newspaper to compete with the Tico Times? You could be a publishing magnate. You’d probably have half the forum members volunteering to write for you.
editer
Now I have to eat some crow. I just got an e-mail from Tico Times saying that my subscription did go through. It would have been helpful for this to be acknowledged on their site after I submitted, but all’s well that ends well. I still think that Scott should look into creating a hard copy newspaper. With the resources he has and the forum members who seem to enjoy writing cyber-reams on wlcr.com, the endeavor could take off.
Let me know if you need any other career advice, Scott.
editer
I had explored the possibility of our own magazine but 1: Getting information out of people is not easy and 2: As you can see from our site there is NO PAID ADVERTISING so creating and producing a magazine for $10,000+ per issue is not a financially attractive proposition for me.
We are building a new real estate business and website which is 100% Spanish and we’re also re-evaluating the direction in which WeLoveCostaRica.com is moving.
We will be making some changes that we feel will benefit our VIP Members in the near future.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comAs always, Scott, you are about two steps ahead of me. Now I want to share another chagrin on my part. I received an e-mail from Tico Times apologizing for the difficulty I had subscribing. I replied with my own apology for my terse complaint. I used my broken Spanish because the person I responded to had a Hispanic name and his apology was written in imperfect English (though it was much better than my attempts in his native tongue).
Then about ten minutes later, I received a phone call from Costa Rica. A very gracious lady called to say that they sent their webmaster my e-mail and that they would work to incorporate my suggestions. This lady spoke perfect English with a Spanish accent. I had assumed that the staff at the Tico Times was probably American, but I was obviously mistaken. We had a short but pleasant talk and I felt that the people at the Times were genuinely concerned with my complaint.
So the lesson for me is this: If I want to resettle in the Pura Vida, I’ll have to lose my gringo impatience. I thought that I was more patient than the average American, but I can see that I have a lot to learn.
editer
An excellent, very cheap ‘learning experience’ for you ‘editer’ and yes! Would have to agree about being more patient.
I had a similar encounter with someone recently who failed to find financing for a property he had agreed to buy and who’s legal contract clearly stipulated that he could lose his deposit if that was the case… He flipped out and I told him that ‘Hang in there!’ and we’ll see what we can do for you.
After speaking with him, the developer agreed to return the deposit – which he was not legally obliged to do – and which, I should add was a very small amount of money, but things like this do take time here.
I told this person to be patient, told him that we had seen the cheque made out in his name sitting on the desk of the woman responsible for all payments just waiting for the correct signature but no! He found himself an attorney and sued.
Bottom line?
The attorney makes money, the client pays this attorney because based on his totally irrelevant experience in the USA where litigation is the way to go and what he does not appreciate is that he could spend the next ten years communicating with this attorney, spending at a minimum ten times as much money as he ‘may’ get back and all because he could not wait a couple of weeks for one of the principals to sign the cheque…
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comHello Editer… I learned from your post and waited patiently, the subscription came through without a hitch. However, I assumed that by subscribing I would have access to the full text of the Tico Times and this is not the case. When I try to access the “More in the print edition” section I get a page telling me to do one of the following 1: pay more for a PDF version, 2: Subscribe, 3: Pick up a copy at a news stand. I’m not really sure why paying for a six month subscription doesn’t entitle me to view the paper in it’s entirety since I have met the requirement of option 2.
I enjoy the paper but I do feel that they are not very forthcoming about what you get for your money by subscribing. I’ve emailed them about it and will post what I learn if anyone else has had a similar experience and is interested.
Enjoy!
D&A
Olympia, WAYeah, David. That is disappointing, but it’s pretty common. A lot of e-publications do the same thing. It would be nice if one could subscribe to both the hard copy and the pdf version at a special rate.
editer
David… That’s quite usual for online/hard print newspapers… sucks I know.. but…
There is another online newspaper that’s quite informative although sometimes fluffy is amcostarica… their webpage is their name .com it’s a daily mon to fri and does provide some insight into what’s going on. Others you could check out are insidecostarica.com and thebeachtimes.com have fun!
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