ZINIO - Magazine Newsstand

This is a great app, it’s a shame the company operates like a scam business that gives you the runaround—DO NOT BUY OR SUBSCRIBE TO MAGAZINES THROUGH THEM. I would have returned as a subscriber at some point, but not after this experience. There is no information on the app to process or submit a subscription cancellation. When I submitted a request to cancel my subscriptions through a message portal (I would have preferred to have my own control to cancel within my own account settings), I received a communique back asking why I wished to cancel. I then responded back with my reason (no time to read)—which is really none of their business—if I choose to cancel, just process the cancellation, but if it helped them in some way and expedited my cancellation, so be it. They then responded that I must seek a refund through iTunes. I then had to provide a third follow-up response that I wasn’t seeking a refund (their first two responses clearly understood I wasn’t seeking a refund as they specifically asked why I was seeking a “cancellation”). Additionally, the instructions they did provide were not valid even if I had been seeking a refund. I then had to send a FOURTH message that I had enough of their nonsense and if another transaction occurs I’ll be submitting a complaint to my credit card along with notice of having canceled and that their business practices are deceptive. Only THEN did I receive a confirmation they would process the cancellation along with a patronizing closing in the message from a company representative to “Have a lovely day.”

I have always liked the Zinio functionality for reading magazines: there was one standardized method for traversing and reading the issues regardless of publisher. Now with the tablet age upon us -- ushered in by the ingenious and innovative Apple iPads -- Zinio now offers two different repertoires for reading and traversing magazines: the original (in which pages can be stretch-enlarged), and a newer one for magazines that want to offer videos and more sophisticated interactions (but where pages cannot be stretch-enlarged). And having all of one's purchased editions available in the Zinio cloud means that one can read issues on different devices depending on one's location. At home I enjoy reading my Zinio magazines on the big iMac desktop, but when traveling on an airplane, the iPad or the laptop are the way to go. Sometimes I've even read articles in Zinio's Text mode on my iPhone when in doctors' or dentists' waiting rooms. The back-lit photography in magazines on these devices is always stunning. Bravissimo!