Magazine Subscriptions FAQs We know you have questions before you buy products, whether it be over the Internet, or at your local shopping center. If the following FAQs do not fully address your questions or concerns about our magazine subscriptions, please feel free to email us. How do I use the shopping cart system? When will my magazine subscriptions start? Why does it take so long for my subscription to start? When should I renew my subscription? What do you mean by secure order form? Can I pay by credit card? by check? Where must I live to be able to order subscriptions from you? Who do I make the checks out to? Will the information I submit be kept confidential? Who do I contact for billing inquiries? What does "Student" and "Public" mean in the Notes column? Can any magazine be ordered as a gift subscription? Can you call me for my order? When will I be billed? Using the shopping cart system The shopping cart system is located at the Magazines page. Search for the magazines by using our categories or by letter. Simply click on the letter or category, and the magazines under that category or letter will appear. Adding magazines to your shopping cart is simple. Simply input the quantity of the magazine you desire, and then click the button to add the magazine to the shopping cart. To return to the category and letter list, click on the button and you will be returned to this page to continue with ordering magazines from other categories or letter groups. To remove a magazine from you shopping cart, click on the button, and then click on the button to remove the item from your cart. To check out and complete ordering of your items, click on the button and you will be forwarded to the order form. To complete the ordering of the magazine subscription after choosing a subscription, and then be forwarded to the check out page, first fill in your name and email on the first form. Then click on the "continue to secure order form" button to securely submit your personal and payment information on our secure order form. When magazine subscriptions will start. Magazine subscriptions generally take 6-12 weeks to start, depending on the frequency of the subscription, i.e. whether it is a weekly or monthly or bimonthly. During the busy christmas season, expect the starting time to take the longest simply because of the large amount of orders that are received by the publishers. If you ever have any questions or concerns about your order, simply contact us anytime. Why it takes a long time for magazine subscriptions to start. The majority of publishers use a small amount of sorting houses to take care of their orders. These sorting houses or clearing houses as they are sometimes called are responsible for carrying out the actual sorting and handling of all subscriptions and orders. In addition, most publishers also print their magazines months in advance, and only print enough for the specified amount of actual subscribers at the present time. For example, an order received by the publisher in January will not start until March since January's issues were printed up to three months before March. There is little difference in time whether you order through us, the publisher directly or a clearing house directly. The order actually only takes less than a week to arrive at the publisher, but than becuase of the pre-allocation of magazines for the next 2-3 months after the order is received means that new subscriptions cannot be picked up until up to 8-12 weeks later. When you should renew your magazine subscription. Subscriptions should be renewed 3-4 months before the subscription ends. To know when your subscription ends, simply look at the at the mail tag on the magazine cover with your address information, and there will be a date located somewhere above your name that will be the date when your subscription ends. Secure order form and Order Safety There has been much concern lately over the safety of ordering over the Internet with a credit card. This is why we have moved our order form to a secure server which uses what is call Secure Sockets Layer. This encrypts the information that you submit on a secure form and virtually eliminates anyone from trying to steal the your submitted information, including all credit card information. Unfortunately some early internet browsers do not support secure order forms or you may be behind a firewall. In that case, use our regular orderform. Also read our Security Information Page for a very good description of security over the Internet as published in PC Magazine. Payment Methods We accept Visa and Mastercard over the Internet at this time through our secure server. Most people opt for this payment method because it is less risky than other payment methods. The name that will appear on your credit card bill for the magazine subscriptions you order is "Magmaweb Subscriptions". We also accept checks, see our check FAQ below for more information. Check and money orders Please make all checks and money orders payable to "MagmaWeb". If you plan to pay by these methods, be aware that we will not fully process your order until we receive your check. When ordering by check, we will send you a self-addressed stamped envelope so you can send your check to us. Your order will be fully processed once this is received by us. This will delay the start of your subscription by about a week until we receive payment. Where you must live to order from us All magazine subscriptions are valid only in the United States zip codes for U.S. residents only. We are not accepting foreign orders at this time. Keeping your information confidential Any information you ever submit to us will never be sold or given to any company or individual. All information is submitted to our database and will never leave it. Billing questions You can email us anytime. We can also be reached via phone at 510-332-8850. In order to offer the lowest prices that we can, we only have limited phone hours. Click here for our . Notes Column definitions In the notes columns you will notice the words student or public. Magazine subscriptions with the word "student" in the Notes column are limited to students and educators only, otherwise the rest are available to the everyone, i.e. the U.S. public. Can any subscription be ordered as a gift subscription Any subscription can be ordered as a gift subscription. But, the gift store has subscriptions that are lower priced than regularly priced subscriptions and can only be ordered at as gifts. We can call you for your order. We know many are anxious about sending their credit card over the internet, so we would be happy to call you to take your order. Just email us at magmamags@magmaweb.com When you will be billed If ordering via credit card, we will bill you within 1-3 weeks of your magazine subscription order submission. We bill right away because we must immediately pay the publisher and therefore must cover our costs. Also, by processing the credit card or the check right away, this guarantees that the orders we receive are valid.