FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

New Website changes / troubleshooting

I suddenly can't log in anymore. What happened?

For privacy reasons, we have chosen to only migrate customer accounts to the new shop at the moment that they first become ‘active’ on the new platform. 

You can test this easily. Try to reset your password (they can’t be migrated) via this link.

If the site indicates your account doesn’t exist, create a new one here.

Your old order history will be automatically transferred, including PDF purchases. Orders will receive a new number and be dated to the day they were transferred - unfortunately, there is no way for us to maintain the original date/number information in the new shop. Your PDF purchases will all show up in the new ‘Digital Library’ section of your account page.

Can I still access digital products I purchased in the old store? Where are they?

Any downloadable products you bought in the old shop will be migrated to the new system. They are available in your Digital Library (on the customer account page), and as download links from your order history. Do note it accounts are matched on your email address, so if you had multiple accounts, you may have to contact us to merge them.

I heard something about changes to auto-renewing subscriptions. What's going on with that?

One big disadvantage in our old shop system was that auto-renewing subscriptions were not visible on customers’ account pages, nor could they be controlled directly by the customer. That has now changed! Unfortunately, the change only affects subscriptions started after May 3, 2022. Any subscriptions started before this time cannot be managed directly via the webshop.

However, if you would like to have access to the new subscription system, we HAVE now set things up so that if you purchase an auto-renewing subscription via the new website, any existing auto-renewing subscriptions you had to the same magazine (and to the same address) will automatically be cancelled, effectively allowing you to transition quite easily to the new system. 

Obviously, the ‘old’ auto-renewing subscriptions will continue to work unless you replace our cancel them, but we do encourage customers to move to the new platform, as it makes self-management of ongoing subscriptions much easier. And don’t worry - we’ll be reminding you of this option every time one of your subscriptions is set to renew… so you can make the change whenever you like (or not, if you’d rather not bother). Keep in mind however that if you do not transition your subscription, you will have to contact us directly if you need to make any changes to your plan in the future.

I just received an e-mail telling me that I have new products that are ready to download... but I didn't order anything. What's going on?

Long story short: It's a bug. When we migrated your account to the new webshop, we also copied over your order history, and access to any digital products you ordered in the past. Even though it isn't supposed to, and we've been doing our best to prevent it from happening, the new shop sometimes gets confused and regards PDFs in some of your past orders as 'new' (because they ARE new in this system). In any case, it's nothing to worry about and you can disregard such messages. In fact, it's confirmation that all your past digital downloads have been migrated correctly to the new system! We're doing our best to prevent it from happening in the future.

General

How long before you ship and how much does it cost?

Login and Account

Do I have to register?

At this point it is only necessary to register for an account for digital products, as they are accessible through the account page. Hardcopy books, magazines and subscriptions can be bought using 'Guest Checkout'. Our backend system will automatically connect renewals to existing subscriptions even without registration. There are some advantages however. Registering an account allows you to keep an address book, keep track of your newsletter subscription and allows you to keep track of your subscriptions. With an account you can also securely save your payment method. Finally, if you are a subscriber and you're logged into your account, you'll automatically get a 10% discount on paper back issues and 15% on digital back issues!

I'm suddenly having trouble logging in to my webshop account, but I know my username and password. What's going on?

In May 2022, we migrated our websop to a new e-commerce system. One of the side effects of that transition is that all exisiting user accounts on the old shop had to be moved as well. Unfortunately, that wasn't something we could do seamlessly. If you have bought any produces from our webshop since May of 2020, we have automatically moved your account, but you will need to reset your password 'using the forgot password' link on the login page. If you have not used or visited our site since before that date, we HAVE NOT migrated your account, and you will need to create a new one. We're very sorry for any inconvienience this may cause.

I still cannot login, please help!

If you are sure you have an account in this webstore but cannot login, you can apply for a new password here. Note that your email address is your username. If you are certain your password is correct, but you still cannot login, try deleting your browser's cookies for karwansaraypublishers.com.

Please note: unless you want to purchase digital products, you do not need an account and login is not required to checkout.

Payment

Which payment methods do you accept?

We accept payment via PayPal and credit card (Visa, MasterCard, JB, Discover and American Express). Due to the usually high fees of international bank transfers, we only offer that option within the Euro zone. Unfortunately, cheques can no longer be accepted as they are being phased out entirely and come with disproportionally high costs to cash.

Can I pay in X currency?

Our shop automatically switches between several, most commonly used currencies, based on the current exchange rate to Euro. Payment is always in Euro, and the conversion is performed automatically by PayPal or your credit card issuer. Because of that fact, we cannot guarantee that the amount shown by our shop is exactly what you'll be charged, since PayPal and banks use slightly different exchange rates which we have no way to predict. Any currency other than Euro should therefore be taken as a close indication only.

Is my information safe?

Our webshop runs on Shopify, a major e-commerce platform used by many hundreds of companies. Shopify is constantly working to make sure your personal information remains safe, and that all payment information is collected in the most secure, confidential manner possible.

Is it safe to 'save' a payment method? 

When you save your payment method, a bit of reference code is saved on our site that allows you to make further purchases without logging into PayPal or entering your card information. It also allows us to charge your account for subscriptions if you signed up to any automatically renewing subscription products (such as the 'Premium' subscription). In no other case can or will we charge your account and no login or card information is ever stored on our server.

Subscriptions

When does my subscription begin?

By default subscriptions start with the first upcoming issue (see the 'Most recent issue' item on the subscription product page for the latest distributed issue). As our magazines are bi-monthly, it can take up to 8-10 weeks for your first issue to arrive. Within a short period after appearance of a new issue, subscriptions will automatically be backdated to the latest issue. That copy will then be mailed out as soon as possible.

How long does my subscription last?

Each magazine is published six times per year. When you purchase a subscription - be it trial (3 issues) or two years - you always pay for the number of issues, not the period. This means that if we ever change the frequency or a magazine is delayed, you still get the number of editions you originally paid for.

How do auto-renewing subscriptions work?

The premium and digital subscription types (and combined subscriptions, see below) are auto-renewing. This means that instead of being asked to renew at the end of your subscription's term, you will be continuously billed via your chosen payment method (credit card or PayPal) until you choose to cancel the subscription, which can be done either through the user account page, or by contacting customer service. Digital and premium auto-renewing subscriptions will be billed every three issues, while combined subscriptions are billed every month. Please note that if you chose to pay for your auto-renewing subscription via credit card, the subscription will also automatically end when your credit card expires. At this point, you will need to start a new subscription. Paypal-based subscriptions will continue without interruption.

What is a combined subscription?

Combined subscriptions are subscriptions to more than one of our magazines - all combined under one easy-to-manage plan. This subscription type is always auto-renewing, and is billed on a monthly basis. Like other auto-renewing subscriptions, they can be cancelled via the user account page, or by contacting customer service. The various different magazines in your combined plan will be sent out as they become individually available throughout the year.

My auto-renewing subscriptions are not listed. What's going on?

Auto-renewing subscriptions purchased since May 3rd are listed in the 'Manage auto-renewals' section.

Auto-renewing subscriptions bought on the legacy system are reflected in the status listed under 'Active subscriptions' on your account, but not in 'Manage auto-renewals'. To transfer your subscription, purchase the same type (e.g. Premium, combined, etc) again. That will start a new auto-renewing subscription and cancel the legacy one.

Digital products

How do digital subscriptions work?

Like hardcopy subscriptions, digital subscriptions begin with the first upcoming issue by default. All digital subscriptions are auto-renewing (see above) and are billed every three issues. You MUST have an account in our webshop in order to have a digital subscription, as an email address is required both for notifying you of new issues' release, and also because PDFs of previous issues in your subscription are available to download via the user account page on the webshop.

How do I get notified of new issues?

We use our newsletter system to notify readers when a new issue becomes available. The notification also comes with a direct download link, so make sure you're signed up to ensure deliverability... and check your spam filter and junk mail settings!

How do I get digital back issues?

Once purchased, you will not be sent a PDF due to size limitations on emails. Instead, you can find download links in the 'Digital Library' section of the user account page on the webshop (login required). Remember that these are quite a few MB in size, so it may take some time to download them, depending on the speed of your connection.

The digital issue PDF is missing characters or there are other display issues.

Despite the concept of the PDF as a document that is shown exactly the same on every device, that is unfortunately not always the case. Built-in PDF viewers (such as those on tablets or Preview in OSX), are known to cause issues on occasion. If that happens, try opening the document with the proprietary Adobe Reader app for your device. It can be downloaded for free from their website or your device's app store.