Subscription Mgmt Services responses
arnoldd 23 Jan 2003 16:16 UTC
Hello,
I’ve had answers to my question trickle in over the past week & a half. I think they’ve finally stopped coming in, so here are the results:
Who is your subscription service?
Ebsco 8
Swets Blackwell 1
Harrasowitz 2
How is the customer service, especially claiming?
Ebsco -- great 3-- okay 2 -- bad 3 --
Swets Blackwell -- good 1
Harrasowitz --outstanding 2 (these were the only respondents who actually gushed about their vendor!)
Notes: An excellent note suggested it may not be the company that provides good or bad customer service, but the rep you are working with. This was reinforced by comments that their service was terrible until a new rep started and now it is great. I, for one, plan to meet with and talk to the local rep of the top two I plan to choose between before I make a decision.
What is the surcharge?
There wasn’t a whole lot of response to this question, but I was told that my 1-2% surcharge was very low. (Drat!)
I also received a forward from someone on another list who did a similar survey and found that most people use EBSCO but the most enthusiastic responses came from those who use DEMCO and WT Cox. (There was an e-mail on this list on Dec 22 from Connie Craig singing the praises of Cox as well.)
Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond. This information is very useful to me, and I hope, some other.
Diane Arnold
Serials Librarian, Chestnut Hill College
Philadelphia, PA