Salon Premium: Frequently Asked Questions

Benefits

What is Salon Premium?
What content and features does Salon Premium offer?
You said Premium subscribers may still see some types of ads on the site -- like what?
I'm a Premium subscriber and I want to read the premium-only content but still want to see the ads -- how can I do so?
Is Salon Premium offered on PDAs or wireless devices?
How do I get Salon Premium on my PDA or wireless device?
Does Table Talk come with Salon Premium?
If I'm a current subscriber to one of the magazines that you're offering, can I still get the subscription?
If I live outside of the United States can I still receive the magazine subscriptions?
What kind of Salon Premium account comes with a WELL membership?

Pricing and billing

How much does Salon Premium cost?
What types of credit cards may be used to purchase a Salon Premium subscription?
I'm nervous about sending my credit card information across the Internet -- how secure is it?
May I purchase a Salon Premium subscription by check or money order?
May I purchase a Salon Premium subscription with cash?
I live outside the United States. How can I purchase a Salon Premium subscription?
If I live outside the United States, will my payment be adjusted for the difference in currency or figured at the U.S dollar rate?
How do renewals work?
What is your cancellation policy?
Can I give Salon Premium as a gift?
May I sample Salon Premium on a trial basis before paying?
If I sign up for a monthly subscription can I convert to an annual subscription?

Using Salon Premium

I notice that your site uses cookie technology. What does this mean?
May I save my username and password so I don't need to enter them each time I visit?
Can I use my subscription from more than one computer -- say, at work and at home?
I'm a subscriber, I'm logged in and I'm still seeing the ads, and/or I can't access Premium content. What gives?
How do I log out?
Do you have an RSS feed?

Privacy

What's your privacy policy?
I entered my name and address when I registered. How will you use that information?

Username, password and subscriber preferences

I've forgotten or lost my password. What do I do?
Can I keep my username and password from Table Talk or The WELL?
What if I made a mistake during the subscription process?
How can I change the credit card I used in my subscription?
How can I change my password?
How can I change my e-mail address?

Affiliate Program

What if I have a question that isn't answered here?

Salon Premium subscribers gain access to all of Salon's articles and have the option of viewing new Salon articles and pages without banner ads or "pop-up" advertising (for some exceptions see below).

Subscribers also gain access to a number of special features which, depending on your subscription plan, include a "Download edition" of Salon -- a single file with a complete day's worth of original Salon articles in simple text or PDF format for easy printing or offline reading -- Salon on your PDA, magazine subscriptions and other special offers.

We frequently add new benefits to Premium so please make sure to check this page for updates. If you're already a subscriber you can check this page for new offers and offers that you haven't already selected.

Just visit your Subscriber Preferences page and uncheck the box next to "Don't show me banner and pop-up ads."

Yes, in order to access Salon on your PDA or wireless device you'll need to be a Premium subscriber at our "without ads" level. To read more about how to read Salon on your PDA or wireless device please go to this page.

If you're currently subscribed at the $18.50 plan (Salon Premium with ads plan purchased before 8/15/03) or the $22.50 plan (Salon Premium with ads plan purchased after 8/15/03) and would like to upgrade to access Salon on your PDA or wireless device, you can do so for an additional $11.50 or $12.50 depending on your original plan by clicking here. We will pro-rate the $18.50 or $22.50 you've already spent with us towards the price of an upgrade to our $35 plan.

You may also upgrade from the $6 monthly plan to the $35 plan by clicking here. We will pro-rate the money you've already spent on your monthly subscription with us towards the upgrade.

How do I get Salon Premium on my PDA or wireless device?

1) Subscribe to Salon's AvantGo channel here.

2) Hot sync your hand held device

3) Go to the Salon section of AvantGo on your hand held and select a Salon article. You'll see a truncated article with log in slots at the bottom. Enter your Salon Premium log in information in those slots.

4) Hot sync again and make sure that you can read the full text of Salon articles. If you are able to read the full text then you've successfully logged in and most likely will not have to again for the duration of your subscription.

5) If you cannot log in please e-mail us at pda@salon.com and we'll help you resolve the issue.

Salon also offers a static URL (Web address) that contains our daily download edition, a plain text file including everything we publish within a 24-hour period. Some subscribers using programs like iSilo may find this page fills their PDA needs. To check it out go here.

PLEASE NOTE: Salon does not provide support for any PDA clients other than AvantGo.

Reading Salon on your cell phone or wireless device

To read Salon on your cell phone or wireless device, you'll need to point your browser to this page. You will need to log in through the bottom of a truncated article on your wireless device with your Salon Premium log in information.

PLEASE NOTE: The browser on your wireless device must be WML enabled and have the ability to parse and store cookies. Not all wireless browsers may function perfectly and some wireless devices may report an "Error 500" or other errors that prevent you from accessing Salon on your wireless device. We are working to resolve these formatting issues but since they depend on specific wireless devices and service providers we cannot provide a completion date for this project.

Does Table Talk come with Salon Premium?

Salon Premium subscriptions at the without ads level now include the opportunity to create one Table Talk login. To take advantage of this offer just go to this page and set up your Table Talk login.

PLEASE NOTE: You will only receive a single Table Talk login. If you share your Salon Premium subscription with family members who are interested in a separate Table Talk login they will need to set up a separate Premium account. To do that just subscribe using a different e-mail address through this page.

You may use any of the services bundled with an advertising free Salon Premium subscription with your annual WELL membership. You may use any of the services bundled with a monthly Premium subscription with your monthly WELL membership. This includes the creation of one Table Talk login. However, your billing information and renewal policies will be under your WELL billing agreement so, please log into the Well Billing Information Center to update your WELL information.

$6 monthly without ads, $22.50 a year with ads, $35 a year without ads, or a special rate of $60 for two years. Please note that the $60 for two years offer is only available to subscribers who pay with a check or money order through this page. Subscribers who join through our special Powell's Books program pay $35 a year, or $55 for two years, and receive a copy of the "Salon.com Reader's Guide to Contemporary Authors." For more information on that offer go to this page. Members of The WELL may receive Salon Premium at no extra charge by logging in and setting it up at the WELL Billing Information Center.

All credit card transaction information is sent from your browser to our servers via a securely encrypted connection and stored in encrypted form. If you're still uneasy about credit card use online, you may send us a check or money order through this page.

You can purchase a subscription with a check or money order in U.S. currency drawn on a U.S. bank. We will wait to activate your subscription until we receive your check or money order and notify you by e-mail when this occurs. For more details on payment by check or money order, including the mailing address, click here.

We cannot accept cash because of many safety concerns, foremost among them the U.S. Postal Service's recommendation that you never send cash in the mail. If you do not have a credit card or checking account, you can subscribe with a money order through this page.

Monthly subscriptions will automatically renew on a 30 day cycle. If you do not want Salon to automatically renew your subscription just visit your Subscriber Preferences page and check the appropriate box or contact our Premium support team through our help page and request that your settings be changed.

Annual subscriptions will automatically renew 365 days after the subscription began. Salon will e-mail you 21 days before your subscription is set to expire informing you that your account is or is not set for automatic renewal. If your account is not set to automatically renew and you would like to renew manually just go to this page and you can renew maintaining your original log in information. You will need to be logged in to access the renewal page. If you do not want Salon to automatically renew your subscription just visit your Subscriber Preferences page and check the appropriate box or contact our Premium support team through our help page and request that your settings be changed. Otherwise we will renew your subscription automatically one year from your original date of subscription.

Gift subscriptions are not automatically renewed unless you opt into the automatic gift renewal program while creating the gift subscription.

If you have a problem with Salon Premium's service, please check our help page for common solutions or submit a help query to us through that page and we will do our best to resolve the problem for you. If you are still not satisfied with our service, you may cancel an annual subscription within the first 30 days and we will refund your fee.

For canceling your monthly subscription, you are responsible for paying the monthly subscription fee through the last day of your current one-month billing cycle. Monthly subscriptions are billed in advance and may be cancelled at any time. Your account will be closed at the end of the current pre-paid billing period.

Refunds to subscribers to special offers like the Powell's Books program will be reduced by the amount of the retail price of, and shipping costs associated with, "The Salon.com Reader's Guide to Contemporary Authors" or other special offer item.

Yes. You can easily create as many gift subscriptions as you'd like by filling out the gift registration form with your credit card information and the username information for your gift recipient. Gift recipients will receive a randomly generated password and may change it as soon as they activate their account. (The special Powell's Books offer is not available for purchase as a gift. Gift subscriptions are not available on a monthly basis).

Current Premium subscribers receive a 20% discount off gift subscriptions. In order to receive the discount subscribers must be logged in when they give the subscription.

We do not offer a trial subscription but you can sample Salon Premium by getting a Site Pass through this page.

Yes, you can convert to an annual subscription at a pro-rated rate by going to this page.

We use cookies only to facilitate your use of the Salon Premium site. We also use cookies to identify pages you've visited during Premium help requests. Otherwise we will not use cookies for any other purposes, nor will we share cookie data with any third parties. You can confirm this by reading our privacy policy.

As long as cookies are enabled on your browser you won't have to log in -- the Salon Premium site will automatically recognize you without entering any user name or password information. Most browsers, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, do this automatically, so you probably won't have to worry about cookies unless you've disabled them. If you deleted your cookie file for any reason, just log in again to refresh it.

Your browser may also have a function to save your username and password information for various sites. The Help menu in your browser will help you use it.

Yes. For your personal convenience, just use the same username and password on your browser at each location where you wish to use your subscription. To protect Salon from abuse of accounts, if our servers detect that the same subscription is being used from an unreasonable number of discrete locations (IP addresses) we reserve the right to cancel it. If you're logging in from public locations like a library we ask that you log out after you're finished reading Salon Premium through this link which is also available in the Premium box in the upper right hand section of Salon's home page.

First, make sure you haven't turned "cookies" off in your browser. Then, make sure you're visiting Salon directly at our main Web address -- http://www.salon.com -- and not http://salon.com, or http://www.salonmag.com, or any other address. If you still have trouble, please send us a help query through this page, and we'll help you resolve the problem.

Normally, as a Premium subscriber, you'll just stay logged in once you subscribe. But perhaps you use your subscription at a public Net connection in a library or cafe, or you have some other reason that you'd like to log out. You can always log out by selecting the "log out" link in the Premium box in the upper right hand corner of our cover. You can do the same thing right here: Log out now. (When you need to log in again, just find the "log in" link in the upper right hand corner of any Salon page.)

Yes. To get Salon's main RSS feed go here. To get the RSS feed for our politics blog, War Room, go here. To get the RSS feed for our music blog, Audiofile, go here. The RSS feed for The Daou Report, a blog that surveys the political blogosphere, is here.

What's your privacy policy?

You can read our privacy policy here.

I entered my name and address when I registered. How will you use that information?

Salon will only use your name and address to verify payment information. If you checked the box indicating that you would like to hear about future enhancements to Salon Premium we will occasionally e-mail you information about new features. That's it. Your information is confidential and we will not share your personal information with any third parties.

I've forgotten or lost my user name and/or password. What do I do?

To find your Salon Premium user name please go to this page, or to find your password please go to this page. We'll e-mail a reminder to you at the e-mail address with which you first registered. If that doesn't work, you can contact us through our help page and our customer service team will assist you within two business days.

Currently all WELL members are entitled to create one Salon Premium login and to set the password for that account. All Salon Premium subscribers are entitled to create one Table Talk login at this page and can set the password for that account.

If your subscription was successful we'll send you to a confirmation page and we'll also send you a confirmation e-mail. If you need to change any account information you can do so through our subscriber preferences page.

If your subscription was unsuccessful (you'll know because you won't see a confirmation page nor a confirmation e-mail) you can try to subscribe again through this page. If you continue to experience problems please contact our support team through our help page.

How can I change the credit card I used in my subscription?

You can change the credit card we will use for your renewal on our this page. For security reasons, we don't allow you to view the credit card number that we already have on record associated with your membership.

How can I change my password?

You can change your password on our subscriber preferences page.

You can change your e-mail address on our subscriber preferences page.

PLEASE NOTE: You may keep a different e-mail address on Salon Premium, Table Talk and/or The WELL.

If you're having a problem accessing Premium then you can check our help page for solutions to most common problems or you can use the same page to send us a help query. In most cases we'll respond within the same business day but we will definitely respond within 2 business days.