I’m trying desperately to subscribe but as soon as I click on pay by credit card, I get a not found screen.
Yikes, I’ve been trying for two days, meanwhile I see others are subscribed.
I’m starting to freak out a little bit now.
I’m in Canada, but that shouldn’t matter, should it?
thank you for your help
elbows
I’m assuming 10 other people viewed this because they have a similar problem.
Anybody?
(racking my brain, have I done anything to be shunned for?..)
Had an issue with not filling in the ZIP code and state as I am Canadian as well, but did not experience the issue you mentioned.
I’m having the exact same problem.
I click to pay by credit card and I get a “Not Found” screen.
I’m in the U.S., so I don’t think it’s a problem with the Great White North.
So…What’s up with this?
What browser/OS are you using ?
Perhaps it is a browser specific problem (try deleting your cache / temp files / cookies) or a PC specific problem. Have you tried from another PC ?
I tried to subscribe, but got a completely blank screen with the “TSD” logo banner header after submitting my credit card details. No confirmation email, nag screen still present when hit reply to thread. Therefore subscription hadn’t gone through.
Then I used my back button to return to the previous screen, and submitted the info again - usually a recipe for double payment or error.
Subscription went through fine this time.
No, other Canadians have subscribed successfully. You may have tried to subscribe when there was a heavy load on the server. Try another time or two and see what happens. If still no luck you may have a browser issue. SimonLee in this thread advises as follows:
“More than likely a problem with your setup. When you click the credit card button, you leave the regular SDMB site and enter a secure site. If you’re using IE, click tools -> internet options -> advanced, scroll down towards the bottom and make sure “Use SSL 2.0” and “Use SSL 3.0” are checked. If they are, you may be running a firewall or be behind a proxy which is blocking port 443, in which case you’ll need to either have to play around, or see your network admin.”
Here’s what I’ve discovered so far:
The issue is not the browser or Country.
Where you see the first screen and choose either ‘credit card’ or ‘Paypal’, the credit card button leads to a ‘not found’ screen. It’s a dud.
If you eventually click on Paypal, there is a notice that paypal is processing the credit card payments.
That slowed me down an entire day.
I was trying to avoid using Paypal because I know I have an old account linked to an email address I could no longer access to, much less remember the password.
So, spent another full day, (congrats to them: they do have a protocol in place for this very thing) making the necessary adjustments. And seemed to succeed. It now recognizes my newer email address and the password reset seems to have worked.
However, all that said, I return to the subscribe spot go through the paypal process and then, just as I get to the actual pay page, the next screen comes up Paypal header but nothing but blank screen no matter how long you wait.
I’m not very computer savy, (does it show?), and don’t mind that it has taken me a couple of days to make it this far. I’m quite proud of myself for having found my own way this far along.
But I could sure use another nudge if anyone can see what I’m doing wrong.
Throwing myself at your mercy ,
Peace
Elbows
Just got off the phone with pay pal.
They confirm that I have indeed successfully updated my profile to reflect newer email, new password, etc.
They can see me logging on and say the account is good, everything is a go.
When I tried to subscribe however, I end up (just where I should be getting a screen that says something like, your payment received print this receipt, etc) at a page that is blank except for a Paypal logo and The Chicago Reader header.
Tried it twice with paypal on the phone and was assured it was an issue with this site, as they can confirm that I am in good standing as I can log into their site without difficulty.
How about it? Anyone have any suggestions for me?
I’ve never tried sooo hard to give someone money in my whole life.
Couple thoughts:
You say it’s not a browser issue. What browsers have you tried? Did you check your browser setup, as described earlier in this thread? With what result?
Are you at work or home? If at work, do you know if your company has a firewall installed?
Can you try entering your subscription info from a different computer?
We need to know exactly what you have tried unsuccessfully so we can avoid repetitive advice. If all else fails you can mail us (well, me) the money but we’d rather figure out why you can’t pay electronically so that future users won’t have these problems. Thanks for your patience.
Okay I’ll try my very best to answer your questions.
(Begging your patience not very savy user, apologies offered)
I am using Netscape 4.77 as a browser.
(I know, I can hear you screaming at me to upgrade, and I’m about to attempt that very thing honestly, but I just got my system up again after a very long time being down. A lot of nice people worked to get it all going and I’m a little scared to screw the whole thing up again.)
I am writing this on a Macintosh G4, from my home, if that helps. There is no firewall.
As for ‘checking the setup of the browser’, I’m not sure what that means, it seems to work everywhere else I go, no worries. The previous advice about checking the setup went ‘…using IE…’ I’m afraid everything after that is greek to me. (Again, apologies humbly offered.)
Unfortunately, I have no other on line access here at home.
In fact I have the upgrade to Netscape 7.0 ready to install but the instructions strongly suggest you: “Install into a clean (new) directory. Installing on top of released product builds may cause problems.”
I am currently trying to figure out what a directory is and how to follow these instructions.
While I may be handicapped by a lack of computer skills, I am, by nature a persistent being. So I’ll keep trying.
Getting out isn’t easy for me, but who knows, perhaps I could find myself near an internet cafe - I’ll keep my eyes open.
Of course, I’ve never done that before either, but how hard can it be? That’s my new motto.
Thanks for your efforts, all suggestions welcomed.
Peace
That’s funny. The credit card link I used wsn’t a dud.
I had a similar issue to yours with a screen that stayed blank no matter how long I waited, but use of the back button seemed to sort that out.
Good luck.
On the bottom of my suscription area it says I’m paid for a year. However my CC wasn’t charged. I received the empty screen when I signed up so now I don’t know what to do. There is an email out there to the webmaster from me though. 
I’m betting the old NN is the problem. I take it you’re on a dialup line? If you had DSL or broadband I’d suggest you download MS Internet Explorer - you could always uninstall it later. If that’s not an option, and you don’t know what a directory is, you might want to ask a knowledgeable friend to help you upgrade. Installing in a clean directory is the default for most software, but not having NN here I’m reluctant to tell you what to do and then have you get stuck. In the meantime, if anybody familiar with NN 4.77 knows what settings need to be changed to get it to work with a secure server, pls advise.
Cheesburger.
(Just checking to see if my subscription worked)
OK, it worked.
If anyone’s wondering, I’m running MacOS 8.6, and my browser is Netscape 4.76.
I used my credit card through PayPal yesterday evening.
Upgraded NN browser and …
bingo
Problem solved, went through without diffiulty,
Am now, proudly, Charter Member 