We welcome any query on Who When Where. If you have previously posted it on another forum (including the old WDYTYA forum), please state this in your opening post - this will save people redoing the research which has been done before: they can look at it and possibly go further with it.
Thunder wrote: ↑15 Jan 2022, 21:58
... I doubt TNA put restrictions on how the transcriptions were done, ...
Right now it makes no sense to me that anyone other than TNA would put the restrictions in place. FMP certainly aren't going to make their own life difficult after the caning they got over the 1939. The ICO simply can't put restrictions in place on a contract held by TNA with FMP - they don't have authority to mandate what goes in the contract. Basic contract processes.
What ICO could do would be to explain what the rules are, and review proposals from TNA or FMP. How those rules are implemented for the digitisation is then up to the customer and their supplier.
I don't think there's anyone else that could mandate those restrictions.
What I would be very interested in is what the ICO have to say on the issue (so excellent that you have asked) - in particular I'd like to know if TNA asked ICO for any advice at a detailed level. My fear is that TNA have assumed that they know it all and gold-plated everything.
I am a Pro Subscriber of Find My Past. They say that this entitles me to a 10% discount on the 1921 census transcription and the image. My bank statement does not show any discount. I have been charged the full amount. How is that? It may only be 10% but that would add up over the number of records I would like.
Brunes08 wrote: ↑26 Jan 2022, 20:04
I am a Pro Subscriber of Find My Past. They say that this entitles me to a 10% discount on the 1921 census transcription and the image. My bank statement does not show any discount. I have been charged the full amount. How is that? It may only be 10% but that would add up over the number of records I would like.
Like you, I am a pro subscriber and I definitely received the discount, so you should definitely receive it.
I did chase this up. The response was that as my Pro Subscription is paid monthly by Direct Debit, and not as a one off yearly subscription, I am not entitled to the discount. I’ve had my subscription for a long time so feel somewhat miffed. I suppose they think that as soon as I have the information I need, I will cancel my subscription at the end of the month. Seems a bit mean but that’s business I suppose. At least they could have put that in with the information on payments for the images.
Brunes08 wrote: ↑21 Feb 2022, 21:43
I did chase this up. The response was that as my Pro Subscription is paid monthly by Direct Debit, and not as a one off yearly subscription, I am not entitled to the discount. I’ve had my subscription for a long time so feel somewhat miffed. I suppose they think that as soon as I have the information I need, I will cancel my subscription at the end of the month. Seems a bit mean but that’s business I suppose. At least they could have put that in with the information on payments for the images.
That argument doesn’t make sense. Surely, paying monthy you are actually paying more per year than someone with an annual subscription!
You are no different from someone with an annual subscription, that has only 1 month left to run.
A strong letter of complaint is called for
For all 12-month Pro subscribers there is a 10% discount on any 1921 Census purchases.
Whether everything says (and has always said) the same thing, I don't know.
As for their argument not making sense, sorry but I don't buy that. Loads of offers depend on people buying into a longer term rental / purchase / subs - the desire is to lock in the bigger amount of cash than single months.
(As an aside, 12 single month payments for a Pro subs costs £203.88, whereas a full year on Pro costs £159.99. Makes sense if you only want a short period but my calculator appears to say that if you pay for 10 individual months, you'd be better off with an annual).
For all 12-month Pro subscribers there is a 10% discount on any 1921 Census purchases.
Whether everything says (and has always said) the same thing, I don't know.
As for their argument not making sense, sorry but I don't buy that. Loads of offers depend on people buying into a longer term rental / purchase / subs - the desire is to lock in the bigger amount of cash than single months.
(As an aside, 12 single month payments for a Pro subs costs £203.88, whereas a full year on Pro costs £159.99. Makes sense if you only want a short period but my calculator appears to say that if you pay for 10 individual months, you'd be better off with an annual).
I take the view that an annual subscription ties you in for 12 months whereas monthly subscriptions although dearer do allow you to stop them if the information you want is found and you don't want to search any more. It's a matter of choice.
Sure - if you envisage stopping after you've found a certain amount of info, and you believe there's a good chance that'll take you less than 10m, then doing the monthly sub and stopping makes excellent sense.
I might also add that if you can't find the full amount of an annual subs in one go, so have to confine yourself to monthlys, is another good reason for ending up on monthlys.
The Information Commissioner's Office have (eventually) got back to me and they have confirmed that they had no contact with FMP or TNA about the transcriptions, it does surprise me given that FMP had the transcriptions on the closed records done in India, assuming the ICO were informed.
