The Mercury News for Mobile

response required

In the app, how do I know I'm logged in? I can't find a login form, and I can't see on the interface where it indicates that I am logged in. I'm not fond of the black background with white text reversed out. It's hard to read, and it makes the page look closed in on a small screen. In the settings, I adjusted the text size to be larger. However in the interface The text did not get larger. I wish I could easily upgrade my subscription to advertising-free in app, but I can't figure out how to do that either. I really like the reporting in the Mercury News, but the app needs a lot of work. Odd that this should be the case for a major newspaper in the heartland of app development.

response required

I have tried to use this app for years. I am a subscriber, but there are times when I want a quick look at the news. This is definitely one of the worst apps I have ever used. It jumps around. It flashes. The page moves up and down randomly. Scrolling doesn’t work, then it does, and sometimes it just runs away with the page. Obnoxious flashing ads dominate the pages, and change the size and shape of the text blocks. And never, ever try to use it on a slow wi-fi connection, because all that flashing and jumping uses network bandwidth, so it takes forever for the page to settle down so you might read it. Sorry Mercury news, I switched over to the New York Times mobile app several minutes ago. I am using an iPad Pro with iOS 11.4. But this app has been this bad for years.

response required

I have to keep identifying myself as a subscriber to use the app via a long login, which typically does not work. So every time I call the Mercury News for the (or any) problem, the automated system says I do not have an account. I spend 20 minutes on the phone to finally get a rep who spends another 5 minutes finding that I actually do have a subscription to the paper. So this is probably why the app does not work — because the Mercury News is so disorganized that they can’t keep their records straight! As soon as my subscription runs out I am cancelling! Why? — Missed papers, No credit for missed papers, No real customer service that solves problems, Unusable app. Total waste of time!

response required

I switched to an online account a year or two ago. I thought this app was going to be more user friendly than what the Mercury calls eNews but it isn’t. It’s hard to navigate, layered with pop up ads and difficult to switch to other sections. There must be better way for this digital version to layout the daily news.

While reading through the news, the text changes fonts after a block of recommended articles and clicking on the notifications sends me from the app to Safari to pay for a subscription when I can read for FREE on the app. Kinda annoying but does its job!