San Francisco Chronicle 12+

I am very enjoying this app and it’s almost perfect. I would like to be able to rearrange the headers at the top of the app “front page, culture, politics, etc” to better reflect my reading priorities and preferences. Additionally, I have noticed one glitch. When I have been reading an article and I have scrolled down to somewhere in the middle or rear the end, if my phone then goes to the Lock Screen as I take a small break, when I then open my phone the app pulls me up to the beginning of that article, loosing my place. A small bug but still room for improvement. Otherwise the app is great!

I’m a Bay Area native, but currently live out of state. I still enjoy keeping up with Bay Area news and sports, and the app generally works fine for that. However, I’ve found it nearly impossible to cancel a subscription after the promotional offer is up. There is no way to cancel a digital sub without a phone call, and the number only stays open until 2:30 pm PT. And when you do call, no one answers. It is easier to get ahold of your state Unemployment Dep’t! I sent an email to complain, and the reply was filled with lies and false information on how to cancel using a web browser - which does not even give the option. Despite all my efforts to cancel, my sub is still active. This is obviously the intent of corrupt management to make it as hard to cancel as possible. I finally had to call my credit card to block future charges, and might even have to close the card to guarantee it won’t be charged again. These types of unethical and fraudulent business practices should not be allowed on the app store!

The iPad app is obviously low on the priority at the Chronicle. No one at the company reads the paper on it, or it would never be this bad. Unreliable offline use, no previously-read indicator, changing headlines, reloading while you are reading an article, no clear timeline for article availability, odd categorization of stories (business is “tech” but includes Oakland Tech basketball because of poor filtering)… the list goes on and on. To top it off, the feedback function is answered by what appears to be an outsourced company who doesn’t care, and the reader can’t submit a screenshot to show the issue because their email doesn’t accept attachments that large. It’s fine for reading articles if you don’t mind clickbait headlines and losing state all the time, but it’s pretty frustrating when compared with how the app was better a few years ago.