Any member who agrees with me, please post below.
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Any member who agrees with me, please post below.
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If they don’t people are going to start voting with their feet and wallets. Once they leave, it will hard or near impossible to draw them back in.
waiting to see what C-Pod decides to do…
Tick… tick…tic…
Definitely.
January 2018 gave us 4 lessons in standard format. The subscription for Feb 2018 should cost $0.01 (exactly as the trial option) for all members who pay.
Just imagine that Netflix would give you access to the old library only without posting new content.
Time is up.
I disagree. Now I am not an advanced user, so maybe you have a different set of problems, but I have plenty of material to keep me busy without a new lesson every week. I got study here for years and not run out!
I also disagree. As much as I liked the new content, there’s already something like 1000 hours of content on this website. That should be enough (and has been enough for Newbie, Beginner, and Intermediate levels for me). I’m content to wait, and keep working on old lessons
Disagree also. Nothing should be free. I’ve been using this site for atleast 2 years consistently and I’m at the point where I could easily do without it, much of my progress has been due to Chinese pod. There’s enough lessons to get fluent as it is. I can wait, dig into the older lessons, or go over ones I studied previously. I’m good.
It would be a nice gesture to tack on an extra month or two for however long it takes to get back up to speed, or perhaps give the basic subscribers a temporary free upgrade to premium, which in theory would not involve a cash cost to CPod. That said, if you look at Popup Chinese, (which interestingly has common ancestry with CPod) they haven’t created new content in years and they are still charging for membership if you want the extra learning aides. Unless you have been with CPod for years and done almost all of the old lessons (or at least the ones relevant to you) AND were only renewing your subscription to get the fresh content it’s hard to argue that you are getting zero value. If that is your situation you could probably contact them directly and get a refund. You could always come back later when things are looking more satisfactory.
By the way, is YuQinCai also gone from CPod? I haven’t seen her replies to any questions since like November.
One of the farewell posts on Instagram had her picture on it as well. I guess she jumped ship also. Lol.
I thought they said there was enough content to keep it going until they found new people. To be honest I hadn’t been paying attention as I’ve been busy with school lately, but after reading some of the posts it seems like it’s slowed up. I’m probably just going to download a bunch of lessons and call it day.
Hey @podster , I know you’ve been at it for a while now, do you still feel the need for lessons? If not, is there any other reason why you still use them?
Nabeshima,
I hardly ever sit down and study an entire lesson anymore. But I use CPod when I happen to need some odd situational language so I can prepare in advance by going through the archives and finding related content. I was also volunteer teaching English to native Chinese speakers and sort of “reverse-engineered” some of the newbie and elementary dialogues rather than relying on my own translations.
Maybe it was wrong to say paying for nothing - the archived lessons are fantastic, but it’s not the whole service that you pay your subscription for. In that case why have any more new lessons at all if you’re just happy with the archive.
I find it quite strange that customers are willing to offer a profit making company more of their money for less service.
dropped_chopstick,
This is the conundrum for the company. To create one more lesson at this point they are only expanding the library by a minuscule amount, yet the cost may be similar as the average for all previous lessons. Still many subscribers perceive the value proposition as being getting fresh content. Personally I am mostly interested in topics that couldn’t have been discussed at the inception of ChinesePod (e.g.: Belt and Road Initiative, Bitcoin) so I do agree with you that fresh content is an important part of the value of a subscription.
Thank you for all your comments here. We appreciate all points of view.
Over the years ChinesePod has changed in multiple ways, adding new hosts, new styles, new media (there was a time that we only had audio files and now we have both) and more. We are reviewing the success of the past products and are making a substantial investment in the future. Unfortunately, it does take some time and resources. We are hopeful that you will find new content in the 4000 lessons we have. We understand the value of fresh content and are ready to start previewing to a select group of users. If you are interested in giving feedback on our direction, please email learningconsultant@chinesepod.com with the subject line: “I want to help” or “Wǒ xiǎng bāngmángr 我想帮忙人” and you will receive an invitation to the closed group, NewPodMovement. Here you will be able to see some of the upcoming lesson formats and give us your feedback.
I don’t think that’s quite the case here. When I said I don’t think it should be free, it’s coming from the position of someone who has successfully used this service for years, with not much to complain about. It’s more of being patient out of respect for the fact that this hasn’t happened before and I have been a satisfied customer up to this point. When you build a quality product/service your consumers are loyal. I wouldn’t expect that same loyalty from someone who just signed up recently. At the end of the day, you could have always signed up for one month, pillaged the library for as many lessons as you needed and kept it moving. So I don’t find it strange at all.
It’s not that I think they should stop making content, it’s that I am willing to be patient. They are already having problems and probably extra costs due to the transition. This isn’t Microsoft or some other big company we’re talking about. If you start making unreasonable demands to a small company (like having their product for free) you can drive them out of business. So I’m willing to continue paying for all the content and convenience they give me, and wait for them to work things out. I’m here for the long haul anyways
Chinesepod should extend with no charges
Puwanat
Is it possible you are conflating the service with the presenters? I owe my Chinese to John and Jenny for sure and subsequent presenters become like friends as you listen to the lessons every day. But they are not the company. They are employees. And absolutely fantastic.
But
The company is something completely separate. It also has gone through at least 2 if not 3 owners - and a few mini scandals in which the presenters were perhaps not treated as fairly as they should. So my loyalties are with the presenters not the company,
When I renewed in December the professional response from the team would have been - well in January we are going to have a change of presenters and there will be a hiatus in shows produced for maybe a month or two - do you still want to subscribe?
Or when the hiatus started - dear subscriber we will have a delay of xx weeks months before new lessons, we’d like to apologise and offer you an extension or discount for an extension.
That is the most logical argument I have seen on this thread to date.
I renewed my annual subscription on December 24, which moved me from nearly being skint to completely broke (Thank you Christmas), in the hope that Chinesepod would continue to operate as per normal.
When I saw that no new content was added for an extended period of time, I grew rather discontent. This sentiment was also expressed by other members within the Chinesepod forum.
Since there was a complete freeze on the production of new content, I emailed the ChinesePod team directly to ask them what would be done to compensate people in my position, who bought an annual subscription without being aware of ChinesePod’s current situation. The response they basically gave was “we hope you can find enough content in our 4,000+ lesson library,” which is tantamount to saying “tough shit.”
I know, how dare I trust a company that is supposed to update its content and, you know, do its job…
From an ethical and a business point of view, this is completely unacceptable. I downloaded most of the former lessons under my previous subscription, so the reason I renewed was for new content. This insolent response unfortunately reeks of ineptitude and a complete unwillingness to do what is right on the part of the team.
Exactly. Apart from the conversation on what we spend, I would appreciate a succinct message from the company as to what is going on here. Before I started reading this thread, I assumed that maybe someone was on holiday/etc. Or whatever.
Now it seems I am hearing about maybe some of the presenters are gone but I don’t see any official news from the ChinesePod. The one post from ChinesePod does not actually tell us anything.
Can ‘the company’ take responsibility and tell us what is going on? I don’t think I, a paying customer should be responsible for trying to help you figure out what the new direction should be. Frankly, ‘I DON’T want to help’. I just want to know what I am supposed to be getting for my money. And if it is ‘no new content for now’, fine. I can live with that.
Just tell us and we can then make decisions around what the value of continuing our subscription is.
Thanks-ck
Sorry to hear about your experience. Obviously I was wrong when I suggested above that CPod would be willing to work with anyone in your position that contacted them individually. Caveat emptor. 
100% agree with your point about ‘The Company’ taking responsibility for this. The worst part was, we didn’t find out about Fiona and the rest of the team leaving ChinesePod through an official company announcement, but through a blog post here (I don’t have an Instagram account, so I was not aware of Fiona announcing it there ---- Talk about me being a throwback to a bygone era).
Some official explanation, announcing what happened and what they are doing to rectify the situation would be greatly appreciated. In this case, unfortunately, I don’t only smell a rat, but a rat that died under the floorboard while you were away on holiday.
Furthermore, the fact that they are looking for direction from the customers at this juncture is surely indicative of the company not having a clue of what they are doing. Competent companies (love alliteration) have contingency plans in place for things like these, rather than evidently scratching their backs, humming and hawing, thinking “uuuuummmmmmmmmmmm, what do we do now?”
Anyway, the only good thing is that I firmly believe that they have scraped the bottom of the barrel labeled ‘excuses’, so I think they might start to give us, the paying customers, some solid information about what is happening.
Thanks a million and I totally agree with your statement about caveat emptor; this is a very poignant case of of buyer beware and the necessity of being vigilant, even with companies you trust.
I wrote to them last week and have yet to receive a response! 
I have seen that post before, and my issue is that it came through Fiona’s personal media accounts rather than through an official Chinesepod announcement. They are genuinely trying to dodge the issue rather than address customers’ concerns directly, which means they have allowed the situation to spiral out of control. Their PR team is about as useful and as helpful as a glass hammer.
They have responded to every query except for ones related to subscriptions and membership fees. This indicates that 1) they have no clue what’s going on; 2) they hope users will allow the matter to slip; 3) I have too much time on my hands (waiting for a Chinese visa does that to you).
Thank you for being an important part of our ChinesePod community.
We recognize the frustration here and hope that when our new content is rolled out, you will agree it was worth the wait. We know this does not make the waiting any easier, and therefore would like to offer you free private lessons while we finalize the rollout of our new programming.
Several of you here have already joined the Test Group, NewPodMovement, where we are collecting input on our upcoming series, lessons, programs and productions. If you haven’t joined the group and are interested in seeing new content, this is a great group to join.
We are proud to have brought you a steady stream of clever and engaging lessons on a regular basis over the past 10 years. We have been working to create improved techniques and curriculum with a variety of hosts, teachers, dialects and formats. Our team is expanding on what you have loved in the past and are working to make it better.
Please email Learningconsultant@chinesepod.com if you are interested in receiving free private one-on-one tutoring as you bear with us through this transition. We will provide a tutor who will customize your instruction to focus on the areas you are most interested in, so that you do not feel you are stagnate during this evolution.
Thank you for responding, as I was contemplating starting a thread titled, “ChinesePod ----- Shambles.”
This type of polished, PR 101 response might have worked had you been proactive about addressing this situation from the beginning, but this response happened a number of weeks into your unannounced hiatus. This fostered ill will among your paying and loyal customers and reeks of a reactive response. For those of us that do not have time to avail of those private lessons, will you be able to add additional time to our memberships (especially if we have paid for a year), to compensate for you guys completely dropping the ball?
I have messaged your learning consultant privately about this.
I look forward to your response.
I think it is a decent gesture for Chinesepod to offer a few mini one on one lesson credits for subscribers in lieu of an updated service.
One curious thing - I received an email response last night finally a week after I had sent a query about no new lessons saying my query had been resolved and new lessons were up. They aren’t. Not sure what is happening here? Anyone have any other news on this?
I have been using ChinesePod for quite a few years now. Although I have studied many of the lessons in the archives up to Upper Intermediate level there are still more at Advanced and Media levels, apart from which revision is also an essential part of language learning. So I agree that there is plenty to be going on with while we wait, but I have always assumed that the cost of subscriptions assumed the regular appearance of new lessons at all levels. I feel strongly that the cost should be lower for access to the archives in the absence of new lessons, and an extension of subscriptions would be the tidiest solution.
it is true there is a lot of content, but i’m more focus on the new one, and that’s also true there is nothing new since few weeks…
free private lesson… could be nice but i would prefer an extension of 1 or 2 months of my subscription
But Let see what is the thing with 我想帮忙
I joined ChinesePod for the fresh content, so I’m disappointed that this has stopped or paused.
I hope the management considered an extension of 2 months while they sort out how to move forward. I requested an extension, but the management team has not responded…
I like Chinese Pod in general. However to pay 200$$/year is not a great price point. there are a lot of OLDER lessons but they are still useful. I would much rather see a tiered pricing system to access the older lessons ( e.g. 10$/month) while the company sorts out the new hosts and new lessons.
Once you lose customers, getting them back is hard. I am considering going back to chineselclass101 but prefer chinese pod since the video adds interest.
There has not been a new Media lesson since 2014. Regardless of the amount of content (155 lessons, not an extraordinary amount), it shouldn’t take four years to add a new lesson.
Hey PercyFawcett, I’m so sorry that you’ve waited so long for a new Media lesson. I’ll be sure to pass this information along.
Thank you, GraceWong !
Hi Grace. I think the Media lessons were discontinued. I personally found them very interesting, because it was not just studying Chinese, but also learning about some current news and developments along the way.
One problem with going back to the old lessons now is: They contain a link to the news source that they are referring to. I checked about 10 or so and in all cases that link was no longer working unfortunately.
So, should the media content be revived, I suggest that the original text/ video/ speech whatever should be available permanently. Of course, this might pose some copyright issues, but maybe you can finde one news platform willing to cooperate.
Hello MisterXia! I’m so glad you are interested in the Media lessons! That is something that we are working on. We also see the problem with linking to articles or videos, because the other site may decide to take it down. So we are trying to see if we can get permission to have the media videos within our own. Thank you for your continued patience.
That would be great. I know the whole copyright issue is a tangle (especially when you leave the Mainland!), but good and effective Media lessons (using ACTUAL media), in my opinion, would be the greatest asset. The average learner doesn’t need more than 50 Newbie lessons, yet there is a mountain of them; advanced learners could use almost unlimited Media lessons.
New content is what made ChinesePod such a premier choice. People want to be current, to learn language related to major events and trends, and ChinesePod used to deliver that. The lack of fresh content added to the interface problems I have across multiple platforms makes the current offering less valuable than it used to be.
Hello JLindsay, we hope to change that VERY soon! Thank you for your patience and input. I’m sorry that you are having interface problems. I hope that we can get back to being very valuable to your Chinese learning journey!
First let me say I love ChinesePod! As an elementary learner there is still plenty of content for me. But the value of ChinesePod is not just in the historical content but in feeling part of a community. I’m still missing Fiona, Constance and Gwillm. You can’t put a value on “knowing” the lesson presenters and being able to interact with them on the forum. I am desperate to “meet” the new presenters. Please let us know who they are as soon as possible and give us some new lessons. Than you ChinesePod. 谢谢
The business of learning Chinese online is very saturated now. Searching Google for situational Chinese lessons like Chinespod gives you so many different options.
Personally, I will have enough of material for the next 10 years perhaps. If someone is so advanced, they can watch Chinese TV or listen to radio in Chinese and learn new up to date vocabulary from there. But Chinesepod archives have enough to keep one busy. Just my 2 cents.
Hello again Sarah! I love your enthusiasm and we hope to be able to continue to feed all appetites of Chinese learning. We are excited to have you with us!
Ok, I am considering joining back up but frankly, a little skittish still. As a long time subscriber and as one of those that renewed by 3 month membership back in December I think CP should offer a 1 month free so we test the waters to see if this ‘new’ CP is what we want. I actually clicked upgrade me but then fearfully backed out.
-ck
I subscribed first time on Dec 15, 2017. All this time I thought I didn’t have the correct filters on the app because I couldn’t find new content. I am only interested in videos, not audio (I’m visual), and I am listening to newbie and elementary lessons. Suffice to say there was not much new stuff to view. I wish I had received a personal email to inform me of the changes, and I would have appreciated an extension to my subscription while the new team gets in place. Change happens, and I hope it will be for the better, but not communicating anything directly to your customers is not a very good way to start.
We do currently have a two week free premium membership running if that will be helpful at all for you to dip your toes back in.
I would be interested in the 2 week free membership but when I go to upgrade, I am not presented with that. The other day I had clicked on that only to get a message (something like) code no longer valid. I no longer see any banner/etc. to get that premium trial.
Hmm… let me see what we can do… have you emailed support yet?
Hi, Jinkeli,
Here is where you go to get the 2-week free trial: https://chinesepod.com/store/purchase/free-trial
Please let us know if you have any trouble.
Thanks,
Can you clarify for me on one point. When looking at the new lessons, they have the ‘Premium’ tag on them.
If I end up deciding on a Basic subscription, will I still get those lessons (only with fewer premium options) or are the really JUST for Premium level subscribers?
Frankly, what I want was satisfied by a basic subscription and I just cannot justify the more than double the cost of going to premium. Thanks for the link.
Hi jinkeli,
I can’t speak for ChinesePod, but my understanding (and previous experience) is that a Basic subscription gives you “Access to our complete lesson library,” just not all the features for each lesson. That’s listed here: https://chinesepod.com/pricing/monthly/
Grace: I just noticed on the “Subscription Options” page linked above that there’s no mention of the Exercises. Those Exercises are the only reason I maintain a Premium account. It’s also the main reason I recommend serious students to pay the extra for Premium.
Hello Ewilc773, the exercises are included with that trial. I am glad that you find those critical in your studies. Thank you for response!
Given the issues over all of the years, 18/19/20 will lack of lessons (esp higher level)
Subscriptions should be extended.