Support for your subscription
On this Support page we address the most frequent questions and issues from subscribers to The Cottage.
Excellent service to our subscriber community is one of our values. We’re old-fashioned about this.
We’ll explain some of the intricacies of Substack here, but the most important takeaway is that many issues can be solved in two ways: (1) manage your account and (2) contact us for help with your account.
Manage your account – dianabutlerbass.substack.com/account
Contact The Cottage – the.cottage.email@gmail.com
There’s detailed information about common problems below. Simply scroll down and look for the heading that addresses your concern.
FOR ALL SUBSCRIBERS: FREE, PAID, GIFTS, AND COMPLIMENTARY
What is Substack?
Substack is a service that manages newsletter subscriptions for writers. The Cottage is hosted on Substack. When you subscribe to The Cottage, a Substack account is created for you under the email address used to subscribe, if you don’t already have one. If you do have one, and you are a paid subscriber to another Substack newsletter, the credit card information you have on file will be used when your purchase a paid subscriptions to The Cottage.
How Substack Manages Subscriptions
Substack puts a lot of power in readers’ hands, and it restricts the things we can do because many readers subscribe to more than one publication. This is different than other email services. You will have to do many of the things you may think we would be able to do, although Substack support can help when necessary. We have found it helpful for readers to let us serve as the conduit for many support issues, so remember that email address: the.cottage.email@gmail.com. These are the most common issues:
YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IS YOUR IDENTITY ON SUBSTACK
EVERYTHING on Substack works off of your email address. Your rights to paid content, your billing information, your other subscriptions are all based on your email address. A common cause of confusion is when subscribers have more than one email address, one paid and one free. We recommend users have only one subscription to avoid this confusion, but if you do have more than one, please make sure you are using the one associated with your paid account when trying to access paid content.
LOGGING IN TO YOUR ACCOUNT
If you are a subscriber but, when your go to dianabutlerbass.substack.com, you are asked to subscribe, just enter your email address in the subscribe box and Substack will send you an email to log in. YOU DON’T NEED A PASSWORD.
CHANGING YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
Many subscribers need to change their email address—they move, get a new job, decide to try another email provider—so you will need to keep it current to continue to receive emails from us. However, we can’t change your email address—but you can!
Go to dianabutlerbass.substack.com/account
At the top of the page, you will see your email address and an Edit button. Click on the Edit button, enter your new email address, and click on Change email.
IF YOU AREN’T RECEIVING EMAILS
There are two primary reasons for this: (1) emails are disabled, and (2) emails are being “dropped.”
Check first to see if your emails are disabled. Go to dianabutlerbass.substack.com/account.
Scroll down to Notifications and make sure Posts is enabled. If it isn’t, turn it on and you will again receive emails.
If your emails are being “dropped,” you most likely marked a Substack email, not necessarily from The Cottage, as spam. Substack disables email addresses that mark Substack emails as spam to protect its deliverability reputation with email providers. If your Post notifications are on but you aren’t receiving emails, contact us at the.cottage.email@gmail.com and we will work with Substack support to turn them back on.
FOR PAID SUBSCRIBERS
UPDATING YOUR CREDIT CARD
In Substack, all paid subscription autorenew. That means that when the end of your subscription term arrives, the credit card you used to subscribe will be charged the amount of your subscription ($5/month, $50/year, $150/year for cultivating members).
If you change your credit card during your subscription term, or if a new card is issued with new expiration date, please go to dianabutlerbass.substack.com/account and scroll down to Payment Information, click on Edit next to Payment method, and enter a current credit card number. Keeping your payment information current will prevent lapses in your subscription.
CHANGING YOUR SUBSCRIPTION PLAN
If you want to change your subscription plan from or to monthly, yearly, or cultivating, click on Change next to Plan under Subscription and choose the plan you want.
PLEASE DO NOT DISPUTE CREDIT CARD CHARGES from The Cottage with your bank
When your yearly or monthly subscription renews, you might see an unfamiliar notation for “DBBASS,” “Substack,” “Cottage,” or a series of ten numbers on your bill. (The charge sometimes issues from San Francisco or California). THIS IS NOT FRAUD. If you have a question, email us at the.cottage.email@gmail.com, please.
Whatever you do, please, please, please: DO NOT DISPUTE OR CANCEL THROUGH YOUR BANK! They charge us onerous fees when you do so. We are happy to help you if you can’t figure out how to adjust your subscription. We have never refused anyone a refund.
Experts in credit card fraud urge consumers to work with the vendor before disputing a charge. We have found that most disputes are in error because the charge was not recognized.
CANCELING YOUR SUBSCRIPTION
If you no longer want a paid subscription to The Cottage, go to: dianabutlerbass.substack.com/account
Scroll to the bottom of the page where you will fink a link to cancel your subscription. You’ll have a choice of pausing or cancelling your subscription. If you cancel, you will remain a paid subscriber until your current subscription term ends.
If you prefer, write to the.cottage.email@gmail.com and ask us to turn off autorenew on your subscription.
OTHER QUESTIONS
The sections above address the issues subscribers are having most commonly. If you need have a situation that isn’t addressed here, write to the.cottage.email@gmail.com.
What’s the difference between a free and paid subscription?
Most posts from The Cottage are sent to all subscribers regardless of the type of subscription they have.
At least one newsletter is sent every week, on Sunday, so if you don’t receive a Sunday Musings newsletter, it’s an indication that there is an issue with your email. Please write to us right away at the.cottage.email@gmail.com and we will help solve the issue.
We want ALL of our subscribers to receive every email they should. These include, for all subscribers, Sunday Musings, a reflection on that week’s lectionary readings; explorations of current cultural and political topics; a monthly Cottage Reader from Diana’s husband, Richard; and other posts as the need arises.
Paid subscribers help make The Cottage happen
They support the work Diana and her husband, Richard, put in to bring its unique takes on faith and culture to The Cottage community. There is also content for only The Cottage community: Third Thursday Zoom conversations with authors and other special guests; monthly Ruining Dinner conversations with Tripp Fuller of Homebrewed Christianity; a monthly newsletter just for paid subscribers; seasonal special series during Advent and Lent and other times during the year; and sneak peeks at Diana’s work-in-progress. We try hard to provide good value for paid subscribers. We hope the knowledge that you are bringing The Cottage to others who are not paid subscribers is rewarding, as well.
The Cottage has not raised paid subscriber prices since it began (the lowest allowed by Substack), and we do not tease unpaid subscribers with partial posts that require a subscription to read the rest. We do subscription drives about once a season for a brief period of time.
Thank you for your support. We’re really glad you’ve chosen to be part of this community.
With gratitude,
Diana Butler Bass and Richard Bass