Welcome to our help section
Please take a look at the frequently asked questions below. If you can't find what your looking for then please get in contact with us via the web form or over the phone on 0161 226 2929.
For all media and press related questions please go to our media info page.
Subscriptions & Registrations
Signing in & Passwords
Using the Website
Mobile Access
Product Guides & Sliders
Best Buy Label
Ethical Business Directory
About Ethical Consumer Reseach Association
Subscriptions & Registrations
How do I subscribe to Ethical Consumer?
View the subscription options here or by calling us on 0161 226 2929
How does the 30 day trial work?
You buy a subscription and have full access to the website and receive a print and/or digital copy of the magazine.
If you don't want to continue with it you can cancel any time within the first 30 days to receive a full refund. To cancel just telephone us during office hours on 0161 226 2929 or email shop@ethicalconsumer.org with your name, address and username stating that you wish to cancel.
How do I renew to Ethical Consumer?
Subscribers will receive a renewal letter with their magazine near to the time their subscription is due to lapse.
Alternatively you can renew via the website or phone 0161 226 2929 or download a Direct Debit form to send to us.
I want to subscribe to Ethical Consumer by direct debit.
Please download a Direct Debit form from the website and send to Ethical Consumer, Freepost (NWW 978A), Manchester, M15 9EP.
When will my direct debit be taken?
Your direct debit is taken annually. You will be notified by letter when your direct debit is due to be taken. If you are unclear when your direct debit date is due please contact our subscriptions team via this contact form.
I want to cancel my direct debit?
Please call us on 0161 226 2929 or email our subscriptions team via this contact form and we will cancel your direct debit on our database. In addition we advise you to contact your bank and cancel your direct debit.
Can I change my subscription from PDF (online) to print magazine, or vis versa?
Yes, you will need to contact our subscriptions team via this contact form and we will alter your order.
I want to cancel my subscription.
Please contact our subscriptions team contact form to cancel your subscription.
What's the difference between subscribing and registering?
As a registered user you will:
- receive our free monthly newsletter
- be able to access reports published in the last 6 months
- be able to save customised slider positions
- be able to post in our Forums
- be able to post comments on the site
As a subscriber you will have all of the above and also access to all the information on the website including:
- full access to all the stories behind the tables
- view product details
- view brand and company information and ratings
- all the downloadable back issues of the magazine and pdfs of the product guides
- the next six issues of the magazine in print or digital format
- and much more.
Signing in and Passwords
Can I change my Password?
Yes, click on 'Edit Profile' in the grey strip under our logo, and then select 'Change' next to your password.
I've lost or can't remember my Password or Username
Password - please use the 'forgotten password' link in the grey strip at the top of the page.
Username - pease email our subscriptions team via this contact form or call us on 0161 226 2929.
When Signing In I get the message 'Already logged in.'
This is because your account is already signed in to the site on another browser, for example on your work computer or mobile phone. Or because you've given someone else your login details. In order to sign in you'll need to sign out from the other device, or wait for 20 minutes when it should log out automatically.
In Internet Explorer I get a 'page cannot be displayed' error message.
Your browser is probably timing out before it finishes signing in to the site. The fix involves making an edit to your system registry to change a setting for Internet Explorer as detailed below, so it depends on how confident you are making such changes.
1. Click the Start button on your desktop, and type 'regedit' in the search bar and then click OK.
2. The Registry Editor window will appear
3. Find and then click the following key in the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\InternetSettings
4. In the right-hand screen, find 'ReceiveTimeout' and double-click on it
5. Select the 'Decimal' button
6. You will probably see '10000' under 'Value Data' - this is how long in milliseconds IE takes to time out
7. Change this value (for exmaple to 50000) and click ok
8. Restart Internet Explorer.
Or you could use either Firefox or Chrome browsers, neither of which suffer from this problem.
Using the Website
What do the different Search options mean?
There are four different search options:
- Site: This searches the whole site
- Product: This searches only for individual products
- Companies: This searches just for companies and takes you to the company data page (and is only available to subscribers)
What happened to the Ethiscore.org website?
All the information subscribers could previously access on ethiscore is now available here on ethicalconsumer.org.
Mobile Access
If you visit this website on a mobile device you will automatically be redirected to a mobile version of the site, which has simplified versions of all the Buyers Guides and the data behind them.
Access to reports is exactly the same as for the desktop version of the website, i.e. some are only available to Subscribers or Registered Users.
Subscribers and Registered Users can sign in using the usual username and password details.
Any changes you make to your customised scores will be reflected on the desktop version too.
Also see this page about mobile access to ethicalconsumer.org
Product Guides and Sliders
Also see the Video Guide to using our tools.
How do your ratings work?
Our ratings are live updated scores from our primary research database. They are based on primary and secondary research across 19 categories. See this full explanation of how we calculate our ethical ratings
Customising Scores
Move the sliders to change the weighting given to each category. You can open up each of the 5 main categories by clicking on the + sign. This way you can compare products according to what's ethically important to YOU.
Why don't the sliders work for me?
Probably you have javascript disabled, for example by using the 'Noscript' add-on for Firefox - you'll need to enable it for ethicalconsumer.org. The sliders don'tt work on a touchscreen device, such as the iPad.
Saving customised weightings
Subscribers can permanently save their customised weightings, which will be used to calculate personalised scores across the whole site. Registered Users can save weightings for a single visit.
Full Scorecard
The Full Scorecard shows the 'black marks' for each product, by category. The bigger the mark, the worse the score. So for example a big black circle under 'Worker Rights' shows that the company making this product has been severely criticised for worker abuses.
Why can't I see the stories behind the scores?
To see all the stories and researched data behind the ratings you'll need to be a subscriber. Click here to see a sample product guide and see what you're missing!
How do you select the companies and products you feature?
We select the companies and products to feature based on a number of criteria, including market share and any special qualities e.g. being organic or fair trade.
Best Buy Label
What is the Best Buy Label?
The Best Buy Label is awarded to companies who score highly in our product guides.
Find out more about the Best Buy Label
Ethical Business Directory
How do I get my company listed in your directory?
First check that your business is eligible. Then all you need do is subscribe and add your listing in the Edit Profile area.
About Ethical Consumer Research Association
How are you funded?
Through a variety of sources: subscriptions, ethical consultancy and screenings work, grant fundraising and donations.
How can I support Ethical Consumer?
You can help Ethical Consumer in a number of ways:
By subscribing you'll be helping to fund all our research and you will also get access to all our online information.
- Become an investor member.
Through their investments our members help to fund significant projects such as the development of this website, and they also receive 3% interest on any money invested. Click here for more information.
If you live in the Manchester area and can spare some time we are always on the look out for enthusiastic volunteers to help out around the office or with specific research tasks (depending on experience). Click here for more information.
Do you provide speakers for events and conferences?
We are able to visit events but we do ask for travel expenses and a fee for the organisation (to be negotiated). Please make any requests via our web contact form.
Can you help me with my school, college or under-graduate project?
Ethical Consumer gets many requests from students of all ages. Many of the questions can be answered by searching the site and directly quoting what we have written, please do this before sending any questions. In addition due to the volume of requests and the size of our team we cannot respond to all requests.
Can you help with post-graduate or academic research?
If you would like to survey our readership then we recommend the best course of action is to buy ad space on the site or in the magazine.
If you would like to question a member of the team we recommend that you fully search the site first and if you cannot find what you are looking for please get in touch via our contact form.
Who built this website?
Digital strategy, web marketing and online content development is by Orange Tree Digital
Technical development is by Idonix.
Visual design is by Moonloft.
Web hosting is from Bandicoot - business and internet solutions.