For the ins and outs of your Inner Circle membership, keep on reading…

Types of tech covered on the Inner Circle

  • Laptops and Desktop PCs: Windows 8, 10 and 11. Apple Mac and MacBook. (Sorry, we don’t cover Chromebooks).
  • Tablets: We cover lots of different tablets, the most common are iPads (Apple) and Android tablets.
  • Smartphones: iPhone, Android and certain Doro models are the most common.
  • Printers: We can’t list all printers, nor can we promise to help with all of your printer problems. There’s so many manufacturers of printers, and each one works a little differently, so bear with us if you have a printer problem – we’ll do our best.
  • Smart home tech:  Whether it be Alexas, smart watches, smart TVs or broadband extenders, to name a few, we will always try our best to help with any smart tech woes. Between us we have a lot of smart tech in our homes.

How to access the Inner Circle

The Tech Inner Circle site can only be accessed by paying members. We keep it password protected and we will send you a new password, by email, each calendar month. This helps us limit access to members only. If you haven’t got this month’s password, please contact us and we’ll get it sorted for you.

The Tech Inner Circle is an online only service – accessed via the Tech Inner Circle website www.techinnercircle.co.uk

We’re really sorry but we don’t promise telephone calls or remote desktop sessions as part of this membership.

Questions are to be asked via The Clubroom or by email [email protected] We don’t accept queries any other way. We simply can’t promise to help you with every query you submit, but we will always try. Or if it is out of our powers, we will do our best to point you in the right direction.

Sometimes we might ask if we can give you a call, if it’ll help us to resolve your query quicker. Please ask your question on The Clubroom and we will follow up with a phone call if we feel like it needs it.  I’m really sorry but we don’t take queries by phone, so please don’t call the customer service number and ask to speak to one of us.

There are a couple of exceptions to this. For example – If you cannot access the Inner Circle website to ask your query because your device isn’t working, or if the problem you’re having is that you’ve lost your internet connection, then please call 01229 777606 and we will arrange for a call back.

We may offer to control your PC (often called remote desktop) so that we can get a better idea of what’s happening – it’s the next best thing to us coming round to take a look at your PC for ourselves. This isn’t a service we offer generally, only when we need to take a closer look at the problem you’re having. We can’t always offer this, it really depends on the problem you’re having and the device you have, but if we think it’ll help we’ll talk to you about giving it a try.

Opening Hours

The Tech Inner Circle is looked after by Mike, Jess, and Kathryn between Monday and Friday, 9am – 5pm (excluding bank holidays). Between them they help to answer tech queries, upload new videos, journal posts and library content, and keep the place looking good.

Mike, Jess, and Kathryn each work different days of the week, so you might not always get the same person to answer your query, each time.

We aim to respond to your query within 2 working days. Please bear in mind that if you ask your query outside of our opening hours, it won’t get picked up until the next time we’re in the office.

We reserve the right to close the Tech Inner Circle Clubroom to allow for staff holidays. We close during Christmas for 2 weeks. We won’t answer any questions during this time but you can still leave questions on The Clubroom and access all other parts of the site. We’ll answer your questions as soon as possible once we’re back in the office in January.

The Tech Inner Circle site is available to access 24/7 by going to www.techinnercircle.co.uk. From time to time the site may be unavailable while we make improvements but we will always aim to let you know in advance.

Sometimes things can go wrong and the site might be inaccessible without notice. Please know that if this happens, we will do our best to show a message up on the website to let you know it’s not available at this time and when we expect it to be back, but this isn’t always possible.

Your Payments & Membership

If your monthly membership fee can’t be collected for any reason, we’ll write to you with some instructions on how you can update your details with us, so that your membership isn’t disrupted. This usually happens because you’ve had a new credit/debit card issued and your old one has expired.

If you set up your membership as a monthly recurring payment, this is linked directly to the card you used when you set the payment up. If that card expires then we won’t be able to take your next payment. If your bank sends you a new card, please give us a call straight away and we can update your card details to keep your membership running smoothly. If you forget to contact us in time, don’t worry, we’ll get in touch with you by post to ask for the new details.

Like all companies, sometimes we need to review our pricing, but we’ll let you know well in advance if we’re going to make any changes. Remember you’re not tied in to any sort of contract with us and you’re free to cancel your membership at any time.

  • All credit and debit card payments are processed in pounds sterling (UK currency).  If you have a card in a different currency, that’s fine – your card company will convert the payment for you.  They will set the rate, though – and we have no control over what rate they use.
  • We are based in the UK (in the South Lake District in fact – not far from the famous Coniston).  All work is carried out in the UK and orders processed in the UK.  All transactions are under UK law.  But if you’re in a different country, you’re still welcome to join the Inner Circle!

Contact Us about your Membership

If you have any questions about your membership, a change of address or to cancel your membership, please call us on 01229 777606, email us at [email protected] or write to us at
The Helpful Book Company,
Unit 13B,
Devonshire Road Estate,
Millom,
LA18 4JS.

Registered in England and Wales, Company number 08747103, VAT number GB 856 9504 83.

Refund and cancellation policy

  • When you first join the Inner Circle, you can “test drive” it for up to 30 days.  If at any point in those 30 days you decide it’s not for you, just let us know and we’ll refund your payment in full – so it will have cost you nothing.
  • If you decide to leave the Inner Circle after the first 30 days of membership, we’ll stop any future payments straight away.
  • There’s no “tie-in” clause of any kind – if you ever choose to leave, you can do so, instantly, with no penalty.
  • If you do decide to leave, the easiest way is to email us on [email protected] to let us know.  Or you can call us on 01229 777606 – or even write to us at the address below (though obviously, it’ll take a day or two to get to us that way):
  • The Helpful Book Company
    13B Devonshire Road Estate
    Millom
    Cumbria
    LA18 4JS

You can find our contact and company details here.
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