Problems with $99/Year Renewal?Jun 21st, 2006 at 5:30 PM by Railus


We have received some emails inquiring about the $99/year renewal issue. You can find the original April 8, 2005 news release at this location: http://everquest.allakhazam.com/news/sdetail5404.html?story=5404

Listed here are some news postings from SOE officials on EQLive detailing some fixes and what to do if you are still having problems renewing. To summarize: You need to contact SOE's technical support. Those links may be found in Kytherea's note below.


The following is a message from Daniel Clifford, Customer Service Supervisor:

Hey all,
It's been a hectic week to say the least. I was out last week due to a nasty case of the flu, so I apologize if the updates have been slow in coming (or if my emails have been slow in response.) I was thinking of you while I was out, but to be perfectly honest, mostly I was thinking of how miserable it truly feels to have a 102 degree fever.
The final fix for the bug that occurred between April 11th and May 16th 2006 that was preventing the 6 year anniversary promo subscription from renewing has been implimented as of Thursday June 15th 2006. All the remaining accounts that were impacted by the bug between April 11th and May 16th 2006 were sent an email to the address registered on their account. A copy of this email follows, but to summarize, here is what the email enabled:
  • Re-establishment of their closed 6 year promo.
  • Refund of any charges the customer made to resubscribe after their account closed due to the bug.
  • Grant them a free 30 days as our way of apologizing for our billing error.

Here follows a copy of the email that was sent. Be aware it does feature a link to a site that enables all the above features, but it only works with accounts that were affected by this bug. This particular email was sent to someone who didn't resubscribe after the closure, so a refund is not part of the process. There were also separate versions of the letter sent to those customers who re-subbed using a game card, or who resubbed on any regular plan.

Dear EverQuest Fan:

From April 11, 2005 through May 11, 2005, Sony Online Entertainment offered a limited time promotional EverQuest Sixth-Year Anniversary 12-month subscription plan (the "6th Anniversary Promotional Offer").

The 6th Anniversary Promotional Offer was for a 12-month EverQuest subscription at $99.99 (plus applicable taxes), which was to recur annually at the same  price unless and until a participant cancelled his or her subscription.

We want to thank you for participating in that promotional program. Due to a technical error, Sony Online Entertainment failed to automatically recur your subscription for account(s) with which you registered for the 6th Anniversary Promotional Offer ("Eligible Account(s)") for an additional 12-month period at the promotional price of $99.99 (plus applicable taxes). As a result, your account(s) closed and you had the option to continue your subscription at the current EverQuest subscription rates. We apologize for the error.

Our records indicate that you did not re-subscribe to EverQuest.

Starting today and continuing through July 17, 2006, we are offering you the opportunity to re-subscribe your Eligible Account(s) to the Sixth-Year Anniversary 12-month promotional subscription plan, which will recur annually at $99.99 (plus applicable taxes) unless and until you affirmatively cancel your subscription plan.

Please note that you need a valid credit card to pay for the 12-month promotional subscription plan and you cannot use a game card, Global Collect or any other payment method. The Sixth-Year Anniversary 12-month subscription plan will take effect, and your credit card will be billed the full amount of US$99.99 (plus applicable taxes), immediately upon your election to re-subscribe to that plan.

In addition, if you accept our offer to re-subscribe to the Sixth-Year Anniversary 12-month promotional subscription plan, Sony Online Entertainment will add 30-days of subscription time to the end of that 12-month subscription cycle at no additional charge so that the Sixth-Year Anniversary 12-month promotional subscription period will be extended an additional 30 days.

To take advantage of this offer, and for more information, please go to

https://secure.station.sony.com/eq6thoffer/offer.action

Please note that this offer does not apply for those accounts with which you elected to sign up for the one time, non-recurring 12-month $99 subscription offer that was made available between May 12, 2005 and June 11, 2005.

Thank you for your understanding. We sincerely apologize for our error.

If you have any questions regarding this matter, please feel free to contact SOE customer service using one of the following methods:

Our self-help knowledgebase is available any time at station.sony.com/kb

Email support can be reached any time through the form at station.sony.com/email

Live chat is available Monday through Friday 10:00am through 7:00pm PST at station.sony.com/chat

Telephone support is available Monday through Friday 10:00am through 7:00pm PST at (858) 537-0898.


A follow-up from Daniel Clifford:

Our CSRs have been instructed to assist anyone with technical difficulties (white screens) attempting to use the site. I'm very much in favor of clarity, so here's a little info for you on how the process should work - (if you hear anything different from one of our CSRs, just tell them to check for Dan's email on six year promo fix white pages.)
1) The CSR will verify that you were in fact entitled for the 6 year promo and you did in fact fall victim to the bug between April 11th and May 16th 06.
2) The CSR will verify the error you are receiving from their end.
3) If the CSR can verify that you were a victim of the renewal bug and your web page errors, they will collect information from you for submission to our tier 2 team and testing.
4) Our tier 2 team will contact you later to confirm that your information has been sent to our testing department.
5) We'll email you when we're sure this problem has been fixed.


A message from Kytherea, Community Relations Manager:

If you are having trouble resolving issues with the recurring billing of the 6th Anniversary $99 yearly special subscription rate, our CS staff is primed and ready to help you.  You can contact someone for assistance by:

email: http://www.station.sony.com/email

chat: (10am - 7pm M-F PST) http://www.station.sony.com/chat

phone: (10am - 7pm M-F PST) (858) 537-0898

We do ask that you first attempt to use one of the above methods to resolve the issue however, if you are not satisfied with the resolution by using one of the above methods please contact Daniel Clifford at dclifford@soe.sony.com.

NOTE: This is a billing matter and can not be resolved by posting on the forums or by petitioning in the game.
Tags: EverQuest, News

Comments

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definite F grade for sony
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# Jun 26 2006 at 11:01 AM Rating: Decent
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132 posts
who cares if someone has moved since they started their acct? This is one of several things that have been ticking me off with sony for a while. Are you trying to tell me that I have to live in the same place year after year just because I play eq and use my cc to pay for it?? That is the way they are coming across... I missed the renewals previous to this last one due to not having the money. This year I had the money set aside for 2 of 3 accts, and yet I could not find it; and I started with the subscription page, and worked my way through sony and their useless knowledge base ( something else they get a big F in, since that is the lowest grade I have ever heard of for a report card. ( this is not a flame, but a statement of fact, considering that 95% of the info that it comes up with is not eq related, even after getting dang specific in teh criteria ) ).
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the renewal
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# Jun 26 2006 at 10:52 AM Rating: Decent
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132 posts
the only problem I had with this is that I couldn't find it, no matter where I looked, and I started with the subscription page. I had the moeny required to pay for it sitting on my cc for 2 months, had asked the csrs about it, and nothing... Needless to say, sony does rate an F at this point on their scorecard for service, epsecially when it comes to the cc and moving thing... so long as it's your card, and everything is legal, who cares if you happen to have moved; or if you had to get a replacement card, or if the cc you orginally registered had a diff number on tha back because it was the use now while we get your real card ready thing. A definite F
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$99 a year promio
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# Jun 22 2006 at 4:31 AM Rating: Decent
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17 posts
The problem with the $99 promo was that SOE was trying to bill you for a plan that no longer exsisted in their computers. This made billing not go through and came back looking like your credit card was rejected. They fixed this problem in the middle of May so if your subsrciption renewed after that you should be ok unless your credit card info changed. If your credit card info changed you are out of luck. To update your credit card info on SOE's site you have to choose a subscription plan and the promo plan is not on the list. For more info here is a link to eqlive.
http://eqforums.station.sony.com/eq/board/message?board.id=Veterans&message.id=223383


Edited, Thu Jun 22 04:29:33 2006
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RE: $99 a year promio
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# Jun 22 2006 at 9:29 AM Rating: Decent
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Sage
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246 posts
Quote:
If your credit card info changed you are out of luck.


Well, not according to Dan Clifford:
Quote:
You are on the 6 year promo plan and due to renew but your credit card expiration date has changed: If your expiration date has changed you should renew without incident due to the nature of recurring charges.


Scroll 1/2 down pg 33 to find Dan's full post.

http://eqforums.station.sony.com/eq/board/message?board.id=Veterans&message.id=223383&view=by_date_ascending&page=33

[Edited to fix the #$%@@$%#$^ link]

Edited, Thu Jun 22 10:31:50 2006
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RE: $99 a year promio
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# Jun 22 2006 at 9:28 PM Rating: Default
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68 posts
Just got off the phone with them after being hung up on twice, it seems as if there's ANY changes in your billing you're SOL. We bought a new house and moved 30miles, changed the billing address and updated the credit card information and were told that we no longer qualify for the promotion
Quote:
TSR Alex K.: As per the policy of SOE if one do any changes in billing info that is changing the credit card info or canceling the account or the account is closed due to any reason it will no longer valid for the promo offer. We apologize that we cannot do any thing in this issue.

So someone needs to get their heads of that proverbial orafice and decide what it's going to be, one says we're going to get it another one says we're not.. meanwhile the heck with them I'm going to play and have fun but I'll be damned if I'm going to pay them $200 for 2 years to do it and then have to fight them all over again. Thankfully we've got a 30 year mortgage so we're not going anywhere, not that I plan on playing in 30 years time lol
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RE: $99 a year promio
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# Jun 23 2006 at 1:10 PM Rating: Good
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Sage
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102 posts
I have 3 accounts on EQ all signed for the promo, My wifes account renewed at 99.99 rate which was good, however 2 days later we had a robbery ( locker was broken into, wallet/money gone, along with my subway sandwich card...I hope they CHOKE! ) however, I digress

I cancelled all cards right away, checked online to see if any were used and saw the sony charges, so I checked my other accounts saw that one expires in july, so I emailed SoE to tell them and see about getting my accounts changed over to get my 6year rate.

Stone cold...TS..the ruleset is set and we wont do anything to help you, youll have to pay whatever prices are listed. several emails different cs people same responses.

By far the worst customer service Ive ever seen, I thought the posts Ive seen on various EQ boards were just flames, but thses guys really, truely dont give a rabids rats royal *** about its customers.

Quote:
_______________________________________________
Thankfully we've got a 30 year mortgage so we're not going anywhere, not that I plan on playing in 30 years time lol
_______________________________________________

I plan on playing something in 30 years, when Im 60 Ill put on my senssurround 3d headset, plug into the cortex...AND PLAY FRICKEN WoW, because SoE can Kiss my big blue Barbarian *****

Alittle bitter :P

Edited, Fri Jun 23 14:12:16 2006
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RE: $99 a year promio
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# Jun 23 2006 at 6:32 PM Rating: Default
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68 posts
30 years time I'm going to have something better to do then that.. like chasing little old men around the nursing home on my souped up motorised wheel chair.. unless they decide to give us the game for free for playing so long
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RE: $99 a year promio
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# Jun 22 2006 at 3:29 PM Rating: Decent
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17 posts
Quote from Dan Clifford

You are on the 6 year promo plan, but your credit card number or account has closed or changed significantly: Unfortunately there seems to be no way to keep you on the 6 year promo. With that having been said there is the 2 year plan (which is currently $199.) Also, and I'm STILL not promising anything, there is a chance we might have similar promos in the future.

This is what I am talking about.



Edited, Thu Jun 22 16:30:51 2006
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Mails and (Non)Errors
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# Jun 22 2006 at 3:03 AM Rating: Decent
Firecobra
Scholar
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228 posts
I, as having this promo, got this mail too, but ...
I checked my account subs. and DIDNT find any problems told above! I was renewed, and had again an activa account for the next year with this subs.
As, due to that, I found such an e-mail suspect, even it looked original, I was asking sony about it.
I got back, that if everything looks fine, it might have sent to me due an(other) error.

SO conclusio to that ... not EVERYone, who gets that mail, really has a problem with the renewal!! I suggest you first check your subscripition on your account!
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Firecobra
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