VIPs getting nickel-and-dimed?

[Evennote]

I've been a VIP subscriber since July 2011. I signed up for the "three months for $29.97" plan, or $9.99 per month, so I get billed just under $30 every three months. For security reasons, I use a prepaid credit card to pay for my VIP sub. DDO is just about the only thing I use the card for; I use PayPal for most other online spending, so I add funds to the card a day or two ahead of when I expect my VIP payment to be charged.

I never noticed until last night when my monk was unceremoniously booted from Cannith server during a Rainbow in the Dark run, but Turbine has shortened that three-month billing cycle by a few days EVERY time they've billed me. My original billing date was July 23, 2011, then Oct. 20, 2011; Jan. 18, 2012; April 17, 2012; July 16, 2012; and now apparently Oct. 12, 2012.

The VIP plan I chose is described here. I wondered if maybe they were billing me every 90 days instead of every three months, but the page clearly states "months" rather than "days." There's also a line at the bottom: "Turbine Points are distributed monthly based on the day of the month of your subscription activation." But just to be fair, I calculated the billing date based on a 90-day rather than three-month billing cycle... and even if that were the case, I STILL got billed two days early.

Or at least I THINK I did; the first thing I checked was my online balance for my prepaid card. There is no indication that ANYTHING has been sent through my account there - which I suppose is good in a way, because as mad as I am right now, I'd be even madder if I'd been hit with overdraft charges because someone at Turbine feels the need to shortchange me for the time I've paid for.

I submitted an ingame ticket which was closed with an autoresponse within about 30 seconds, so I filled out another ticket on the support site and got the old, "Yeah, sure, we'll check into that, but it might take us a while to resolve it." Riiiiiiight... I remember this routine from when my cosmetic pets went missing. So we'll see... but right now I feel like, as far as Turbine is concerned, VIP = Very Insignificant Person.

FWIW, I've added enough funds to my card today to cover the next three months of my VIP sub, but haven't reactivated VIP because as much as I'm going to miss my monk and some of the content, I'm not at all sure I want to give Turbine any more money, especially if they're going to keep this shortchanging nickel-and-dime racket going.

[AZgreentea]

Its pretty normal that a company will define a "month" as 30 days. That means every time your bill cycles, your bill date moves by either 1 or 2 days, depending on how many 31 day months are in that cycle. 90 days from April 17th was July 16th.

You can use this to calculate 90 days, if you want. http://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadd.html Your next due date will be January 10th.

[Evennote]

Even if that's the case, my billing date should be Monday, October 15. NOT Friday, October 12, which is when I found my Cannith monk unceremoniously booted from the server.

There are a number of things I pay monthly, and every single one of them falls on the same day of each month. In my experience, this is the norm; I've never had any "monthly" bill that was charged every 30 days. So while I understand that a company may want to define "monthly billing" as "every 30 days" rather than "on the same day of each month," this should then be spelled out as such.

Incidentally this EXACT same thing happened to a friend of mine just a few days earlier - his prepaid card was billed three days ahead of time, before he added funds, and his VIP sub was cancelled. He's chosen not to renew.

[Uska]

I use to use the 6 month plan and was always billed on th 28th I have since changed to the 12 month plan and we will see if that remains the case next August

[Burtle]

Everytime I've paid it's always tried to reup on the same day the next month when I was paying monthly,

When I paid for 3 months, it did the same thing, ie: pay on August 15 it tries to reup on November 15th...

Now that I paid for a year, I paid on March 15th, 2012 and it will reup on March 15th 2013.

I'm not sure if it's a glitch or what..but I'd call customer support and ask them why it's trying to reup on an earlier day.

[Bogenbroom]

My DoM for re-ups has been stable for eons on all three accounts. However, I don't think I was ever on the 3 month plan. 6, then 12.

[shadereaper33]

Even if that's the case, my billing date should be Monday, October 15. NOT Friday, October 12, which is when I found my Cannith monk unceremoniously booted from the server.

There are a number of things I pay monthly, and every single one of them falls on the same day of each month. In my experience, this is the norm; I've never had any "monthly" bill that was charged every 30 days. So while I understand that a company may want to define "monthly billing" as "every 30 days" rather than "on the same day of each month," this should then be spelled out as such.

Incidentally this EXACT same thing happened to a friend of mine just a few days earlier - his prepaid card was billed three days ahead of time, before he added funds, and his VIP sub was cancelled. He's chosen not to renew.

Actually, you most recent billing date should have been Sunday, the 14th of October, which would explain why it was moved up to Friday, the 12th of October. Most companies that do any sort of recurring financial transaction will move those transactions to the Friday preceding a weekend if the transaction would fall over the course of the weekend.

[mystafyi]

very strange,,, when I was vip my billing date was constant. This was a while back though...

[SiliconScout]

Working in Information Technology at bank I can tell you that in today's word electronic billing is 24/7.

If you get paid / billed on the 15th there is absolutely no reason to adjust for weekends any longer. Cheques and bills are cleared by computers not people so they operate 7 days a week.

Additionally when I was VIP my sub came due the exact same day every month.

Typically we see this kind of strange behaviour when a system hasn't correctly compensated for a leap year. That said 2011 was NOT a leap year so that is out.

Sounds like they have a gremlin in the system in regards to your account for sure. I would think that they would need to investigate directly to determine why your billing date is changing.

It could have to do with the country you are in (or your pre-paid card is held in). Are you in North America with a prepaid card from a National / international Bank?

If the card is simply a "walmart" visa for example that could be part of the problem as some countries take longer for billing processes to occur as they are not up to North American / Western European standards and therefore some billings may be requested earlier in order to have the transaction processed in time for the actual bill date. having said that this is a rare practice as most companies are good with the date the payment was requested rather than the date it actually processed which can be 24 - 48 hours later even in a fully modern system depending on when the various institutions involved run their batch processing.

[BOgre]

Even if that's the case, my billing date should be Monday, October 15. NOT Friday, October 12, which is when I found my Cannith monk unceremoniously booted from the server.

There are a number of things I pay monthly, and every single one of them falls on the same day of each month. In my experience, this is the norm; I've never had any "monthly" bill that was charged every 30 days. So while I understand that a company may want to define "monthly billing" as "every 30 days" rather than "on the same day of each month," this should then be spelled out as such.

Incidentally this EXACT same thing happened to a friend of mine just a few days earlier - his prepaid card was billed three days ahead of time, before he added funds, and his VIP sub was cancelled. He's chosen not to renew.

That'd be me. And yes, my 12 month sub expired 3 days early. I had enough points saved up to buy what content i didn't have already plus some added perks, so didn't resub. May do so at some point, not sure at the mo.

Another point. If I set up a bill to be paid online, I have the option to make it a recurring payment. There is NO option to set a number of days, i.e. 30 days, on my bank's online payment page. The only options are weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly. You get to pick the CALENDAR date of the month for that... So again, the whole 30-day business excuse is a load of hooey.

Most importantly, the site Evennote links to does state monthly, and then goes on to clarify that TP is give monthly as well, by calendar date...

I certainly hope your issue gets sorted Even. If ever there was a loyal DDO customer, it's you. Bad form Turbine. boo-hiss.

[BOgre]

Oh, and one other point:

Every other business with which I have a subscription or recurring payment plan of any kind sends me a reminder by mail/e-mail in advance of expiring or needing renewal. From my car registration and insurance to my mortgage to my newspaper.

Turbine, sending us a head's up via email and in-game mail a few days or weeks in advance would go a long way to clearing up this type of problem, and it makes good business sense as well. Ask your customer for the sale. Don't give them time to opt out and decide to NOT opt back in. You're losing sales.

[Battlehawke]

It would be great for Turbine to send a billing statement via e mail. Maybe even a bonus e mail from time to time. Maybe a "hey you've payed continuously for almost 7 years, have a month on us! J/k, but it would be awesome!

Back to the subject though. The billing cycle is defined by the billing company. Most credit card companies have a 28 day billing cycle!!! Usually your utilities and Mortgage are "monthly". Trust me Credit Card companies make money in so many different ways.

[Evennote]

Well, against my better judgment, I caved and re-upped my VIP before I even got a response from Turbine. When I did get an answer, I was rather snottily told that billing is every 30 days and they couldn't honor my request for a refund - which is strange since I didn't ASK for a refund; I only asked for the time I'd paid for to be credited to my account.

I've also double- and triple-added and then some, and my billing date based on a 90-day cycle definitely should have been Oct. 15, rather than the 14th, so there was REALLY no reason to move it up to Friday.

As B.Ogre said, many financial institutions - my credit union included - don't even allow you to set up a payment for every 30 days. I checked that; I was going to set up something to transfer funds from my savings or checking account to my prepaid card every 30 days, but I don't have that option. But I CAN set it up to transfer funds on the same day of each month.

To the person who messaged me and suggested contacting the BBB: I may, although I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

So Turbine, I get it. You don't care that I've been a paying customer for more than a year (and I know many people have been VIP for much longer). All you want is my money any way you can get it. If that means ripping me off for a few days every billing cycle, so be it; sounds like you need those couple of dollars more than I do.

And I get that you don't intend to do anything for me, except to continue to downgrade DDO's quality of life with more lag, more glitches, incredibly slow response time on ingame tickets (and then half the time the GM who finally responds can't/won't do anything). But for the sake of every present and future VIP, please correct your terminology to "every 30 days," "every 90 days," etc., because "monthly" is misleading at best.

[mystafyi]

When I did get an answer, I was rather snottily told that billing is every 30 days

well that is strange since everyone else I have spoken too have(or has since most have quit paying for ddo) a consistant billing date. hope you like getting ripped off... oh wait you do since you re-subscribed knowing that most everyone else isnt being treated like you are.

yes, its a paltry amount, but the principle is the same, you are getting ripped off.

[BOgre]

Yup, yer getting hosed. Either by the advertising, or by the accounts department, or by the CSR that told you it's every 30 days. One way or the other it stinks. And the BBB is most definately worth it. Remember a while back when Arti came out and the big stink over the current ad and the fact that arti was pay only for a while? that whole fiasco went to the BBB and you bet they corrected it PDQ. The BBB has the clout to not be pushed around like we individuals are. The whole form takes about 10 minutes to fill out. Do go there.

[Zorth]

365/90= 4.05555

Yes they need to fix this. Atter one year it is 4.11. It does keep growing. I agree with the OP.

3 months is the trick!

Do not buy the 3 months.


One month equals per date. 12 months, simple, But for some reason if we buy 3 months the game gets stupid

I AM NOT GOING TO CLICK ON THE WORD, "HERE", UNLESS A DEV SAYS IT IS OK. NOT SURE WHAT TO THINK RIGHT NOW. As far as I know the word, "here" is a scam! because it has happend before on forums, so.... but your math is right.