I feel like im getting unfair treatment because im new...

[Djinnrb]

Updated OP because it seemed to offend people.

I only wanted to bring this to SE's attention because the GM said to post it on the forums. I didn't really need any negative feedback or reply's from people at all except from a SE representation.

My point was that I used my free trial and about a week later the servers go down wasting over half of my free trial. I thought SE should know of the situation and if they decide to do anything about it then great.

[Ryozen]

You're mad because you're getting something for free?

[Djinnrb]

Im mad because im getting nothing out of not being able to play while everyone else is...

[Runespider]

Im mad because im getting nothing out of not being able to play while everyone else is...

Everyone else paid money to Square beforehand so are paying customers, you still haven't proven you will pay anything being on free trial.

[Djinnrb]

oh so its screw the new people... That is not how a business should be run. Its take care of all your customers not just the ones who have been with you the longest. If they want new people to play and pay for their game they need to show that they care.

I started this game and It says I get a 30 day free trial... technically having the servers down is taking away from our 30 day free trial. I only want whats fair. You guys who don't care about this problem need to go somewhere else. this thread isn't for you.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

It's not screw the people. It's simple really.

When you pay for a service you're required to get it, or they breach their contract. Because we lost it for that period they HAD to give that time back, in which they did so with the month "free" which in reality is not free as you already paid for it.

You did not pay for it, the free 30 day trial is exactly that, free. They do not have to refund you as you did not pay for it.

Getting rude to other members isn't going to help you out in anyway, you'll only appear as a child throwing a strop.

[Zaknafein]

I doubt SE took into account severe earthquakes, and Tsunami when setting the policy for trial accounts....

[Djinnrb]

I wasn't trying to offend people. I only wanted to bring this to SE's attention because the GM said to post it on the forums. I didn't really need any negative feedback or reply's from people at all except from a SE representation.

My point was that I used my free trial and about a week later the servers go down wasting over half of my free trial. I thought SE should know of the situation and if they decide to do anything about it then great.

[KorPoni]

SE offers a free trial, but they are in no way required to extend your trial because there's no contract involved. It's simply something to allow you to try the game. If you like it, pay up and keep playing with a paid account. If not, be grateful for what little you did get to play without having to pay. Free trials are actually fairly new. When I first started on my first account, there was no free trial. I paid, THEN I got to try out the game.

[NightDagger]

the OP is correct. He bought the game with a 30 day free trial. Since the servers being down interrupted his trial he should get the same as we do, April for free.

Does not matter if he is a paying user or not, he bought the game & that is why it get's it. Either give him his FULL free trial or give him his money back for the game. If it was me I would fight it tooth & nail. You could even look into legal action, as in order to sign up for the game & get the free trial they make you input your payment information. Which makes you setup as being a paid customer.

[RAIST]

* Only customers who paid subscription fees for March 2011 are eligible. Customers registering new accounts or reactivating accounts in April are not eligible.


There's the rub... April's billing will basically be a refund. They can't refund something that wasn't paid. Welcome to the proverbial loophole.

[Lushipur]

the OP is correct. He bought the game with a 30 day free trial. Since the servers being down interrupted his trial he should get the same as we do, April for free.

Does not matter if he is a paying user or not, he bought the game & that is why it get's it. Either give him his FULL free trial or give him his money back for the game. If it was me I would fight it tooth & nail. You could even look into legal action, as in order to sign up for the game & get the free trial they make you input your payment information. Which makes you setup as being a paid customer.

are you sure he bought the game? trial do not require just to have a valid mail address and credit card?
i ask cause i used the trial for an alt and i never bought a second copy of the game...when the trial ended i did not choose to pay for it and end of the story.

[oliveira]

There is two types of trial:

14 day trial (obtained online and I believe this is no longer available from the NA/EU sites)

And buying the game at retail or STEAM. This type gives 30 days trial. It's only available as buddy code which come with the collections or from a retail box or steam purchase.

While the OP is right about complaining about this, I believe the system is automated and probably has no mechanism to deal with such a situation. Instead of posting here and dealing with the discussion try calling their billing support for real/useful instructions/information.

This is the best advice I can give you.

[Djinnrb]

the OP is correct. He bought the game with a 30 day free trial. Since the servers being down interrupted his trial he should get the same as we do, April for free.

Does not matter if he is a paying user or not, he bought the game & that is why it get's it. Either give him his FULL free trial or give him his money back for the game. If it was me I would fight it tooth & nail. You could even look into legal action, as in order to sign up for the game & get the free trial they make you input your payment information. Which makes you setup as being a paid customer.

Thank you finally someone agrees with me. and sees what im trying to say.


are you sure he bought the game? trial do not require just to have a valid mail address and credit card?
i ask cause i used the trial for an alt and i never bought a second copy of the game...when the trial ended i did not choose to pay for it and end of the story.

Yes I bought the collection and all 3 aby addons aswell... I paid money. I was just still on my free trial which got interrupted.

[Djinnrb]

There is two types of trial:

14 day trial (obtained online and I believe this is no longer available from the NA/EU sites)

And buying the game at retail or STEAM. This type gives 30 days trial. It's only available as buddy code which come with the collections or from a retail box or steam purchase.

While the OP is right about complaining about this, I believe the system is automated and probably has no mechanism to deal with such a situation. Instead of posting here and dealing with the discussion try calling their billing support for real/useful instructions/information.

This is the best advice I can give you.

Thanks for the advice... the GM told me to post here so I just followed what he/she said. But I will call aswell.

[marick]

he also must understand that a GM only has so much he can do. A GM can't just go ahead and extend your free trial period, and he gave you an answer you didn't like. Maybe you should have contacted SE with and email or called them.

[Mirage]

I also agree that if he bought the game and the game included 30 days free playtime, he should be reimbursed for for lost playtime.

He paid for a combination of the game discs + 1 month of playtime, and only got game discs + half a month of playtime.

This sort of falls between two chairs, but I don't see it as a problem to make an exception for the few people who actually bought the game anew. If there's anything this game needs now, it's new players. Giving an aftertaste of bad customer service in their mouths isn't gonna make them stay.

[NightDagger]

are you sure he bought the game? trial do not require just to have a valid mail address and credit card?
i ask cause i used the trial for an alt and i never bought a second copy of the game...when the trial ended i did not choose to pay for it and end of the story.

He stated that he bought the game & got a 30 day free trial. Which means he paid for the game itself & did not receive the trial period that comes with it. He has also said he bought the abyssea add-ons, so this makes him a paying customer.

[chubrocka]

the OP is correct. He bought the game with a 30 day free trial. Since the servers being down interrupted his trial he should get the same as we do, April for free.

Does not matter if he is a paying user or not, he bought the game & that is why it get's it. Either give him his FULL free trial or give him his money back for the game. If it was me I would fight it tooth & nail. You could even look into legal action, as in order to sign up for the game & get the free trial they make you input your payment information. Which makes you setup as being a paid customer.

I agree, there have been enough times where SE seems to screw with us all on our accounts and there customer service skills lack very much on the side of the paying customer. I say you should get what you were sold when you purchased the game. If its a free month the month should be playable not non playable. Not all of us who play the game are the ones who think SE are gods lol

[RAIST]

hehe... wait until the first billing actually happens. I joined mid month, so when my first bill came in I was like WTF??!! Then I realized I was billed prorata for the partial month and pre-paying for the coming month. They didn't break it down, they just slapped a $20 something charge on there. Wonder if they are still doing that?

[Djinnrb]

hehe... wait until the first billing actually happens. I joined mid month, so when my first bill came in I was like WTF??!! Then I realized I was billed prorata for the partial month and pre-paying for the coming month. They didn't break it down, they just slapped a $20 something charge on there. Wonder if they are still doing that?

Yes I believe they have not caught up with the times on standard MMO billing yet.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

I also agree that if he bought the game and the game included 30 days free playtime, he should be reimbursed for for lost playtime.

He paid for a combination of the game discs + 1 month of playtime, and only got game discs + half a month of playtime.

This sort of falls between two chairs, but I don't see it as a problem to make an exception for the few people who actually bought the game anew. If there's anything this game needs now, it's new players. Giving an aftertaste of bad customer service in their mouths isn't gonna make them stay.

As someone with the disk the actual wording is, and I quote: FREE Subscription for 30 Days*
* Some restrictions may apply.

Technically by law, they are fine, they never said you could play if for the whole month, only you have a 30 Day Subscription.

I still say they should include the remainder, then charge for the month or whatever, but they are not obliged to do so.

[RAIST]

good point.., forgot about their CYA clause to protect them against server/ISP downtimes and such.

[Mirage]

As someone with the disk the actual wording is, and I quote: FREE Subscription for 30 Days*
* Some restrictions may apply.

Technically by law, they are fine, they never said you could play if for the whole month, only you have a 30 Day Subscription.

I still say they should include the remainder, then charge for the month or whatever, but they are not obliged to do so.

Pretty sure the "some restrictions" refer to if you start playing in the middle of a month, and that "free" still requires to pay for an internet connection. I could be wrong though!

[Daniel_Hatcher]

Pretty sure the "some restrictions" refer to if you start playing in the middle of a month, and that "free" still requires to pay for an internet connection. I could be wrong though!

It's not specified on the box, or when you sign up. So they could easily argue it.

[Lushipur]

He stated that he bought the game & got a 30 day free trial. Which means he paid for the game itself & did not receive the trial period that comes with it. He has also said he bought the abyssea add-ons, so this makes him a paying customer.

in the OP is not stated he bought the boxed game, he said that later... and buying 3 addon without trying first the game is really a bad move...or he decided before hand to play the game even if he didnt liked it

however i doubt u can do anything with that, if u created the account mid march u are not eligible to get the free month, even if it is a free trial

try to contact the billing support and ask if they can do an exception...an unhappy customer is the last thing they need now, so maybe they will do something exceptionally...

and guess what? it seems im not eligible too for the free months cause i use webmoney to pay and probably im not in the billing system XD

[RAIST]

Unfortunately, the fees are pre-pay charges. Billing in April will be for you to play for the month of April. Biling in March was for you to play in March. There is also no QOS agreement stating that you are guaranteed access to the game x hours aday for x number of days in that month. ISP outages, server downtime for maintenances and updates, etc. have no remedy for issuing credit as the fees are not bound to play time, but subscription to a service. A lot of gray area there for some wiggle room, but I would expect you would still be billed on your normal schedule.

The system is kind of screwy. Depending on when you join, you may skip the first biling cycle that comes up because you are still in the free trial period. When the NEXT cycle comes up, they can legitimately charge pro-rated amount for the time you played in the previous month while not under the free trial agreement.

As for the April billing in this case, it looks like their criteria for who qualifies for the null billing for April are those who PAID for March. If the criteria was who was ACTIVE in March, then those who were in free trial would also qualify for waiver in April. But, essentially April billing will have a credit for subscription fees agains't the March billing only--any additional services, etc are still being billed on their normal schedule. It is safe to assum new subscribers who were in free trial will be treated as per the normal billing cycle rules.