Issue with 2 free additional retainers through the mog station

I believe there was a small overlook by the team regarding the 2 free additional retainers for people who already owned 2 additional retainers.

I explain, anyone who already owned 2 additional retainers will be charged for any more retainers. Meaning, people like myself who pay 90days bulk subscriptions will get charged for any extra retainers they hire if they already had 2 additional retainers.

While this seems like logical and how it should be, the issue is when said players recently paid for their subscription renewal, myself, I got still 72days left until I need to renew my subscription, so in those 72days duration, any 3rd+ additional retainer will be charge, and in other words, means we will be paying extra since we are not getting 2 free retainers at all, we already paid for the 72 days duration for 1st and 2nd, and we are paying again for 3rd+.

(my apologies if this sounds confusing)

I am sure this was not intended and the system will work perfectly once everyone subscriptions get renewed.

In other words, I am wondering if SE will look into the accounts who are getting charged extra for additional retainers, there are different solutions that can be given here, either refunding the money (most logical solution), adding the extra days to the 1st and 2nd retainers, refund the money in crysta value so it can be used in future subscription renewal or other things.

Also it would be good to add a notice at the main page regarding this problem, and in case there is no way to compensate the players who are paying extra, at least all other players can decide if they rather wait for their subscription renewal before hiring any extra retainers.

Are you asking for the first and second retainers... or 3rd and 4th? I know the mog station's chart is a little confusing with the wording "number of additional retainers" in the header. It should just read number of retainers. 1 and 2 is included with your subscription and are considered the "free" ones. 3rd retainer and above is 1$ extra a month and it is pro-rated into your subscription. So currently I have 24 days left, and for 2 extra retainers the price should be $4.00... pro-rated bring it down to $3.32.

There is no such thing as free additional retainers.

From Mog Station:
"Your FINAL FANTASY XIV service account allows you to hire up to two retainers per character as part of the basic subscription fee.
If you wish to hire more than two retainers, follow the onscreen instructions to add the retainer service to your account.
View the details on retainers and the retainer service. "

I already owned 1st and 2nd additional retainers, pre heavensward and before the patch went up my subscription auto renewed paying for the full 90 days duration for those 2 retainers, then 3.0 came around with the option to get 1st and 2nd retainer for free, I assumed the system would be smart enough to see if an account had already 2 retainers on file paid for, that it would grant 2 free ones and then sync up for future subscriptions. But that was not the case, I paid the 3rd retainer for the remaining 72days left on my account. So I didnt get any free retainers these 72days.

and no, you are wrong about the free retainers, 1st and 2nd additional retainers are actually 3rd and 4th if you are counting the retainers that come with the game. The free 1st and 2nd additional retainers from the mog station are free. I know people who had hired those 2 retainers in the mog station and did not get charged.

I guarantee you I'm not wrong, I tried adding a 3rd/4th retainer, (so my 1st and 2nd additional retainer respectively) and would have been charged the above mentioned pro-rated $3.32.

Again... I refer to the info from the mog station itself:

"Your FINAL FANTASY XIV service account allows you to hire up to two retainers per character as part of the basic subscription fee.
If you wish to hire more than two retainers, follow the onscreen instructions to add the retainer service to your account.
View the details on retainers and the retainer service. "

I do agree however they should add a couple of extra free retainers now that HW is out... if I've missed the post where they announced free 3rd and 4th retainers, by all means I'll eat my words, and gladly agree with you.

There's NO free additional retainers at all. You get retainers 1 & 2 in the game without charge. Any through the Mog Station have to be paid for.

We all thought we'd get at least one free but we didn't.

then explain to me how more than 1 person has got the 1st and 2nd additional retainers free of charge? yes the message will say you will get charged, but it doesn't charge you.

Try removing your payment system, credit card or whatever you use, and press the button to get the 1st and 2nd retainers. Ignore the message, just press it and see if it asks you for credit card information or any other form of payment.

And you can stop copying and pasting what they say in the mog station, it doesn't states says that there are no free additional retainers in the mog station, it only says that the base games comes with 2 and any additional one you must get it through the mog station, actually, if you look at the additional retainers chart, it states 1st and 2nd are free, ADDITIONAL, and at the very bottom it says you can hire up to 6 additional retainers.

Also, the reason for this post is to get a reply from the Japanese staff about this, since there was no official announcement made regarding the 2 free of charge additional retainers, mainly because the NA support is kinda useless and keeps replying to my ticket with auto replies on how to hire retainers, considering I own 4 additional retainers, I do not need the guide on how to hire new ones.

If I didn't have friends who got the 1st and 2nd additional retainers from the mog station for free, I would assume the additional retainer chart is just misleading and with typos. And thus, I wouldn't bother with making this post or filling a ticket for it.

Well, as you seem to know everything already and will take the word of people who claim to have gotten free extra retainers over the word of everyone else, including the people who make the system, there's little point in anyone trying to answer.

:P it isn't everyone else tho, it is only 2 people that haven't tested it out, over people I know in real life who got the free of charge additional retainers as it states on the additional retainers chart in the mog station.

But thank you for trying to give your input about this, I do want a confirmation from the staff about this, are the additional free of charge retainers real, or it is just a typo in their website, and how are my friends getting 2 additional retainers without getting charged for them.

And the NA support team did not make the game, they are just a team with basic information about the game to help out NA players and also they did not reply to my ticket at all, they just give auto replies on how to hire retainers, which is not related to what I am asking in my ticket.

There are 2 free ones, it's all very poorly worded and it would of been much easier if SE would of just made it simple by going up to the retainer npc and hire 2 additional retainers instead of having to go to the mogstation and hire your 2 free retainers.

So, even though it looks like you will be charged for the two additional retainers, you DON'T. It's awesome having more free space!

Where is the documentation stating you will get #'s 3 and 4 for free? Don't recall seeing that anywhere? There was some confusion with the translation that led some to think they were getting 1 additional retrainer, but that was cleared up like a week ago I think. Only 2 free that I am aware of.

There are no added free retainers with Heavensward. Much to my dismay I might add. </3

Guess what? I just wrote up a post about how for hours the game wouldn't let me hire 6 additional retainers I subbed for even after being off game for a time. Kept saying I could only hire 6 (and I was charged for 6. Then I was wondering why I got charged for 6 (or $12 if the first 2 have always been free). Then I got confused that in this forum it said the first 2 additional listed in mog station are the first and second retainer in game as well which did not make sense for pre-HW. Then I got confused yet again in this forum :P that 2 additional retainers are now free. In fact, I still have no idea what's going on. But..!

I selected 6 additional retainer option and was charged $12. Why 6? Because my husband thought we could have a maximum of 6 retainers and there were sites that said we could have maximum of 8 and I was curious.

However- at first I was just going to select 2 additional retainer option and it indeed said 0 Crysta at first which sounded like they did add 2 retainers free. Then at last step it all the sudden said I needed Crysta. (yay?) So if someone perhaps used a debit card and it said $0 charge - double check if you did get charged in the end. If not - awesome for you. When my husband selected same option for 2 additional - it said he owed $4 right at beginning whereas mine said $0.

So: end of story : after a few hours, I indeed was told I could hire a maximum of 8 retainers. I also paid $12 total for the option 6 additional retainers. Hope that clears up any confusion for anyone else. So it goes:

In Game Retainer 1 & 2 are hired In Game only. They are not part of Mog Station as a previous poster mentioned.

In Mog Station - Additional Retainer 1 = In game retainer 3
In Mog Station - Additional Retainer 2 = In game retainer 4
In Mog Station - Additional Retainer 3 = In game retainer 5
In Mog Station - Additional Retainer 4 = In game retainer 6
In Mog Station - Additional Retainer 5 = In game retainer 7
In Mog Station - Additional Retainer 6 = In game retainer 8

Edit : When I said I wrote up a long post, I'm referring to all that I had previously typed up (and deleted now) asking about being charged $12 for my 6 additional retainer option I selected - and retainer vocate told me all day that I could only have 6 retainers in employ (total). This would have been a mistake if I'd been charged for 6 and only 6 total allowed in game since first 2 have always been there with a subscription.

No, it's working as intended. Outside of the first two, there are no additional retainers for free.

I have been anxiously waiting to be able to contribute to this thread and now that my subscription ran out I am able to do so. However, I am neither SE nor part of them in anyway (except as a consumer) so this will not sate your need for them to answer. And will only support what have already been said without bringing anything new to the table (beyond fancy screenshots). I also apologize for reviving this zombie.

TL;DR on the bottom of the page!

So, I let my subscription to run completely dry and made sure that my retainer service was set to inactive so I have clean table to start with. Taken I have hired additional retainers in the past but for now they are all set inactive.

http://i.imgur.com/V1aRy5i.png

As you can see on the above picture all my additional retainers are inactive. I also only subscribed for 30 days to make it easier for me to see the payment and amounts.

With my retainer service being inactive all but my first two retainers are now inaccessible for me.

http://i.imgur.com/HDhqF0n.png

I blanked out the names to protect my retainers' identities, they are already on the grey with all their stea.. I mean gathering furniture from somewhere legally!

As you can see only the two retainers that are part of the monthly subscription are accessible for me at this moment. Those are the “free” retainers for everyone who pays the monthly subscription.

Now we get to the interesting part. The message / piece of information you get when you first click to access your retainer service on the Mogstation. This is also the piece of information that struck a lot of people with confusion, me included. It says “Number of additional retainers” on column number 1 and “Fee” on column number 2. And clearly tells that additional retainer 1 and 2 have no additional fees. However, rest of the retainers up till 8 retainers in total and 6 additional hirable (is this word?) retainers do cost the user the given amount. I am European player so for me the amounts are in British pounds and euros.

http://i.imgur.com/H3QHaLh.png

Now let’s see how this works in action.

http://i.imgur.com/EmZ87SK.png

Under the “Service Details and Payment Method” on bottom of the page it give me the option to select how many additional retainers I wish to hire. And on the drop-down menu I have option to hire up to 6 additional retainers in a configuration I wish.

http://i.imgur.com/mVpMwDi.png

Okay let’s select a single addition retainer and, when I continue it seems to ask me to pay for it. Exactly the amount it displays on the information field / message on top. Now I didn’t have any Crysta on my account when I was taking the screenshots but it does look like it does require the currency as it doesn’t give me an option to follow through with it without Crysta. Also the reason why it has Crysta there is because that’s how I pay my monthly subscription. I buy Crysta for the amount I require and then use that to extend my subscription instead of using a credit card.

http://i.imgur.com/qDhMTXm.png

Let’s test this out with two retainers.

http://i.imgur.com/30YZ10w.png

It seems to be the same, and finally trying to hire all six retainers.

http://i.imgur.com/oWTTolU.png

It seems that none of the additional retainers are free. Even though it clearly said in the information field table / message that number 1 and 2 of additional retainers have no additional fee. Now as a curious person I head to the “Details” section that I see link for and read through all the information they give over there. However, I am unable to find anything that would give me the same impression that the first and second additional retainer would be free. Frankly to say the “details” page is much more informative and clear on how the system works and how it ended up working for me. Thus, it looks like that the information field / message on the landing page when you enter to the retainer services is misleading. The table does give us a false impression that the first and second additional retainer would be free of charge, while it seems to refer to the 2 retainers you get with your subscription and hire in-game that are “free” for everyone who plays the game.

To conclude, it seems that your friends must have either mistaken if they actually received their retainers without any charge or I am being charged for something that I should not be.

Whatever the case might be this is my experience and series of screenshots of how it happened to me. And based on this I am inclined to say that the there are no additional retainers that would be free of charge. The only free retainers appear to be the ones that come with the subscription and you can hire in-game as soon as you complete the quest for it.

I do say though, the way it is said does confuse me and gives me this false impression that I am supposed to have 2 additional retainers for free and I am not the only one with this. It was actually my friend who was talking to me about this as he noticed the message on the retainer service page. He told me that it’s new addition that just were added as he has never seen it before, I on the other hand could swear it’s been there since the beginning when this service was first introduced (with a small changes to the small text underneath the table). He’s also the reason why I decided to save this thread and lurk around.

I am going to drop this to the bug section as a mogstation bug and hope that they do make adjustments for the table shown to make it clearer for the readers perhaps get rid of the part that says 1 and 2 with no additional fees.

And before I go, here’s me buying two (2) of the retainers. I topped my account with 560 crysta as I have four (4) additional retainers. It seems to have taken my money and given me access to my retainers once more. No refunds, no paybacks, nothing.

http://i.imgur.com/DjzznHc.png

http://i.imgur.com/lbZUXhj.png

http://i.imgur.com/XI8uirT.png


TL;DR;
Whatever the case might be this is my experience and series of screenshots of how it happened to me. And based on this I am inclined to say that the there are no additional retainers that would be free of charge. The only free retainers appear to be the ones that come with the subscription and you can hire in-game as soon as you complete the quest for it.

i currently have one additional retainer. Unless you can link to the free additional retainers, it's not real.

I have five retainers. Two from the in-game quest and three bought on Mog Station. Last week my renewal was up... Guess what? I paid for three retainers.

Three paid, plus two free, equals FIVE. I'm calling shenanigans on this thread and either people are fooling themselves or are just plain lying.

Thank you for the replies, but I guess you all miss the point, Additional retainers shouldn't include the 2 retainers that come with the game, hence the word "Additional" you cannot have additional to zero.

true it seems there is no additional retainers, but in that case they should remake that retainer chart and remove the 1 and 2 that come with the game, because these are not additional at all, they come with the game. Also as you shown on the pictures, at the very bottom of that chart it says on red text that you can only have up to 6 additional retainers.

So lets say, true the 1 and 2 retainers are the ones that come with the game, so according to that chart, 1st additional free (included with the game) 2nd additional free (included with the game), 3rd plus additional you pay for, red text says 6 max, so, this means you shouldn't be able to get 8 retainers at all, but yet you can.

Do you guys understand where the problem is?

Anyway this thread doesn't need more replies, thank you either way.