Beta and the issue of billing

I know direct questions rarely get answered, but this is one pointed at the community reps in hopes we can get a response.

Keeping a concrete date for the v1 shutdown is all well and good, but it brings about an interesting billing issue.

Since billing is a 30-day cycle starting from activation, I assume the dates are scattered throughout the month for when individuals are billed.

Let's assume the v1 shut down occurs Oct. 15 -- merely as a speculative example. What happens to those due to be billed Sept. 16 and beyond?

I know the response we might get is that "details will be released 'soon,'" but Oct. 15 is at the far end of the late Sept./early Oct. target. So in theory, some people may have already payed their last sub fee while others might be getting slighted and not yet know it.

I guess the most pointed way to ask what I'm pondering is; what happens if our last sub fee is less than a month away from the shutdown?

I don't think there is going to be a "shut down" on the game services, most probably a heavy download that will either patch our current client into ver 2.0 or a full ver. 2.0 client download. If anything, you will loose 1 day or maximum 2 (if your connection sucks)

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Originally Posted by Kasathar

I don't think there is going to be a "shut down" on the game services, most probably a heavy download that will either patch our current client into ver 2.0 or a full ver. 2.0 client download. If anything, you will loose 1 day or maximum 2 (if your connection sucks)

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I'm talking about when they shut down the servers for at least three months for Alpha/Beta testing.

I am sure the Alpha and Beta testing servers will be entirely separate from the Live servers.

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Originally Posted by Kasathar

I am sure the Alpha and Beta testing servers will be entirely separate from the Live servers.

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It's well documented that v1 is shutting down when testing begins in late Sept./early Oct.

They probably will carry over the remaining play time to when the server re-opened, like, if I have 15 days left when the server goes down, I will have 15 days left when it came back up.

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Originally Posted by Sephrick

It's well documented that v1 is shutting down when testing begins in late Sept./early Oct.

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Hmm I would like to see this documentation. I haven't seen such announcement yet.

Good question, I was actually wondering this myself. Will the subscription option still be around when there's less than 30 days left until 1.0 shuts down, or will the option be deactivated prior to the final 30 days (like how the 90 day option was deactivated in June)? My next bill date is on the 8th, but I'm not going to pay it if the servers end up shutting down on the 20th or something. However, I definitely don't want to miss out on patch 1.23b either.

Some clarification would be greatly appreciated.

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Originally Posted by Kasathar

Hmm I would like to see this documentation. I haven't seen such announcement yet.

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I'm too tired to dig up every reference but this one says it quite clearly:

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Final Fantasy XIV players, take note: Your days are numbered. Er, at least your days spent in the original FFXIV world. When the game's rebirth, called A Realm Reborn, occurs later this year, the game's servers will be taken offline. Rather than overlap the two versions of the game, Square-Enix director/producer Naoki Yoshida says the original servers will be taken offline "some day in the near future," precipitating an alpha and then a beta for the game's relaunch later this year.

"Basically what's going to happen is that the current story is still continuing now, but some day in the near future -- and we'll make sure we tell the players what day that is -- something is going to happen in the story, and at that time, the servers are going to shut down," Yoshida told us in a group interview this morning at Gamescom.

The reason for the shutdown is less thrilling than you might think. "Basically the player data will be taken over into the new game. So, to convert all this new data for the new systems, we need a certain amount of time to do this. There's so much data, so many thousands of characters that we must do this for. And so we have to shut down the servers," he said.

Yoshida was quick to point out that players will have plenty of warning ahead of the shut-down (consider this your first heads-up). He also notes that the original game's userbase will be prioritized in A Realm Reborn's beta queue and that players will "be able to use their current characters in the beta test as well." Though that may not be at the kickoff of the beta, he says, "We're working in a way to try to get it as close to the beginning of the beta test as possible."

A Realm Reborn is headed to both PlayStation 3 and PC later this year.

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Taken from here: http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/08...relaunch-a-re/

http://gdl.square-enix.com/ffxiv/dow...Roadmap_EN.pdf

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Originally Posted by Sephrick

I guess the most pointed way to ask what I'm pondering is; what happens if our last sub fee is less than a month away from the shutdown?

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I'm really shocked no one has answered your question yet. I know a lot of working adults play ffxiv, so I would think someone would know. But oh well, i'll tell you.


Normal business practice is that you are charged for the full month. Some business will pro-rate you if you sign up for something midway through a billing cycle, but obviously that does not apply here. As a customer we are responsible for our billing. If we do not want to be charged a full month for a partial service, we have every opportunity to cancel our subscription before that billing cycle. In other words, its not really a billing problem at all...unless they never tell you its coming. But we know its coming, so its a non-issue.

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Originally Posted by Sephrick

I know direct questions rarely get answered, but this is one pointed at the community reps in hopes we can get a response.

Keeping a concrete date for the v1 shutdown is all well and good, but it brings about an interesting billing issue.

Since billing is a 30-day cycle starting from activation, I assume the dates are scattered throughout the month for when individuals are billed.

Let's assume the v1 shut down occurs Oct. 15 -- merely as a speculative example. What happens to those due to be billed Sept. 16 and beyond?

I know the response we might get is that "details will be released 'soon,'" but Oct. 15 is at the far end of the late Sept./early Oct. target. So in theory, some people may have already payed their last sub fee while others might be getting slighted and not yet know it.

I guess the most pointed way to ask what I'm pondering is; what happens if our last sub fee is less than a month away from the shutdown?

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If there is going to be a lengthy shutdown, they will prorate the month, give you an extra free month of time, or give a partial refund or something. They did that after the japan earthquake when both games were down for over a week.

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

If there is going to be a lengthy shutdown, they will prorate the month, give you an extra free month of time, or give a partial refund or something. They did that after the japan earthquake when both games were down for over a week.

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Well thats a bit different as it was unplanned interruption of service. This is a known and planned cancellation of service so I cant imagine them being so generous. They might, but im guessing the penny pinchers will probably say no bueno to that. At best they may not bill that month...which is also quite a bit generous.

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Well thats a bit different as it was unplanned interruption of service.

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They didn't lose power, they had backups, they chose to shut them off because it would have been inappropriate for them to keep them running when there were power shortages. I don't see it as being different. THe game was offline for an extended period, thus they compensated people. I don't think they would not do so if the game was down for a similar period of time again. (However, it's probably not going to be that long).

Also, your free period start and end dates will almost certainly be based on when your subscription is set to end (may be part of why the 90 day plan was removed).

As far as money as concerned, SE has been very reasonable in reference to this game and they have been making smart moves in that department. I have no doubt they will handle this acceptably.

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

They didn't lose power, they had backups, they chose to shut them off because it would have been inappropriate for them to keep them running when there were power shortages. I don't see it as being different. THe game was offline for an extended period, thus they compensated people. I don't think they would not do so if the game was down for a similar period of time again. (However, it's probably not going to be that long).

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That is still an unplanned interruption of service. It makes a world of difference.

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As far as money as concerned, SE has been very reasonable in reference to this game and they have been making smart moves in that department. I have no doubt they will handle this acceptably.

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But theres nothing to handle. You know ahead of time whether your billing cycle will cut short. You have every opportunity to cancel service. Any action on their part is just generosity. But doing nothing is perfectly acceptable.

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Originally Posted by Lux_Rayna

I'm really shocked no one has answered your question yet. I know a lot of working adults play ffxiv, so I would think someone would know. But oh well, i'll tell you.


Normal business practice is that you are charged for the full month. Some business will pro-rate you if you sign up for something midway through a billing cycle, but obviously that does not apply here. As a customer we are responsible for our billing. If we do not want to be charged a full month for a partial service, we have every opportunity to cancel our subscription before that billing cycle. In other words, its not really a billing problem at all...unless they never tell you its coming. But we know its coming, so its a non-issue.

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Except that what I heard from FFXI is that they charged it by the month and not 30 days, and people could be correctly double charged had they paid subscription late in the month (e.g paid 28th August it will be counted as August only, and you have to pay again at 1st September for September). Or at least that what it was in the past. :rolleyes: So yes, clarification required.

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Originally Posted by Kasathar

I don't think there is going to be a "shut down" on the game services, most probably a heavy download that will either patch our current client into ver 2.0 or a full ver. 2.0 client download. If anything, you will loose 1 day or maximum 2 (if your connection sucks)

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No, there is definitely going to be a shutdown, and then at least a month of waiting.

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Originally Posted by Lux_Rayna

I'm really shocked no one has answered your question yet. I know a lot of working adults play ffxiv, so I would think someone would know. But oh well, i'll tell you.


Normal business practice is that you are charged for the full month. Some business will pro-rate you if you sign up for something midway through a billing cycle, but obviously that does not apply here. As a customer we are responsible for our billing. If we do not want to be charged a full month for a partial service, we have every opportunity to cancel our subscription before that billing cycle. In other words, its not really a billing problem at all...unless they never tell you its coming. But we know its coming, so its a non-issue.

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I'm 30. I know how billing is supposed to work.

I also played XI and am aware SE doesn't prorate if they don't want to.

"If they don't want to"... Off course no one is forcing them, they could even delete our character or ban everyone if they wanted to... But why would SE do that?

Billing is now day based (and not a monthly cycle like on XI before), so SE have couple of options:

- Refund, pro-rata based (annoying, lot of accountancy to do, direct loss for SE)
- Credit your account of 1~29 free days which will be used as soon as billing resume. (easier, doesn't have to refund customers, less annoying accountancy to do, incentive for customers to try out ARR since they will have days saved).

- Option 3: No refund, no extra game time. Worse marketing ever. Everyone mad. NA forums on fire.

To me, option 2 looks more appealing.

IF you read billing it tells you for periods less then certain days, your paymnet is pro-rated.
SO it will be a reduced amount for that period.

WOuld be nice to have credit for days not used and be pro-rated after free trial period. THey may end up doing it that way. THen again there will be a free trail period again.

Eh, they can have my money for a month while they switch everything over. They're trying so hard on 2.0 I don't mind giving them 10 bucks.