Nope.. I am in this exact situation as well. I pre-ordered, and played the beta's. I got to create my character in beta4, and now NONE of my friends can join my server, forcing me to restart if I want to play with them. Two of my friends are already trying to get refunds, and the others are talking about it. What makes it worse is they are mad at me for convincing them to buy the game in the first place.

Basically... what is going on here is, anyone who pre-ordered the game is getting penalized for it. You didnt get your proper, or full play time on early access, and now none of your friends can join you. Those are some great pre-order incentives... /sarcasm.