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Ninja Billing of Pre-Orders has begun!
Slapshot1188
Member LegendaryPosts: 17,724
As per this thread (and other) on the official forums. Folks who NEVER chose a subscription type, method or duration were billed today. This is a direct violation of the TOS that was in place at the time of purchase. Subsequently Starvault changed the TOS to say that by purchasing the game you will be auto-subscribbed.. but at the time of the pre-orders there WAS NO account/subscription page. It was all added later and everyone who ever ordered the game had their payment information pulled from the purchase of the game and rolled over into a subscription.
http://www.mortalonline.com/forums/49771-billed-today.html#post965992
Keep in mind that some of these people pre-ordered in July 2009... and there was no account page to choose a subscription until a few months ago. Also.. the games own TOS said that subs would start AFTER the customer chose a subscription type and payment method.. none of which these people did! There was no way to cancel a subscription priot to a few months ago.. and the pre-order folks had no reason to even go look for one since they NEVER AGREED to a subscription!
Again.. this is NOT about normal auto-renewal of subs which every company does. This is about ninja-subscribing all pre-order people without their consent!
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
Comments
Anyone who preordered received an email telling them that their free month would start and that they were auto-subscribed if they didn't cancel by the end of the free month.
Mortal Online Customer Information
June 9th 2010
Auto-subscription
Today Mortal Online goes live!
You are receiving this email because of your Mortal Online pre-order purchase. The initial free month you received with your game purchase begins today, and regular billing will begin one month from today.
If you do not wish to auto-subscribe, please log into your account [Link] and cancel the option.
We also want to formally inform you about the new TOS, the Naming Policy, the EULA and the Reimbursement Policy.
All of which can be found on mortalonline.com.
But don't let that prevent you from your trolling.
Rabble rabble rabble, Mortal Online is the devil, we get it already.
2 Points Omali:
#1. These people did NOT agree to be subscribed. You cannot unilaterally subscribe people and send them an email telling them you did it.. and if they don;t like it they can go change the subscription. Their own TOS said that these people should not have been subscribed.
#2. Those emails (and I believe it was a newsletter) went out to emails that were used in July 2009. It's now July 2010. I don't know about you but I changed my service provider in the last year and I now have a different Email address.
Most importantly though.. read #1 again. They did NOT ever choose to subscribe.
Edit for an analogy:
Comcast is rolling out a new premium movie channel. They don't automatically enroll everyone who has the other channels and send them a letter saying that if they want to cancel they can just call up and do so...
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
http://www.mortalonline.com/forums/49787-why-you-charging-me-twice.html
Ahaha, Maerlyn deleted 10 posts discussing the issue in the thread xD
Well your analogy is bad.
it is more like
Company sells a product that requires a monthly subscription after the first month, you bought the product knowing this and when the option was available (waaaaaaay before release) to setup your subsription type/cancel you diddn't and then when it released and they emailed you letting you know when the game would auto-subscribe, you diddn't, then when they auto-renewed you raged.
Note you dont have to choose to subscribe for it to autosubscribe you, whenever you purchase and activat a MMO that requires s subscription it always has the default set to auto-renew. The main part is that peopls want something to rage about so they allowed it to auto renew instead fo sortign out their account beforehand.
When the game released I set my account to not auto-renew in case I decided not to play past the first month. People I knwo who decided not to play set their account to not auto-renew when they realized they diddn;t want to play. People raging about getting billed should know that every company has auto-renew as default. When they added the option tot he game it was stated that it the defauls is set to renew, people were also reminded.
My sig is just as logical as your posts are
People bought a game + 30 days of gametime. Everyone who's buying the game now is buying the game + a subscription. SV changed the TOS, if they would have done it the friendly way, they would have put everyone on the none resubbing option and sent out the newsletter. Everyone who's going to play the game will check it and pick the 6 months anyway. The way they picked was to put everyone on recurring 1 month subscription. It might be technically legal, but it surely generates a negative image.
Anyway it only generates more work for them. Their billing department is flooded with requests to give them their money back. The CC companies are passing on the complaints they received. The moderators on the MO forums are really deleting posts and are making "overtime". The PR-manager have to think of something to look good and have to answer the questions of possible gaming journalists.
And not to mention, that the chargebacks that will inevitably come from this will actually cost SV a lot of cash, and if there are enough -- turn off their merchant account for taking any further payments.
The business decision to do this is beyond unethical, it's also just stupid business because you are opening yourself up to potentially cutting off all revenue entirely if you lose your merchant accounts.
Being unethical practices just makes it worse.
You may continue your discussion reagarding auto-subscription in this thread.
Thanks!
Fortune favours the bold.