Gold membership ended, now down to bronze?

[Krazzy]

<p>Ok, me and a friend just recently got back into the game about a month ago, we both got a gold subscription, I had a few old characters on my account, but he didn't have any(he'd only made the account back when the Faedar expantion came out, but had deleted his character long ago).</p><p>Our gold ended today for both of us, and it seems that we've both had everything we've created locked out on us. Two of my old characters, as well as two of my new ones, and all of his characters are now locked out, stating we don't have the race packs for those characters.</p><p>I'm wondering if this is some sort of error? I thought you were supposed to drop to silver when gold ended, and that all characters you made while gold would be 'grandfathered'(I think that's the right term?) so you could still play them, as long as you were in the character limit?</p>

[Ragnaphore]

<p>The only characters "grandfathered" are those created before the change to FtP was announced (not sure of the exact date tho). Your old characters should still be available (as long as you are in the character limit) but not the new ones.</p><p>IIRC "Gold" status doesn't give you free "Silver" when it ends. You only get free "Silver" if you ever paid a monthly fee before the change to FtP (if you only played on the "free time" you got with a new account at that time but never paid any monthly fee, I don't think you qualify for free "Silver" but I may be wrong on that)</p><p>You should contact CS and see with them what you are entitled to.</p><p>  </p>

[Krazzy]

<p>Well, after checking my account again this morning it seems that the last character I was on before going back down to free has been deleted(I didn't really check last night what all was there, as I was trying to figure out if there was some technical glitch to lock out my characters). He appears when I log into my account, but if I try to click play, I'm told I have too many characters. I tried deleting an old one, but that didn't fix anything either.</p><p>Also, after talking to my friend it seems that EQ2 has been completely removed from his SOE account as a game he has or has played, though it's still active on mine..</p><p><cite>Ragnaphore wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>The only characters "grandfathered" are those created before the change to FtP was announced (not sure of the exact date tho). Your old characters should still be available (as long as you are in the character limit) but not the new ones.</p><p>IIRC "Gold" status doesn't give you free "Silver" when it ends. You only get free "Silver" if you ever paid a monthly fee before the change to FtP (if you only played on the "free time" you got with a new account at that time but never paid any monthly fee, I don't think you qualify for free "Silver" but I may be wrong on that)</p><p>You should contact CS and see with them what you are entitled to.</p></blockquote><p>Well, when you go to purchase gold on the SOE site it has Silver listed as a benefit for nonrecurring subscriptions, so it just seems like we'd get silver after gold ran out</p><p>Realy though, I think we're just more bummed at losing our characters, since we only get to play 4-8 hours a week(I think we managed 20 hours in our pay month), so not really feasible to keep paying as much as we both enjoyed the game.</p>

[yohann koldheart]

<p><cite>Krazzy wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Realy though, I think we're just more bummed at losing our characters, since we only get to play 4-8 hours a week(I think we managed 20 hours in our pay month), so not really feasible to keep paying as much as we both enjoyed the game.</p></blockquote><p>buy silver, and the race/class packs for the toons locked out and you should be able to play them.</p><p>silver is like 500 SC or so, not sure what the races /classes cost.</p>

[Glimmsterviryan]

<p>I have a similar problem. Logged in yesterday (feb 4 2012) and suddenly 40% of my toons are locked out. My remaining toons have 80% of their bags & bank slots 'redded out.' Likewise all my gear is unequipped (not unattuned, but can't re-equip it).</p><p>My SoE account page is atm a chaotic mess: on 1 page it says my Product/Service CANCELLED. On another page it says EQ2 account: ACTIVE. Below that: "No EQ2 membership --- Become a member."</p><p>What this says is contradictory. I have an ongoing Gold membership (went from the old pay model on to what today is called 'Gold'.) Have had paid account since february 2006.</p><p>I petitioned and the CRS has escalated the ticket to Billing. So...waiting. I do have faith in Customer Service cuz so far they've always been prompt & helpful. And I'm a bit relieved in a way that this seems to be a "bug" that's wider known.</p>

[Jamorea]

<p>Cancelled because your paying subscription ran out.  Active because everybody is active now, even when you stop paying and go free.  I imagine that somebody who got banned may be inactive, but thats about it.  "No EQ2 membership" because you are currently on a free membership.  Pay your subscription again and I am sure your gold status will come back, too.</p><p>At least, that is what I am guessing.  /shrug</p>

[redwoodtreesprite]

<p>From what I understand, it is the characters made before a certain date that are still allowed to be played. Character slots were allowed to be kept for the older non-Freeport account, though there was a lot of confusion on exactly how many character slots actually were going to be kept.  A LOT of confusion.  If you made more characters after that date, it was mid November for the slots themselves, you are subject to the bronze limitations for those characters regarding race and class.</p><p>Problem is, it is the LAST characters logged in that are available, so you may need to at least go silver to unlock 2 more slots.</p><p>Also, you are still limited to bronze now regarding gear, shared band and other storage limitations.  Though you can pull things out of those red tinted bag slots. </p><p>Like it or not, if you aren't subbing, you are now FtP, and need to unlock some things.  Game is still incredibly playable and unlockers are really cheap.  I have a number of silver accounts as well as a plat account.  And my silver accounts are just as much fun to play.  I just need to spend a small amount now and then when the characters go up enough if I really want them to use some nice fabled/legendary gear.</p>

[zagggg]

<p>Im having the same exact problem as Glymmster =/</p>

[Glimmsterviryan]

<p>Heard back from the Sony Billing guys. Turns out that in my case, my yearly subscription had run out in november 2011. For some reason I could keep playing all through january. Not that I'm complaining! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p><p>Anyway, the problem is resolved for me: I re-subbed for another year and my account was immediately restored.</p><p>So once again the CSRs have come thru. The only nitpick I have is that much confusion could have been prevented had Sony billing just sent me a message, email, anything that my account was about to end & whether I would like to continue as Gold member? That would seem to be much more business sense than leaving people to find out on their own.</p>