One year non-recurring membership inequality! =(

[Sebene]

<p>I have been an active player since 2006 and a couple months ago noticed I could pay for my account using Station Cash.  I thought this was a great idea ever since the whole credit card scare last year, and it saved me the hassle of having to run to the store for game cards... SO I swapped all four accounts to the non-recurring one year membership.</p><p>ONE YEAR.  Yes, 12 months.. </p><p>I tried to gift something from one of my characters on another account and I was told by the little ghosted "Gift" button that I must be an active subscriber for more than one continuous month before using the gifting feature.</p><p>Are my accounts recurring?  No, not in the traditional sense of I get billed once every 12 months.  Have I been an active subscriber for more than 30 days?  Yes indeed I have been. Six years to be exact, almost to the day.  To top it off, I'm also an active subscriber for around 9 months more on each of 4 accounts.  Yet I can't gift anything.</p><p>Are there any plans in the works to clear up this inequality?  One year subscriptions are one year no matter whether they were paid via station cash, credit card, or game card.  SOE has still received my money for services rendered.  Or is there a manner to make my account recurring after the year is up and reap the benefits of the reoccuring benefits now or must I wait until the remainder of my year expires before I'm allowed to join the land of the living again?</p><p>Thanks in advance for any reply to my frustration!</p>

[retro_guy]

<p>This method is endorsed by the CSRs:</p><p>Sub with SC for 3, 6 12 months, whatever you choose.</p><p>Then resub with your credit card for a month by month sub, this will not be billed until the SC sub finishes.</p><p>In the meantime you'll be treated as a recurring sub, get your 500SC free each month and should be able to gift, buy transfer tokens etc.</p><p>When you get close to the end of your SC sub then remember to top it up again with SC. I've yet to get to the end of my 6 months, so I'm not sure if I need to cancel the credit card sub, apply the SC sub, then resub with the CC.</p>

[Sebene]

<p>Thanks so much for the info.  I'll give it a try although all I can say for the solution is.. Wow!</p><p>I get to pay with SC, not have my credit card billed, AND get free monthly station cash.. does this seem to be too good to be true? =)  I'm off to try it out though!</p>

[Tigress]

<p>i dont believe that you get the SC.  my one year accts bought with SC are not getting 500 SC per month.  after your 30 days, you still may not be able to gift.  i had to send in a ticket to be able to gift and to see the transfer token. </p><p>it's not right that a long term sub is treated as a 2nd class citizen and they need to change it.  the recurring subs get items, we get nothing.  (when i went non-recurring, the information stated that you'd get the items from a long term sub.  they changed it when someone made a post abt it and took it away from the non-recurring and ensured that the recurring still got the items.  it was quite shady!!)  non-recurring pays the same amt as the CC ppl.  (they pay $60 for one year after the 500 SC refund every month; we pay $60 for one year, if double SC was used.)</p>

[TSR-MattG]

<p>I can't really get in to the business logic, since decisions like this are made well above my head. However, perhaps I can give some perspective on the issue.</p><p>Station Cash subs do get slightly less in terms of privileges, for a few reasons.</p><p>For one, SC subs can be "cheaper" - if you're clever, there are a number of ways to get more sub time for your dollar with SC.</p><p>Aside of that, special privileges (such as gifting and a 500SC per month stipend) are given to recurring members as they've made a commitment to us. Even though you have the right to cancel at any time, you've made a commitment to keep paying for your account, and as such we reward you with some free SC and gifting rights.</p><p>There is also the account security side of this to consider. Many users fund their SC wallets well in advance (like when we're doing a double SC sale). If your account were to fall in to the wrong hands, it'd be a real shame for them to be able to log in, spend your SC on a membership, then gift away all your remaining SC, or transfer your characters to other servers. The requirement to put down a credit card, and wait 7 days is an extremely effective deterrant for these sort of actions. Yes, the gifting thing could still be a concern if you're an active, recurring member - however if you're actively playing you're very likely to notice a change/problem with your account and get it rectified with us quickly. Whereas if you're not active, someone could do all this to your account without spending a dime (if we allowed SC subs to gift) and you might not notice until months later, and nobody wants to return to a mess!</p><p>I hope this helps shed some light on the differences between recurring credit card subs and SC. Just to re-iterate however, exceptions to this policy can be made on a case by case basis if you contact support. <a href="https://help.station.sony.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/28939" target="_blank">Give us a call or submit a ticket</a>, we're actually quite friendly, and willing to accomodate most anyone who falls within or very close to within our parameters for gifting/transfers.</p>

[retro_guy]

<p><cite>Tigress wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>i dont believe that you get the SC.  my one year accts bought with SC are not getting 500 SC per month.  after your 30 days, you still may not be able to gift.  i had to send in a ticket to be able to gift and to see the transfer token. </p><p>it's not right that a long term sub is treated as a 2nd class citizen and they need to change it.  the recurring subs get items, we get nothing.  (when i went non-recurring, the information stated that you'd get the items from a long term sub.  they changed it when someone made a post abt it and took it away from the non-recurring and ensured that the recurring still got the items.  it was quite shady!!)  non-recurring pays the same amt as the CC ppl.  (they pay $60 for one year after the 500 SC refund every month; we pay $60 for one year, if double SC was used.)</p></blockquote><p>A one year account subbed with SC will not get the free 500SC each month.</p><p>UNLESS they then apply a recurring credit card subscription to the account (which will not be billed till the SC sub runs out).</p><p>I subbed for 6 months with SC and then reinstated my recurring CC billing, each month I get my 500SC, but my CC will not be billed for another 4 months. Before then I'll top up my SC account (on a 2x or 3x weekend) and buy a further SC sub, the reinstate my CC.</p><p>Until they change it, you can still get the 500SC free on a account being paid for with SC.</p>

[Maigraith]

<p>I am currently on a 1 year SC bought plan and with my credit card set up as well so that my accounts registers as being on a recurring sub for the purpose of characters transfers etc, but I am not receiving 500sc per month, is this a definate that I should receive 500sc per month even though my next sub will not go out for another few months?</p>

[Tigress]

<p><cite>retro_guy wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Tigress wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>i dont believe that you get the SC.  my one year accts bought with SC are not getting 500 SC per month.  after your 30 days, you still may not be able to gift.  i had to send in a ticket to be able to gift and to see the transfer token. </p><p>it's not right that a long term sub is treated as a 2nd class citizen and they need to change it.  the recurring subs get items, we get nothing.  (when i went non-recurring, the information stated that you'd get the items from a long term sub.  they changed it when someone made a post abt it and took it away from the non-recurring and ensured that the recurring still got the items.  it was quite shady!!)  non-recurring pays the same amt as the CC ppl.  (they pay $60 for one year after the 500 SC refund every month; we pay $60 for one year, if double SC was used.)</p></blockquote><p>A one year account subbed with SC will not get the free 500SC each month.</p><p>UNLESS they then apply a recurring credit card subscription to the account (which will not be billed till the SC sub runs out).</p><p>I subbed for 6 months with SC and then reinstated my recurring CC billing, each month I get my 500SC, but my CC will not be billed for another 4 months. Before then I'll top up my SC account (on a 2x or 3x weekend) and buy a further SC sub, the reinstate my CC.</p><p>Until they change it, you can still get the 500SC free on a account being paid for with SC.</p></blockquote><p>i guess that i wasn't clear.  my account & my son's bought a one year, non-recurring.  i then had to do an annual recurring for both in order to gift/transfer.  (have not been charged yet as my non-recurring is still in effect.)  neither account automatically got the gift/transfer ability as ppl constantly claim will happen.  to date, neither of my accounts receive 500SC per month.  the way you stated it is just not true.  you do <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>not</strong></span> get the extra SC by attaching a recurring onto your non-recurring.  if someone IS getting the extra 500SC/mo by activating a recurring to start at the end of their non-recurring, its gotta be a glitch and should expect it to disappear soon. </p><p>according to your post, i could do /petition and demand my 500 SC/month.  i'd be willing to bet almost anything that they would then reply, "oh oops, we didn't MEAN for an acct with non-recurring to get 500 SC/month.  let us change our text on the subject and remove it from all the ppl who already have it."  they may even go back and remove SC that's been given the past 5 months.  so for someone like you, you would OWE them SC.</p>

[Tigress]

<p><cite>Maigraith wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I am currently on a 1 year SC bought plan and with my credit card set up as well so that my accounts registers as being on a recurring sub for the purpose of characters transfers etc, but I am not receiving 500sc per month, is this a definate that I should receive 500sc per month even though my next sub will not go out for another few months?</p></blockquote><p>no, you should not.  see my post above.</p>

[retro_guy]

<p><cite>Tigress wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Maigraith wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I am currently on a 1 year SC bought plan and with my credit card set up as well so that my accounts registers as being on a recurring sub for the purpose of characters transfers etc, but I am not receiving 500sc per month, is this a definate that I should receive 500sc per month even though my next sub will not go out for another few months?</p></blockquote><p>no, you should not.  see my post above.</p></blockquote><p>Well red names have confirmed that as long as you're set up for recurring billing you will get the 500SC each month (even if the time up until the next billing has been paid for with SC).</p><p>I've done it and am 3 months into the SC sub and get the 500SC each month. </p><p>It may be a glitch that isn't worth fixing (or too complicated), but yes I would contact CS and let them know you're set up for recurring billing, but are not getting the 500SC each month.</p>

[Tigress]

<p>huh.  okay, then.  if rednames have confirmed that is supposed to be the way, then i probably will send in ticket. </p>

[Maigraith]

<p>Thanks for your replies, I will put in a ticket and see what they say.</p>

[Kuulei]

<p>I believe those that are not having issues with attaining thier free SC, already had recurring set up, then purchased with the SC. Thet never cancelled their recurring subscription and just purchased a 3, 6 or 1yr sub with SC.</p>

[Maigraith]

<p>I have finally got a reply to my ticket and am being told I am not entitled to the 500sc per month <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[TSR-JoshuaM]

<p>Let me double check on it for you.  Post your ticket number and I'll get back to you.</p>

[Maigraith]

<p>Hi Joshua, the ticket number is 120414-000209.  I have received another reply saying I am not entitled to it so am not holding out much hope but thanks for having a look anyway <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  I'm just not one of the lucky ones who have got this bug or error that causes it lol</p>