I’ve blogged before about the strange issues regarding subscription payments for The Elder Scrolls Online. The crux of the matter seems to be when is 30 days of free game time not 30 days of free game time. Whereas my previous post was largely about the odd pre-authorisation charges whereby customers were reporting they were temporarily having the full subscription charge held on their accounts after setting up payment methods, the latest issue is more about those for whom a credit card wasn’t an option and this remains a very odd issue.
Due to confusion over the issue an official statement has been released :
Every customer that purchases the game receives 30 days of play included. Upon registration, customers are required to choose a payment method for the subscription fee associated with game play beyond the first 30 days of service.
Customers who choose to pay for a subscription with a recurring payment method, such as a credit card, are advised they will not be charged until the first 30-days of use included with the purchase of the game expire. Further, they are informed that they can cancel their chosen payment method up until the first 30-days included with the purchase of the game expires.
That sounds reasonable, you buy the game, it includes 30 days of game time, you setup a subscription method and can cancel before the end of the 30 days. However where matters have taken an odd twist is with their attempts to be more flexible with their payment methods :
In order to give our customers the most flexibility in how they pay for their subscription, we also offer non-recurring payment options, such as Webmoney and iDeal.
Customers choosing to use a non-recurring payment method for a one-time subscription purchase are advised they will be billed immediately for subscription and that their purchase is final. Customers who utilize these non-recurring payment methods will receive immediate access to the 30 days of use included with the purchase of the game plus the additional amount of time associated with the subscription plan they selected – e.g. 30, 90 or 180 days.
Whoa back up there, those who are using non-recurring payment methods are therefore not getting their 30 days of game time included in the game, unless they pay for more game time. That’s not really the best way of going about matters, if something is being included with 30 days of time, that should be honoured and it will be to a fashion now. The Elder Scrolls Online team also insist they were open and upfront about this and to reiterate that fact, they point this out in the official statement as well as explaining how they are going to be flexible over the issue, even though it’s not their fault ….
Even though we made clear how the non-recurring payment option worked, despite our caution, some didn’t understand or were confused. Because this non-recurring payment option has caused some confusion, on a case by case basis, customers who have already made a subscription payment using GiroPay, WebMoney, iDeal or Paysafe prior to 11th April, and who are still playing Elder Scrolls Online within the 30 days of game time included with the initial purchase, may contact our customer support team and request a return of funds for the amount of the subscription payment.
We are currently re-evaluating the GiroPay, WebMoney, iDeal or Paysafe non-recurring payment methods and as such have removed them as a payment option for the time being.
I’m glad to see The Elder Scrolls Online team showing some understanding of the issue but they should never have sold the game on this basis in the first place. Anyone who purchased the game had a 30 day subscription included and before any further payments were required, those 30 days should have been honoured, without any requirement for people to pay more.
Let’s go back to an earlier part of their official statement, bolded to make the point :
Every customer that purchases the game receives 30 days of play included.
Really, I’m not sure how they ended up in the situation they have, their intentions seem to have been honourable. I mean they wanted to give people more payment options and therefore giving more people the opportunity to engage with the game, but their execution has been horrid and that’s putting it mildly.
Hopefully they can put all this behind them and get on with what should be the most important aspect of this, people being able to enjoy the game. When games are launched they are often problematic but the issues here are new ones on me, bugs, downtime, disappearing inventory are in the perilous chapters of early adoption, extremely odd subscription requirements are not the norm at all.