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[Vognerful]

I just unsubbed from PSN+

Kotaku, quick contact this man!

 

[IntentionalPun]

They could have easily fixed the situation though by scaling the end date of the subscription back by half. So if someone with 4 years of Essential stacked up now wants Premium, they can convert to the higher tier by cutting their time in half (4 years of Essential = 2 years of Premium).

Instead of the guy that's stacked up to 2042 being charged $1,000 for the upgrade to Premium they could just give him Premium for free through 2032. Guess they'd rather have that potential $1,000 instead of making an obviously previously happy customer an unhappy one.

Yes.. a conversion system.. like I said in my post

 

[kingfey]

Is Ps+ cards still available? I need one for my little sister's ps4.

 

[Fredrik]

They could have easily fixed the situation though by scaling the end date of the subscription back by half. So if someone with 4 years of Essential stacked up now wants Premium, they can convert to the higher tier by cutting their time in half (4 years of Essential = 2 years of Premium).

Instead of the guy that's stacked up to 2042 being charged $1,000 for the upgrade to Premium they could just give him Premium for free through 2032. Guess they'd rather have that potential $1,000 instead of making an obviously previously happy customer an unhappy one.

Yeah the worst thing here is that it’s their biggest fans who’re affected. These are core PS fans who might not even look twice at other consoles who were ready to invest big in their favorite platform who’re now getting angry because their favorite console maker are trying to rip them off.
Someone who just have a Playstation as a secondary console but is really a Nintendo or Xbox fan won’t stack PS+ for several years.

 

[Three]

A guy with PS Plus until 2042 was asked to pay US 1000 to upgrade.

Why were they being charged US when it's only available in asia. I'd like to see the receipts for that.

 

[reksveks]

Aren’t the upgrades to higher tiers a manual thing and you’re already on PlayStation Essential at launch?

I don’t get how they can charge for something that automatically rolls over?

It sounds like people are expecting the discount to continue through to the upgrade?

I think what they’re complaining about is having to upgrade multiple years at once, which would be no doubt costly.

There is two complaints here

1) buying a year of ps+ at Black friday means that if you want to upgrade, you have to pay more than someone at rrp. This is something that they could have spelt out before.
2) the lack of the ability to discount a part of your ps+ membership.

I have no issues with the second one, it's a shit system but it is what it is. The first one seems rather scummy personally especially if Sony was the company to give you a discount in the first place.

 

[bender]

To be fair, Sony's customer service is fucking incompetent. That's not to say they aren't right by accident.

What a shit show. I've never paid more than $30 for PS+ and I don't think I've ever purchased it directly from Sony. I have my doubts Sony can figure that out but I've also stacked a ton of years into the future, so if I'm forced to upgrade them all at once, this service is a no-go.

 

[NickFire]

A guy with PS Plus until 2042 was asked to pay US 1000 to upgrade.

That's hysterical if true IMO.

I am in complete agreement with anyone who says asking people to add in prior discounts is wrong. But if someone subbed for 20 years hoping to upgrade for next to nothing, that just makes me laugh.

 

[Three]

There is two complaints here

1) buying a year of ps+ at Black friday means that if you want to upgrade, you have to pay more than someone at rrp. This is something that they could have spelt out before.

There is no evidence of this though. You need to find someone who has stacked without a discount and see their upgrade cost.

 

[Swift_Star]

Watch as people look like this in a few days when this is sorted out:

 

[reksveks]

There is no evidence of this though. You need to find someone who has stacked without a discount and see their upgrade cost.

The reddit thread has multiple people suggesting it is the case



If someone in Asian here wants to share their subscription information in terms of cost and length, happy to work it out.

Also you just really need two people with different combinations to check the formula.

 

[Swift_Star]

They could have easily fixed the situation though by scaling the end date of the subscription back by half. So if someone with 4 years of Essential stacked up now wants Premium, they can convert to the higher tier by cutting their time in half (4 years of Essential = 2 years of Premium).

Instead of the guy that's stacked up to 2042 being charged $1,000 for the upgrade to Premium they could just give him Premium for free through 2032. Guess they'd rather have that potential $1,000 instead of making an obviously previously happy customer an unhappy one.

Nah, the guy had it coming. It's entirely on them for subbing to a service for 20 years.
The real problem I see here is Sony allowing this to happen, they should limit stacking.

 

[bitbydeath]

There is two complaints here

1) buying a year of ps+ at Black friday means that if you want to upgrade, you have to pay more than someone at rrp. This is something that they could have spelt out before.
2) the lack of the ability to discount a part of your ps+ membership.

I have no issues with the second one, it's a shit system but it is what it is. The first one seems rather scummy personally especially if Sony was the company to give you a discount in the first place.

I’m skeptical that the first one would be true.
The upgrade would be a flat fee and there would have to be a lot of work put in to gather previous discount information.

 

[reksveks]

I’m skeptical that the first one would be true.
The upgrade would be a flat fee and there would have to be a lot of work put in to gather previous discount information.

The formula comes out relatively correctly and it's really not a lot of work. A flat fee would be easier in fact so why doesn't it do that.

 

[bitbydeath]

The formula comes out relatively correctly and it's really not a lot of work. A flat fee would be easier in fact so why doesn't it do that.

Maybe it does and they’re getting confused with whatever stacking they have going on?

 

[ManaByte]

Aren’t the upgrades to higher tiers a manual thing and you’re already on PlayStation Essential at launch?

I don’t get how they can charge for something that automatically rolls over?

It sounds like people are expecting the discount to continue through to the upgrade?

I think what they’re complaining about is having to upgrade multiple years at once, which would be no doubt costly.

Again that is not what the problem is.

Say you have PS+ stacked to 2025. To upgrade to Premium you'd need to pay the upgrade cost up to 2025. That's not the problem.

The problem comes when they stacked to 2025 using the 33% offer on PSN. On top of the normal upgrade fee, they're also being charged the difference between the 33% off price and the normal price. So on top of the cost to upgrade to a higher tier, they're also being charged an additional fee to punish them for getting the 33% discount and to retroactively erase that.

 

[Fredrik]

Nah, the guy had it coming. It's entirely on them for subbing to a service for 20 years.
The real problem I see here is Sony allowing this to happen, they should limit stacking.

They payed for the stacking, why is this entirely on them? 20 years is lunacy but Sony should be thankful to anyone who’re ready to invest in their platform for that long. Punishing the most dedicated fans makes no sense. Some companies let fans prepay for lifetime subs.

 

[Saber]

Seems like a real scum attitude to me if true. Greedy bastards to the core.

 

[reksveks]

Maybe it does and they’re getting confused with whatever stacking they have going on?

Maybe but it's extremely weird that it matches the formula

Post in thread 'PS Plus Members in Asia Irate As Sony Wipes Discounts on Tier Upgrades, Demands Upfront Fee for Stacked Subs' https://www.neogaf.com/threads/ps-p...t-fee-for-stacked-subs.1637014/post-266196328

 

[TheGodfather07]

greedy cunts. seriously, sony are getting back to the time when they thought they were invincible. if they aint careful they could have another early PS3 era humbling.

 

[bender]

Say you have PS+ stacked to 2025. To upgrade to Premium you'd need to pay the upgrade cost up to 2025. That's not the problem.

Disagree with that not being a problem. It's probably a very outlier case, but this means you don't have a good way of trying out the service without a massive upfront commitment. I'm not sure what Microsoft does with Gold but they do limit the amount of years you can stack of Game Pass.

 

[ManaByte]

I'm not sure what Microsoft does with Gold but they do limit the amount of years you can stack of Game Pass.

It's not specific to Gamepass, it's across the board with all MS subscriptions. You can only stack 3 years of Office 365. Nintendo is the same with NSO.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Is Ps+ cards still available? I need one for my little sister's ps4.

I got one recently and scratched to reveal the code but it wouldn't let me redeem the code because I still have till July on PS+
You can outright have the code when I get home.

 

[kingfey]

I got one recently and scratched to reveal the code but it wouldn't let me redeem the code because I still have till July on PS+
You can outright have the code when I get home.

That is generous of you.

 

[Nydius]

Say you have PS+ stacked to 2025. To upgrade to Premium you'd need to pay the upgrade cost up to 2025. That's not the problem.

I respectfully disagree. Forcing people to upgrade their entire plan in one lump sum is a big problem. They had the model right in front of them with Game Pass: Conversion per 12 month period up to X amount of years. If someone had stacked 5+ years of PS+, when they upgrade they should have only been presented with a 12 month conversion purchase. They could have completed that purchase conversion up to a set amount of times -- we'll say 3 for the sake of consistency. The rest of their time outside of the limit would remain as Essential tier with the option to convert it later as prior years drop off.

Instead they're telling their most dedicated fans that they have to choose between ALL or NOTHING, which is just insane.

Then they compound that issue further by erasing historical discounts...

If this, as their support seems to indicate, is "working as intended" and it launches this way in the west, shit is going to hit the fan.

 

[Magic Carpet]

That is generous of you.

I had planned to quit PS+ anyway so I'll private message you the code when I get home from work in a few hours.

 

[ManaByte]

If this, as their support seems to indicate, is "working as intended" and it launches this way in the west, shit is going to hit the fan.

 

[bender]

I respectfully disagree. Forcing people to upgrade their entire plan in one lump sum is a big problem. They had the model right in front of them with Game Pass: Conversion per 12 month period up to X amount of years. If someone had stacked 5+ years of PS+, when they upgrade they should have only been presented with a 12 month conversion purchase. They could have completed that purchase conversion up to a set amount of times -- we'll say 3 for the sake of consistency. The rest of their time outside of the limit would remain as Essential tier with the option to convert it later as prior years drop off.

Instead they're telling their most dedicated fans that they have to choose between ALL or NOTHING, which is just insane.

Then they compound that issue further by erasing historical discounts...

If this, as their support seems to indicate, is "working as intended" and it launches this way in the west, shit is going to hit the fan.

Agree with you but I'm not sure shit will hit the fan. It's probably less than 1% of the user base that stacks years together. Like you mentioned, a conversion method similar to what Microsoft offers would be the fairest solution but Sony is pretty incompetent when it comes to these types of things.

And I realize 93% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

 

[bitbydeath]

Again that is not what the problem is.

Say you have PS+ stacked to 2025. To upgrade to Premium you'd need to pay the upgrade cost up to 2025. That's not the problem.

The problem comes when they stacked to 2025 using the 33% offer on PSN. On top of the normal upgrade fee, they're also being charged the difference between the 33% off price and the normal price. So on top of the cost to upgrade to a higher tier, they're also being charged an additional fee to punish them for getting the 33% discount and to retroactively erase that.

It sounds odd it would look at what you last paid rather than offering a flat fee. Hence why I’m skeptical, it’d be quite the blunder if true though.

 

[ManaByte]

It sounds odd it would look at what you last paid rather than offering a flat fee. Hence why I’m skeptical, it’d be quite the blunder if true though.

It's because the 33% off PS+ was a separate SKU on PSN than the normal PS+. So they're charging people the difference to get on to the normal new PS+ because there's no upgrade path from the 33% off version.

 

[TheGodfather07]

 

[bender]

It's because the 33% off PS+ was a separate SKU on PSN than the normal PS+. So they're charging people the difference to get on to the normal new PS+ because there's no upgrade path from the 33% off version.

Which is unsurprising incompetence on their part.

Remember when PSN+ launched, they let you sign up for 1 month trial codes via email. Those codes stacked.

 

[bitbydeath]

It's because the 33% off PS+ was a separate SKU on PSN than the normal PS+. So they're charging people the difference to get on to the normal new PS+ because there's no upgrade path from the 33% off version.

The upgrade path was simply.

PS+ = PS Essential
PSNow = PS Premium

And that’s automatic.

I usually grab a yearly deal so will be able to see for myself if it’s true once it comes out.

 

[ManaByte]

The upgrade path was simply.

PS+ = PS Essential
PSNow = PS Premium

And that’s automatic.

But if you subscribed to PS+ with the 33% offer (and stacked it) you now have to pay the $20 difference for each year to convert your PS+ to the new PS+ on top of whatever the upgrade costs is to go from Essential to Deluxe or Premium due to originally getting PS+ for 33% off.

 

[Nydius]

Agree with you but I'm not sure shit will hit the fan.

Really depends on how loudly that minority group complains and if the media picks it up and runs with it like they did with their stories about Microsoft intending to raise the price of Xbox Live Gold subs back in 2021.

 

[kingfey]

I suggest you don't be happy.
If the fans allow this to pass, then MS would 100% follow this step.

If they fix it, then it's good. If not, then expect the bad outcome for consumers. Just like that $70 price increase.

 

[Mr.ODST]

Scumbag Sony at it again, They make some good decisions in terms of PSVR and actualy features for their console but fuck me, they are so anti-consumer its unreal.

I saw one person did 5 years worth of PS+ or something at discounted rate through their own PS Store and are requiring him to pay over $200 back ...

 

[Paasei]

Meanwhile I have another issue that is really starting to piss me off. And that is the 2-step varification. I apparently managed to activate it on my PS Vita, and now it's active on everything else.
So when I log in it asks for a verification code, which I don't receive anywhere, because I have no phone number or "authenticator-app" attached to it.
Need help? Sony says. Then go here and log in..... But I can't, because I get no fucking code.

Stuck in this spiral of irritation.

 

[bender]

Really depends on how loudly that minority group complains and if the media picks it up and runs with it like they did with their stories about Microsoft intending to raise the price of Xbox Live Gold subs back in 2021.

The Gold price hike was a universal change though so it impacted a much larger audience. We are talking about a minority subset for PlayStation. The best hope is that the outrage does gain traction over the absurd additional fees if you are upgrading a discounted subscription which frankly feels like a engineering oversight.

 

[Fredrik]

Really depends on how loudly that minority group complains and if the media picks it up and runs with it like they did with their stories about Microsoft intending to raise the price of Xbox Live Gold subs back in 2021.

This minority group are the ones sitting on all the boards and Twitter talking about games all day. Many are without a doubt working in gaming media. I don’t see how Sony could dodge away from a social media PR nightmare without fixing this asap.

 

[Hendrick's]

Maybe they thought these countries don't have Twitter.

 

[kingfey]

The Gold price hike was a universal change though so it impacted a much larger audience. We are talking about a minority subset for PlayStation. The best hope is that the outrage does gain traction over the absurd additional fees if you are upgrading a discounted subscription which frankly feels like a engineering oversight.

Considering psnow users were 3m. Then this would be minor users, who would complain about it.
At the same time, this ps+ stacking, so who knows how many people stacked it.

The end outcome, would depend on media involvement, and how the users would use Twitter outrage.

 

[yurinka]

There is two complaints here

1) buying a year of ps+ at Black friday means that if you want to upgrade, you have to pay more than someone at rrp. This is something that they could have spelt out before.
2) the lack of the ability to discount a part of your ps+ membership.

I have no issues with the second one, it's a shit system but it is what it is. The first one seems rather scummy personally especially if Sony was the company to give you a discount in the first place.

The complaint is the same:
-Sony allows players to upgrade their tier only by pay the proportioinal difference between what they paid for Plus to the price of the higher tier.
-These players want Sony to apply them the same discount for the upgrade than the one they had when they got PS+. Or what is the same, the players want Sony to use the current PS+ pricing (instead of what they paid) to calculate the difference to upgrade.

The problem comes when they stacked to 2025 using the 33% offer on PSN. On top of the normal upgrade fee, they're also being charged the difference between the 33% off price and the normal price. So on top of the cost to upgrade to a higher tier, they're also being charged an additional fee to punish them for getting the 33% discount and to retroactively erase that.

Players have 3 options:
-To don't upgrade to PS+ Premium
-To upgrade from Essential by paying the difference between what they pad for Plus and the Premium price
-To pay the full PS+ Premium subscription

They are complaining because they want Sony to apply them in the upgrade the same discount they had when they stacked PS+, which doesn't make sense.

 

[Crayon]

This doesn't make sense at all. Maybe I'm not getting it. If you bought 2 years of ps plus directly from PSN at $30, you would have to pay $180 (2x $60 plus 2x $30 to make up the discount) to upgrade to 2 years of Premium? And then you only have an option to upgrade both years? That is just bewildering.

 

[Dontkidyourselfjimmy]

Sony need to sort their shit out. I don't get how these big companies think fucking over your most loyal customers will work in the long run. Happens time after time

 

[kingfey]

You reminded of zhuge tweet. That guy stacked until 2030+. This is going to hit him hard, if it's true.

 

[Nydius]

The Gold price hike was a universal change though so it impacted a much larger audience.

And this is a universal change to the entire PS+ system that impacts everyone who wants to upgrade to a higher tier.

The only people this doesn't affect are those who decide to stick with Essential. Anyone who has more than one year of PS+ on their account, or who bought their PS+ time during a sale, are impacted, especially since the whole point of this relaunch is to entice people into upgrading to Extra or Premium for the extra features.

Ironically, the people who did the PSNow loophole stacking before it got shut down seem to be unaffected by this.

 

[jshackles]

This doesn't make sense at all. Maybe I'm not getting it. If you bought 2 years of ps plus directly from PSN at $30, you would have to pay $180 (2x $60 plus 2x $30 to make up the discount) to upgrade to 2 years of Premium? And then you only have an option to upgrade both years? That is just bewildering.

Sounds like you get it. And I agree, it's bewildering.

 

[bender]

And this is a universal change to the entire PS+ system that impacts everyone who wants to upgrade to a higher tier.

Not really. It impacts a subset of people who either stack their subscriptions, purchased one of the subscriptions on discount on PSN and said subscription has not lapsed, or both. Like most subscription services, the majority of subs are set it and forget it which is why almost every subscription service auto-renews by default. This isn't the same as the purposed Gold price hike or Netflix raising their rates.

I'm with you in spirit though. But I'm a dirty stacker and usually stay about five years ahead. #TeamOutrage

More like #TeamDisappointedButTotallyNotSurprsied

 

[ManaByte]

They are complaining because they want Sony to apply them in the upgrade the same discount they had when they stacked PS+, which doesn't make sense.

It doesn't make sense because that's not what they're complaining about. They're complaining about having to retroactively pay for what they already have, which erases the discount they already paid for.