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[ManaByte]

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

 

[Crayon]

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

Ho-lee shit. Seems like it would have to be some kind of mistake. You think they'd want to avoid even screencaps of $500 upgrade charges. Seems like it would have to be a mistake because I'm finding it literally unbeleivable at the moment. So crazy.

It's not like you are getting some free upgrade for your stacked years. You are trying to pay them for it. They are the ones who sold the things at a discount! Why would they try to get that back? This is giving me a headache lol.

 

[ManaByte]

Why would they try to get that back?

Because as far as PSN is concerned on the backend of things, the 33% off PS+ is technically a "different" PS+ than the "normal" $60 a year PS+. Only the $60 PS+ is able to be upgraded to the new PS+, so if you bought the 33% off version they're now making you retroactively pay the difference. Again, it's like buying a $60 game on PSN for $40 and then years later Sony asking you to pay $20 for every year you had the game if you want to boot it again.

 

[bender]

Seems like it would have to be some kind of mistake. You think they'd want to avoid even screencaps of $500 upgrade charges.

It just feels like an engineered solution with no real thought put into real world scenarios or customer response would be. "It works, implement it!" It could also be overengineered looking at transaction history rather than subscription end dates. Or it could be Sony's backend being so kludgy that this was a necessary implementation to get this working. Remember how difficult it was for Sony to implement PSN ID changes?

I'd bet it is unintentional but I have my doubts that Sony can or will fix it swiftly if at all.

 

[Dick Jones]

It's a good thing the roll out is staggered. Hopefully this is a bug and is resolved soon before it affects the next rollout locations. If it is a decision made in the cold light of day then they deserve all the bad press they get. Not cool at all.

 

[Negotiator101]

I can only see this being rolled back because this is the prettiest, greediest thing I’ve ever heard of. Why are Sony like this?

Why do they charge $10 to upgrade to the PS5 version?

 

[quest]

Because as far as PSN is concerned on the backend of things, the 33% off PS+ is technically a "different" PS+ than the "normal" $60 a year PS+. Only the $60 PS+ is able to be upgraded to the new PS+, so if you bought the 33% off version they're now making you retroactively pay the difference. Again, it's like buying a $60 game on PSN for $40 and then years later Sony asking you to pay $20 for every year you had the game if you want to boot it again.

It be like Sony charging 9.99 for a next generation upgrade of a 59.99 dollar game. I got the game half off on black friday 29.99 so they try charging me 39.99 for the upgrade instead of 9.99. Completely unacceptable way to try and negate a fair sale price.

 

[Elginer]

Been reading about this all morning. Completely indefensible.

So if you bought PS+ on an official Sony sale on their own store at a discount they offered, they are now asking for the money back lol. Yes, you read that right. If they did an end of year 33% off PS+ sale and you bought 4 years of PS+, they now want 33% x4 + the cost to upgrade to Essential / Premium, and you have to pay all of it at once for the entire duration of whatever you stacked. It's like buying the Last of Us 2 on sale for $20, and then if they put out a $10 next gen upgrade, they ask for the $40 back on top of that.

And yes, it's real. Some people stupidly bought PS+ on sale for 10 years or some shit. And now they can't even upgrade at all unless they pay back all those sale price differences x10.

This some bull fucking shit. Fuck Sony!!! I have plus stacked till 2026.

 

[coffinbirth]

 

[Crayon]

Because as far as PSN is concerned on the backend of things, the 33% off PS+ is technically a "different" PS+ than the "normal" $60 a year PS+. Only the $60 PS+ is able to be upgraded to the new PS+, so if you bought the 33% off version they're now making you retroactively pay the difference. Again, it's like buying a $60 game on PSN for $40 and then years later Sony asking you to pay $20 for every year you had the game if you want to boot it again.

It just feels like an engineered solution with no real thought put into real world scenarios or customer response would be. "It works, implement it!" It could also be overengineered looking at transaction history rather than subscription end dates. Or it could be Sony's backend being so kludgy that this was a necessary implementation to get this working. Remember how difficult it was for Sony to implement PSN ID changes?

I'd bet it is unintentional but I have my doubts that Sony can or will fix it swiftly if at all.

Okay. That "makes sense". Possibly an awful implementation on the backend. And bender I think you may be right that it might be hard enough for them to fix that they don't bother with it throw affected people under the bus. Whether it rolls out in other regions like this should tell us something.

 

[jshackles]

You think they'd want to avoid even screencaps of $500 upgrade charges. Seems like it would have to be a mistake because I'm finding it literally unbeleivable at the moment.

You're right, this looks way worse in a screenshot

That's over $1,000 USD btw.

 

[yurinka]

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.

They don't have to retroactively pay for anything.

They can either pay the full Premium subscription or for a cheaper price to upgrade from PS+ by paying the diference from what they paid from PS+ to the Premium tier price.

You're right, this looks way worse in a screenshot

That's over $1,000 USD btw.

I see there 25/10/2043. Sounds a great deal to upgrade 21 remaining years of PS+.
Btw, who the fuck stacks over 21 years of PS+? I think the Guiness World Record folks should give this person an award or something.
And knowing this was gong to happen, why didn't he got a month or three of PS Now a month or two ago? The upgrade would have been almost free.

 

[nominedomine]

Sometimes I think these companies do things like this on purpose just to get good PR when they finally sort the issue.

 

[Neofire]

A $2 trillion company is really hurting for that cash.

Easy VGchartz lol they are approaching it but not quite there.

 

[ManaByte]

They don't have to retroactively pay for anything.

They can either pay the full Premium subscription or for a cheaper price to upgrade from PS+ by paying the diference from what they paid from PS+ to the Premium tier price.

Ok so you’re just ignoring what’s going on.

 

[Killer8]

"Arrogant Sony is back!"

Imagine thinking they ever left.

 

[Dick Jones]

Sometimes I think these companies do things like this on purpose just to get good PR when they finally sort the issue.

If someone did this on purpose the PR firm needs to be shot. The staggered release was smart only if they fix this

 

[yurinka]

Ho-lee shit. Seems like it would have to be some kind of mistake. You think they'd want to avoid even screencaps of $500 upgrade charges. Seems like it would have to be a mistake because I'm finding it literally unbeleivable at the moment. So crazy.

It's not like you are getting some free upgrade for your stacked years. You are trying to pay them for it. They are the ones who sold the things at a discount! Why would they try to get that back? This is giving me a headache lol.

If someone did this on purpose the PR firm needs to be shot. The staggered release was smart only if they fix this

Sony is making them a discount by offering them to upgrade existing years of PS+ by paying the difference instead of asking them to pay the full premium sub.

In addition to this, during a period before launch Sony also allowed people the option of getting some month of Now to convert many years of stacked Plus+ to Premium for almost nothing.

To upgrade after release 21 years of Plus is expensive. Yes, and to buy 20 PS5s or a Ferrari too. Or well, it's way more expensive to buy 21 years of Premium than to upgrade 21 years.

 

[ToadMan]

A discount was offered and a purchase was made on the basis of that discount. Now the service I aquired is worthy less, it's not that I don't like the price of a new product, it's that the product I own is now worth less that what was offered to me at the time. It would be the same as offering a next gen upgrade for $10, but if you bought the game at 50% off you suddenly have to pay $40 to upgrade. It's not the customer's fault that the product was offered at a reduced price and no information was given at the time of purchase regarding the product being different and inferior than when sold at full price.

I already spoke to a lawyer and it's definitely a case to be considered and most likely won according to brazilian consumer protection laws and related regulations.

Get a better lawyer.

You paid for a service at a discount and you get that service. Sony isn’t breaking the terms of the agreement you entered into.

You’re trying to argue that the service has a guaranteed trade-in value for the entire duration of its validity - it doesn’t and Sony never said it would.

Sony is arguing that the money in your account has a value and that’s what you may put towards the cost of the higher tiers. They will allow you to cancel out of one tier and join another tier for the pro rata currency amount on your account.

Yes it’s not a consumer friendly and in my opinion Sony should have handled this better, but what Sony are doing isn’t wrong either legally or ethically.

They aren’t offering a discount on the higher tiers - people are trying to get a discount through the back door.

 

[Oddvintagechap]

Apple does this.

If theres a 100$ bundle with 3 games but it has a game you paid 100$ for when it first came out. You get all the games for free.

If one of the games you bought was 20$ and its in a bundle of 3 games worth 25$, you get the other 2 games for 5$.

So for Sony if you spend 30$ on PS+, your 30$ carries to the 120$ PS+++.

I don‘t really give fuck cause I didn‘t stack. Im not quite sure why Sony would give a fuck either,

 

[NickFire]

Get a better lawyer.

You paid for a service at a discount and you get that service. Sony isn’t breaking the terms of the agreement you entered into.

You’re trying to argue that the service has a guaranteed trade-in value for the entire duration of its validity - it doesn’t and Sony never said it would.

Sony is arguing that the money in your account has a value and that’s what you may put towards the cost of the higher tiers. They will allow you to cancel out of one tier and join another tier for the pro rata currency amoujt on your account.

Yes it’s not a consumer friendly and in my opinion Sony should have handled this better, but what Sony are doing isn’t wrong either legally or ethically.

They aren’t offering a discount on the higher tiers - people are trying to get a discount through the back door.

100% accurate. Nothing about this is illegal. Poor customer relations is not illegal by itself.

 

[CrustyBritches]

Yikes. Do better, Sony.

 

[ManaByte]

Sony is making them a discount by offering them to upgrade existing years of PS+ by paying the difference instead of asking them to pay the full premium sub.

That’s not what’s going on. But continue spinning it to defend it.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

I glad I stop paying for PS+ long ago.

So you don't play PlayStation games online?

 

[Dream-Knife]

Never understood why people would have like 5 years stacked.

 

[Crayon]

They will allow you to cancel out of one tier and join another tier for the pro rata currency amoujt on your account.

OH. Okay that is a lot different. I thought people with 4 years of stacked subs had no way to just get one year of premium. If they can back out of their stacked subs, then that is a little better. A lot better, actually. Whole thing is still a fuckshop.

I wonder if it is in tiny print somewhere that a discounted ps+ sub is different than a full price one.

 

[ManaByte]

If they can back out of their stacked subs, then that is a little better.

I don't think they let them backed out of stacked subs.

 

[Three]

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.

I think this is because there is a conversion of days from essential to deluxe then a subscription for the remainder. The fact that it was close to the non discount price is a coincidence.

You're right, this looks way worse in a screenshot

That's over $1,000 USD btw.

Guy has stacked plus till the end of 2043. Wtf. That's more than 20yrs worth he is trying to upgrade.

 

[ManaByte]

I think this is because there is a conversion of days from essential to deluxe then a subscription for the remainder.

This is what some people desperately trying to defend this in this thread don't understand. This is what's going on.

In order to upgrade a stacked PS+ subscription that you paid via the 33% PSN discount, you must:

1. Cover the 33% discount on your PS+ subscription to bring it up to the normal $59.99 price for every year you have stacked. This is about $20 a year.
2. Pay the normal upgrade cost to upgrade to whatever tier you want to upgrade to.

People are disingenuously ignoring #1 and trying to spin it as a discount when it's the opposite.

 

[Three]

This is what some people desperately trying to defend this in this thread don't understand. This is what's going on.

In order to upgrade a stacked PS+ subscription that you paid via the 33% PSN discount, you must:

1. Cover the 33% discount on your PS+ subscription to bring it up to the normal $59.99 price for every year you have stacked. This is about $20 a year.
2. Pay the normal upgrade cost to upgrade to whatever tier you want to upgrade to.

People are disingenuously ignoring #1 and trying to spin it as a discount when it's the opposite.

No I'm saying that the non-discounted subs being close to the upgrade cost are a coincidence and that somebody who has paid full price would get the same quote.

 

[SLB1904]

So let me see if I understand. This is for people like me that have the ps plus and want to upgrade to the top tier right?

 

[Putonahappyface]

Oh Jimmy what are we going to do with you, you cheeky monkey.

 

[ToadMan]

OH. Okay that is a lot different. I thought people with 4 years of stacked subs had no way to just get one year of premium. If they can back out of their stacked subs, then that is a little better. A lot better, actually. Whole thing is still a fuckshop.

I wonder if it is in tiny print somewhere that a discounted ps+ sub is different than a full price one.

Hold on! I don’t know about that part - whether you can cancel a sub and just use the dollar amount.

It would be interesting to see if Sony would allow that - just to cancel whatever subs you had and put the pro rata cash amount back in the account and then let people re-sub.

I was only referring to cancelling as way to view what is happening with the sub. But from what I’ve currently understood, if you are stacked with subs and you want to change up, you have to change up everything that’s stacked.

As far as I understand it anyway from the Reddit discussion.

 

[bender]

Guy has stacked plus till the end of 2043. Wtf. That's more than 20yrs worth he is trying to upgrade.

I'm pretty bad too, actually.

When Sony offered that free month of PSN codes that stacked, I took advantage of that and got years of service. They then had an offer for a PlayStation credit card that would gift you 1 year of PS+ and $50 PSN credit for your first PSN purchasing using that card. And during the early years of PS+, you could get 1 year subscriptions for $25.00 at retail during Black Friday. My stack was so high that I hadn't had to think about purchasing a subscription for years until recently when CDKeys sub prices went to ~$25.00 so I stocked up again. I'm good until 2030. lol

I'm guessing Hong Kong has similar deals for bargain hunters.

 

[PSYGN]

With laughable hair and nose big enough to be a clown if true.

 

[Crayon]

Hold on! I don’t know about that part - whether you can cancel a sub and just use the dollar amount.

It would be interesting to see if Sony would allow that - just to cancel whatever subs you had and put the pro rata cash amount back in the account and then let people re-sub.

I was only referring to cancelling as way to view what is happening with the sub. But from what I’ve currently understood, if you are stacked with subs and you want to change up, you have to change up everything that’s stacked.

As far as I understand it anyway from the Reddit discussion.

Oh damn, thanks.

This headache is not getting any better. 8)

 

[IntentionalPun]

It would be interesting to see if Sony would allow that - just to cancel whatever subs you had and put the pro rata cash amount back in the account and then let people re-sub.

This entire thing screams "immediate revenue increase"... what you just described is like the exact opposite of that lol

 

[Crayon]

The worse half of it is the part where you have to pay to upgrade your entire stacked time. That is just nuts. Like let people upgrade a year at a time. They can probably afford the $20 to... Pay back the discount... (God, that is insane), but people who can't afford 3,4,500 up front to upgrade are fucked over and out.

Edit: wait a sec, can they buy a year of premium stand alone and have that active ahead of their stacked essential subs?

 

[ToadMan]

Oh damn, thanks.

This headache is not getting any better. 8)

No. It’s not a good look for Sony making this so difficult.

I have a feeling we won’t get a proper resolution until it hits the US next month.

 

[Belthazar]

Get a better lawyer.

You paid for a service at a discount and you get that service. Sony isn’t breaking the terms of the agreement you entered into.

You’re trying to argue that the service has a guaranteed trade-in value for the entire duration of its validity - it doesn’t and Sony never said it would.

Sony is arguing that the money in your account has a value and that’s what you may put towards the cost of the higher tiers. They will allow you to cancel out of one tier and join another tier for the pro rata currency amount on your account.

Yes it’s not a consumer friendly and in my opinion Sony should have handled this better, but what Sony are doing isn’t wrong either legally or ethically.

They aren’t offering a discount on the higher tiers - people are trying to get a discount through the back door.

100% accurate. Nothing about this is illegal. Poor customer relations is not illegal by itself.

The world is not the United States, with it's lack of consumer protection laws.

 

[Bojanglez]

What's the shitstorm? People that haven't paid for a service that didn't exist, now have to pay for a service now it exists?

I'm saying this as a person that has a couple of years of PS+ and PS Now stacked. I'm not sure what the contraversy is?

 

[bender]

I have a feeling we won’t get a proper resolution until it hits the US next month.

I'd say that is extremely optimistic.

 

[IntentionalPun]

I have a feeling we won’t get a proper resolution

You should have stopped there lol

 

[ManaByte]

What's the shitstorm? People that haven't paid for a service that didn't exist, now have to pay for a service now it exists?

The shitstorm is having to pay extra for a service they got a discount on retroactively.

 

[NickFire]

The world is not the United States, with it's lack of consumer protection laws.

Receipts then. In this context I'd be expecting a statute that says its against the law not to sell someone an upgrade at the price the buyer desires.

And to be clear, if my last sub was bought on Black Friday (probably was) and they charge me extra to upgrade (if I take the plunge) for that reason, I'll be pissed and will immediately cancel the transaction until and reconsider when my sub expires. But being mad and having legal recourse are two different things. Sony does not have to sell me things at prices I desire. Just like I don't have to buy things at prices they desire.

 

[Dick Jones]

Can anyone clarify is it
A) I buy a year of PS+ at €30, if I want to upgrade that year I have to pay an additional €60 (the increase over the basic package) or €90 to bring it up to the €120 yearly cost.
B) people complaining that they stacked for 4 years and to upgrade they have to pay €60 per year to get the top package... so €240 as a once off.

 

[IntentionalPun]

What's the shitstorm? People that haven't paid for a service that didn't exist, now have to pay for a service now it exists?

I'm saying this as a person that has a couple of years of PS+ and PS Now stacked. I'm not sure what the contraversy is?

Here's a link to a thread about it:

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/ps-plus-members-in-asia-irate-as-sony-wipes-discounts-on-tier-upgrades-demands-upfront-fee-for-stacked-subs.1637014

 

[bender]

Can anyone clarify is it
A) I buy a year of PS+ at €30, if I want to upgrade that year I have to pay an additional €60 (the increase over the basic package) or €90 to bring it up to the €120 yearly cost.
B) people complaining that they stacked for 4 years and to upgrade they have to pay €60 per year to get the top package... so €240 as a once off.

Both

A) I'm guessing Sony charging more to upgrade discounted PS+ subscriptions is only applicable if you purchased the subscription from the PSN store and not via a physical/online retailer. How would they know?
B) If it's true that you can only upgrade a stacked sub for the length of the stacked sub, that kind of sucks. I'm not going to commit to a service for that length before knowing the quality.

 

[ManaByte]

Can anyone clarify is it
A) I buy a year of PS+ at €30, if I want to upgrade that year I have to pay an additional €60 (the increase over the basic package) or €90 to bring it up to the €120 yearly cost.
B) people complaining that they stacked for 4 years and to upgrade they have to pay €60 per year to get the top package... so €240 as a once off.

It's A, which is what people either don't understand or are deliberately ignoring.

 

[Dick Jones]

It's A, which is what people either don't understand or are deliberately ignoring.

So they are asking for 90 (based on a discount to 30).

If that's the case that's horseshit.