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[bosnianpie]

Most of you probably know about this feature but I'm so pissed right now that I have to write it off my chest, please bear with me.

I'm only using PS Plus sporadically for a couple of months every year, when there's some multiplayer game I want to try out. I save the "free" games in the library but never really play them.

Earlier today i was checking the store and noticed that I only had $17 left in my wallet, which I found odd because I knew I had added about $40 earlier this year. My first thoughts was that my account had been compromised or that there was some purchase that I had totally forgot about.

No. It was Sony who had taken the liberty to auto-renew my Plus-subscription. I didn't tick any box, I didn't see any "Do you want to auto-renew?" question when I subscribed for three months. I didn't even know they had an auto-renewal function! It's f-king theft despite what their TOS says and they f-king know it!

It's not about the damn money, I have been their customer since the late 90's and probably bought games worth thousands of dollars. But that wasn't enough for Sony. No, those greedy c-nts just had to steal a couple of bucks more. There's no chance in hell I will ever use that service again.

So if you didn't know about this function, please manage your Plus-options or they will take the money straight from the wallet, no questions and no warnings. Also, please spread the word around so it doesn't happen to anyone else.

Thanks for listening.

 

[Barnabot]

They set these auto renew to true because they think they know better than you on what you want to do about your sub and how you want to spend your money. And they want your money undisputed. Scummy as fuck.

 

[FranXico]

I also find the auto-renewal annoying, but I do find the timing of this warning a bit odd. Right a day or two after news of an official investigation into this kind of subscriptions that renew themselves automatically.

PS+ has been running with this same "quirk" for almost a decade, and only now people notice and/or care about this??

 

[Deleted member 738976]

Can't auto-renew if you don't subscribe to begin with.

 

[Vawn]

Another "feature" Sony learned from Xbox.

 

[CatCouch]

If you turn off the auto-renew box there's no way it can renew, right? I've heard some people claim it can even if you uncheck the box and that you should remove any payment options from the system.

I'm not playing my PS4 anymore so I unchecked it and I just want to make sure that is enough. I remember XBox having issues like this, too.

 

[DeepEnigma]

I just go in and click it off, as I do in all recurring services of this nature. Done.

 

[bosnianpie]

PS+ has been running with this same "quirk" for almost a decade, and only now people notice and/or care about this??

I can only speak for myself but I simply haven't used the service that many times, I'm usually playing SP. I guess there wasn't enough money in the wallet to renew those other times, so I never knew this was happening.

 

[NickFire]

I'm sitting here wondering how someone who has subscribed to PS+ on multiple occasions did not learn to turn off the auto renew previously. I suppose everything ever spent could have been via gift cards or digital cards bought in store / Amazon. Still though, tough to really believe it was a complete shock.

 

[Dragon_Rocks]

I also find the auto-renewal annoying, but I do find the timing of this warning a bit odd. Right a day or two after news of an official investigation into this kind of subscriptions that renew themselves automatically.

PS+ has been running with this same "quirk" for almost a decade, and only now people notice and/or care about this??

That is what I was thinking. Also this is something that almost all subscription services do and they also send you reminders about it more than a month in advance to the contact channels you have provided. People need to be more careful about these and check for this setting and turn it off for any online subscription they do until govt. puts in a law or regulation forbidding business to do this.

 

[bosnianpie]

I suppose everything ever spent could have been via gift cards or digital cards bought in store / Amazon. Still though, tough to really believe it was a complete shock.

Since PSN was hacked I haven't been using my credit card on the store. Only PS cards bought physically. I don't see the difference though.

 

[Iorv3th]

All subscription services do this. Turn off auto renew after subscribing on all services. It's 2019 you should expect this.

 

[nani17]

Doesn't Netflix and many other things do this

 

[Vbrasa]

It's literally the same as every subscription service. Stop aiming it as "SONY IS BIG BAD CORRUPTION COMPANY". Anything that you "get a free week" for and have to attach your credit card will do this, and when you grow up, you will see it everywhere else.

I resubscribed recently, and it literally says when you sign up in a big box "Click here to disable auto-renew" after you subscribe. Nothing new here, you just clearly didn't pay attention and learned a valuable lesson.

 

[NickFire]

Since PSN was hacked I haven't been using my credit card on the store. Only PS cards bought physically. I don't see the difference though.

The difference matters because you said "I'm only using PS Plus sporadically for a couple of months every year." If you had a credit card on file you would have learned of auto-renew the first time your sub expired. Still sounds incredible that someone who is into games enough to post here did not know of auto-renew, but if you never had a cc on file its plausible enough to give you the benefit of the doubt.

 

[Shin]

Here you go OP: https://www.neogaf.com/threads/uk-s...osoft-investigated-over-online-games.1475171/

 

[rəddəM]

And they'll do it to any other (Spotify, Vue, Now) sub, no?

 

[bosnianpie]

All subscription services do this. Turn off auto renew after subscribing on all services. It's 2019 you should expect this.

Yeah. I'm usually aware of this and do it with Spotify and other streaming services. But for some reason I didn't think it would happen on Plus, probably because 90 % of the time they don't have a source to get the money from. I don't keep a bunch of money in the wallet. This time was an exception.

 

[Hendrick's]

Whenever I sign up for any subscription service, I immediately go in and turn off auto-renewal off. It's a pain in the ass, but it goes with the territory these days.

 

[bosnianpie]

"SONY IS BIG BAD CORRUPTION COMPANY". Anything that you "get a free week" for and have to attach your credit card will do this, and when you grow up, you will see it everywhere else.

I resubscribed recently, and it literally says when you sign up in a big box "Click here to disable auto-renew" after you subscribe. Nothing new here, you just clearly didn't pay attention and learned a valuable lesson.

You can't write this in a decent manner? Maybe you're the one who needs to grow up. I'm probably a bigger Sony fanboy than you but it won't stop me from calling out bs like this. I subscribed at the end of 2018 and didn't see any box. Maybe that's the reason they're getting investigated.

 

[Fox Mulder]

They set these auto renew to true because they think they know better than you on what you want to do about your sub and how you want to spend your money. And they want your money undisputed. Scummy as fuck.

Literally every company does this.

This site's erection for evil Sony is fucking tiring.

 

[bosnianpie]

This site's erection for evil Sony is fucking tiring.

I have only played on Sony consoles since PS1, minus the handhelds. This has nothing to do with hating on Sony, only on one of their shitty business practices.

 

[gunslikewhoa]

I have only played on Sony consoles since PS1, minus the handhelds. This has nothing to do with hating on Sony, only on one of their shitty business practices.

By shitty, you mean one of their industry standard business practices.

 

[angelic]

It's even more annoying when you get 20% off buying elsewhere. Got caught once. Never again.

 

[Gamernyc78]

Most of you probably know about this feature but I'm so pissed right now that I have to write it off my chest, please bear with me.

I'm only using PS Plus sporadically for a couple of months every year, when there's some multiplayer game I want to try out. I save the "free" games in the library but never really play them.

Earlier today i was checking the store and noticed that I only had $17 left in my wallet, which I found odd because I knew I had added about $40 earlier this year. My first thoughts was that my account had been compromised or that there was some purchase that I had totally forgot about.

No. It was Sony who had taken the liberty to auto-renew my Plus-subscription. I didn't tick any box, I didn't see any "Do you want to auto-renew?" question when I subscribed for three months. I didn't even know they had an auto-renewal function! It's f-king theft despite what their TOS says and they f-king know it!

It's not about the damn money, I have been their customer since the late 90's and probably bought games worth thousands of dollars. But that wasn't enough for Sony. No, those greedy c-nts just had to steal a couple of bucks more. There's no chance in hell I will ever use that service again.

So if you didn't know about this function, please manage your Plus-options or they will take the money straight from the wallet, no questions and no warnings. Also, please spread the word around so it doesn't happen to anyone else.

Thanks for listening.

Same shit happened to me with Xbox live and worse I had to sign in on my live account on my computer just to fucking take it off, didn't let me do it on the console although I remember it letting me before. They make shit hard just because they want your money. It's bs on any service that does this.

 

[NickFire]

I have only played on Sony consoles since PS1, minus the handhelds. This has nothing to do with hating on Sony, only on one of their shitty business practices.

I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt, but you shouldn't be shocked if others don't. This was part of a recent topic, and seeing someone invested enough to be here expressing shock after years of on/off subscriptions to PS+, it raises a few eyebrows. There used to be a trend around here where people see a story about something bad, and then say how recently they were at the place where it happened. This kinda falls into that zone TBH.

 

[bosnianpie]

By shitty, you mean one of their industry standard business practices.

Correct. Just because it's industry standard does not mean it's good. Just because a corporation we like does it does not mean it's not deceptive and shitty.

 

[Grinchy]

I hate this practice. Though, I learned many years ago that every subscription-based service does this so I know to cancel it immediately.

Why do you think you see deals like $2 for 2 months of gamepass? It's because a large percent of people who pay the $2 don't understand that they're about to be auto-charged for a renewal 2 months from now.

 

[Dargor]

Yeah, not defending Sony here at all (their corstumer service is complete garbage), but in this case, just asking, did you turn it off?

Cuz the moment you subscribe to ps+ they say its going to be on auto-renew, so you go and turn it off. Not saying this isn't shitty, it is, but this one at least they warn you about.

edit: and I mean it when I say their costumer service is garbage, I hope they completely revamp it at some point and that point is yesterday.

 

[Sqorin Hammerfarf]

I just did a month of Plus and it definitely told me when I started that it was set to auto renew and that I could manage my subscription in the manage subscriptions section of my PSN account. I just turned off auto-renew a few days ago, so I know that the manage subscriptions page not only tells you that auto-renew is on, it tells you the date that it will be renewed.

 

[bosnianpie]

I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt

Good, because I'm not into console war discussions. This has nothing to do with it and it seems that players on other consoles suffer from similar problems.

 

[TGO]

I wanted to say sorry Sony are dicks but...
Every subscription service known to mankind has an automatic renewal on by default, even free trials have automatic renewal.
Not sure what it says in the US but it does explicitly says it sets to automatically renew once the subscription is over with information on how to disable it.
You also received two emails reminding you to have funds to renew or disable automatic renewal a month and a week before it ends
Like this

Problem is people don't disable it,
They read the warning they leave it, "do it later" and forget.
Then get outraged when it renews.

 

[Barnabot]

Literally every company does this.

This site's erection for evil Sony is fucking tiring.

And why were you quoting me? I never said it was a Sony's only thing. But literaly every company does that.

 

[bosnianpie]

Cuz the moment you subscribe to ps+ they say its going to be on auto-renew, so you go and turn it off. Not saying this isn't shitty, it is, but this one at least they warn you about.

edit: and I mean it when I say their costumer service is garbage, I hope they completely revamp it at some point and that point is yesterday.

So I got it late 2018 and I really, really don't remember a box asking me this. I usually pay great attention to stuff like that and had there been a box I would have turned it off, since I don't play MP very often. Could it be a regional thing? I'm in Europe.

Edit

Worth mentioning is that the three month subscription I got was a Spider-Man preorder bonus.

 

[Dargor]

So I got it late 2018 and I really, really don't remember a box asking me this. I usually pay great attention to stuff like that and had there been a box I would have turned it off, since I don't play MP very often. Could it be a regional thing? I'm in Europe.

I can't say anything about it being regional, but I'm absolutely sure I got warned about it when I subscribed, and its been years since the last time I did.

edit: I'm in Brazil!

 

[demigod]

Im pretty sure i got charged on my card with auto renewal when i only used the ps plus cards i bought for $30.

 

[Zekra Dezivad]

I never had problems with autorenew, it was really always clear and easy to deactivate. It's a matter of seconds.

 

[Dargor]

Im pretty sure i got charged on my card with auto renewal when i only used the ps plus cards i bought for $30.

I think it will use any source of money linked to the account if auto renewal is on. Money in the wallet, credit cards, your savings, literally anything lol

 

[bosnianpie]

I can't say anything about it being regional, but I'm absolutely sure I got warned about it when I subscribed, and its been years since the last time I did.

edit: I'm in Brazil!

All right my Brazilian friend. It seems that several people got warned in one way or another. I can honestly say that I did not see such thing and like I said, I usually pay attention.

I still think this is a bad business practice and I'm not surprised that they're getting investigated. There's definitely a good reason for that.

Perhaps turning the auto-renew off as default would be a good solution? But there's no fun (or money) in that, right?

Good night guys and gals

 

[Dargor]

All right my Brazilian friend. It seems that several people got warned in one way or another. I can honestly say that I did not see such thing and like I said, I usually pay attention.

I still think this is a bad business practice and I'm not surprised that they're getting investigated. There's a definitely a good reason for that.

Perhaps turning the auto-renew off as default would be a good solution? But there's no fun (or money) in that, right?

Good night guys and gals

It sure is, I hope every one of these companies get told to do it that way.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Can't auto-renew if you don't subscribe to begin with.

Yup. Been Xbox gaming for 15 years and every annual gold sub I've done is from card codes.

 

[synchronicity]

I keep a zero balance and no credit card on file.

Your move Sony.

 

[Stuart360]

This is why whenever i buy a month on Netflix or EA Access etc, i cancel as soon as i sign up. It stops this shit.

 

[Fuz]

All subscription services do this.

True. And none of them should. You should opt-in, not opt-out.

 

[Shakka43]

Auto-renew is pretty much a standard in subscription based services, tbh I can't think of a major service that doesn't have it on as default.

 

[3March]

True. And none of them should. You should opt-in, not opt-out.

Yep. I think Xbox did it as well, watch NakeyJakey's video "Crappy User Interfaces".

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Really comes down to if a service is a "subscription".

I've signed up for year round lawn care, but after the year is over they don't automatically resign you for next year. If you want it, you have to resubmit payment again next year.

 

[DForce]

Now you know why companies willingly give out free trials.

 

[quickwhips]

Another "feature" Sony learned from Xbox.

we are made 4 post in before Vawn shows up and says its xbox fault.

 

[Gormless Noodle]

Another "feature" Sony learned from Xbox.

There was a time with Xbox 360's Xbox Live in the Netherlands (other territories too I assume) where you could only cancel your sub through calling. And then you were confronted with this half baked "customer retention" attempt. So I guess it can always be worse.