Should the Premium Memebership be automatically renewable ?

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Mariusz Ozga
13 years ago
11 years ago
3
16 Mar 2013 13:26:27
I find it disturbing that this site establish permanent renewable payment on my PayPal account. Especially, I find it unfair that direct, clear and undisputable information is NOT passed to the customer BEFORE making purchase. I've been informed that I make 'annual premium membership' BUT not clearly enough that it would be renewed every year. Info is passed to customer AFTER she/he makes purchas.

Either make it clear BEFORE purchase or, better still, cancel that. I believe that might pose legal problems...
Mariusz Ozga
13 years ago
11 years ago
3
16 Mar 2013 16:04:37
Just to prove its not an imaginary problem...

Directive 97/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 1997 on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts

Article 4
Prior information
1. In good time prior to the conclusion of any distance contract, the consumer shall be provided with the following information:
(a) the identity of the supplier and, in the case of contracts requiring payment in advance, his address;
(b) the main characteristics of the goods or services;
(c) the price of the goods or services including all taxes;
(d) delivery costs, where appropriate;
(e) the arrangements for payment, delivery or performance;
(f) the existence of a right of withdrawal, except in the cases referred to in Article 6 (3);
(g) the cost of using the means of distance communication, where it is calculated other than at the basic rate;
(h) the period for which the offer or the price remains valid;
(i) where appropriate, the minimum duration of the contract in the case of contracts for the supply of products or services to be performed permanently or recurrently.
2. The information referred to in paragraph 1, the commercial purpose of which must be made clear, shall be provided in a clear and comprehensible manner in any way appropriate to the means of distance communication used, with due regard, in particular, to the principles of good faith in commercial transactions, and the principles governing the protection of those who are unable, pursuant to the legislation of the Member States, to give their consent, such as minors.


Where's the legal note regarding premium membership payments ? Cant find it anywhere on the page.
Footygamer
20 years ago
4 months ago
981,621
17 Mar 2013 12:49:05
Hi Mariusz Ozga, i'm sorry if it was at all confusing, the wording hasn't been changed for considerable time so i'll have to go and look at exactly what it says. But you are right, it should be more obvious.

In terms of automatic subscription, most people who subscribe do so because they wish to support the site and help keep it running i.e. regular users rather than random visitors who have only visited to get the latest skin.

Thus for the majority of people an automatic renewal is better since it's annoying to have to sign up again, plus they may be inclined to forget. For example, you may care about a charity but if you had to manually donate every year more often than not you can forget, where as if you sign up it's usually a yearly thing.

The subscription is there because it pays for costs, it's effectively a donation. Donation buttons do not work, in the past we made a massive error and it costs us $1000 in 3 days, we asked for donations to help and got about £50, as you can imagine that's a big kick in the teeth for the people running this site. It's not a business, we're not selling a product, we happily give it away free but we can't host a site this popular without donations and we work form the assumption that those donating are regular users who would be inclined to donate on a yearly basis.

Having said all of that you are right that it should be made obvious and i'll look into it. I just wanted to make clear that this isn't a case of us trying to mug people off for cash. I've received my fair share of abusive emails and tweets and read people on other forums slagging us off, so i'm always keen to emphasise that point.

p.s. i'm pretty sure the paypal payment page has all the correct legal information regarding our details, length of contract etc. Not that i'm trying to argue with you, it should be obvious on the page requesting subscriptions and i'll double check the text when I can get to my laptop.
Swordsman
18 years ago
1 year ago
42
27 Apr 2013 11:45:10
Premium membership should have a option to renewable. not auto renewable straight away.

Better still to have a system prompt the user subscriptuon is ending. when the expiry date ends, they will have to make another payment.

I feel this is much better.

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