Here's the issue: I last subscribed on November 25th, 2008. On the same day, I emailed CS to have them cancel auto-renew on my account. After an initial snafu with security questions, I recieved confirmation (a few days later) that the account was due to expire on December 25th. I recieved email confirmation on January 2nd that the account was actually expired.
As of this writing, I'm still able to access Insider. I have not been charged for another month (I checked), so this is free access. Most recently, I downloaded the "Dhampyr" article (released January 12th). Right before I posted this, I even accessed the online Rules Compendium (just to make sure I still had access). As usual, full access, not just demo.
I'm using Internet Explorer and Adobe Acrobat 6. I've always had to use a "work-around" in order to download articles. Other than that though, I've done nothing different. The work-around I use is this: Right-click on "See It Now", right-click on "Save Target As". Close menu (since I don't want to save the "asp" page). Then, right-click "See It Now" (yes, again ;)), right-click "Save Target As". This brings up an option to save a PDF file.
Earlier (Via PM), mudbunny let me know that the issue was being passed up the chain. I only tried to download the latest article to see if the problem was fixed.
Obviously, this is a very serious concern, not only for myself, but for anyone who is responsible for management of Insider accounts. I want to take responsibility and see that this snafu gets taken care of. I'm honestly confused though, so any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Are you sure you only paid for one month? If you had paid for a three-month block or longer, even though you cancelled auto-renew, you'll be able to download content until the end of February.
The OP clearly believes it, I saw a comment posted before about a lag of being accessible. I am fairly sure the OP would notice if paid for one month or longer on credit card. The OP has indicated now and in the past that charge did not occur.
Are you sure you only paid for one month? If you had paid for a three-month block or longer, even though you cancelled auto-renew, you'll be able to download content until the end of February.
Yes, I'm positive. Just in case though, I always save my emails to and from customer service. Last subscribed November 25th, expired on January 2nd; all confirmed via email. As of January 12th however, I'm still able to access Insider in full.
This snafu has me keeny concerned about the management of Insider. I want to read Dragon, not be concerned about things outside of my control. When something like this happens though, there's a responsibility to do my part.
I've tried everything I can to get the attention of the powers that be. What if this is not an isolated incident? What if I'm not the only one getting a freebie? This is something I definitely think they need to look into.
I'd speculate that when all is said and done, someone probably forgot to disable your account.
Art, you're a more honest man than I. I'd probably have never said a word and rode the gravy train as long as possible.
I'd speculate that when all is said and done, someone probably forgot to disable your account.
Well, I've always had a soft spot for Paladins (the lawful good variety). Now I know why :P.
Not much more that I can do...
Erase my forum account. I can always sign-up for another forum account. In essence, I'd be a new member. All I ask is that they let me continue to use the moniker Artifact (I've grown attatched to it ;)).
This should effectively close any previous access I had to Insider. This is assuming there's a bigger problem here; that simply pushing a button to deactivate my account won't work. I don't actually know how such things work but there's the idea.
I guess they don't really have any decent account management software.
Actually, I believe that they said that until they get that module (or whatever you want to call it) installed in to the accounts management system, when you subscribe, you get full access to everything up to that point.
yep, they did, in DI#18 or so.
with the current layoffs, i believe we won't see that happen too soon, though. they might start to delete back-issues again once they come to the same conclusion.
This seems like a fine solution and will encourage people to sign up.
I am sure the techs will figure out the account problem if they haven't already.
Had ya there for a sec, didn't I :P? Seems the little *problem* I was having is fixed now. Thank you!
In all seriousness however, I'm left with an uneasy feeling when all is said and done. Don't get me wrong, the freebies were nice (I'm not complaining by any means). This just seems sloppy to me. I'm not trying to be rude in saying this, just trying to get my point across. When I do business with someone, I naturally expect a certain level of competence. This doesn't strike me as one of those times. Again, I'm not trying to be hateful here, just trying to make a point. There are other concerns as well but this incident was the final straw for me.
I hope Insider is successful and I would like to be a part of it. My experience with the service side of D&Di has not been positive however; I wish I could say otherwise. I do not feel confident in spending my money on Insider at this time.
.- Chuck
My two major concerns with Insider service have finally been addressed. Simplified auto-renew is much needed. No more "undead subscription" (love the phrase ;)) is another concern I'm happy is being laid to rest.
I welcome the peace of mind that this news brings. I really do want to be a part of Insider; now it will be less of a hassle.
Now that most of the work on the simplified stop auto renewal process has been completed (see Bill Slavicsek’s announcements) we are able to fix the undead subscriptions issue. Last night this process was put into place. Judging by Artifact’s post, everything is working fine.
- Chuck
Was it the intention the whole time to fix undead subscriptions or was the process rushed into place because I happened to push the "panic button"? I can't help feeling that WotC is reacting rather than being proactive; i.e. they're in over their heads. I'm still a bit jaded, sorry.
Is there any way you can let people like mudbunny (for instance) know what you are planning to do in advance? Wouldn't this make his job easier to do? This way he can communicate with forum members about what may be happening with their accounts, about what to expect in the near future. Having your customers confused is not a good thing. That's what started all this.
So to your question of did we intend to fix the “Undead Subscriptions” the entire time, the answer is most definitely yes!
Did we move it up the time scale because it was brought to our attention that it was causing a bad experience? Again, most definitely yes!
We were working to put down the undead, but it became a higher priority when it was pointed out that having this prolonged access was causing some concerns. We weren’t exactly reactive, as we were already working on a fix - we were just being agile as we adjusted some things and moved this fix up on the timetable.
As to getting information to you guys or the VCLs I’ve talked with Trevor over on the Community Team and he’s going to swing by and post his own reply to that shortly.
- Chuck
We definitely do want to let people know what's going on in advance. Passing this knowledge to the VCLs so they can pass it on to the rest of the community is pretty much how we function most of the time.
Unfortunately the community responsibilities were shuffled around in the last couple months and, in some respects, we're still learning how to walk in here on the community team. In this case, the update to kill these brain-eating zombie subscriptions was put into place before I could communicate the specifics to the VCL team. I had been talking to mudbunny about the issue in general, but I didn't get the information about when the fix would be implemented until after the code had already been pushed in.
This was a case where we wanted to be super agile and get the fix in as Chuck mentioned, and I just dropped the ball on communicating that to everyone before it actually went live.
Things are a bit more stable on my end and I definitely have a great team of VCLs to lean on, so I can say that we'll do everything we can to keep you as up to date as we can on any planned changes to any of our systems.
As always, if there's anything you see going on in the community or with anything else, feel free to contact us or start up a conversation and we'll do what we can to help.