Warning: UK Game Time Change from 30 days to 60 days

Community General Discussion
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For anybody in the UK, if you’ve recently tried to renew your wow subscription using Game Time ( without using a monthly subscription plan), you may have realized that you are no longer allowed to renew 30 days on your account, or 90 days. Using Game Time ( Game Services), you must subscribe for at least 60 days ( recently changed since 16/12/2020) . Speaking as someone from the UK, I can safely say i will no longer play WoW because i relied on the 30 days (non-monthly) subscription ( for many years, not just in the UK but abroad as well in Asia). A 30 day monthly subscription is very annoying because i have to constantly cancel my subscription, and i usually forget to cancel these subscriptions because i don’t play the game every month, and obviously i don’t want additional costs or paying for game time that i won’t use. Yes this is partly me not being good at tracking subscriptions, but this in general is very unfriendly to UK customers, especially when everyone else not in the UK can still purchase flat 30-90 days non-monthly ( i also believe Canada has the same fate as us).

Suppose i switch to a monthly subscription and cancelled recurring costs each time. After a couple iterations, i know from experience that there will come a time when I accidentally forget to cancel it if i’m in a rush, and get charged more than I ever wanted to over the year if i leave the game and come back to it in a couple of months ( that’s why i don’t use it, and that’s my choice, and i know others feel the same) .

This change concerns me because i want as many people to play WoW as possible, it’s a great game. I fear this move probably will result in more people in the future being less inclined to purchase extra time, for the simple reason being that you’re just giving less choices to your customers, and angering those that actually used the options that you just took away, which in my case was used for a very long time: it’s reliable, it’s safe and in my opinion the best form of payment ( e.g. 30 days is very convenient, 90 days is great for summer holidays, 60 days for people who want a substantial amount of time, but not too much). Those like me who would pay for 30 days would argue that we simply don’t want extra hassle or to pay more than we already are over a computer game! Those that would pay 90 days wouldn’t want to purchase 2 60 day subscriptions because it would be too long and a waste of money.

I also speak for the kids that don’t have debit cards or credit cards, or adults that don’t want to share their card details and would rather pay a flat non-recurring cost through PayPal: placing the lowest non-monthly flat game time subscription at double the cost ( now £19.98 for 60 days, previously £9.99 for 30 days) will definitely make some people very upset.

Please do not be like me and transfer £9.99 to your blizzard account hoping to find a 30 day (only) Game Time subscription to purchase, you will no longer find it.I now have £10 locked into my account and i cannot move it anywhere, and i’m truly heartbroken that Blizzard has done this to us. Please leave a like/ reply if you have also been affected by this.

Edit: Izylar: Hi Izylar. I hope this edit explains why i’m so reluctant to do what you suggest [ i cannot reply directly to your message for some reason]. I understand your point of view, but it really shouldn’t be this way when we know that it was much better before, and i think Blizzard needs to know this to make it easier for others in the future. I personally am not tolerant to this change in the same way that you are, and i want to voice my opinion about it. It gives the impression that the company is going backwards, or becoming less customer-friendly, and i hate to make a statement like this but it is my honest opinion. I’m sure Blizzard never expected this change to make people so upset, but it does leave that impression on the company, and it has to change for the better.

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*Correction: To add atleast 60 days of gametime or subscribe for 30/90/180 days. As has been announced in the linked forum thread yes.

You can leave any feedback also in that thread as well, many others already have done so.

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I don’t know how to leave feedback, i cannot find any option to reply. I’m also talking about non-monthly subscriptions, the game times that used to give 30,60,90 days, but now only giving 60 days. The later part of your ‘correction’ is irrelevant to the problem i’m facing

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Well ain’t you the charmer? As well as being factually incorrect.

Where to start? Right, well, 52% of those who voted wanted Brexit. If you reduce that to the amount of people who actually voted (And yes it is their fault for being complacent and not doing so!) that reduces the figure to about 17.9% of the population. Of those 17.9% a lot of them would have voted on racist principles, so I’m not sure we can really class them as ‘people’ as such. But anyway, the majority of Brits either never wanted it, or didn’t vote for it. Sadly, the Government chose to take the results of a referendum as legally binding as voting for ‘Big Brother’ as what the public wanted, so the nasty side won. Sometimes that happens.

Normal Brits are going to really enjoy the shadenfreude and pointing at those known Brexit voters when things go wrong and saying “This is -Your- Fault” I mean it already -has- started to go wrong, and the Brexit voters are now looking like prize idiots because they believed lies written on the side of a bus…

However…

No, the processing fees for payments via VISA and Mastercard are not higher for Blizzard now, that isn’t how international finance works. Brexit won’t make a jot of difference to these things whatsoever, because they were created with that very intention in mind. It doesn’t -matter- where you use the card from or what currency it is in, the charges remain the same.

If you need proof of this, well, Before Brexit my monthly sub cost me £9.99. After Brexit my sub costs me £9.99. I pay by VISA.

Nothing changes there, because that isn’t how Debit and credit cards work. If they did, they wouldn’t be the replacement item for cash that they currently are in our economy, as they would artificially devalue currencies in excess of the usual fluctuation of exchange rates. Which would make the concept of exchange rates unworkable, unstable and worse of all for the International Economy, Unreliable. Any sort of financial prediction would become the same as licking your finger, sticking it in the air and wildly guessing, which despite common opinion is not how investments actually work.

So no, they are not stupid for not understanding that processing fees for payments via VISA and Mastercard are higher for Blizzard now, because they are not.

You do know that the articles about increased costs for visa’s was about the travel document, not the card, right?

If you really honestly think this is about Brexit then take off the tin foil hat and ask yourself “Have they done this in Norway?”

Norway is in the EU region in terms of WoW, but is not a Member of the EU.

Do -try- to at least be factually accurate when you insult people. This simply is not about Brexit, which you seem awfully hung up about…

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I don’t have an ongoing sub cause sometimes I get bored of the game or I don’t have time to constantly play so just adding 30 days here and there for a tenner was always handy.

Suppose I’ll need to just pay every month - it’s only a tenner but it’s still quite annoying they took the option to buy 30 days away

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Please don’t use our Brexit slang, mate.

PS lol at thinking Brexit has anything to do with this.

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I don’t really see the problem with just subbing and unsubbing, it’s like 1-2 clicks away after setting it up, just make a habit of it. It’s a little more inconvenient sure, but hardly a big issue imo. I’ve been doing it like this before as well.

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Oh trust me, I didn’t have to try incredibly hard at all. It isn’t difficult to know things, when you just…know things.

Because I was trying to explain to you how processing fees work in the scale of the wider economy, and why what you were suggesting in your angry little diatribe against Britain was simply factually incorrect. Something which seems to have gotten you very cross indeed.

Yes, and they have not changed post Brexit. But you knew that…

Good, because it seemed I entirely wasted my time trying to educate you on the subject and you just want to stay angry at Britain.

Interesting. Are you a Telepath? Who can read my mind? I mean if you are, you are not a very good one, as I do not believe in Unicorns, they were a bizarre fad during the Victorian and pre-Victorian era, when fake skeletons would be manufactured, but then they did that stunt with all sorts of creatures, trying to prove that Manticores and Chimerae existed. I believe all -that- happened. I just don’t believe that Unicorns themselves exist. So no, you are incorrect.

Well, if you want to play that card, what about Switzerland, which is neither in the EU, or the EEA.

Whoever said that? It most certainly does make a difference, a rather vast one, and an unpleasant one, which is why I voted to remain in the EU. Just that the difference you are citing, is not one of them.

Also, work on your tone. Your manner of addressing others leaves something to be desired.

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The guy thinks that a card payment taken monthly is a direct debit, what do you expect?

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Athena is one of those useless people that should be avoided as a plague. Just ignore it.

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