Strange Premium subscription

[beri]

I had a pleasant surprise a few days ago: I was a premium member again. The thing is I didn’t do anything: I wasn’t home and didn’t have access to the Internet.

At first I thought somebody had offered me the subscription, but I just checked with my bank and the €24 are gone from my account.

How could this have happened?

[sourisdudesert]

Hello

BGA Premium is a montly or yearly membership as you can see on the Premium page. So it has been renewed

Please contact me at contact(at)boardgamearena.com if you have any more question about this.

[beri]

Just like that? automatically?

That’s strange, even more since my previous sub had expired about a month ago.

[Liallan]

Here we go again... this is nonsense. There's nothing on the premium page stating that a yearly membership will be automatically renewed at the end of a year.

BGA Premium is a montly or yearly membership as you can see on the Premium page.

Perhaps it's "monthly or yearly" but that doesn't imply automatically renewing. Sorry, but I don't see the words "automatic renewal" anywhere, so no you can't "see" on the Premium page.

It's not like this is a new discussion. I don't care if it's a small site. What other sites out there do doesn't automatically make this ok. What if ALL sites just did what they wanted based on what "other sites" do and none of them ever bothered to check things out? I have seen well-known companies automatically renew when they shouldn't - so you can't count on places like that to do the right thing. There's a difference between legal and right, though in the U.S. at least, it would not be legal to take money from a bank account without explicit permission. And this isn't right, whether it's legal or not. Why not be better than some of those other places?

If I had no other reasons, this is one big reason I'd never pay for a membership here, cause I have no tolerance for this kind of nonsense coming out of a business, small or not. I don't see what would be so difficult about just treating members right and not doing this kind of thing. For those who like automatic renewal, MAKE IT AN OPTION, and don't force everyone else to take that option without even knowing they are doing so. It's not about what different members want; it's about HIDING it from them! Sorry, but I really can't fathom why this has to be so difficult.

You owe beri and everyone else you've ever done this to an apology.

[N_Faker]

This reminds me of when I joined an online raffle as a kid with my mobile. Unbeknownst to me, every time they sent you an SMS, they charged you. And the SMSes effectively only consisted of advertisement for their raffles, lotteries and whatever of that kind, so I ended up blocking that number.

A few months later my mobile credit was gone.

[Caffe Latte]

I'd prefer either manual subscribtion and a reminder, or at least clarity. I liked emails booking.com is sending - please be sure on dd mon yyyy have xx euro on account ****1234, property ABC will be charging you.

Currently HERE I always cancel membership in advance just to stay in charge for both my money and willing to be or not be premium. I do not need surprises a la suddenly can't pay in a shop 'no funds on account' because boardgamearena suddenly took them.

[vichy]

it does not renew automatically. I stayed for a few days without a premium for not seeing the end of the period email ...

[sourisdudesert]

Sorry but I do not see the point here.

1. The display is VERY clear:




2. We are sending a reminder email before the yearly billing, with "how to cancel your subscription" instructions.

3. You have 2 options to get a BGA Premium for a given period:
_ subscribe 1 month or 1 year, then immediately cancel, or
_ subscribe using Paypal (we do not use subscriptions with Paypal, only one-time payment).

4. There is no "automatic renewal of a fixed period of time": BGA Premium is a monthly subscription, like your Internet access, your mobile phone access, your Netflix account, your favorite magazine, your local transportation system and so on. You subscribe BGA Premium, you can stop whenever you like to. This is 100% clear and there is no trap or hidden conditions.

Specifically @Liallan: I'm sorry but all my previous points are 100% true. If you really want to check this, please feel free to get a Premium membership and you'll see by yourself. As I understand, you seem to be in war to the general principle of "monthly subscription for Internet services": this is your right to be against this, but this goes far beyond Board Game Arena and I'm doubtful that this forum is the right place to discuss about this.

[Caffe Latte]

Why not add this all to general info there?

[beri]

I received no e-mail that informed me that my sub would be automatically renewed.
The e-mail I got read:

BGA exists thanks to your support: to renew your membership and get renewed access to Premium features, click on:
boardgamearena.com/premium.

This was on June 23rd and I didn’t click on the link. I never renewed my sub and yet it was renewed at my expense on July 4th.