I became a premium member in March 2021. When the price increase occurred, and it was stated as long as you kept your membership, you would keep the same price, I reluctantly chose to stick with it. March 2022 rolls around and I start getting e-mails instructing me I have to renew my subscription, so I go and do so. A few days later, when my first year was officially running out, I get charged... the full price of the new membership rate, rather than the original rate.
I understand it's a $6 difference, but that $6 means a lot more to me than it does this corporation who has already promised me I won't see a rate increase.
Emma, a "BGA Support Team", was incredibly disrespectful, lying and gaslighting me to try to make up excuses for why I deserved the rate increase; even as I point out each and every one of these lies out, she made up a new lie, then ultimately refused to let me speak to anyone higher about it.
So I am posting the entire transcript here, to make anyone else aware of their dishonest business practices.
Me:
I was a premium member prior to November 1st and grandfathered into the $24/year price point; my renewal just went through and I was charged $30 rather than $24. This needs to be corrected.
Emma:
Unfortunately, if you need to change your payment information, you will need to unsubscribe and resubscribe, and will be charged according to the new rate.
I have added 3 months to your current subscription to apologise for the misunderstanding.
Me:
I did not change my payment information. My subscription did not lapse. I am continuing the same subscription. Even if I were changing my payment information, that wouldn't have anything to do with the issue, and would be a disgustingly dishonest and unethical business practice. But that point is moot; I did not change my payment information.
Emma:
You changed your payment on March 9th at 02:29 CET time.
Me:
1. Can you provide any evidence of this? The invoices only state "Stripe.com", and don't state what method payment was used. However, I am 100% positive I used the same card for both transactions, as the card and bank account have not changed.
2. If I did use a different payment method when your e-mails prompted me to renew my membership because it was the renewal date, why does this matter? Why does it mean you are allowed to back out of your stated policy of keeping the same price point as long as the membership is continuous?
Emma:
Sorry about the misunderstanding: you did not change your card, but you cancelled your old subscription on Jul 14, 2021, 12:39 PM (CET TIME).
Thus, your Premium ended at the end of the period that has been paid, on March 10.
Then, you subscribe another subscription (using the same card), which is still active on Mar 10, 2021, 12:56 AM, with the new price which is the only one available at this time.
Me:
This is getting increasingly ridiculous.
You just said, I cancelled my subscription, but that I still had the subscription? So I didn't cancel the subscription, then? How can I cancel a subscription but still have a subscription?
When the renewal date for my subscription approached, I received e-mails instructing me that I needed to renew my subscription; so to keep my existing subscription, I did renew it.
How is this a new subscription? When I was voluntarily choosing to continue my subscription because I was instructed to do so?
It feels like you are going through a lot of effort to deny your customers the promises you made: that if you kept an ongoing subscription, you would not receive the price increase. I kept one continuous subscription. There is no reason to be taking such a customer hostile approach.
Emma:
Sorry if there is a misunderstanding:
_ you subscribe a yearly subscription on March 10, 2021
_ you cancelled it on July 14, 2021
_ thus, on March 10, 2022, you were not Premium anymore
_ then, on the same day, as non-Premium, you subscribed another yearly subscription, which is the one you have now
I don't understand what is wrong: you did not keep going your previous subscription since you cancelled it on July 2021, so you cannot pretend keeping the old price...
Me:
This is a flat out lie. I renewed my membership on 3/8. You did not charge me until 3/9; which is still before 3/10, the date you are claiming. Additionally, I sent the e-mail about the issue on 3/9, which is again before the date you are saying I was no longer premium.
There is no gap in this time frame.
Why are you feeling the need to play games and lie? Please get me in touch with a supervisor who is actually concerned with resolving the issue, instead of spitting out baseless lies.
Emma:
Sorry, but you are not understanding the difference between a Premium status and a subscription.
You cancelled your subscription on July 2021. But obviously, since you paid a whole year, we did not removed your Premium status at this moment. We removed your Premium status on March 10th, at the end of the period your paid.
What matters for the price is the subscription, not the Premium status. We explicitly write "nothing changes for you as long as you keep your Premium Subscription going" (which you did not).
Me:
While I still do not believe the statement that "I" cancelled my subscription in July 2021, as I did not, this is still not factual to the actual issue at hand.
The exact wording used in the news post about the price increase, in bold, is: "Existing Monthly/Yearly Premium players will keep the current prices". I have been an existing premium player that entire time.
I am not going to ask this again: please escalate this to a supervisor.
Me, after no response in a week:
It has been over a week since I requested this issue be escalated to a representative concerned with customer service, and I have received no response. This treatment is completely unacceptable and I am requesting a refund on my subscription. I am no longer interested in being a BGA premium user.
Emma:
Sorry, but we already answered you in details, and there is no additional information we can provide: you chose to cancel your subscription in last July and consequently lost it.
Concerning your current subscription, unfortunately you already used it (by playing Premium games) and we cannot refund it. However, you can cancel it anytime - so it won't be renewed on next year from Preferences / Account.
it is clear I can not get through to anyone actually willing to resolve my issue, so I am done replying to Emma; but if I were to respond to the final message: There is no reason those free months they tried to use to pacify the issue couldn't go towards the less than 1 month I've continued playing (I have not used any premium features in that time frame; I have not created or joined any new games, just remained in the games and tournaments I am in and kept playing so as to not inconvenience those players).
BGA has a had a long history of not paying it's volunteers, leaving bug fixes and new features to stagnate. Where is all this money going? They are greedy people who don't put the money they are taking to good use. I am done using this website, but I want to leave this message as a warning here to everyone else.
I understand it's a $6 difference, but that $6 means a lot more to me than it does this corporation who has already promised me I won't see a rate increase.
Emma, a "BGA Support Team", was incredibly disrespectful, lying and gaslighting me to try to make up excuses for why I deserved the rate increase; even as I point out each and every one of these lies out, she made up a new lie, then ultimately refused to let me speak to anyone higher about it.
So I am posting the entire transcript here, to make anyone else aware of their dishonest business practices.
Me:
I was a premium member prior to November 1st and grandfathered into the $24/year price point; my renewal just went through and I was charged $30 rather than $24. This needs to be corrected.
Emma:
Unfortunately, if you need to change your payment information, you will need to unsubscribe and resubscribe, and will be charged according to the new rate.
I have added 3 months to your current subscription to apologise for the misunderstanding.
Me:
I did not change my payment information. My subscription did not lapse. I am continuing the same subscription. Even if I were changing my payment information, that wouldn't have anything to do with the issue, and would be a disgustingly dishonest and unethical business practice. But that point is moot; I did not change my payment information.
Emma:
You changed your payment on March 9th at 02:29 CET time.
Me:
1. Can you provide any evidence of this? The invoices only state "Stripe.com", and don't state what method payment was used. However, I am 100% positive I used the same card for both transactions, as the card and bank account have not changed.
2. If I did use a different payment method when your e-mails prompted me to renew my membership because it was the renewal date, why does this matter? Why does it mean you are allowed to back out of your stated policy of keeping the same price point as long as the membership is continuous?
Emma:
Sorry about the misunderstanding: you did not change your card, but you cancelled your old subscription on Jul 14, 2021, 12:39 PM (CET TIME).
Thus, your Premium ended at the end of the period that has been paid, on March 10.
Then, you subscribe another subscription (using the same card), which is still active on Mar 10, 2021, 12:56 AM, with the new price which is the only one available at this time.
Me:
This is getting increasingly ridiculous.
You just said, I cancelled my subscription, but that I still had the subscription? So I didn't cancel the subscription, then? How can I cancel a subscription but still have a subscription?
When the renewal date for my subscription approached, I received e-mails instructing me that I needed to renew my subscription; so to keep my existing subscription, I did renew it.
How is this a new subscription? When I was voluntarily choosing to continue my subscription because I was instructed to do so?
It feels like you are going through a lot of effort to deny your customers the promises you made: that if you kept an ongoing subscription, you would not receive the price increase. I kept one continuous subscription. There is no reason to be taking such a customer hostile approach.
Emma:
Sorry if there is a misunderstanding:
_ you subscribe a yearly subscription on March 10, 2021
_ you cancelled it on July 14, 2021
_ thus, on March 10, 2022, you were not Premium anymore
_ then, on the same day, as non-Premium, you subscribed another yearly subscription, which is the one you have now
I don't understand what is wrong: you did not keep going your previous subscription since you cancelled it on July 2021, so you cannot pretend keeping the old price...
Me:
This is a flat out lie. I renewed my membership on 3/8. You did not charge me until 3/9; which is still before 3/10, the date you are claiming. Additionally, I sent the e-mail about the issue on 3/9, which is again before the date you are saying I was no longer premium.
There is no gap in this time frame.
Why are you feeling the need to play games and lie? Please get me in touch with a supervisor who is actually concerned with resolving the issue, instead of spitting out baseless lies.
Emma:
Sorry, but you are not understanding the difference between a Premium status and a subscription.
You cancelled your subscription on July 2021. But obviously, since you paid a whole year, we did not removed your Premium status at this moment. We removed your Premium status on March 10th, at the end of the period your paid.
What matters for the price is the subscription, not the Premium status. We explicitly write "nothing changes for you as long as you keep your Premium Subscription going" (which you did not).
Me:
While I still do not believe the statement that "I" cancelled my subscription in July 2021, as I did not, this is still not factual to the actual issue at hand.
The exact wording used in the news post about the price increase, in bold, is: "Existing Monthly/Yearly Premium players will keep the current prices". I have been an existing premium player that entire time.
I am not going to ask this again: please escalate this to a supervisor.
Me, after no response in a week:
It has been over a week since I requested this issue be escalated to a representative concerned with customer service, and I have received no response. This treatment is completely unacceptable and I am requesting a refund on my subscription. I am no longer interested in being a BGA premium user.
Emma:
Sorry, but we already answered you in details, and there is no additional information we can provide: you chose to cancel your subscription in last July and consequently lost it.
Concerning your current subscription, unfortunately you already used it (by playing Premium games) and we cannot refund it. However, you can cancel it anytime - so it won't be renewed on next year from Preferences / Account.
it is clear I can not get through to anyone actually willing to resolve my issue, so I am done replying to Emma; but if I were to respond to the final message: There is no reason those free months they tried to use to pacify the issue couldn't go towards the less than 1 month I've continued playing (I have not used any premium features in that time frame; I have not created or joined any new games, just remained in the games and tournaments I am in and kept playing so as to not inconvenience those players).
BGA has a had a long history of not paying it's volunteers, leaving bug fixes and new features to stagnate. Where is all this money going? They are greedy people who don't put the money they are taking to good use. I am done using this website, but I want to leave this message as a warning here to everyone else.
.