[Answered] Donation Auto-Renewal

[Kataoka]

1 minute ago, Dominic said:

 

Very easy to use this as a justification while completely neglecting the fact that this is exactly what kids (who are probably the majority of the people donating) don't do.

Help them learn for the real world, because kinda what ZZL said here, people need to pay attention to what they are getting into, auto renewal is very common in subscriptions, kinda just gotta stay up with it and cancel it when you need to.

 

Just now, TheZZL said:

As a fucntion adult in modern society, with credit cards, subscriptions, and some companies taking money from your account (wrongfully) it is your responsibility to either stay up to date with your bills or not give our your information. 

 

[TheZZL]

3 minutes ago, splayd said:

Maybe just having a monthly or every 2 month re-confirmation for people's subscriptions so that they can confirm that they are indeed paying for it and know that they are. E-mailing the person can help as if someone goes inactive usually they don't check the forums.

This is also not a bad idea, but it already happens doesn't it? You get an email the day before/near the time your subscription is about to "expire" reminding you that it will expire.

Ya'll don't get this? 

[Kataoka]

1 minute ago, TheZZL said:

This is also not a bad idea, but it already happens doesn't it? You get an email the day before/near the time your subscription is about to "expire" reminding you that it will expire.

But who checks their email is the thing, practically no young person really, its still more or less paying attention to what you are getting into because in reality how many kids really check their emails at all or even a few times. I'm really gonna assume not at all unless they are using it for school. Maybe they use their parents and the parents do it for them but whats the chance of that

[Vanya]

6 minutes ago, TheZZL said:

This is also not a bad idea, but it already happens doesn't it? You get an email the day before/near the time your subscription is about to "expire" reminding you that it will expire.

My idea is that you would get an email after a certain period (1-2 months) that will require your confirmation to continue your subscription, if you don't reply/don't confirm then your subscription will be void.

 

5 minutes ago, Mikey. said:

But who checks their email is the thing, practically no young person really, its still more or less paying attention to what you are getting into because in reality how many kids really check their emails at all or even a few times. I'm really gonna assume not at all unless they are using it for school. Maybe they use their parents and the parents do it for them but whats the chance of that

If a kid doesn't check their email, then we know that when they purchase another subscription they are active, and it will prevent them from getting charged over periods of inactivity. I'm saying to keep the auto-renewal but just require a quick confirmation instead of re-buying every time your subscription ends.

[Dominic]

These arguments are pretty ridiculous. You want to help kids learn for the real world by willfully ignoring the fact that there's a much better way to go about this? Saying some people may want auto-renewal does not make the fact that a bunch of people are sending money here constantly when they probably don't mean to any better. I can't imagine there's a single person who gives a shit if it's auto-renewal or not, except for the people getting screwed over by forgetting about their donations.

[TheZZL]

3 minutes ago, Dominic said:

These arguments are pretty ridiculous. You want to help kids learn for the real world by willfully ignoring the fact that there's a much better way to go about this? Saying some people may want auto-renewal does not make the fact that a bunch of people are sending money here constantly when they probably don't mean to any better. I can't imagine there's a single person who gives a shit if it's auto-renewal or not, except for the people getting screwed over by forgetting about their donations.

Again, @splayd's idea would be fine for this, but you want to accomodate an irresponsible consumer who: Doesn't check their bills, their paypal, any suspicious activity on their card/bank,  and remember what they buy. If it's not hard to implement, then there's not a big reason to not add it," Hey, you've been a Steam-Gamers Elite Donor for 28 Months, are you still actively interested in this purchase?". If "some people" don't check their emails, how would this even help then (or how would we get a message to them).

[John]

Guys.

We have a one-time donation option.

You can pre-pay X amount of dollars and we give you the rank you want for however long the funds last. This feature is built directly into the new donation system.

If you can't be responsible with managing money or have bad memory, don't opt to start a subscription. Subscriptions are there for ease-of-use for players who don't want to be bothered to log into Paypal every time they want to renew, or don't want to be bothered to have to remember and end up not being able to enjoy a supporter raffle or not get into their favorite server because they forgot to pay.

[Caution]

In addition to what John said:

 

The automatic feature is there for simplicity's sake - nothing more. If we were attempting to scam people out of money, we'd be advertising recurring subscriptions for a cheaper price than a flat-fee or cancellation penalties / contracts (which is what a lot of major corporations do). Do some people forget that they are subscribed? I'm sure there definitely are people that fall into that category - but at the end of the day, that is 100% on the buyer. I don't have the time to go through each person and ask if they're good or not; I do, however, typically take pride in my moral compass (not really sure how some people think automatic payments that can be activated / deactivated on the user's end = a faulty compass)...meaning that if someone reaches out to me and explains their situation, I almost always lean towards giving them their money back. I can't recall a time I've actually fought with anyone about that.

 

I check my personal financial accounts quite routinely, and I encourage everyone to do the same. If you have been missing out on $5 or $10 every month and have never noticed it, you should probably pay more attention to your finances. And, if you're using another person's card, they really should be giving you explicit permission each and every time that card is used, or that can be considered fraudulent usage.

 

I get you two have gone off and started doing your thing at another place, but 100% do not come here and attempt to make this community out to be fraudulent / "screwing people over". I am not playing the game with you guys.