I’m not saying that people should be entitled if they break the contract, what I’m saying is the contract is wrong. I believe that six months sign up should be more than enough time for Blizzard to say hey you’ve signed on with us for six months at a time and are taking the punt you won’t waste any of that money you’ve spent on us if your circumstances change in that time and you aren’t able to play, as such we will reward you regardless if you sign on for another six months or not.
When I say long term players, I don’t mean veterans as in players that have been here for years (though I do think people who have played for a long term are people that a company should be looking to retain, that makes good business sense), I mean people who sign up for large amount of time at once.
I’m not sure how that relates to reading peoples minds or being open to abuse, my suggestion is that you sign up for six months and any rewards that occur in that period you get. These aren’t physical items that are being provided, its not like you have to go to a factory and create them, its digital content, does it really cost so much to provide that to all people that are on the six months contracts? I mean how much does Blizz save or make for that matter by not providing it to those people who cancel the contract early? How much generosity is it for Blizz to go okay you signed on for six months, we’d like you to stay longer, but we understand that is not feasible for everyone all of the time, since you were willing to buy a big chunk of time, we’ll still recognise you are a good customer and give you rewards for that entire six months instead of expecting you to be on an ongoing subscription. Keeping in mind that if someone cancelled days before their subscription was due, they would still get this item ( I assume not everyone is a dope and didn’t see that criteria and assume they would get any rewards in that period like I did), I probably read it the first time I got the reward and I know I assumed it would always be the same as for the first time I got the reward, ie that you got any rewards regardless of sub.
I don’t know if I got a popup warning when I cancelled to say WARNING! (with a nice big stop sign graphic next to it) if you cancel this subscription you will not be entitled to any rewards including mounts, pets, transmogs that will occur before your subscription runs out. Do you still want to cancel your service and miss out on these rewards or would you prefer to wait till a later date? If that did happen, so be it, I obviously didn’t read it, but if that isn’t a thing I think it should be.
Another option would be to be able to set a cancellation date in advance, so that person could come back in and say no I don’t want to cancel like I thought I did, please keep me subscribed so I can continue to get rewards, obviously once that set date has passed at that point then they wouldn’t be entitled to any rewards and the cancellation would go through. I envisage that this could also be tied in with emails that say your cancellation date is coming up on date if you still want to cancel do nothing, if you don’t want to cancel and you’d like to continue getting rewards click this link and edit as required allowing them to restart the subscription without having to pay the entire subscription early.
I’m trying not to feel frustrated here, I’ve missed out on something that I dearly would have liked, I understand from you and many of the others (who couldn’t wait to tell me its my own dumb fault for not reading and boohoo), I broke the contract and I’m not going to get it. This however is not the point of my feedback, the point is to say does it really cost Bliz that much to be more generous to their customer base and say we’ll give this reward to anyone who signs on for a large amount of time regardless of if they are subbed. As a customer I know I’d appreciate that. As a customer I also know it has upset me greatly to be missing out (even if its my fault, this doesn’t make me feel okay about missing out, it still feels rubbish either way). The impact for me is 100% if I want to buy this mount I will need to be unsubbed for two months at the minimum, I can’t cover six months sub right now, so that’s out of the question and even if I had the cash to do so value for money wise I’m not getting a big enough return on what I’m spending because my one year old isn’t interested in me playing on my computer, so I’d be spending money on a subscription I’m only getting minimal use from at the moment and I can’t justify it. Easier to spend my money elsewhere like Beat Saber, it doesn’t feel like I’m wasting my money then.
I don’t know, only you guys can do the maths (I can’t), does it cost you enormous amounts to give the entire player base who cancel early any rewards that occur (during their six months), or can only people who are ongoing subscribers cover your costs? How much money do you make to keep people ongoing subscribed, as opposed to buying six months when they can? What kind of reciprocity and feelings of good will could you be earning with your player base by giving the rewards regardless of subscription?