Subscription Canceled Automatically

Support Customer Support
1

In the last day my 12mth subscription came up for renewal. I am unclear on the exact time/date it was due as I had not recently checked when it was coming up and had thus forgotten about it.

The first indication I had it was due was an email from Blizzard saying my subscription billing method had failed and to update the details. So I did just that but was then directed to re-subscribe.

Any other time this would not be an issue but this year there was a price increase in Australia of $42 per 12 month sub. Thankfully when it was announced it was also stated by Blizzard that “As a courtesy, all recurring subscriptions as of 11:59 p.m. AEDT on 6 February 2025 will keep the previous price until 11:59 p.m. AEST on 6 August 2025.”

So thus as a loyal customer of a recurring 12mth sub for a number of years I was eligible for the old pricing once my sub was up for renewal. That is until the payment failed to process, something that can happen for many different reasons, some even out of my control. Alas I resolved the issue within a few hours of receiving the email but am now still required to pay the now updated and more expensive prices… This seems dishonest and unnecessarily unfair to a loyal customer…

This could have been avoided if the account had of been attempted to be charged again, literally how every other subscription service operates, but no it gets outright canceled and I am now forced to re-sub and pay the new more expensive prices, how convenient. Why does Blizzard not try to charge the account again at least a second time to allow for errors?

I did open a ticket to explain the situation to which I was told that renewals are charged to the account a week before they are due. This did not happen in my case! There was only one failed charge and email about it and the WoW account was not assessable on that same day. It was then pointed out that they are unable to offer the previous pricing even though I was previously subbed.

In asking for more clarification on the issue, like exact renewal date (I am no longer able to see the info in my account) and why wasn’t it charged a week before hand as was stated which would have seen this be a non event I was simply told not to respond again or open another ticket with none of my questions answered or resolved.

So my penalty for being a loyal customer and Blizzard not charging me how they say they do is to be forced to pay an extra $42. This is extremely poor customer service, something I guess we have all come to accept from Blizzard, but has left me feeling extremely dis-satisfied as zero attempt was made to resolve anything. Just sorry, thats very sad we cant do anything, please don’t contact us again… Like what?

At $249 per year you expect more! I get better customer service from companies offering subscriptions a third of this cost. Extremely disappointing.

2

This doesn’t actually have anything to do with Customer Service. They’re not involved in setting the price for game time, nor are they in control of the value of other country’s dollars. As a Canadian, I used to pay less than those in the US when our dollar was stronger…now, Canadian customers also pay more than those in the US.

I don’t know how this is a “punishment” or how you feel that it’s bad customer service either. If you’re not willing to pay the increase, simply don’t.

The subscription prices changed for ALL Australian customers, not just you.

If you have feedback regarding the price change, you’ll want to post in the General forums or use the in-game suggest feature (accessible on any character level 20 or lower).

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3

You can not expect blizzard to loose money on what you pay. Not their fault if the money exchange prices changed and now you have to pay more due to this fact. Blizzard does not control the money exchange rates!

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4

You have clearly missed the most important part of this is that I was eligible for the previous pricing but due to the charge failing and not being tried again I now miss out, despite being told by the support ticket team that the standard practice is for it to happen a week before hand, all of which did not happen.

So yeah, I could not just pay, but I will, but why can I not try to receive what I was entitled to or be allowed to feel disappointed by that, when I have even been told by Blizzard it should not have happened but they wont do anything about it?

I never said its a punishment, I said penalty, because it is exactly that, charge failed so now its costs an extra $42 on the same day it was due when it should have been $42 less… I know its not just me, and this exact issue is going to affect many others, if nothing else this can serve as a warning that the account wont be attempted to be changed a second time but simply canceled and you lose your old pricing…

My biggest gripe/question is why cant the charge be attempted a second time. Its how every other subscription service works and thus what customers will expect.

And finally, its in “Customer Support” because where else would it go, its not about the pricing increase per se, its about the fact I wasn’t honoured the previous pricing as I should have been all because the auto payment failed and wasn’t tried again. To have that error cost $42 is pretty harsh in my opinion. Thus the dismissive nature of the representatives can indeed be perceived as poor customer service so where else would it belong other then in Customer Support if I was unhappy with the outcome of the ticket?

5

Previous pricing based on the exchange rates at the last time you did this! When your dealing with different currencies the price can change.

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6

You have missed the entire point of my post. It has nothing to do about price increases, exchange rates or Blizzard losing money. There are plenty of other posts about that elsewhere.

This is about the fact I was entitled to the previous price but have been denied that when the payment failed to process due to factors outside of my control and Blizzard not attempting to charge the account again despite being told by them they do it a week before hand which did not happen in my case.

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Just so you’re made aware, Tomintwo, our prices were adjusted as of 7th of Febraury to adjust for the currency exchange rate between AUD/NZD and USD.

This is something completely out of Customer Support control.

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8

Seems like this has everything to do with exchange rates and that could be why it failed to go though at first because of the exchange difference.

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In what way is failing to update an expiring payment method outside of your control?

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Again, still missing the point, its not about exchange rates. The price increased, yes! Were people happy about that? no! Is that the topic here? No! At the time of the increase it was stated by Blizzard in a blue post as I quote here again “As a courtesy, all recurring subscriptions as of 11:59 p.m. AEDT on 6 February 2025 will keep the previous price until 11:59 p.m. AEST on 6 August 2025.” That is the topic here, that I was eligible but have now missed out due to an error out of my control that Blizzard are unwilling to fix despite them saying it should not have happened.

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You are only focusing on one side of the coin, however. While they may have been outside your control (barring insufficient funds or available balance if a credit card as an example, Blizzard cannot see that but we can), there are also other things outside of Blizzard’s control that they aren’t under obligation to honor for, either. It would be nice if they did, but they are a business at the end of the day.

Their only involvement is to attempt to push the charge through, and like most businesses globally, it usually happens several times until the rollover day happens, and even sometimes afterward (looking at you, Spotify).

My guess is the system couldn’t keep pushing against what was blocking it this time because of the price change.

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12

Thanks for the response, I am well aware of why prices were increased and that they were. As you can see in my first post I quoted the part from the Blue post in your response about the pricing being extended to 6 Aug for existing subs.

This is not about that. Its about that the sub was cancelled after a failed charge and wasn’t tried again so I lost the previous pricing.

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Was your payment method up to date? My guess is it was not

14

Exchange rates was not the reason why the charge failed to go through. Please stop trying to derail the discussion.

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Most companies are not going to try a second time on a card that did not successfully go through.

There is nothing that can be done at this point unfortunately, nor does speculating why the charge did not go through. The fact that they did not recharge a rejected card isn’t going to change the fact that there’s nothing that can be done now unfortunately.

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16

It was, and again thats not the issue here, I wont disclose personal banking details here nor should I have to thats not the point. Point is is failed, could be for many different reason, even bank errors outside of my control.

Errors happen thats life. The problem is that Blizzard don’t try to recharge the account again like literary every other subscription service does.

In any other year this would have not been a problem. But this year there was a price increase and was promised the previous pricing for having an existing sub but due to it failing to be charged I lose that promise. How does that seem fair? Especially since I fixed the problem within hours of it occurring.

At the very least if unwilling to charge the account again, offer a grace period of even just one day to resub at the previous promised older pricing. Why is that level of fairness so hard to grasp? Blizzard isn’t struggling for my extra $42 but its going to make a big difference to me.

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There is a lot of subscription services that also do not automatically recharge as well. Not everything has to do the same thing.

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18

Most companies will not try again automatically. Even on a failed attempt they could be charged a fee for doing so. But no idea if they are or not.

In the end it did not go through for what ever reason. It is life and it sucks and all the fuss about this is not going to change that. In fact those who make policy on how they do things do not come to this forum for feedback. So posting here about this does nothing going forward.

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19

Literary every other service I have will try multiple times. Why? Because they want my money! Seems blizzard does not want it that badly… Is not as if I am not trying to give it to them.

The alarming thing here is you are all so quick to defend Blizzard. I have none nothing wrong here. Why is it so hard to extend just a shred of empathy to a customer that has held multiple 12mth subs in previous years.

Is Blizzard required to do more? No? But why would they not, its just good customer service to try and make good when a situation goes bad and leaves a customer feeling good about the situation instead of burned and disappointed.

I am sure the forum is littered with multiple reports of Blizzard’s downhill customer service spiral over the years, but yet its seems void here.

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Customer service has never been about giving a customer what they demand against policy.

It would also be a case of even if they wanted to, they can’t due to how the billing system is. They’d have to somehow create a way to over-ride the current pricing - just for you. They can’t magically recreate an active subscription again because your card details are encrypted - they simply can’t see them.

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