CE Upgrade Closed Early? WTF? Time Cards unavailable!?

[Oz-]

Well this is total bull. I had to wait until I got paid today to do my upgrade to CE and the date is the 22nd! Today is STILL the 22nd!! I understand there was a decent sized window after the release but considering the date given was the 22nd I planned on the 22nd since it landed on a payday (due to other bills and such I needed my tiny paychecks for).

So I get home from work a 6:30EST to find its not on the shop anymore? If the date is the 22nd it shouldn't have been taken off the shop until the 23rd. This really isn't fair considering the outrageous cost of wings via in game currency.

My only hope is Ayase catches this thread and provides some sort of alternative to the early removal of the CE Upgrade option. Tried calling two different Customer Support departments which just so happen to be on Central Time Zones not Western Time as I thought. So getting home at 6:30PM EST means my call and likely my CE Upgrade was just 30 minutes to late. Really, REALLY, not fair.

Suppose I'm doomed to land 45 seconds before everyone who didn't wait till the last day. =/

Pretty freakin disappointed here... honestly. Mid day closing on the announced date is seriously bad business.

--
[[PlayNC Game Time Cards - Non-Accessible]]
Speaking of bad business. I had to spend an extra $3.00 to get a stupid Walmart Visa MoneyCard and dropped $25.00 on the prepaid balance. Why? $15 for my next month of Aion and $10 for the CE Upgrade.

So why am I buying a Walmart MoneyCard to pay for Aion? I don't have Debit Card, Credit Card, or PayPal as payment options. So naturally I visit my local Best Buy to snag a PlayNC Time Card. Not only does my local Best Buy not have any but neither does the other 5 Best Buy's within 40 miles of me.

So I leave Best Buy disappointed and visit 2 Wal-Marts and 2 Targets. Non of them have the PlayNC cards. I found out at the 2nd Wal-Mart that they don't even carry these. Yet they carry IJJI, Runescape, Warhammer, and World of WarCraft cards.

The majority of the community may have Credit/Debit options available but I'm willing to bet there is a good chunk of Aion subscribers that go through hell or have to borrow cards or accounts or find other outside methods to attain a way to pay for their subscription.

Seriously, NCSoft is supposed to be the "Leader In Online Gaming" and yet your GameTime Cards are no where to be found? Not only can they not be found but not a single employee I spoke to at any of the locations I visited even had any information about such a Game Time Card. Not even GAMESTOP knew anything about them. NOTHING! Not a drop of information anywhere at these supposed vendors.

So, what's going on NCSoft? Ayase? Anyone? Dropping the CE Upgrade before the end of day on the announced date, Oct. 22nd AND Time Cards are unavailable at all local retail locations. Someone's dropping the ball here. I very much enjoy Aion but I'm not willing to hunt down Time Cards or pay an extra $3.00 a month for this crappy Walmart Visa MoneyCard just to play the game. As of current and without any further information I'm not going to have a choice but to cancel my Aion account because $15.00 is stretching it as it is but paying $18.00/mo simply because time cards are not readily available just isn't in my budget and isn't fair when majority of the rest of the community is paying the standard $15.

Bottomline.

I really hope Ayase or this other new community manager has some suggestions, solutions, or compensation of some form to deal with these issues.

It would be exceptional if NCSoft was to extend the CE Upgrade period an extra day or two so other 'last minuter's' can have their last minute option.

At the VERY least something needs to be done about making the PlayNC Time Cards a priority to distribute to the major local retailers. The last time I had to hunt one of these down was for Exteel and I drove ~35 miles to a Best Buy that set aside their last TWO. Note that they didn't only have TWO due to these being hot sellers, no this was all they received with their shipment. I asked the employee to check their RSS and see how often they get those cards and these were the ONLY TWO they had received inside of a month. I mean really? Only TWO cards in a month were sent to ONE Best Buy when there are at least 5 others within 30 miles of it?

[BrokenBrain]

I don't suppose you tried calling them to see if they'd make an exception and sell it to you?

If you present your case in a calm, reasonable manner and do not accuse them of having bad customer service (and refrain from using any expletives) then you might actually get results.

[Alizandro]

you snooze you lose you arent special so you dont get an exception lol

[Aluen]

Not like this CE were supposed to be "limited" - it's still your fault.

[Goop]

Yea I went to gamestop today for a card...thought theyd have em. Guy said gamestop isnt carrying them at all. Went to walmart and target too but they dont have ethier.......lame.

[Oz-]

Sorry to say that my point is I didn't snooze and lose. I visited the NCSoft Online Store on the 22nd which was announced to be the last date the CE Upgrade would be available. It is still, at this point, the 22nd of October and as such the Upgrade should still be available.

If there is nothing to be done about the CE Upgrade regarding the argument I made in my original post, than at the very least-as stated previously-the time card availability is still a major issue. If Time Cards still are not available I will regrettably not have a choice but to cancel my Aion account for quite some time as I have bank debts and such that must be taken care of before I will have another online payment option.

I've all ready purchased and activated this WalMart MoneyCard deal and as previously stated I greatly enjoy Aion. So any readers should be sure to note this is not a "I'm cancelling my account" thread. I have as of this point in time payed for 30 more days of Aion.

The point here, aside from the early closing of CE Upgrades, is that I am not willing to continually use this Walmart Card to pay for my subscription. PlayNC Time Cards exist and need to be available, period.

[cobaltplasma]

If you don't mind me asking, I just wanted to clarify... but the upgrade is $10 and you stated that you had to wait to upgrade until you got paid, which was today (22nd). Is there a reason why you couldn't pony up $10 more earlier, I mean it's 'just' $10? If your economic situation is so stringent that you couldn't pay $10 more I'm not sure if playing p2p MMOs per se are the best way to be spending money that you seemingly need. Is there another reason? It seems odd to me that someone who can pay for a luxury good like PC gaming can't pay $10 a little earlier than the supposed deadline...

edit: I think I figured it out. Oz, you live with your folks, as in you're perhaps highschool age? It would explain a lot of things, I don't mean to make it a demeaning factor or anything, just was trying to figure it out. There was a case of an old friend of mine... guy was homeless, almost jobless, but kept buying Magic the Gathering cards... instead of working and saving for a better standard of living he would spend it on frivolous, unnecessary things, heh.

[Freyar]

Did anyone see what time the CE was supposed to stop? Even still you had until the 22nd.

until - Wiktionary

Conjunction

until

1. Up to the time that (a condition becomes true).
2. Before (a condition becoming true).

PlayNC Time Cards exist and need to be available, period.

Now that, I will support.

~Akak

[Kristov]

Strange that people are reporting that they're having problems finding Aion game cards.. I managed to buy 3 60 day Aion time cards at my local Best Buy.. They had a whole bunch of them, but I did try Gamestop (who I preordered with) who also said they won't be carying them. I've also heard that ANY PlayNC time card will work with Aion, not just the specific Aion Cards, but CoH, Lineage 2, etc should work (forgot where I read this, may wanna double check, but I'm 99% sure they should work).

As for the CE upgrade closing early, yeah, that is lame, but as a poster above said, I'm sure if you had your payment and account details, they might just have upgraded your account if you explained youself to them over the phone. The lvl 30 wings are pretty damn exspensive ingame, but it's not THAT big of a deal.. everyone still has to buy the level 40-50 wings, and those things are hella exspensive. In a month or two, even those without the CE should easily be able to afford the lvl 30 wings, if not the lvl 40 ones.

[Oz-]

Originally Posted by cobaltplasma

If you don't mind me asking, I just wanted to clarify... but the upgrade is $10 and you stated that you had to wait to upgrade until you got paid, which was today (22nd). Is there a reason why you couldn't pony up $10 more earlier, I mean it's 'just' $10? If your economic situation is so stringent that you couldn't pay $10 more I'm not sure if playing p2p MMOs per se are the best way to be spending money that you seemingly need. Is there another reason? It seems odd to me that someone who can pay for a luxury good like PC gaming can't pay $10 a little earlier than the supposed deadline...

edit: I think I figured it out. Oz, you live with your folks, as in you're perhaps highschool age? It would explain a lot of things, I don't mean to make it a demeaning factor or anything, just was trying to figure it out. There was a case of an old friend of mine... guy was homeless, almost jobless, but kept buying Magic the Gathering cards... instead of working and saving for a better standard of living he would spend it on frivolous, unnecessary things, heh.

I'm actually 26 years old with my own place--a 1 bed room apartment which costs me $850/mo all utilities included. Very good deal but unfortunately I currently work from home mostly with the occasional security job at a couple nearby night clubs. Unfortunately, as of late I have not had much business coming my way and so these past two months, specifically have been rather difficult to manage. It is both a matter of principle concerning the extra $3.00/mo it would cost to continue use of this Wal-Mart Card and a matter of bad timing that made me choose to wait until the 22nd to upgrade my account to CE.

I sincerely hope special action or a general day or two extension can be made for the CE Upgrade as I'm sure I'm not the only one in this unfortunate last minute position of: money in hand, ready to upgrade... finally. Although, I do believe my choice of words in my original post makes it clear that I don't suspect either option stated will happen or can happen. I do however still hope to raise some support from others who were just minutes late on upgrading to CE as well as draw attention to a much more prominent issue regarding the availability, or lack there-of, of the PlayNC Game Time Cards.

Originally Posted by Kristov

I'm sure if you had your payment and account details, they might just have upgraded your account if you explained youself to them over the phone

I did call but as stated in the original post I had mistaken the office hours for being Western Time when they are apparently Central Time. I was therefore roughly 30 minutes late with my call or I would have got hold of a Customer Service Representative. I'm skeptical that a call to the NCWest HQ tommorrow (Fri. Oct 23rd) will be in any way fruitful but sincerely hope the statement quoted above will happen. I am unfortunately braced for the disappointment though.

Originally Posted by Kristov

Strange that people are reporting that they're having problems finding Aion game cards.. I managed to buy 3 60 day Aion time cards at my local Best Buy.

What area of the United States do you live in that these were this available? Perhaps NCSoft is only supplying the Western US?

I live in Manchester, New Hampshire (United States). Best Buy's I've contacted and/or visited in search of PlayNC Time Cards include: Nashua, NH; Manchester, NH; Concord, NH; and Salem, NH.

All four stores show the SKU# as active but have not had the cards in stock for quite some time. Nor did any employee at any of these stores know any further information about the cards. The Media Department employees were immediately familiar with Aion but also did not have any further information about Time Cards.

[cobaltplasma]

Ah I see Oz, that explains a bit more. I do hope everything gets resolved, though, to your liking of course heh. I give thee a thumbs up for trying Fight the good fight and all that.

[Daemonistic]

Well Wal-mart doesn't carry anything they think won't make them money, and Gamestop? Please, with the chumps that work there I'd be surprised if you bought a game with an unused serial number. But I understand what you mean about financial pressure, and yes they did advertise falsely if you were unable to purchase on the final day of the sale, but you have to remember they have hours too.

[Freyar]

Originally Posted by Daemonistic

and yes they did advertise falsely if you were unable to purchase on the final day of the sale, but you have to remember they have hours too.

... Is everyone just ignoring the definition of "until"? That was what was written for the advertisement.

~ak

[SilverKnight]

Originally Posted by Daemonistic

Well Wal-mart doesn't carry anything they think won't make them money, and Gamestop? Please, with the chumps that work there I'd be surprised if you bought a game with an unused serial number. But I understand what you mean about financial pressure, and yes they did advertise falsely if you were unable to purchase on the final day of the sale, but you have to remember they have hours too.

As someone who works at Wal-Mart and used to work at a GameStop...that's unfortunately pretty accurate.

[Etra]

Originally Posted by Freyar

... Is everyone just ignoring the definition of "until"? That was what was written for the advertisement.

~ak

I don't think so, so let's explain.

In this case, "...until the 22nd..." would imply that the order processing window is open from whenever it starts and then ends on the 21st at 11:59:59 PM. At 12:00 midnight the following day (the 22nd), it would then close. As it was "until" the 22nd.

Edit: Oh. And hi.