Sony helped themselves to my PSN wallet

tazmago

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Hi, I've just received an email from Sony saying Thankyou for your purchase. Apparently they have taken £40 from my wallet to renew my PS Plus membership without my knowledge. I'm sure I have never had auto renewal on, as it never happened last year and I haven't changed any settings. I have been reading online that I can't get a refund on this, is that correct? Is this legal, just helping themselves like this to my wallet?

I've already bought a PS Plus membership to use (which certainly didn't cost me £40). Do these membership voucher codes have a use by date? Will it still be valid for next year or can I stack them?

Can't believe this, the robbing bar Stewards!

Oh and Merry Christmas :smashin:

EDIT: Just been reading up on this, and it seems this catches a lot of people out. When you sign on for PS Plus the auto renew is automatically set to on, and the disable button is very well hidden. Bit underhand in my opinion, I'm certainly going to disable this next time I start my PS4 up. So all you new PS4 owners take head.
 
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Annoying when it happens, but it's not hidden.

post-5-0-93236300-1384535577.jpg
 
You should also have received a Console notification.

CCGWjrVXIAIUMq9.jpg
 
Yeah I know mate, my fault for not reading the t&cs :facepalm:. I hadn't turned my PS4 on for a few days, so when I got the email last night, my initial thought was that my account had been compromised, but then realised what it was.

Anyway, seasons greeting, all the best :beer:
 
And yes, you can stack subscriptions. I've picked some up cheap in the past and just put the codes in and it will add them all up.
 
And yes, you can stack subscriptions. I've picked some up cheap in the past and just put the codes in and it will add them all up.
Excellent, I'll be alright for a couple of years now then :thumbsup:
 
No chance, it's now been turned off, and it's staying off :nono:

I'll just go and check it again to make sure though :D
Just note that a couple of people have said that whenever you update the firmware it turns the auto renew back on again. I don't know if that's true or not.

Also, you can access the setting more easily (less hidden) from your Sony Entertainment account :smashin:
Sign In: Sony Entertainment Network
 
Just note that a couple of people have said that whenever you update the firmware it turns the auto renew back on again. I don't know if that's true or not.

Also, you can access the setting more easily (less hidden) from your Sony Entertainment account :smashin:
Sign In: Sony Entertainment Network

Tried looking but cannot find it.

How would I access it?
 
To be honest though, whilst I know it's in the t&cs etc. They clearly go out to try and catch folk out, which is wrong. I never have a payment method on my account, but occasionally have some excess credit. I therefore have to keep checking that auto renew is still off on regular occasions. Now life is busy enough and I could really do with having less silly things to remember. I've nothing against companies making a deserved profit but Sony are one of those who simply don't care about their customers and put short term profit ahead of everything. Shame.
 
Agreed. Whilst it is often clearly labelled that auto renew is turned on, it's not something we should have to check and it's clearly only done to benefit Sony and not us. At worst, if our sub ran out we'd just buy another one....it's really of no benefit to us.
 
There's loads of companies that use this practice and I hate it. Insurance and breakdown cover springs to mind and you have to call them to tell them not to renew!
 
Whilst I don't like it, I can understand it with something like insurance as the benefit to us is our cover doesn't lapse. It can be quite an important thing that often has legal implications, especially when it comes to car insurance. However none of us NEED our PS+ sub to auto renew.
 
To be honest it's not really hard to keep an eye out for your renewal. Whilst it's not high on the list of priorities in life, it's not a big thing to have to remember. Mines up in Feb 2017. I'll know to ask for plus for Christmas next year if I don't get it sooner off some friends cheaply. I can forget about it until then. Plus the fact I'd imagine everyone pays interest to the free games each month will have it clicking in your head about renewal.

That being said it's not a very consumer friendly way of doing it.
 
Oh aye, it won't ever really catch me out. But there's no denying it's just a corporate money grab.
 
To be honest it's not really hard to keep an eye out for your renewal. Whilst it's not high on the list of priorities in life, it's not a big thing to have to remember. Mines up in Feb 2017. I'll know to ask for plus for Christmas next year if I don't get it sooner off some friends cheaply. I can forget about it until then. Plus the fact I'd imagine everyone pays interest to the free games each month will have it clicking in your head about renewal.

That being said it's not a very consumer friendly way of doing it.
It's not whether it's a hard thing to do or not that's the issue. Most people have many different subscriptions going to these services and when added to very busy lives (where I barely have the time to play games as it is with work and kids etc.) it's just something that I could really do without. I've never been bitten by it as I have kept an eye on it, but it's a practice that is disappointing.
 
Whilst I don't like it, I can understand it with something like insurance as the benefit to us is our cover doesn't lapse. It can be quite an important thing that often has legal implications, especially when it comes to car insurance. However none of us NEED our PS+ sub to auto renew.

I can see why it may work for some but we get reminders through email/post, can easily put in in our diaries etc...
I shouldn't have to tell them not to take my money, I should have to tell them to take my money. The simplest way is you have to opt in rather than out.
 
I bought a three month sub a few weeks back, just to see if it was something I'd use (so far it's not) couldn't tell you when it runs out without checking, so had I not known, they'd have no doubt charged me £40 in a couple of months.

I've no problems with auto-renewals as a rule, but the should certainly be opt in rather than opt out, or at the very least give you clear fair warning before they take any money.

I've just had an email from Apple to say my iTunes Match sub is up for renewal in two weeks and if I don't do anything, they'll automatically take the £22, which is fine. Gives me plenty of time to do something about it if I don't want to. That's the least Sony should be doing.
 
Even that doesn't read like an auto renew of subscriptions. It just mentions auto adding funds to renew subscriptions, not auto renewing the actual subscription.
 
Even that doesn't read like an auto renew of subscriptions. It just mentions auto adding funds to renew subscriptions, not auto renewing the actual subscription.

JUST CLICK NO!
 
JUST CLICK NO!

You cant, if you want to renew your sub it automatically turns auto renew back on, you then have to go back into the settings and turn it off manually.
 
You cant, if you want to renew your sub it automatically turns auto renew back on, you then have to go back into the settings and turn it off manually.

I was on about the image above.
 

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