Giant Bomb Thread 2: A thread on a popular internet message board

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I just have the monthly and let it keep going. In the grand scheme of things $5 a month isn't alot for the content I have access to.
 
SailorDaravon said:
The cancellation page doesn't want to work for me right now, although to be fair it might have something to do with it having just renewed me in the last few hours. Now I am scrambling to pay bills and credit cards to shuffle money around to make this work, and this may have cost me get Borderlands 2, which I have been looking forward to literally more than anything for over a year. So fucking pissed right now.
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I really suggest that you contact them via email. At the very least point out that they should be informing people in advance that the auto-renewal is about to occur. That is something they really should have in place.
 
Felix Lighter said:
I really suggest that you contact them via email. At the very least point out that they should be informing people in advance that the auto-renewal is about to occur. That is something they really should have in place.
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The problem is I could have sworn that I got one last year, so I'm not sure if maybe I missed it in my spam folder or something maybe. Did anyone here who has been charged in the last day or two remember getting an email reminder?

While I feel that I did get screwed here since I'm 99% sure I cancelled after renewing last year and that I got a reminder last year ahead of time that I did not get this year, ultimately it would be my responsibility to have triple-check all of that, regardless of whether or not I should have "had" to do that or not. It's possible that I'm remembering wrong and I missed the reminder email. I'm not even really super upset about re-subscribing in general, it's just this 2 or 3 weeks right now is literally the worst time in the last 5 years for me for this to have happened.

Also as an aside when I was looking at the billing pages, I didn't realize that people who paid monthly still see ads; that's fucking ridiculous.
 
Antiwhippy said:
What if it was gary whitta?
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If Whitta wasn't there it would be an infinitely better show. Can't stand him.

Norm is alright, bit of a tool at times, but he and Will have a decent dynamic. He's just an average nerd really.

Will is the star of Tested though. He's the most entertaining and most interesting. He's the reason I still visit the site occasionally and listen to the podcast.
 
I am completely reversed on that opinion. Whitta is the true star of Tested. But as I have said elsewhere you need all three of them at once for the true god combo.
 
Antiwhippy said:
Err what. No they don't. I have no ads.
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That's what it says, unless this isn't accurate?

wBmIx.png
 
SailorDaravon said:
God motherfucking damn it I just got charged for the year. I swear to God that I had cancelled previously (which I apparently had not), and I also swear that last year I got a reminder email like a week before which I didn't get either. Money is incredibly tight for me right now, this fucking blows.

Auto-renew is super shady but like some other folks have said is expected and all of my other services. But all of my other subscriptions (Amazon, Netflix, Gamefly, XBL) send me nice emails to remind me ahead of time in case I've forgotten or fucked up or something. If Dave or anyone from GB sees this please at the very least take that suggestion to heart. This appears to still be ultimately my fault, but I think asking for a reminder ahead of time on your auto-renew service is pretty goddamn reasonable.
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I'm in a similar situation. It's ultimately my fault that I didn't know about the auto-renew, but I guess I decided to cancel about 12 hrs too late, so now I have a membership until September 12, 2013. Maybe I'll email Dave or someone to see if I can get this sorted out.

*sigh*

I guess I don't really know how much it costs to maintain a website, but I've been really disappointed with how little content I got for my $50. I would have thought that the move to CBSi and reduction in website content (no Screened and Tested) would have reduced the membership cost. Seriously, $50 is a LOT of money for a website subscription. I also feel like Dave hasn't been as transparent about these things as he has been in the past, which isn't encouraging.
 
Why did they wait until yesterday to run a story about the auto-renewals and mention it last night on the Bombcast. This year just seems like them flying by the seat of their pants and not planning/announcing anything ahead of time.
 
brianmcdoogle said:
Why did they wait until yesterday to run a story about the auto-renewals and mention it last night on the Bombcast. This year just seems like them flying by the seat of their pants and not planning/announcing anything ahead of time.
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Cause that way more people would get auto-renewed before they notice it?
 
I took advantage of 2 $35 deals last year so I'm good until the end of 2013. I do agree that they should be taking a good look at that price. There is obviously less content just due to the fact that there are fewer sites now but also less premium content in general for Giant Bomb alone. I would think that they either need to make a significant adjustment to that price to reflect the content lost or significantly up the amount of premium content or ideally a little of both, if they want to sell members on the subscription this time around.
 
i dont think the price is justified with the current content and the fact that they are backed by CBSi. i will probably resub when they get content rolling again and have a 35$ sale.
 
Nintaiyo said:
I'm in a similar situation. It's ultimately my fault that I didn't know about the auto-renew, but I guess I decided to cancel about 12 hrs too late, so now I have a membership until September 12, 2013. Maybe I'll email Dave or someone to see if I can get this sorted out.

*sigh*

I guess I don't really know how much it costs to maintain a website, but I've been really disappointed with how little content I got for my $50. I would have thought that the move to CBSi and reduction in website content (no Screened and Tested) would have reduced the membership cost. Seriously, $50 is a LOT of money for a website subscription. I also feel like Dave hasn't been as transparent about these things as he has been in the past, which isn't encouraging.
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Yeah, I can agree this is my fault, but that doesn't make me happy either because I had no intentions of renewing considering the premium account wasn't worth it to me the past few months. I even looked, but I agree I'm blind. The only option I saw under my account was to update billing which was a page that looked like where you would enter information to re-up your account if you chose to do so. While I know it's a business, I figured a site dependant on its fan base wouldn't have such practices that make you search around for any hints of how you opt out of auto-renewals, and instead suddenly surprise you with a $50 charge.

Without sounding too bitter (too late), I hope they enjoy my 50 bucks.
 
Actually, the fact that auto renewals just happened for a lot of people who signed up right away, year one, indicates to me that will not be adjusting the price anytime soon. If they do adjust the price, I hope they would be prepared to refund the difference to those people, who are, presumably, their most enthusiastic fans. I predict a $35 deal during the BLLSL, but who knows.
 
Just tried to cancel and got 404

I have til march, but I've been super disappointed in the content and also I liked supporting them when they were independent, but now that they're part of CBSi I feel like they don't need subscriptions as much, although I'm sure they'd like them
 
bonesquad said:
Yeah, I can agree this is my fault, but that doesn't make me happy either because I had no intentions of renewing considering the premium account wasn't worth it to me the past few months. I even looked, but I agree I'm blind. The only option I saw under my account was to update billing which was a page that looked like where you would enter information to re-up your account if you chose to do so. While I know it's a business, I figured a site dependant on its fan base wouldn't have such practices that make you search around for any hints of how you opt out of auto-renewals, and instead suddenly surprise you with a $50 charge.

Without sounding too bitter (too late), I hope they enjoy my 50 bucks.
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Guys, email them. They have been very helpful to me in the past via support, and I'm sure they'll work something out. Don't just give up.
 
Nintaiyo said:
I'm in a similar situation. It's ultimately my fault that I didn't know about the auto-renew, but I guess I decided to cancel about 12 hrs too late, so now I have a membership until September 12, 2013. Maybe I'll email Dave or someone to see if I can get this sorted out.

*sigh*

I guess I don't really know how much it costs to maintain a website, but I've been really disappointed with how little content I got for my $50. I would have thought that the move to CBSi and reduction in website content (no Screened and Tested) would have reduced the membership cost. Seriously, $50 is a LOT of money for a website subscription. I also feel like Dave hasn't been as transparent about these things as he has been in the past, which isn't encouraging.
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I didn't even have the chance see the article that they posted less than 24 hours ago to "remind" everyone about this, and I was charged 12 hours later. What the fuck are they doing? I'm choosing to believe that they are just busy and/or absent-minded about some of this stuff, but I'm starting to feel better and better about me thinking that I just got dicked on this instead of this being my fault. It would not have occurred to me to email Dave since I wouldn't think he would have anything to do with the business side of it, but if anyone gets an email or anything going on any of this kind of stuff please let me know. Also it hilariously still will not let me even cancel for next year (or at least it's not acknowledging it at all if it has).
 
Nintaiyo said:
*sigh*

I guess I don't really know how much it costs to maintain a website, but I've been really disappointed with how little content I got for my $50. I would have thought that the move to CBSi and reduction in website content (no Screened and Tested) would have reduced the membership cost. Seriously, $50 is a LOT of money for a website subscription. I also feel like Dave hasn't been as transparent about these things as he has been in the past, which isn't encouraging.
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The sub was basically to help them offer no ads and they threw in premium content. GB is owned by a huge corporation now, but plenty of sites are. I'd imagine they don't get trucks of cash to offset the revenue lost from not using ads as much as everyone else.
 
chubigans said:
Guys, email them. They have been very helpful to me in the past via support, and I'm sure they'll work something out. Don't just give up.
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Macca said:
Will said on the latest No Jars Allowed that if you get Auto Renewed to email their support information and you can get a refund (as long as it hasn't been like 6 months)

Sucks if you signed up just for Tested or something and never saw the stuff on Giant Bomb about the auto renew.
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Thanks for the responses guys, I'm going to email them right now. It would be a huge weight off my shoulders if I can get this refunded. If I can, I'll at least subscribe monthly, I can kick them $5 right now just not $50. I'll post when I get a response (don't know how long it'll take, I'm sure they're busy the next few days). Also the site is now showing that I'm cancelled/off auto-renew so that's updated at least.
 
Subscription is unnecessary since they're owned by CBS now, I feel. However they'd probably just merge them into gamespot without it.

I'm of the belief that the expanded page views would negate the benefits of subscription videos. Just think how many more views Drew's North Korea video would have got had it been available to all. That's a video I could see going viral.
 
I don't feel that it's necessarily unjustified (especially because they probably would roll them up into GameSpot), but they're asking the same price for half the sites. Tested was a full half of the reason I re-upped last year. I think something like $25ish with no shirt and $35ish with a shirt would be reasonable, but I doubt they're making those calls at all.
 
SailorDaravon said:
I don't feel that it's necessarily unjustified (especially because they probably would roll them up into GameSpot), but they're asking the same price for half the sites. Tested was a full half of the reason I re-upped last year. I think something like $25ish with no shirt and $35ish with a shirt would be reasonable, but I doubt they're making those calls at all.
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I'm thinking that they probably need the subscriptions to keep CBSi at bay at this point. If they drop drastically, I'd have to guess that you'd see them lose their autonomy and ability to pretty much keep doing what they want. Maybe they have contracts in place that protect them somehow, but I'd imagine that it wouldn't be very fun working for someone who invested in you and isn't seeing a return. Didn't they buy them because of their ability to get people to subscribe? Without that, they're redundant, just roll em into Gamespot at that point. Guys would start moving on I'd guess. No more Giantbomb. A bit pessimistic, but these things don't last forever. Enjoy it while you can.
 
OT but it is a bummer looking at tested right now. 13 comments on the iPhone discussion and barely any forum activity. What the hell happened to that place?
 
alr1ght said:
Subscription is unnecessary since they're owned by CBS now, I feel. However they'd probably just merge them into gamespot without it.

I'm of the belief that the expanded page views would negate the benefits of subscription videos. Just think how many more views Drew's North Korea video would have got had it been available to all. That's a video I could see going viral.
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I don't think we would have even got the video if it wasn't limited to subscribers (Drew seemed pretty clear that he didn't want to jeopardise the tour group).
 
illmatic19 said:
OT but it is a bummer looking at tested right now. 13 comments on the iPhone discussion and barely any forum activity. What the hell happened to that place?
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How many comments do they have on youtube tho? Considering that the /testedcom section of youtube is better designed that tested.com, I wouldn't be surprised if more people just use that instead.
 
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