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PS+ subs bought on sale charged higher upgrade fees. Stacked subs must pay the upgrade fee for the entire duration. [Update: Sony Responds & Refunds]

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dark494

dark494

Avenger
Oct 29, 2017
4,553
Seattle

Shit. I was afraid of this. Hong Kong gaming folks on Twitter are confirming that if you bought your current PS Plus subscription at a discount, your upgrade fee will be higher, essentially wiping out the sale value if you upgrade. Horrible anti-consumer behaviour by Sony.
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I'd alluded to this possibility earlier here. But Sony's gone and done something way worse: if you stacked for several years, you HAVE to pay the upgrade fee for the entire rest of your PS+ subscription, how many ever years that might be. Just horrible.
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Well this is... certainly something. RIP to everyone who stacked PS+ on those deals and didn't get a chance to convert to Now before they locked it out. Like damn, scummy af doesn't even begin to describe this. If memory serves, MS allowed you to upgrade your entire subscription with a flat one-time fee and didn't make you pay the difference. Le sigh
 
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Raigor

Member
May 14, 2020
15,146
I'd alluded to this possibility earlier here. But Sony's gone and done something way worse: if you stacked for several years, you HAVE to pay the upgrade fee for the entire rest of your PS+ subscription, how many ever years that might be. Just horrible.
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Nah i refuse to believe this is real, there's no way it's true.
 
cyrribrae

cyrribrae

Chicken Chaser
Member
Jan 21, 2019
12,723
Wait huh??? So like if you bought time on an existing sub from Sony digitally at some point in the past?

How would they even track this? This seems like far more work than it's worth... Are we sure it's not just us not understanding their arcane conversion rules? Or?


And yes MS allows you to upgrade your entire subscription when you buy any quantity of GPU, simply adding all time 1:1. (There is a conversion if you buy a lower subscription WHILE a GPU account is active, though).
 
Elgrannacho

Elgrannacho

Banned
Apr 23, 2022
78
Argentina
Sounds reasonable. You have the discount for the service you bought (Essencial) but not for the highest tiers, that weren't on any discount.
 
APOEERA

APOEERA

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,065
I'm stacked until 2032. I was considering the upgrade, but not now. Hopefully, Sony doesn't change even further (I'll be pissed if they'll tell me that my access to PS3/Vita PS+ content will no longer be possible).
 
OP
OP
dark494

dark494

Avenger
Oct 29, 2017
4,553
Seattle
Kromis said:
How does Sony know if you bought your PS+ at a discount?
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Sony does discount the sub themselves during certain sales like days of play sales and whatnot.

There are some people in some discords I'm in saying similar things, that they're being charged $200 to upgrade to deluxe b/c they stacked PS+ until 2026
 
AImalexia

AImalexia

Prophet of Truth
Member
Aug 31, 2021
2,426
So if I have 1 year of ps+ and I want to try out a higher tier for a month do I have to pay for the full year upgrade?
 
Kromis

Kromis

Member
Oct 29, 2017
6,515
SoCal
Habs said:
They probably only know it when you bought PS+ from the PS store.
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dark494 said:
Sony does discount the sub themselves during certain sales like days of play sales and whatnot.

There are some people in some discords I'm in saying similar things, that they're being charged $200 to upgrade to deluxe b/c they stacked PS+ until 2026
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Ah gotcha! I was thinking of those stacking from physical cards (the olden days of $30 PS+ cards many moons ago) or codes from key resellers.
 
--R

--R

Being sued right now, please help me find a lawyer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,785
I very much doubt this because Sony wouldn't know if they're discounted, and the big fees people are seeing are because they're upgrading all the years they have stacked (which is just normal because no service is gonna let you upgrade only 1 month or 1 year)
 
OhMoveOver

OhMoveOver

Member
Oct 5, 2018
197
If I'm understanding correctly yes it sucks I guess, but surely this is the risk anyone stacking knew they were taking? There was never anything to suggest Sony was going to offer a crazy discount offer as Microsoft has done with Gold -> Gamepass upgrade. I'm saying this as someone who benefitted by taking the same risk initially with Gamepass.

It honestly looks like people are confused and the big numbers they are seeing are just the actual upgrade difference due to the stacking.
 
Arubedo

Arubedo

Unshakable Resolve
Member
Dec 24, 2018
1,086
Morocco
Rip to all the people that stacked PS Plus and don't have their regions officially supported by PlayStation, they'll not be able to upgrade at all because you can't pay with a Wallet Top-Up without linking a credit card. And since PSN is the only platform in all of gaming that locks credit cards and paypal per region, they'll not be able to upgrade anyway.
 
tiebreaker

tiebreaker

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,153
Yeah, thought that's gonna be the case because they never mentioned upgrade only for a certain subscription period. It seems to be either all or nothing.

The higher fee for discounted subscription seems weird and scummy. I'll wait when it launches here.
 
Tortillo VI

Tortillo VI

Member
May 27, 2018
1,954
I bought two years of PS Now through the Store, that convert to the highest PS Plus tier.

If after that time, Sony is going to ask me for extra money over the already inflated PS Plus price, I'm not only not subscribing further but selling the console. Having access to the Steam / Xbox ecosystem puts things in perspective when a company is this awful. Not worth purchasing a single game there anymore.

I wonder how low can they keep falling before there is some sort of push back?

EDIT:
Apologies if I'm wrong, but I understood the following to elicit the above reaction:
  1. Purchase and stack PS Now subscriptions at a low price, which are converted to higher tier PS Plus for free
  2. Your subscription period comes to an end
  3. Sony offers to renew your highest tier subscription, but not at the market price of the highest PS Plus tier, but rather a higher price to compensate for the money you saved on the PS Now to PS Plus conversion
 
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Toumari

Toumari

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,305
England
I'm stacked with PS Now until 2026. I'm guessing this isn't impacted by this as that'll just convert to the highest tier?
 
Jason Frost

Jason Frost

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,799
We can stack PS+ with the PlayStation Store? I thought we could only do that with gift cards or online codes.
 
Burai

Burai

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,088
How can you screw this stuff up so badly? Even Nintendo allow you to convert your stacked years of Switch Online to either the equivalent value Family or Expansion tiers. And that's Nintendo, the company that will always find the worst, most customer-hostile way to do anything.
 
Trup1aya

Trup1aya

Literally a train safety expert
Member
Oct 25, 2017
21,364
This can't be real. Why put something in place that would persuade your most loyal customers NOT to upgrade?
 
entrydenied

entrydenied

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
7,568
I'm not sure if the rest of Asia is the same but at least here in Singapore, we don't really get discounts on PS+ cards or digital codes like the west does, so most if not all of our discounted subs are through the PSN itself. So Sony knows how much you paid for the last renewal, and we are highly unlikely to see examples of people who stack subs since there's no incentive to do so.

Already noticed this when they indicated how many days of PS+ I had left when I did an upgrade yesterday.

I don't know whether those 2032 people will end up breaking the UI on the upgrade options page lol. Can it display that many days?

Personally I think having to pay for the entire length of sub you have is more newsworthy/thread title worthy than having Sony adjust the sub prices to full prices.
 
Ostrava

Ostrava

Member
Jul 31, 2021
297
Belgium
Tortillo VI said:
I bought two years of PS Now through the Store, that convert to the highest PS Plus tier.

If after that time, Sony is going to ask me for extra money over the already inflated PS Plus price, I'm not only not subscribing further but selling the console. Having access to the Steam / Xbox ecosystem puts things in perspective when a company is this awful. Not worth purchasing a single game there anymore.

I wonder how low can they keep falling before there is some sort of push back?
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Are you expecting to have the service for free when your current sub ends?
 
MJForum Poster

MJForum Poster

Member
May 25, 2019
6,028
London
I don't get this at all. It squeezes a few more pennies out of the early adopters and hardcore at the risk of ruining any possibility they will advocate for the service
 
tiebreaker

tiebreaker

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,153
Ok, as I understand it, the fee you paid for the existing sub will be converted back into credits which then will go into the new subscription.

You then need to make up the difference.

That's pretty lame.
 
Zok310

Zok310

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,633
Ok,
So if i want to upgrade up from essential i have to pay the differance, otherwise just stay at essential at no additional charge.
omg, the outrage…..
 
Grazzt

Grazzt

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,540
Brisbane, Australia
This thing has blown up on Hongkong and Chinese social media, so it is definitely true. Absolutely pathetic. Can't wait for people to come defending it.
 
GTVision

GTVision

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,068
Tortillo VI said:
I bought two years of PS Now through the Store, that convert to the highest PS Plus tier.

If after that time, Sony is going to ask me for extra money over the already inflated PS Plus price, I'm not only not subscribing further but selling the console. Having access to the Steam / Xbox ecosystem puts things in perspective when a company is this awful. Not worth purchasing a single game there anymore.

I wonder how low can they keep falling before there is some sort of push back?
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I reckon that they will charge you the new premium tier price after your current two year sub period ends. That's the new price, so that's what they will charge you. I don't see the issue. Although if you currently only have PS Now and no PS+, than I can understand you not wanting to pay that much more for mostly the same service.
 
Ostrava

Ostrava

Member
Jul 31, 2021
297
Belgium
Elgrannacho said:
Sounds reasonable. You have the discount for the service you bought (Essencial) but not for the highest tiers, that weren't on any discount.
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I think the reasoning is something in those lines. Imagine they release discounted prices for all tiers, but not at the same discount %. Most clients would opt to buy the cheapest tier and upgrade...
 
clay_ghost

clay_ghost

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,368
entrydenied said:
I'm not sure if the rest of Asia is the same but at least here in Singapore, we don't really get discounts on PS+ cards or digital codes like the west does, so most if not all of our discounted subs are through the PSN itself. So Sony knows how much you paid for the last renewal, and we are highly unlikely to see examples of people who stack subs since there's no incentive to do so.

Already noticed this when they indicated how many days of PS+ I had left when I did an upgrade yesterday.

I don't know whether those 2032 people will end up breaking the UI on the upgrade options page lol. Can it display that many days?

Personally I think having to pay for the entire length of sub you have is more newsworthy/thread title worthy than having Sony adjust the sub prices to full prices.
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Taking back the discount sucks. I will wait a few days before commiting. Sony have all the data for the discount given in the Asia regions, there should be a way to make this better. I see angry messages across twitter, Facebook and Asia forums.
 
GTVision

GTVision

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,068
Grazzt said:
This thing has blown up on Hongkong and Chinese social media, so it is definitely true. Absolutely pathetic. Can't wait for people to come defending it.
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If true, than I think it's due to technical reasons. Which is still stupid, it's just such a bad look and therefore I reckon totally not worth it for Sony either.
 
wrowa

wrowa

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,373
OhMoveOver said:
If I'm understanding correctly yes it sucks I guess, but surely this is the risk anyone stacking knew they were taking? There was never anything to suggest Sony was going to offer a crazy discount offer as Microsoft has done with Gold -> Gamepass upgrade. I'm saying this as someone who benefitted by taking the same risk initially with Gamepass.

It honestly looks like people are confused and the big numbers they are seeing are just the actual upgrade difference due to the stacking.
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I don't think it's about a discount, but rather that people expected that with an active base PS+ subscription you'd still be able to individually subscribe to the additional tiers for a month/three months/a year on top of your existing PS+ subscription. But instead it seems that any upgrade can only be done for the entire remainder of your subscription, which becomes prohibitively expensive for people who stacked subscriptions. You can say "bad luck" to that, but the people affected by that are Sony's most loyal consumers - who else would pay for a service years in advance? - and if it's a smart move to anger (and exclude!) that part of your audience is, well, at least debatable.
 
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--R

--R

Being sued right now, please help me find a lawyer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
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MouldyK said:
Doesn't Game Pass let you upgrade for only a small amount? I swear I upgraded my 3 years of Gold for £10.99.
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I don't mean the fee, I mean time. No service is gonna let you upgrade for 1 month if you have 1 year fully paid.
 
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