The Flexibility of the Flexible Plan?

Well after a year of renting Unity for $75 a month (March 13 to June 14) on June 3rd Unity pulled my subscription out from under me. According to Unity I was in my flexible monthly stage where I could pay as I go and not be locked in. My bank (Navy Federal) confirmed on June 1st Unity received my monthly payment. Unity then continued to keep billing my account 2 more times until the 3rd sending me an email claiming I never paid. I have been in touch with support but support has been non existent on turning back on my subscription or refunding my account.

I say to you Unity free maybe the better deal. Unfortunately I've been active in the asset store having bought Playmaker, Procore, AGF and PlyGame to name just a few. Some assets feature set will shrink when you loose your ability to use Pro.

 

Very unfortunate. Perhaps @Graham Dunnett could help you out.

Calling it a scam seems a bit harsh IMHO

 

I did promise the person handling my support case that I would start talking about my experience in the forum if it was not resolved in a timely fashion.
I question it being a scam because it seems the intention is to lock me back into the yearly cycle instead of letting me enjoy the flexible payments I earned.
Thank you for the contact.

 

Threatening support staff and calling their software a scam might not be the best way to get someones help, just as a little pointer.

 

Please email unity support about this issue.

I understand your frustration, I would be similarly enraged myself. But I'm sure it's a mix up that can be resolved one way or another. Earning a flexible subscription is new to me, but then I haven't subscribed. Best of luck getting this resolved.

 

"I have been in touch with support"

Keep us posted.

Good Luck

 

Great.

Would still like to hear from redikann re: the resolution.

Thanks

 

He/she's a paying customer whose life has been made harder by Unity's technical/business issue with their account. They shouldn't need to suck up to the support reps to get decent service.

Don't get me wrong I don't encourage abusive behavior at all and it is far from my philosophy when dealing with support reps, but people don't tend to go on the forums about these sorts of things unless they are not satisfied with the support they are getting.

 

There is a world of difference between "sucking up" and "threatening"

 

Now the forum seemed a better route. Squeaky gear gets the grease. Anyways I don't see this as a threat just the route I said I would go if support seemed to be failing.
I am glad this is how Unity responds. I would like more info how to clear this up because the Navy Federal Rep I talked to yesterday morning said they would provide any information Unity needed and the rep confirmed payment on the 1st. My telephone banking system also confirmed a 75 payment which is a pro subscription price.

Just like I stated in my original email to support, your own website (my account page) updated to show my subscription progress for June 1st till July 1st. You own system recognized a payment. Hopefully this is a snafu that can be resolved.

 

I've used a Pro trial in the past so only Unity could provide that.

 

glad this is being resolved, I think scam should be removed from the title and replaced with something more appropriate for people browsing the forum.

There is some serious technical problems here but no scam.

 

Unfortunately, it seems to take claiming a scam on the forums to get response from Unity.

 

I think posting in the forum with what actually happened would of got the same response because it is very embarrassing for unity.

 

(smartass mode on)
I know it was a rethoric question but: It's because of perception. The things one does not see are the things they most likely asume are not there.
(smartass mode off)

 

The topic title could be changed if the mods deem it so. It's kind of a good thing for Unity because it's drawing people to it and they can see the initial problem is being dealt with. Bringing it public in the forum was my option if I felt support was too relaxed. While there's no way I can know how taxed their support system is once again the saying goes "Squeaky gear gets the grease".
The most annoying thing about losing the Pro version of Unity is that it locks me out of certain features of my assets. One could still develop with Unity free edition but when you build up on asset tools and make them part of your daily grind it could be frustrating to only be able to use a smaller feature set.
I am currently obtaining the funds to buy into Unity 5 and was planning on continuing my flexible plan until I got there. I am not excited about the $75 price point but a year ago it was the only option. I've used Unity long enough to grow comfortable with it and it has proven to be a very strong and flexible engine. I would rather put a little pressure on support now before I spend $1500.
By the way the Pro trial worked on my computer. I thought you tracked it by account and I knew I've used a Pro trial before.

 

OP seems to be saying otherwise:

"I did promise the person handling my support case that I would start talking about my experience in the forum if it was not resolved in a timely fashion."

On the surface it certainly looks like OP wasn't getting help from support, he then posts on the forums making it public, and then suddenly he gets help.

 

No. Nothing has changed whatsoever for the OP.

Timely Fashion. That time was dictated by the OP, and when it wasn't done by his time limit then he took it to the forum. Guess what? it's still not done by his time limit. Nothing changed.

I'm sure it will be resolved. I'm not sure the forum proved anything

 

I disagree that the forum post was ineffective. After OP's post, he got immediate responses from support. It might not be resolved yet (sadly), but it would seem that action was initiated by UT due to OP's post. The fact is his serial was turned off on the 4th and he didn't complain on the forums until the 13th tells me OP's reaction was not knee jerk or premature.

Graham Dunnet's (UT Support) immediate responses indicate to me that he was just then investigating the issue:

(We are helping Joe. We've asked for more details so we can understand what's happened. I suspect it's a system error rather than a deliberate business strategy to frustrate paying customers.)​

and

Hmm. System shows that the payment made on 1st June hasn't been received. I'll try and work out why not.​

If UT had been handling the issue (and only going to the forums because OP wanted to), then why do they post indicating that they don't know what the issue is and are investigating.

Everything has changed for OP, he is now actually getting support.

 

But with hundreds of thousands of customers, wouldn't the forum be flooded with topics like this if it was typical of Unity's support? Logically that indicates he would have got support.

 

Really? I don't know that. I don't think that hundreds of thousands of UT customers are signed up for the subscription service. I really don't think OP would have gotten the response from UT without the forum post.

 

And he was already talking to a support rep outside of the forums before that. He said himself that making it public was his own choice in an attempt to speed things up. There's absolutely no way for us to know whether that has been achieved, since we don't know how long it's going to take and we don't know how long it would have taken otherwise.

If anything, the immediate response here is an example of responsive support.

 

I am glad the OP took this to the forums. Problems with payments happen all the time, sometimes the fault of the customer, sometimes the fault of the company, and sometimes the fault of the bank. I remember almost having our water turned off because the water department in our town made a mistake. I also remembering trying to cancel subscriptions and getting billed numerous times after the cancellation causing a lot of frustration on my part. Subscriptions are a pain sometimes.

Seeing how Unity handles this makes me more confident that if I were to subscribe in the future, any problems would be handled. They seemed to be looking into this and have accepted a certain amount of responsibility here, well, at least Oscar has. :/

As for getting a response on the forums, I have had to post issues I have had with assets numerous times on forums, although not yet here at Unity thank goodness. In one case, I bought a lifetime access for a 3d model site and it took weeks of emails for me and still no access to the downloads. Finally, I posted on a forum and within days I had access. I then posted letting everyone know the issue was handled and all was well.

Sometimes it does take a greasy wheel to get results when you are one of many sending emails to support. Glad to see in the case, Unity was handling the situation and it was more a communication issue.

 

Some threads are like daytime tv, in this case Judge Judy where everyone goes "justice has been served!" even though it was completely pointless.

 

I basically went to the forum because I wasn't going to be on the phone with Unity and be like " Let me talk to your manager, now let me talk to his manager...". I kinda of new this would be the route that was most fruitful because of the first support responses.
This is how it went down
1. Me receiving an email from Unity saying hey we've tried to bill your card unsuccessfully please update your card information.
2. Me sending an email to support and in that email I copy and pasted my profile screen from the Unity web page showing all my subscription info updated to show payment had been received and I was good till July 1st.
3. My first response from support saying " Sorry your frustrated , please explain."
4. My reply to my support guy was "Hey you guys got the money and then shut me down, please fix this or I will show up in the forum to discuss it."
5. My next reply from support which was asking for the same information that could be found in my initial email. ( This kinda of frustrated me because it started to feel like a run around).
6. Waited a couple of days and then called my bank (Navy Federal) and they confirmed a payment to Unity was posted before the termination date Unity set for me (the 3rd).
7. With that information I replied to the last email from support with all the info they requested. The next morning I hadn't had a reply yet so on to the forum.

Everyone has probably been subjected to slow, bad or non existent support before. This post is not here to expose bad or non existent support ( my original post does say non existent , but I wanted that to convey the turning pro back on for me until Unity could show me I didn't pay) . Basically I felt the person handling my case wasn't moving as fast as I wanted (or my case was under a stack of whatever). This was an immediate shot in the arm. Somebody started communicating to me that 'Hey our system looks funny, I will look into it". I was pointed in the direction of a Pro trial which I had thought I had used already.

Is everything resolved, No. Do I feel more confident in Unity's support , Yes. I still have plans to buy Unity 5.

 

So you waited less than a day for a reply on a complex issue that involved contacting a 3rd party to discover what had happened, and you were surprised that you had no response? This just sounds impatient to me.

It just looks like a 'shot in the arm'. The reality is that the information you received in this thread would have probably been conveyed to you in the next email from support had you waited for it.

I'm glad the issue is being resolved, but I highly doubt taking it public changed anything at all.

 

Perception is reality. Unity has responded by the next morning before. We are not in the same time zone so my next morning is not necessarily theirs. Did I expect resolution, no. Did I expect a "We got your information and are moving forward ", yes. This is the kind of email I had to send in the military hundreds of times. It takes 30 seconds and lets someone know you got it.

 

That's a bit a of a low blow bringing your kid, the world cup, and your weekend off into the discussion. Nobody, including myself, wants you to neglect your kid or your family or work through your weekend for UT and it's unfair of you to bring it up in this discussion. You made the choice to work during your time off.

 

I don't see him saying or even suggesting anything to the contrary...

 

I think it's about time we put a stop to this meaningless debate and let the staff resolve the OP's issues...

 

He's quite clearly pointing out that he's choosing to do support in his spare time cause he cares about giving good support to UT customers, contrary to what your previous post was suggesting. Is reading comprehension in such short supply in this thread?

 

Have you personally had issues with Unity Support? If so you should perhaps address those issues, instead of trying to prove how ineffective Unity Support team is when it is not even your issue. We hardly ever see these types of forum posts. Unless, I haven't been watching the forums enough...


If you have had actual issues with Unity support, then perhaps you should mention it, so that Unity Support can improve and try to resolve it. Without any experience with Unity Support, your statements seems to be just blind assumptions and accusations.

He did in fact make the choice to work during his time off, but I don't think that was his point. Looks to me he was trying to say that Unity support team tries to resolve their customers issues even beyond work hours.

 

Hey , thanks for the support and hard work! I was hoping this thread didn't turn into a 'Us vs. Them' kind of thing. Now that the payment is resolved, the subscription cycle seems to go from The 1st to the 1st. Should I keep using pro trial and expect July to be covered ?

 

If it was abut Digital River I would join in with the complaining.

 

Yeah, I get that and I never said UT

That is quite nice.

 

I don't have any issues with Unity Support, TY.

 

I do. I don't think they should work weekends. 40 hours a week is enough.