LJ and paid accounts

[kyrielle]

I'm seeing some grumbling in the latest news post comments that some paid accounts have had auto-pay turned on when they had turned it off. LJ says it is not so, but the users say it is. I really don't know, but - if you have a paid account that shouldn't auto-renew, you might want to check just in case. You can do that at http://www.livejournal.com/manage/account/

Again, this is just something I'm seeing others mention, and not people I know personally either. Just concerns me enough that if it is so, I figured it was good to spread the word.

ETA: confirmed now by someone I do know, in addition to the many people commenting on the news post and other posts.

ETA: they're asking affected people to file requests in billing as they're trying to confirm if it's a real issue, but they're claiming it's not and that so far all affected people made an auto-payment setup (to get the cheaper rate) and didn't immediately turn it off.

Comments

[retsuko.livejournal.com]

... That's disturbing. I went and checked, and everything seems in order, but I don't like the implications of this. :{

[kyrielle]

Yeah.

My account is permanent, and my secondaries are basic or plus (I stopped paying after an earlier debacle!), and appear to have stayed that way. Even if they had tried to turn on auto-pay, the credit card I last gave them was compromised and had to be canceled (for reasons unrelated to LJ), so they'd have failed. :P

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

This is why I'm not worried. I think I'm now FIVE CC numbers away from the last one they had. :P

It's true

[kayre]

Thanks for the tip. Auto payment was turned on, and I NEVER do that.

Re: It's true

[kyrielle]

Thanks for the confirmation. Several of the people reporting it had your experience - never set to auto-pay but it was on - which made it seem unlikely that the LJ "official" explanation ("oh the browser is just remembering a form setting you used before") would fly.

Ugh.

ETA: they're asking affected people to file requests in billing as they're trying to confirm if it's a real issue, but they're claiming it's not and that so far all affected people made an auto-payment setup (to get the cheaper rate) and didn't immediately turn it off.

Which I suppose could be what their computer says, but doesn't mean it's what really happened....

Re: It's true

[kyrielle]

LJ swears this is a false rumor. When I said it happened they ask for a support request w/info: https://twitter.com/kyrielle/status/150406583887736832

http://www.livejournal.com/contact/?dept=billing

I don't know if you want to, but figured I'd pass on info, links.

[geordie.livejournal.com]

I notice you use Dreamwidth and I think I need to do that too. I don't think the Russians are being good custodians.

[kyrielle]

Sadly, I agree.

I've been VERY impressed by Dreamwidth, in terms of their commitments, ethics, changes to the codebase, etc.

And while they're usually invite-code-moderated, until the end of the year they are not. Great time to set up a journal. (As many other folks are now doing...heh.) Imports may take a while but are, as far as I can see, completing nicely. (I haven't run a re-import: I don't need my comments badly enough to add load when they're already under heavy load from the influx of new users. Not that I can tell that they are from the site performance!)

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

They're liars.

Personal friend of mine had two accounts, one of which had auto-pay on. She turned it off. Then she went and turned it off on the OTHER one, which she had NEVER set up auto-pay for. But it was on!

[kyrielle]

Liars, or misinformed. The guy saying it is an LJ SF employee and for all I know may believe it...but he's clearly wrong, whether he's lying or wrong.

[kyrielle]

https://twitter.com/kyrielle/status/150406583887736832

Still denying it, then saying "open support request" for ppl saying it happened. I think they deserve to be inundated.... :)

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

Not only denying it, but the head of LJ Support has declared the issue reports to be "lies and slander for the purposes of spreading panic in the user base"

[kyrielle]

Gah.

[soph.livejournal.com]

Who do you mean by "the head of LJ Support"?