You might try, y’know, reading the whole thread before bitching, eh? It’s already been explained that, yes, they could conceivably change the title back to Charter Member–and there is now apparently discussion underway about possible doing just that–but they (the mods and admins) have no control over the separate database which keeps track of subscriber rates, so you couldn’t get back your charter rate of $7.95 even if they did change your title.
Your responsibility; your problem.
Well, can’t you just subscribe early next year? (Even if you don’t get the title, you can still get the discount, right?)
No, the discount was only for people who signed up when the board went from free to pay (the same people who got the Charter Member title). The title and discount exist in perpetuity for those people, but once you let your membership lapse by not renewing, you lose both permanently and there is no option currently in place to get them back.
As imthjckaz has pointed out, you have a full year to renew. There is no “renewal window” to be missed.
I didn’t know you could resubscribe ahead of time, or subscribe for more than a year. I’m not complaining or anything, I guess I should have known, but I just didn’t. I thought you waited on your notice and then re-upped for the next year.
I’ll just put it this way: From a financial standpoint, it’s not really in the board’s best interest to keep the charter member status. So while they are keeping it around, they really aren’t going out of their way to make sure people keep it.
And, even then, they are doing more than most by announcing the problem and letting the users help each other out. But I no longer expect the administration itself to help out. If they do, great. But I don’t expect it.
Well, now THAT is stupid. That I do agree with.
I lost my “Charter” because I was procrastinating on re-upping while I was waiting to get my first paycheck from my new job, and I procrastinated too much. If you decided to give back the word “Charter” (without the discount), I’d take it. Although it’s not such a big deal to me now that I’ve noticed that half my favorite posters have become permanent Guests.
I totally don’t get the position of the “whiners” on this issue. The policy is clearly stated in several places. (And if you’re a Charter Member, you surely remember all the discussion when it was set up.) You can go to your User CP anytime and see when your subscription is due for renewal. You can renew at any time before it lapses (thus killing the “I was on vacation” excuse). They put up reminders all over the damn place and even send you an e-mail. And yet you think “I forgot” is a legitimate excuse. Really, is it so hard to remember that your sub is due in May, or November, or whenever? Do you remember to pay your property taxes once a year and renew your driver’s license? Does Mommy still wake you up every morning too?
The “but the electric company gives me a grace period” argument is lame also. That’s their prearranged agreement, and both you and they are aware of it. People are lax about getting their bill paid exactly on time for precisely that reason: “It’s OK, there’s a grace period anyway.” I’m quite certain that if you knew your electricity would be cut off at midnight on the due date if you hadn’t paid, you’d be damned sure to pay the bill on time.
Really, on a board where we look down on the sense of entitlement of students who don’t turn in homework/essays on time and then want a passing grade anyway and bring in their parents to hassle the administration on their behalf, this petty whining about one’s own error over one word on a message board just baffles me. Just take your lumps like a grown-up already.
Standard terms on bills are 30 days. Perfectly reasonably to expect that.
Some didn’t receive an email for whatever reason, some while on vaca due to the short lead time, etc.
It’s perfectly reasonable to expect to be notified 30 days in advance of a bill being due, like just about any other bill you get.
As for the “you should just remember it”: Why? With about 38,172 things to remember, should we all duplicate what goes on in the computer systems of every entity with which we interact? No, that is absurd. It’s a standard operating procedure (yes, I know, there are exceptions) to be notified 30 days in advance of a bill being due by the biller.
That’s why people whine. Perfectly reasonable, doesn’t mean they are guaranteed to get their way, it just means some have a reasonable complaint.
Scarlett67, you are my new favorite poster.
I will say, though, like any place usually, subscribing early each year should get one a discount, but that’s just because I’m cheap. 
Not when you already know that it’s not part of the terms of the agreement. If you’re not happy with not getting notice that suits you, then don’t participate in the transaction.
And snail-mail occasionally gets lost too, or arrives when we’re on vacation. Does the electric company excuse a late payment if you tell them you were on vacation when the bill arrived? I think not. You make arrangements so that the bills are paid either before or while you’re on vacation. Or at least I do.
No, it’s called part of being a responsible adult. I didn’t get a monthly reminder to pay my rent when I lived in an apartment. I don’t get a monthly reminder to pay my mortgage now, either; there’s a payment book in my bill-paying drawer, and oh, the horror, I have to reserve two brain cells to remember to tear out a coupon and write a check before the first of every month. And Uncle Sam doesn’t send me a quarterly reminder to pay my estimated taxes.
I also know when important irregular bills are due, whether I get a reminder for them or not, because I need to allocate the funds for them: the house insurance in November, property tax in January and July. I’d be hurting if it didn’t occur to me that I owed hundreds of dollars that’s not in my monthly budget until I got the statement two weeks before it was due.
And yes, I do keep my own records, for self-preservation. I find it important to pay my bills, so I don’t rely on someone else to remind me to pay them. I use a chart that I created in Word for monthly bills, and it has slots in each month for irregular ones that don’t happen every month. I also use my desk calendar as a reminder for others.
I don’t understand why personal responsibility is such an onerous concept.
Ah, so all of this information is available to you, and yet the fact that you choose to ignore it is someone else’s fault? And the date a payment is due is hardly “the fine print.”
The concept behind maintaining CM status isn’t rocket science. We’re supposed to be smarter than the average bear here.
Because of course a message board renewal is every bit as tantamount in one’s mind as the rent.
Given that notices were sent out earlier last year, that kind of negates your point that the users already knew the details of the transaction. What they knew, based on previous experience was different than what happened this year.
(Note to SDMB staff: My point here is not to make any judgements regarding how the board is run, I merely disagree with the world view that ignores the reality and complexity of life in favor of a simplistic black and white version).
It could also be argued that lost mail is the electric company’s fault because they chose the delivery method. Realistically it’s a partnership, as is the relationship with the SDMB. There is some black and some white and various shades of grey in between.
Do you also have a spreadsheet of every tax rate in every municipality in which you purchase items so retail stores aren’t burdened with having to track it?
Do you regularly inquire regarding the recall status of any product you have purchased, or do you just suck it up when something goes wrong?
Do you verify the speed limit on the road in front of your house before you drive on it, just in case it was changed recently, or do you just pay the ticket happily (true example)?
Which is exactly why I efficiently rely on the computer systems of the partners I do business with instead of inefficiently duplicating their efforts. And if they have a system that is problematic for me, I let them know, usually nicely, as most of the other posters have done in this case.
You’d think so by all the pissing and moaning over it here.
Oh, for Christ’s sake, we’re not talking about such arcane details. There’s an annual flat-rate bill that’s due on X date. The date and amount are readily available to you in your User CP every day of the year.
The rules about Charter Membership don’t require a spreadsheet or any sort of elaborate tracking scheme. They’ve been the same since it was instituted back in 200whatever. If anything, due dates have been moved back because of various outages. Mine used to be in April, and now it’s May something. (Go ahead and jump all over me for that because I don’t know right this second EXACTLY when it’s due. I usually renew it in April because I know that gives me plenty of time. Sort of like how I leave early enough for appointments to arrive in plenty of time. I don’t leave things for the last minute and then blame others for my behavior.)
Yes, I have paid a speeding ticket without getting in a hissy about whether it was fully deserved, because you know what? There have been way more times when I should have gotten one but didn’t.
If in the future by some quirk I forget to renew and lose my Charter status, I might be a little miffed at myself. Then I’ll say “Oh crap, but oh well, I screwed up” and get on with my life.
It’s not like you lose your posting privileges or your screen name if you forget to re-up. You lose seven letters under your name, and now you have to pay the full pittance of a subscription fee, rather than half a pittance. BFD. As you suggested, there are about 38,171 things that are more important.
Sorry, but you can’t convince me that this crybaby attitude is the way to go. But you all just carry on without me. Who knows, perhaps like the toddler turning blue in the checkout line, you’ll eventually get that candy bar. Good luck!
That’s not precisely true. You lose 7 letters, but 8 characters because of the space. People appear to take this seriously enough that accuracy is very important.
Actually, it (edit: billing procedures in general, maybe charter membership has been the same, not sure) has changed a few times since I first registered in 2002 (for some reason I was forced to re-register at some point which is why it says 2003 in the corner of my posts).
I won’t jump all over you for that because you haven’t stated you have it memorized, you merely stated you have a system and that others should be able to rely on their own personal systems as opposed to relying on the systems of the SDMB.
I just think your position is egocentric.
Just for reference: I’ve never received the email reminder about my subscription expiring. NEVER. Not once in however many years it’s been since the subscription model was implemented. But I’ve always remembered it. It can also be checked from your User CP.
Sounds like you have 2 things going there:
Oh, man, did the irony meter just jump off the scale!!! :eek::rolleyes: