Hey guys, quick question – I subscribed here way back when it first went to a pay site, and I’ve kept my membership up ever since. I think I was late this last year, and I note my tag now just reads “Member.” Any gap was just an oversight on my part, is it possible to regain my “Charter Member” tag?
There’s the problem.
Probably not. Seems they did at one time, but not anymore. Sorry. 
But apparently Q.E.D. is no longer a “Charter Member”, and there is always the possibilty that the administrators will implement this by the next board upgrade.
well, I didn’t want to say, but, we took a vote and … 
QED is not a paying member; as a member of the Straight Dope Science and Advisory Board he pays no subscription, so that’s not a valid comparison.
If you let your Charter Member subscription lapse, that’s the end of it. Once lost Charter Member status cannot be regained. Please pay attention.
You’ve gotta be kidding me.
I mean, really, this is just a label in the admin page, right? A five second operation to restore that label?
Good Lord, I went through a really busy patch where I wasn’t really banging around on the internet much.
One would think such a minimal courtesy could easily be extended.
You already had a 30-day window in which to renew. How much more time should they give you? The Charter membership comes with a 50% discount on the subscription fee, and in exchange, you’re expected to renew within the given time frame. If they’re just going to give back the Charter title to people who forget/are too lazy/are too busy/don’t have the money/whatever then what’s the point of having a deadline at all? If they do it for you, then they’ll have to do it for everyone and a “five-second job” turns into a full-time project.
I’ve just gone through my email to see when I got the reminder to pay (which is usually what triggers me to go do it) and it isn’t there. Possible I just missed it and deleted it by mistake, I suppose, but that is unlikely; I check my email pretty closely.
Like I said, I went through a stretch where I wasn’t banging around the internet terribly much, and didn’t notice the lapse until later when I tried to post or do a search (I forget which). I paid up immediately.
Basically, I don’t know what happened, but whatever it was was an honest oversight. I have every intention of keeping myself current. I’ve always kept current in the past; check your records.
I’m a little disappointed that my HMO is apparently more willing to extend common courtesies than the administrators here, and even more disappointed with the tone you’re taking. I am, after all, a longtime paying customer; is a little customer service too much to expect?
I also don’t object to paying the higher rate this year, BTW, and while I’d grumble a bit about paying it future years, I could even probably live with that, although I’d prefer to have only paid it this year as a sort of “late fee.”
In fact, I could live with a late fee as a penalty for not paying on time. I think that’s far more reasonable.
Perhaps instead we could come up with a new title for former Charter Members who don’t renew in time and therefore lose their Charter Membership, become mere Members, and then complain about it? I think we’d all benefit from that.
Would “Cranky Old Members” work?
Members Demeritus?
Oh, for God’s sake. You’re comparing an internet message board to an HMO? There were stickies all over the place reminding of the deadline to renew. You admit that you were not “banging around the internet terribly much.” Are the admins supposed to track you down via snail mail or telephone and make sure you really really really do want to renew at the Charter Membership Rate?
You missed the deadline. You’re now a member. Suck it up and quit whining.
Cute.
You know, about six years ago when I was moving from Texas to New York (I’ve since moved back), in the hubbub of moving my wife and I neglected to pay one of our credit cards. Naturally, there was a late penalty on the next statement, something that was clearly within their rights to charge.
So we called them, explained our oversight, and asked them to remove the charge as a courtesy. And they did, with little fuss, even though they could have clearly required us to pay it, because we had been a good customer for several years. And it worked out rather well for them, because we’ve cointinued to be good customers ever since.
And certainly the nice lady on the phone never did anything so preposterous as to ask with a sneer “how much more time do you think we should give you.”
It’s not like I’m asking for the moon here. Just a little reasonable customer care.
Yes, but Q.E.D. is not an admin or Mod, he is an SDSAB, which means he is getting a free ride in exchange for providing some excellent staff reports. So treat his posts as strictly another snarky poster. He is just more equal than the rest of us.
Jim
Yes I am, and unfavorably at that.
Here is why. When I was in college, I cut my hand rather badly over one weekend and had to go to the ER. I was, at the time, covered under my parent’s health insurance. Because I was a dumb college kid, I didn’t call to tell my parents about it until a day or so later. The health insurance carrier required something like 48 hours of notice after an ER visit in order to pay up. We were one day outside that window.
My dad called them up, discussed the issue with them politely, noted that he had called as soon as he had learned of the injury, and asked them to cover the visit. They did, after a little discussion, because my father had been a longtime customer of theirs and they recognized the request as one for a reasonable courtesy.
No, but they are to send out an email notice, which I apparently did not get, although I do admit it is a remote possibility that that is my fault, too. At any rate, there was a minor breakdown of communication between customer and service provider, and that sort of minor breakdown ought not be a huge big deal to remedy after the fact.
My word. I hope you never take a job in customer service if that is your preferred manner of replying to customer requests.
As a matter of fact, ivy, I’m quite curious: I’ve now described two situations in my own life that neatly parallel the one here. Do you consider either of them to be “whining”? Are all requests for the extension of a courtesy “whining”?
Fair enough, although I think carrying the SDSAB badge does confer an inference that he speaks with some authority on these matters. It does imply he is part of the apparatus that runs this show.
So I amend my sentence to say: “And certainly the nice lady on the phone never did anything so preposterous as to dismissively meet our request with ‘please pay attention.’”