I didn’t read the sticky’s either. Note that I (last I looked) was a mere “Member” now. I emailed the PTB requesting restoration to the exalted “Charter” status, but it’s still under advisement.
I thought they would just hit my card again at the appropriate time. I never gave re-subscibing another thought (figured the sticky’s were for paypal-ers or something). Oh well, my bad I guess
Oooooh! I just noticed my Charter status has been restored!! 
Thanks Ed!
::smiles benevolently on the mere “members”:: 
No sympathy from me. There were stickies in every forum. There was a message on the front page. If I remember correctly, they even had exclamation points to add extra urgency. On the control bar on the top of the page, you can click on “subscribe” and find out when your subscription expires. I’m wondering how you didn’t know that you’re subscription was going to expire.
After the expiration date passed, there was a message on the front page detailing how you could get your charter membership back because people had complained.
Seems the only thing Ed didn’t do was send you an e-mail and drop by your house.
Sorry, I gotta agree with grienspace on this one. The original subscription dealie included the bit about “In addition, you get a 50% discount on subscriptions for later years.”
Yes, you can make a good case that he didn’t read the stickies and therefore he didn’t re-up in time, too bad - but the original deal changed, and that’s not cool. Also not cool is that he DID pay on May 4 and his access was not restored 'til May 13. Nine days to process an electronic transfer is SOMEBODY’S fault, but I don’t see how anyone could make a case that it’s grienspace’s.
Could your spam filter have eaten the other e-mail?
Even if you don’t read the stickies, the titles of the stickies screamed for all to hear (um, see) That the end was near for your subscription.
Your magazines are that, magazines. You see them once a month. I bet, if you’re in the least like most of us, you’re here damn near every day. You should have noticed.
Be an adult now, and move on, and do better next year.
Oh, and BTW, offer did say, something to the effect: “half off, as long as you maintain a current account.”
Mine did the same thing, but I didn’t bother saying anything about it because, what the hell, I figured I’d get a ‘too damn bad’ response.
I didn’t get an e-mail, so I figured that my subsription ran out at the end of April. That’s when I went to renew, and I got charged the $14.95 rate and went to regular ‘Member’.
Seems the answer from the upper echelons is still ‘too damn bad.’
No one sent me an e-mail reminder either! Of course, I did happen to notice the many threads devoted to re-subscribing. So, as you see, I’m still a Charter Member. Pbbbbllllt!!
I subscribe on time. I re-subscribe on time. I make no fuss. I open zero Pit Threads to whine about the unfairness of it all. Jerry doesn’t have to investigate when I first subscribed and cross reference it to some other list.
Now that I think about it, I’m Ed Zotti’s wet dream.
That’s your mistake bolded there, not the upper echelons.
I don’t recall anything in the original deal which implied that say Brutus could pay a half-fee in 2015, and resume his charter member status. When one side lets a deal lapse, it’s usually off for both sides.
No, you completed your end of the deal, late. Sure, there was no mention of forgoing the 50% discount if your payment was late, but there was a due date! HELLO! *** A DUE DATE ***. Meaning, you’re lucky they even reinstated you. Generally, there are penaltys for missed due dates in life. Do the penaltys really need to be outlined? And this excuse about not reading the stickies… Sorry, but you sound like the ghostly minded people I work with (not that you are, but this excuse is one of the lamest). They’ll do everything they can to avoid the warnings and emails, and then try to blame someone else when the shit hits the fan. The stickies are there for a reason, maybe you should start to read them as you see 'em? At least now you know for next year. 
That was my understanding from the get-go, but I’ll let the Offended Parties[sup]TM[/sup] or TPTB do the search.
By PunditLisa: Now that I think about it, I’m Ed Zotti’s wet dream.
I’ve read a number of your posts and it’s safe for you to assume that Ed ain’t the only one who…, well…, you know. 
Those of you who resubscribed after the charter member cutoff are are still styled “member”, please send me an email and I’ll plead your case with Jerry about restoring your Charter Member status for 2006.
No promise that I will be successful after all this time, but the worst thing he can tell me is “no.” (Actually, there’s lots worse things Jerry could say, but he is a fine gentleman. Usually.)
I can’t be combing the board looking for stray ex-charter members – I found this by accident – but I will respond to email. TubaDiva@aol.com.
your humble TubaDiva
Ed’s offer to me was made March 25, 2004. I responded with a payment through Paypal on March 27, 2004. That is two days later. How quick to respond must I complete? Was there a due date? March 26,2004 perhaps? Perhaps you might advise me what the due date was? HELLO [COLOR=Red]***
I’m not going to beg to restore my charter member status. It was never promised to me and the fact that members have to beg for it just galls me. Just do what you guys promised to do.
One more point regarding the Charter member status. At first I regarded it as a recognition of participants who during the early years helped achieve the critical mass to make this idea work. By the time I enlisted in 2000 it was clear that the critical mass of enlightened and enthusiastic dopers had already been achieved, which is why I’m not concerned with losing my own status. To tie this respectful title to a timely cash transfer in 2005 and which one can beg for at the whim of whoever completely cheapens the concept. Its now a joke.
Was it March, or was it April as you posted in the OP? If it was March, you have a beef.
The due date was 12 noon on April 28, I believe.
Obviously you haven’t been paying attention. I had accepted Ed’s offer of March 25, 2004. Please don’t get confused with his subsequent conditions that were applied in 2005.
That’s not where you were late. From Ed’s “Super SDMB subscription special!” thread in ATMB, posted 3/31/2005:
You’re telling us you paid on May 4. Ya snooze, ya lose. And if you submitted your payment to Paypal before 4/28/05 and it didn’t go through until May 4, your beef should be with PayPal, not Ed.
By the way, I remembered ever since I paid last April that memberships would expire in April. So when April came around again, I double checked the date of the deadline and renewed before it passed. Plus there were all the stickies and discussion about who was renewing. Pretty hard to miss.
I just reviewed my e-mail, and paypal just informed me that my echeck to the Chicago reader is now complete as of May 13. Never mind that they told me on May 04:
I think I have a beef with paypal rather than Ed on that point.
Ok, before I go any further to the point of making myself look like a dumbass… I’m confused about your dates and years. What exactly are you pitting here? Let me see if I have it right…
When you first signed up, you paid US $4.95 for the 2004 year, yes? Fast forward to this year, you get a notice on 4/25, about the expiration, and you waited until 5/4 to pay, so you paid the full $14.95 for 2005, instead of the $7.48? And your beef is that you should have only paid $7.48 like the rest of us?
If that’s the case, you should have checked out this page:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/subscriptions.php?
Look under Active Subscriptions, and for 2005, I believe it was 04-28-2005.
You paid 4 business days later then the expiration date.