I read it. You CAN use a single voucher when your subscription is up, at which time they redeem the voucher at the new, retroactively imposed exchange rate set out in the charts. (Presumably you can't use any of the other vouchers until your newly redeemed subscription expires, a year after that.) But more importantly, if someone bought 3 years of PS Now vouchers a month ago on the expectation they'd get 3 years of service, they're now out of luck, because 1 year of PS Now only converts to 6 months of service. See the issue? That wasn't the deal when those vouchers were purchased.
The other issue, at least according to the third party vendor selling PS Plus and PS Now vouchers, is that pre-paid vouchers apparently expire after 12 months. I don't know for 100% if that's true or if, given the circumstances, perhaps Sony will honor them for longer than that. But if it IS true, that's a problem. Someone who bought 5 years of vouchers might only be able to redeem a single voucher, a year from now, and would only get 6 months of service for it.
Realistically, Sony will probably just handle this with customer service and deal with any complaints as they arise, and it probably all goes away. But there's still a lot of risk here, and trying to retroactively change the terms of sale will not fly if someone wants to press the issue.
EDIT: I see they updated the original article since my original post, and there's now an option to trade in (at least one code, but that's not clear) when the new service launches. Still problematic if the full year of PS Now you bought, in expectation of getting a year of service, is now worth less than a year.
@Milktastrophe Speaking from experience, that wouldn't work because virtually every country has consumer protection laws. Setting aside the prospect of regulator enforcement, here in the US, someone could at least attempt a class action for breach of contract. Sony probably has binding arbitration clauses in their terms of service, but even litigating these kinds of claims at the initial level can be incredibly expensive.
It was mentioned somewhere that the vouchers can only be used once the existing subscription expires, but also that vouchers may only be valid for 12 months... in which case they may be worthless by the time some subscriptions run out. Or you could find yourself in a position where you can only use one voucher 6 months from now and the rest expire. That's a problem, and Sony (and/or the vendors that sold the vouchers) need to address it.
So many consumer protection issues with this, and they're wading into dangerous waters. We'll see if any regulators care, but in the US alone this could lead to FTC enforcement for deceptive or unfair practices, state AG enforcement under similar laws, consumer class actions, etc. It was a loophole that made sense to close, but unless the terms of service specifically prohibited this in the past, you can't make that change retroactive or suddenly render existing purchases null unless you're willing to offer full refunds.
First half of the year was great. Days Gone was a massive surprise and turned into one of my favorite all-time PS4 games. Fell off pretty hard from there, but I liked a handful of others anyway - enough to justify the price for sure.
Comments 54
Re: Sony Confirms PS Plus Subscription Stacking Has Been Blocked
@Neverwild
I read it. You CAN use a single voucher when your subscription is up, at which time they redeem the voucher at the new, retroactively imposed exchange rate set out in the charts. (Presumably you can't use any of the other vouchers until your newly redeemed subscription expires, a year after that.) But more importantly, if someone bought 3 years of PS Now vouchers a month ago on the expectation they'd get 3 years of service, they're now out of luck, because 1 year of PS Now only converts to 6 months of service. See the issue? That wasn't the deal when those vouchers were purchased.
The other issue, at least according to the third party vendor selling PS Plus and PS Now vouchers, is that pre-paid vouchers apparently expire after 12 months. I don't know for 100% if that's true or if, given the circumstances, perhaps Sony will honor them for longer than that. But if it IS true, that's a problem. Someone who bought 5 years of vouchers might only be able to redeem a single voucher, a year from now, and would only get 6 months of service for it.
Realistically, Sony will probably just handle this with customer service and deal with any complaints as they arise, and it probably all goes away. But there's still a lot of risk here, and trying to retroactively change the terms of sale will not fly if someone wants to press the issue.
EDIT: I see they updated the original article since my original post, and there's now an option to trade in (at least one code, but that's not clear) when the new service launches. Still problematic if the full year of PS Now you bought, in expectation of getting a year of service, is now worth less than a year.
Re: Sony Confirms PS Plus Subscription Stacking Has Been Blocked
@Milktastrophe Speaking from experience, that wouldn't work because virtually every country has consumer protection laws. Setting aside the prospect of regulator enforcement, here in the US, someone could at least attempt a class action for breach of contract. Sony probably has binding arbitration clauses in their terms of service, but even litigating these kinds of claims at the initial level can be incredibly expensive.
It was mentioned somewhere that the vouchers can only be used once the existing subscription expires, but also that vouchers may only be valid for 12 months... in which case they may be worthless by the time some subscriptions run out. Or you could find yourself in a position where you can only use one voucher 6 months from now and the rest expire. That's a problem, and Sony (and/or the vendors that sold the vouchers) need to address it.
Re: Sony Confirms PS Plus Subscription Stacking Has Been Blocked
So many consumer protection issues with this, and they're wading into dangerous waters. We'll see if any regulators care, but in the US alone this could lead to FTC enforcement for deceptive or unfair practices, state AG enforcement under similar laws, consumer class actions, etc. It was a loophole that made sense to close, but unless the terms of service specifically prohibited this in the past, you can't make that change retroactive or suddenly render existing purchases null unless you're willing to offer full refunds.
Re: Poll: How Would You Rate PS Plus in 2021?
First half of the year was great. Days Gone was a massive surprise and turned into one of my favorite all-time PS4 games. Fell off pretty hard from there, but I liked a handful of others anyway - enough to justify the price for sure.