Am i crazy?

[Ivo Simons]

Just wanted to start doing some iRacing offline.
Got a subscription for a couple of months + plus i bought the Dallara but didnt renew it some weeks ago. Now its says i cant get to the member website and cant even race offline with cars that i bought. Please tell me that i miss something or its the biggest scam i ever came across.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

You need to have an active subscription in order to play the game. Without it even offline play isn't possible.

 

[James Yates]

Just wanted to start doing some iRacing offline.
Got a subscription for a couple of months + plus i bought the Dallara but didnt renew it some weeks ago. Now its says i cant get to the member website and cant even race offline with cars that i bought. Please tell me that i miss something or its the biggest scam i ever came across.

You have to have an active sub. You also cant call it a scam because you agreed to the terms & conditions when you signed up.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Still it's a bit strange that you cannot access the content you bought/licensed/hired/leased. Currently I don't have time to commit to organized racing but would love to fire up the game so now and then to have a short drive.

 

[Ivo Simons]

You have to have an active sub. You also cant call it a scam because you agreed to the terms & conditions when you signed up.

Yeah yeah. But you must agree with me that its just weird then i even cant play it offline when you already own the content.

 

[Kevin Watts]

Unfortunately there is no 'offline' mode you must have a valid account to play and its in the T&C and been widely talked/griped about. Not a scam just the way they run the service for their online game.

 

[James Yates]

Yeah yeah. But you must agree with me that its just weird then i even cant play it offline when you already own the content.

You don't own it, you license it. It says that whenever you buy a track or car.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

I agree with Ivo, you should be able to license it offline too. All DVD or steam games I own you don't own the content either. But still I have access to them.

 

[Abdul Al-Amry]

I agree with Ivo, you should be able to license it offline too. All DVD or steam games I own you don't own the content either. But still I have access to them.

I cant play RaceOn in offline mode through steam if I dont have internet connection.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Why not? Set it to offline mode and it works.
You can also install the offline version. But do you have ave to pay to steam a monthly fee to play Race? Nope. Whole other discussion imo

 

[Nigel Roberts]

You don't own it, you license it. It says that whenever you buy a track or car.

It is in the T&C's you are correct, there is one aspect of the licence/T&C's/EULA/PDS or what ever you want to call it that is not fair I was caught out with it but only 1 month and was likely to renew anyway, many others have complained about it, and that is the renewal process of the subscription. By default the game will auto renew your subscription for the same length of time. So for those people that thought they were going to be in it for the long haul and subscribed for 12months but for whatever reason stopped playing it after say 9 months, received an email advising them they had just subscribed for another year and autopay from their Credit Card. Now I have heard countless arguments defending this method stating the licence/T&C's/EULA/PDS or what ever. That is their choice to believe this method auto subscription is fair, I myself find it pretty poor form and purely only to generate extra revenue rather than be members convenience, what makes it absolutely crystal clear that its purely to generate extra and often unintended revenue, is that even when you untick the auto subscription in your My Account Page (yes that's right My Account, where you update and store your account information and save it until you decide to edit it again) if you come back to iRacing after a month or so off even though it has stored all your details including credit card and even your race alerts in the Race Planner, it still manages to have set to Autobill, heres an idea how about you go the opposite way have set to Do Not Autobill and when a member signs up warn them if they want to autobill they can select the option. This Autobill procedure they use would have been removed by now if this was a company registered in Australia, as the Ombudsman would be having a field day with making them pay every cent back, and after about the 3rd strike they would probably be told to remove it altogether. In saying all this I do really like the game its good fun and I will continue to use it, but that autobill system dosnt make me warm towards them or go singing their praises thats for sure

 

[Dario Jagar]

I totally agree Nigel with everything you writen, I also enjoy game/sim very much but auto renew is not very nice thing from them to be done, I myself used paypal so don´t have this problems but still can imagine how poeple which didn´t planned renewall feel after this, hope they change it

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Wasn't this autobilling thing removed already?

 

[Dario Jagar]

think not, my friend just received email saying that they were unable to renew his sub...there is option however in my account to cancel sub after expiration but I personally didn´t tried it

 

[Abdul Al-Amry]

Current Account Status: Active
Account Valid Until: 2011-10-17

Your account is currently 'Active' and your subscription currently runs until 2011-10-17. If you do nothing you will be able to access the member site until 2011-10-17 at which point your account will be disabled.

- You can renew your account now by following this link and then pressing the "Renew Early" button.
- Alternatively you can update your billing information. If you provide credit card details we can configure your account to renew automatcially.

Thats from my account. I am paying using Paypal. Wont auto renew once it expires.

 

[Kevin Watts]

Mine doesn't auto renew unless I click the button to tell it to do so but I also pay via Paypal.

 

[Nigel Roberts]

Wasn't this autobilling thing removed already?

Nope its still there if you pay with a credit card, I didnt know that if you paid with PayPal it didn't change to Autobill, which is very interesting indeed. It makes me wonder because you can setup accounts such as EBay to autopay from PayPal everymonth for your Auction placements, I have this setup. I thing with PayPal though are arguably safest way for Buyer to purchase online and if you dont get what you have paid for PayPal will credit you back and remove the funds from the Seller, I would think in regards to the way the Autobill system works, this might not agree with PayPals buyer rights policy, as I know with Ebay I had to go in and find the option to set it up to autobill and I am rememinded several times before the bill date that I will be billed. I am only speculating here but I would be interested to know why when you pay with credit card it will autobill when subscription expires but when paying with PayPal it will not, i guess its possible PayPal has a special arrangement with Ebay.

 

[Mark A Warmington]

Someone could probably name quite a few MMORPG's that will not allow you to play offline, hell - Silent Hunter 5 won't allow me to play without an active internet connection (the game stops until I reconnect).

NB - I might be wrong, but my account is paid by CC and it doesn't autobill. Once I pay my subscription I always change my setting to 'do not autobill'. That is what is says in my account and the last time I got to the end of my subscription without resubscribing the account became inactive.

I'll see what happens the 9th of July 2011, when my account is set to expire .

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Hmm my setting was also on auto-renew, changed it now

 

[James Yates]

They're allowed to do that because they're based in the US where its accepted that things auto sub/renew. Not a big deal though, either use paypal or turn it off.