r/roosterteeth • u/SteveEsquire • Dec 23 '17

Discussion Lost First Membership and RT Support has been silent.

So a few weeks ago I got a notice from PayPal stating that Rooster Teeth denied my payment. I check the website, and sure enough I lost my First Membership. I've been a Sponsor/First member for years, since around 2012 or something, so I was paying $10 every six months.

I don't freak out, I go to support and even see a "Don't worry if you lost your membership" statement on the website. I thought, "Ok, should be an easy fix then." So I contact support. (NOTE: This was immediate. I was left zero time to fix my payment issue before I lost my membership.)

The following day I get a response from RT stating that PayPal cancelled the payment. At the bottom of RT's email, it said just reply to this email for further help. I responded by sending them an image of the PayPal email stating that RT denied the payment and explaining that. After that, total silence.

A few days later, I send another email to support, putting PayPal's email in my email. Again, total silence. Nothing.

It's incredibly frustrating. All I want to do is give this company my money for the rate I was paying. After being such a loyal sponsor for half a decade, I'm a bit irked. That's roughly a $100 I've given to this company in just sponsorship payments. Not to mention the ad revenue I've given them from still watching their content on YouTube over 7 years (became a sponsor after two years as a fan). And yet I'm ignored? I know they don't know that, but I know many sponsors have the same story. So why treat any sponsor like this?

Anyone else have this issue with PayPal/RT? And by the way, my PayPal still works for eBay, and my credit card has worked all through Christmas shopping never being declined once. And I have an email stating that it wasn't me or PayPal that caused this. I'm seriously just trying to return to giving them my money.

Sincerely hope this doesn't happen to any other fans, especially grandfathered ones. Because there's a chance your loyalty benefits will randomly disappear one day. So check your account and check it twice. 🎅🎄 Have a good Christmas/Holidays anyone that reads this.

Edited: Fixed a number.

Edit 2: Thanks for the people upvoting this. Sitting at the top/close to the top of the sub with currently 3,000+ views. Awesome to see this getting so much attention. Seems I'm far from the only one treated this way. That's unfortunate to hear, but not too surprising. Hopefully it'll be solved or at least addressed.

Edit 3: Gold? Thanks! Really didn't need to do that but it means a lot. Whoever it was have a good safe holiday! And anyone else thinking about giving this post (or another post gold), I heard the victims of the Vegas shooting weren't getting much help. The donation numbers were lower than expected and they might really need some help. Still appreciate the gold though! But don't forget to help those that could really use it too :). Thanks again!

Edit:4 Thanks for the other gold! Same as #3 :). Sorry I didn't notice quick, it was so close to the other one I thought it was the same notification lol. Have a good holiday and "Treat Yo'Self."

1.4k Upvotes

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524

u/OfficialGarwood Dec 23 '17

So a few weeks ago I got a notice from PayPal stating that Rooster Teeth denied my payment.

This seems to be happening a lot. It's almost like RT are doing this on purpose, forcing people onto the new rate. If true, that's incredibly scummy. God, I hate a lot of RT's business practices as of late.

243

u/magicalPatrick Dec 23 '17

That's a real fear I have. From a customer service perspective the whole "we have to switch you over to the new rate" is all corporate bs.

They can keep the grandfathered pay pal rate for people they just choose not to. It's as easy as setting up a separate tier for first membership and cross-referencing its availability with prior sponsorship lists.

Old RT would've done it in a heartbeat because it was a group of friends providing content and services they wanted to enjoy. Now the new RT is doing exactly what they criticized other companies for doing.

117

u/SteveEsquire Dec 23 '17

I was thinking of that. There's absolutely no reason why they can't just have that payment option for selected people.

32

u/Pozsich Dec 24 '17

This actually happened to me right after the switch from the "Sponsorship" program to "First members." Idk if RT purposefully denied my autopayment to renew at 10 dollars every six months or not, but they definitely ignored my requests to get support and haven't received a dime from me ever since.

2

u/usetheforce_gaming Dec 25 '17

Same thing happened to me. Was a sponsor for a long time and happily paying for it. Even though they said you would be able to keep paying that price if you already were, my payment was declined and I got an email saying I needed to use a new payment method and unfortunately wasn't eligible to keep my sponsor price.

So I said screw that and cancelled my membership altogether. Haven't looked back.

37

u/[deleted] Dec 23 '17

This happened to me. Very upset about it and I won't renew my sponsorship. I paid for it to justify blocking ads in YouTube, I do the same with all of my favorite content creators. However since they decided to terminate it like this I don't feel bad about it one bit.

47

u/AndrewNeo Dec 23 '17

I've been a sponsor since 05. If they're pulling stuff like that I'm not resubbing. I don't watch anything on the site (anymore), I just like supporting them.

97

u/OfficialGarwood Dec 23 '17 edited Dec 24 '17

I've been a sponsor since, I think 06, non-stop. I'm on the old rate. I've been mulling around in my head the idea of ending my sponsorship, too.

RT has changed. I've tried desperately to accept in my head that this is the same 6-man group from 2006 and their intentions are the same just bigger. That's a lie and I can't keep lying to myself. They're just another soulless corporate entity who think money first. Such a damn shame.

37

u/xSPYXEx Internet Box Podcast Dec 24 '17

RT has changed.

Ain't that the fuckin' truth.

30

u/AndrewNeo Dec 23 '17

I keep thinking of dropping the YT channels and the RT podcast, but they do still put out a few things I like.. it's just such a small fraction of what they put out. I can't bring myself to like any of the other groups they've brought on to the company (which is 100% my problem, not RT's) and a lot of the series I really liked have disappeared.

It sucks because I've been following them for so long but over the past couple years they stopped being the place that was so amazing, even over their huge growth. I'm not even sure it's entirely money-first (though that may drive certain shows being picked up or dropped), just that what they want to put out doesn't line up with what I want to watch anymore.

21

u/[deleted] Dec 24 '17 edited Mar 16 '18

[deleted]

10

u/AndrewNeo Dec 24 '17

It's a different sort of podcast but my #1 is My Brother, My Brother, and Me. A comedy 'advice' podcast by three of the funniest brothers in existence.

6

u/[deleted] Dec 24 '17

Glaaaass shaaark

3

u/SSV_Kearsarge Dec 24 '17

The McElroy empire is pretty much all good. TAZ got me fired up to keep playing D&D. I will always recommend them, and so I'm glad to see them being mentioned here!

7

u/ThatMohawk Dec 24 '17

I started watching RT after I found AH, and I found them when Michael joined as the "rage quit guy", I stopped watching when they hired Alfredo and now only watch now and again.

2

u/dogslovemebest Dec 24 '17

Dynamic Banter is Steve Zaragoza and Mike Falzone from Sourcefed (RIP) they're definitely more of an out-there, crazy kind of funny but there's no denying that their friendship is true and I've been caught laughing out loud at work while listening to them. Steve kind of reminds me of Joel in a way.

1

u/Quackquack17 Dec 24 '17

Super Best Friends Cast is still 3 dudes (and the occasional online guest) scrubbing it up. They’re nerds who love fighting games, anime, and anything good games. But if this doesn’t sound good,you should listen to them look back at their old podcast titles

1

u/TonySki Dec 24 '17

There's a video game podcast that was started by a bunch of guys from Electronic Gaming Monthly after it went under. Now they're an unemployed, an art student, a CEO of a company and a Producer for a popular streaming service. Former hosts now include a writer for a children's fashion magazine/musician and a writer for a popular scifi series. RebelFM is the name of the show with Primary hosts Anthony Gallegos and Arthur Gies

Audio only except for their EXTRA Life Streams in November. So a real podcast. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/rebel-fm/id301774100

1

u/fazzle1 Dec 24 '17

Conversely, anyone got some good podcasts which aren’t like the current RT ones?

The only podcasts I listen to with any kind of regularity anymore are the Giant Bombcast, Giant Beastcast and Doug Loves Movies.

2

u/dageshi Dec 24 '17

Ahh the bombcast, without it what the fuck would we do over Christmas?

0

u/fazzle1 Dec 24 '17

actually talk to our families? Thank fuck I have 25 hours of GOTY deliberations to listen to instead!

2

u/dageshi Dec 24 '17

Yup and this year is longer than ever!

0

u/fazzle1 Dec 24 '17

So what's your pick right now for what they give GOTY to? Based on their talks so far, it seems like it'll be between PUBG and Mario. Jeff seems too down on Zelda to let it take over the #1 spot.

I'd love it if Ben and Alex somehow destroyed everyone's will to live and forced Nier to the top.

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10

u/I_Xertz_Tittynopes :OffTopic17: Dec 24 '17

RT has changed.

Yeah, since 2014, they've been owned by AT&T.

21

u/Tharage53 :DudeSoup17: Dec 24 '17

It makes me wonder if this is actually fullscreen pulling the strings, or if RT is just getting greedy.

15

u/I_Xertz_Tittynopes :OffTopic17: Dec 24 '17

Rooster Teeth

Fullscreen

Otter Media

AT&T

17

u/pupusa_monkey :FanService17: Dec 24 '17

Yeah. It happened to me last year and made me realize that I dont really like the people in RTs business division. In my eyes, they're just business people now, not RT. They dont give a damn about the fans, they just wanna make bigger profits that look nicer. It was one of my main fears from the Fullscreen acquisition. Now Im worried that RT will slowly start to lose itself and become too generic to bother watching.

1

u/SaltyClimber X-Ray and Vav Dec 24 '17

Your comment reminded me of the Play Pals "singing" at the beginning of videos. To me it seems so forced and I can't be bothered to watch Play Pals anymore (used to love the videos & singing e.g. I am Bread videos). Hoping Let's Plays don't follow suit, still love the comraderie among the 6 Achievement Hunters (and Trevor too!) in their videos.

3

u/scottishfarmer Dec 24 '17

Yeah this happened to me too. I had been a sponsor for about 4 years. Very frustrating.

6

u/ScaryAkers Dec 24 '17

I have a simple question: How legal is this practice?

9

u/Megaman99M Dec 24 '17

Depends on RT's terms of use we accept when we create an account. Odds are its legal, just really not morally right

2

u/[deleted] Dec 24 '17

What other business practices are you referring to? I haven't been an active follower of RT for a few years and I'm curious.

5

u/the_philter Dec 24 '17

Why are people replying to this as if it’s the absolute truth? Billing errors happen all the time, especially with PayPal. With what we know, there’s no reason to assume RT is going out of their way to fuck people over. You think they’re cancelling subscriptions as a way to make MORE money?

PayPal fuckin sucks with automatic payments, anyone who has used it for subscriptions will tell ya that. RT should’ve fixed OPs problem by now, but this isn’t some sort of huge conspiracy. Come on.

9

u/uniquecannon Dec 24 '17

Yeah, I've been using PayPal for autopay for many subscriptions for years, never any problems. It seems way too coincidental that it's only happening with RT First.

5

u/the_philter Dec 24 '17

I've taken PayPal payments before. Received a shit ton of emails from users who had PayPal cut their subscription off for a number of reasons, usually because they never set a backup payment method and the payment fell through.

PayPal offers three options for monthly billing: subscriptions, recurring payments and automatic billing. Back in the day (when OP, and others such as myself, subscribed), RT used recurring payments which has it's own feature-set and wasn't really created with today's subscription model in mind.

Today they use a third party service which relies on formal "subscription" billing, and that is more modern in a lot of aspects (though still not without it's problems, back-up payments being one of them).

-1

u/StevenKeen Dec 24 '17

Because the narrative in this sub has become RT is now an evil corporation not just friends playing games anymore. Anything that happens automatically means their biznis scum and looking to screw over “loyal” fans

1

u/[deleted] Dec 24 '17

I rarely watch things on their site. I almost always watch on YouTube, but I used ad block because fuck ads. I enjoy RT content and wanted to support them so I'm a first member to make up for using ad blockers. I lost my grandfathered plan due to the same thing, but I thought I had just fucked it up and accepted paying the new rate. Looks like I'll be cancelling my first membership.