I love the new commercial skip feature. Mostly, in the same proportion as that commercial skip operates properly, and doesn’t sometimes skip part of the programming.
I was about to sign up when I saw the monumental cash grab you guys are effecting on it. My annual subscription renews in October. That’s 4 months or $8 of “premium” subscription. It would have been nice of you guys to do either of
a) prorate the annual premium subscription to factor in the :lost" months, or
b) just start charging me more on my next annual renewal.
I’d have been OK with a) and I realize it’s only the big guys that can probably carry the cost of option b), but I do think it’s unfair to hit your customers with a penalty for being customers.
Not, I’m sure that $8 matters to me, but does it matter that much to you that you feel the need to be unfair?
I think the wording on the subscription page is just unclear, and hopefully the @TabloTV will chime in.
Here is the wording on the subscription page: Billed immediately and then annually on the renewal date. The active Tablo unit associated with this subscription will have access to Premium Service for 1 calendar year, or the guide data renewal date, whichever comes first.
There is a mention of a “renewal date” in the first sentence, and a mention of the “guide data renewal date” at the end. Are they supposed to be the same or is the first one the Premium subscription renewal date?
Also it certainly wouldn’t be fair to charge $20 for less than a full year of service. Some people might be renewing their guide in February, March, or April. I can’t imagine paying $20 now and then another $20 on the guide renewal date.
There are two solutions:
Prorate it the first year so that the guide data and commercial skip subscriptions are in sync.
Have the commercial skip subscription just independent of the guide data subscription. (Though you would need to handle what happens if a user cancels their guide data).
@Bardel, I do expect the Tablo folks to be fair about this, so let’s see what happens.
Premium Service is an add-on to the TV Guide Data Service which has a specific renewal date (unless you have a Lifetime TV Guide Data Service subscription).
We wanted to be careful not to charge for periods that you are not receiving service, and to match existing billing dates moving forward.
If you have both TV Guide Data and Premium Service subscriptions, Premium will be prorated for the first billing period.
If I subscribe today when will I be billed for my Premium Service add-on?
If you’re a monthly TV Guide Data subscriber, you will be billed monthly, on your current billing date. This means the first month’s charge for Premium Service will not appear until your next invoice where it will be added as a prorated amount on top of the next month’s Premium Service charge on your invoice. Then it will repeat at the full amount on a monthly basis going forward.
If you’re an annual TV Guide Data subscriber, you will be billed immediately for the Premium Service add-on, pro-rated according to your current TV Guide Data billing date, then it will repeat at full amount on an annual basis going forward.
If you’ve got a lifetime Tablo Guide Data subscription, you will be billed immediately for the full amount of the annual Premium Service add-on and it will repeat on an annual basis going forward.
It may well be that I’m buying the $20 per year service, and it will be pro-rated when I see the charge on my credit card bill, but that’s not how it appears.
The Tablo Account portal’s confirmation pages regarding annual Premium Service subscriptions was not as expected or described, and for that we’re very sorry.
Most customers who signed up for annual Premium Service prior to January 23rd like you would have seen a confirmation showing the full $20 annual fee versus a pro-rated amount based on their Tablo TV Guide Data Service renewal date.
Even though the confirmation page showed the full $20 charge, your credit card would not have been charged until the next renewal date and only for the pro-rated amount.
Invoices generated will always reflect the correct amounts billed.
For clarity, we have adjusted the confirmation screens within the Tablo Account portal for annual Premium Service subscriptions to match what was described and expected moving forward.
Most of those who purchased Premium Service prior to today should not expect to see any Premium Service subscription charges applied to their credit cards until their TV Guide Data renewal date (or if/when they cancel, whichever comes first) which can be seen within their Tablo account at account.tablotv.com.
