Subscription question


Pathfinder Adventure Card Game General Discussion


So if i remember they said they would not bill until shipped. I signed up 2 days ago and the 1st charge already hot my account, i got no email mentioning that they billed me and when i could expect shipment, though i gather from other posts that some got emails saying shipping between the 18th and 25th. So what gives, they are going to bill me in the 12th and wait until the 25th to ship?

On a similar vein, in another post i read where they said all the printing for all the sets are already done. They must really got a good idea of how much they are going to sell or they could either run out or get stuck with a warehouse full. They seem to have been in business for a long while so i am presuming that they know what they are doing.


After reading your post, I checked my account as well. I too have been billed as of today. As such, I suspect it means they are shipping a bit early, though the delivery estimate may not change much due to me choosing the cheapest shipping method.


The expected shipment date for those on the subscription list is a bit earlier than the street release date, so that may be why you were charged already.

If you still don't get a shipping notification sometime soon, you could always contact paizo's customer service directly to find out what's going on.


If you had looked in your subscriptions tab last week, it said something like: Payment Authorization: October 10th, Estimated Ship Date: October 18th. So yeah i think they just charge your payment method a week or so before shipping.

Silver Crusade

I think it's just that they auth as soon as you subscribe, but they haven't actually billed you yet. They'll bill you when they ship, just like they say.


Fromper wrote:
I think it's just that they auth as soon as you subscribe, but they haven't actually billed you yet. They'll bill you when they ship, just like they say.

No if it shows on my bank statement they billed me. Now it is on hold but that is probably because it is saturday, but monday morning it will come out of my account. Ii guess i just expected to wait until the end of the list since i just signed up on the 10th so i was taken by surprise, and expected an email saying we shipped the product today and billed your account, enjoy and that sometime after the 18th. Just posted to see if anyone else was billed not getting upset or anything. It is a new company to deal with and i like to know what is going on.


Well, I ordered in September and it said it should ship the second week in October but I just checked My Subscriptions and it shows December as the estimated shipping (Skinsaw) and it shows it shipping along with the next pack so my total is going to be almost $40, which I was not expecting at all, especially the month of Christmas. Plus, I marked cheapest shipping but it shows a charge of $7.09 priority postage! I wasn't notified of the delay, why it is delayed, or of the increased (and not agreed to) shipping cost. This is not acceptable at all.


My subscription says the same thing. I am sure it will be remedied quickly. I have sent Paizo Customer Support an email explaining how I can't wait that long. I am not worried about this glitch.


With regard to those seeing their subscriptions bumped to December - that's a weird display thing that always happens 'mid subscription run'. The October shipment is midway through being created and once it's finished everyone will get their Skinsaw Murders (and those with a subscription will get their promo card). I think what happens is that the two parts of Paizo's software dont communicate very well - the authorisation starts so you get signed off as having had your October shipment sent. However your 'my subscriptions page' recognises that you havent yet received your October books so adds them in to your "next" subscription.

With regard to the billing issue the OP mentioned - this is another commonly cited issue when people sign up for a sub but is usually clarified as not being an actual charge. You mention it's a hold which will go out on Monday. Previous experience says that's not the case - it's a hold which will be reversed in the next few days. (Other subscribers have also reported seeing it on their bank statement, only to have it disappear a few days later).

I'd keep an eye on your account during the next few days. I suspect the pending charge currently showing will actually disappear. When you first sign up for a subscription, Paizo's computer generates a hold on funds to ensure that their computer can talk to your bank's computer. That way they know if there's an issue early, rather than it showing up in the madness of a subscription run - from memory (though it's been a few years) your order confirmation page would have said something along the lines of "we will authorise your card for $x.xx today. We will not bill your card until the product ships" or something like that. The hold that is generated then subsides after a few days (the funds never leave).

Of course, in this specific case, since you've signed up so close to a subscription run. It may well blur together. If your package is packed on Tuesday, you may not see any difference. Going forward though, you wont be charged until a package has shipped - when you see the charge on your card (in future there probably wont be a 'hold' period) it will mean your package has been finalised and is either on its way or sitting in the warehouse waiting for a courier.

If your experience doesnt line up with that, the best thing to do is to start a post in the customer service forum, to send tham an email at customer.service@paizo.com or to give them a ring between 10ish and 5ish on 425-250-0800. The customer service people will probably see this post anyhow, but those are the best ways to get to them quickly.


CaptLudd wrote:
Fromper wrote:
I think it's just that they auth as soon as you subscribe, but they haven't actually billed you yet. They'll bill you when they ship, just like they say.
No if it shows on my bank statement they billed me. Now it is on hold but that is probably because it is saturday, but monday morning it will come out of my account. Ii guess i just expected to wait until the end of the list since i just signed up on the 10th so i was taken by surprise, and expected an email saying we shipped the product today and billed your account, enjoy and that sometime after the 18th. Just posted to see if anyone else was billed not getting upset or anything. It is a new company to deal with and i like to know what is going on.

As I said, I'm pretty sure the billing thing is a 'first time glitch' that will resolve for you (customer service can tell you the real story).

I thought I'd comment on the 'when will I get my order processed?' question since that's also a common query (especially in big months like this one). They dont base that on when you signed up nor even on how large your order is. It's an arcane algorithm that divides all the month's packages into groups of similar composition and then processes each 'batch' one-by-one. That gets more complicated since a lot of people arent subscribers but have placed an order in the last few days. Also some of us have ordered extra things and had them held to wait for this subscription run. This specific month, it appears to be further delayed by some kind of gremlin, though that's unusual - typically the subscription run goes like clockwork.

It's all about managing their workflow and getting a monstrous amount of orders out the door as fast as possible. Some months, even if you just have one deck of cards, your sub will be amongst the last to ship. Other months you'll be at the front of the queue. It can be a frustrating couple of weeks from when the subscription run begins to when you receive your package - especially for those of us overseas. :(


As someone who actually asked this question a day or two later than the OP, they were verifying your card. The hold on the card will go away in a couple of weekdays unless they actually ship the game in which case it won't go away or it will and you'll have a 2nd charge for the game. It's nothing to get too worked up about as they have to put a hold for that much on the card to make sure it has that much money on it and is a valid card.


kysmartman wrote:
As someone who actually asked this question a day or two later than the OP, they were verifying your card. The hold on the card will go away in a couple of weekdays unless they actually ship the game in which case it won't go away or it will and you'll have a 2nd charge for the game. It's nothing to get too worked up about as they have to put a hold for that much on the card to make sure it has that much money on it and is a valid card.

Okay, thank you for all the responses, now i know how they go about it no problems.


What about the postage thing? Am I really going to be charged almost $8 priority shipping for a little pack of cards even though I marked cheapest shipping?

Silver Crusade

No, shipping is recalculated based on how much it actually comes out to when it happens. I think it's just assuming that each pack is nearly $4 shipping, and it's incorrectly thinking it will have to ship both at once. Even if it did ship both at once, the shipping would get combined, so it wouldn't cost that much. But since it'll only ship one, it'll only be the cost of the one (probably $3-4).


CaptLudd wrote:
kysmartman wrote:
As someone who actually asked this question a day or two later than the OP, they were verifying your card. The hold on the card will go away in a couple of weekdays unless they actually ship the game in which case it won't go away or it will and you'll have a 2nd charge for the game. It's nothing to get too worked up about as they have to put a hold for that much on the card to make sure it has that much money on it and is a valid card.
Okay, thank you for all the responses, now i know how they go about it no problems.

the charge for my subscription actually cleared my bank - so it doesn't appear to be a hold, to me.


mcd1982 wrote:
the charge for my subscription actually cleared my bank - so it doesn't appear to be a hold, to me.

It depends on how your online banking site displays it. If it was a credit card, it would just be a hold, but with most of the cards being bank cards, it shows up as a charge that gets refunded a few days later. The sum of it is that it will go away/be refunded in a few weekdays then you'll be charged whenever it gets shipped. As I said before, it took 2-3 weekdays for it to be refunded/wiped away on my bank statement. Check back Tuesday night or Wednesday afternoon before you jump to conclusions. Well, unless you get an email from Paizo saying it got shipped.


Melisa M wrote:
What about the postage thing? Am I really going to be charged almost $8 priority shipping for a little pack of cards even though I marked cheapest shipping?

It should ship according to the method you selected (for me in Australia the decks are around $5 shipping), but do make sure on your "My Subscriptions" page that the pulldown menu of Preferred Shipping Method shows "Cheapest (Usually Standard Postal)".

If you're a new subscriber it is possible to be used to having things shipped as cheap as possible, but to inadvertently set up one's subscriptions default as one of the priority mails.

Paizo customer service are pretty good at finding threads like this but the absolute best way to have queries answered is to start a new thread in the customer service subforum. Especially if you have queries around subscription time which are time sensitive.


Yes, on my subscription page it does clearly show that I have marked cheapest available shipping and it is on that same page that it shows I will be charged over $7 for priority shipping. As for customer service, I emailed them days ago asking about all of this and have not heard a thing from them. Hopefully, I'll get an answer soon.

Silver Crusade

Melisa M wrote:
As for customer service, I emailed them days ago asking about all of this and have not heard a thing from them. Hopefully, I'll get an answer soon.

I think they only work business hours on week days, and they're closed today for Columbus Day. Whenever I've contacted them, they've usually answered within a business day, so hopefully, you'll get an answer tomorrow.


Fromper wrote:
Melisa M wrote:
As for customer service, I emailed them days ago asking about all of this and have not heard a thing from them. Hopefully, I'll get an answer soon.

I think they only work business hours on week days, and they're closed today for Columbus Day. Whenever I've contacted them, they've usually answered within a business day, so hopefully, you'll get an answer tomorrow.

That's good to hear, then. Hopefully tomorrow.


I got this today:

Thank you for your continuing support of Pathfinder Adventure Card Game!
In the next week or so, we're expecting to ship Pathfinder Adventure Card Game?Promo Card: Blessing of Zarongel, the next product of your subscription.
When it ships, we'll be charging a total of $61.38 to your credit card. When we charge your card, we'll send a confirmation email to let you know that it has shipped.

I guess all of us new to this subscription thing will not be able to relax. (The cost of mine is a lot more because I have included a book with that shipment.)

Lantern Lodge Customer Service Dire Care Bear Manager

I've just now seen this thread and I apologize for not seeing it earlier! First off, thank you all for your patience!

Generally, for each month I try to have a subscription shipping thread going in the Customer Service forum. October's is here: link These threads outline what products are releasing for subscriptions and when the important dates are and I try to keep them updated with new posts as the subscription shipping process progresses.

Steve Geddes' posts up thread are pretty much spot on as far as explaining why you may have seen stuff getting estimated for December instead of October and why you see a pending transaction with your bank when the order hasn't shipped.

"In the next week or so, we're expecting to ship Pathfinder Adventure Card Game?Promo Card: Blessing of Zarongel, the next product of your subscription.
When the subscription first went live, it did not have a way to add the promo cards as an item on the packing list. To make sure we got them added with each subscription shipment we added them as items spawning from the subscription. This is a completely new model of subscription for us and there are still some kinks to work out with it, one of which is confirmation emails apparently.

The authorization and order spawning process was initial set to run on Friday, October 11th. We had a couple issues and it was stopped. That led to the issue Steve Geddes was describing above, where if your order didn't get spawned the My Subscription page listed it as pending for December. I restarted the process yesterday and it finished about 4:45am PST. Looking over some things, there were a few people it skipped and I'm going to be getting those people taken care of tonight. So for the most part, everyone with active subscriptions should have a pending order with Skinsaw Murders Adventure Deck and Blessing of Zarongel Promo card awaiting shipping.

If you have specific concerns about your individual orders, please let customer service know by email: customer.service@paizo.com, posting a new thread in the customer service forums or by calling at 425-250-0800 (M-F 10am-5pm: closed on postal holidays (like Columbus Day yesterday)).

Thanks!
sara marie

Lantern Lodge Customer Service Dire Care Bear Manager

Melisa M wrote:
Yes, on my subscription page it does clearly show that I have marked cheapest available shipping and it is on that same page that it shows I will be charged over $7 for priority shipping. As for customer service, I emailed them days ago asking about all of this and have not heard a thing from them. Hopefully, I'll get an answer soon.

It looks like Erik responded via email.

Please let us know if you have further questions!

Lantern Lodge Customer Service Dire Care Bear Manager

*******

CaptLudd wrote:
No if it shows on my bank statement they billed me. Now it is on hold but that is probably because it is saturday, but monday morning it will come out of my account. Ii guess i just expected to wait until the end of the list since i just signed up on the 10th so i was taken by surprise, and expected an email saying we shipped the product today and billed your account, enjoy and that sometime after the 18th. Just posted to see if anyone else was billed not getting upset or anything. It is a new company to deal with and i like to know what is going on.
*******
mcd1982 wrote:
the charge for my subscription actually cleared my bank - so it doesn't appear to be a hold, to me.

*******

Looking at both your orders on our end, we have only put the authorization through. Most banks will list this as a pending transaction and reduce your "available balance" as long as it is open until either it expires and disappears or is settled as an actual charge. How authorizations appear to customers is something that is determined by individual banks and financial institutions, though and not something we can control.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder Adventure Card Game / General Discussion / Subscription question All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in General Discussion