What exactly is “Promotional Subscription Period”?

[zee-chan]

So I received an offer in my email saying that I got offered free basic store for a month. It says in there that if I cancel within my “Promotional Subscription Period” I will not be charged for the store.

My monthly invoice happens on the 1st every month, so does it mean if I cancel my store by June 29, I’ll not be charged for it, or does it refer to by June 11, which is the deadline for activating my free store offer? I have attached a screenshot of my offer’s terms (yes it has a very messy file name because I had to use an online file converter to convert the file from png to gif in order to upload it here.)

Thanks in advance!

@happy_pigeon (just in case you happen to know the answer)

[happy_pigeon]

Hello! The Promotional Subscription Period is the period in which you're receiving the free trial.

It's important to understand that there are two stages to receiving the Store promotion. The first is activating the Promotion, and the second is actually subscribing to the Store subscription itself.

The Promotional Subscription Period would be the last day of the free month you receive from the day you subscribed--e.g. the day you started the second stage.

So, if you started activated the Promotion today, June 6th, and then actually went through the process of subscribing to a Store tomorrow, June 7th, then you would want to be sure to cancel the subscription before midnight on the day before one month from that date--July 6th.

Hope that helps!

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Hello Happy,

Not sure if you opened that attached file with the message. Zee's confusion is caused by the approximate 1 week window for the offer. It notes starting June 5 and ending June 11th. It doesn't specifically say it's good for 1 month free month. It just says you must cancel at the end of the promotional period which looks like June 11.  Zee just wanted to confirm. From time to time it seems like some of the offers are written in double speak and this may have been the case here.

-CM

[zee-chan]

Thanks for the clarification!

So does it mean I can also choose to activate the offer now, but not carry through with the store subscription for the one month trial right away? Does the store subscription has to happen before June 11, or can I subscribe later on, like on June 20, instead?

[zee-chan]

@happy_pigeon

So I have activated the offer just moments ago and subscribed to a basic store for a month.

Right after I subscribed for the monthly basic store, I received an e-mail and eBay message saying that I cancelled my selling manager subscription (I didn't). I should've received a "Congratulations on opening an eBay Store!" email instead as per my experience last year.

And just to clarify from your previous response, since I activated and subscribed for the store on June 10, does it mean I'd have to cancel before July 9 to not have to pay any store fee? 

Thanks!

[happy_pigeon · Accepted solution]

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@zee-chan wrote:

So I have activated the offer just moments ago and subscribed to a basic store for a month.

Right after I subscribed for the monthly basic store, I received an e-mail and eBay message saying that I cancelled my selling manager subscription (I didn't). I should've received a "Congratulations on opening an eBay Store!" email instead as per my experience last year.

And just to clarify from your previous response, since I activated and subscribed for the store on June 10, does it mean I'd have to cancel before July 9 to not have to pay any store fee? 

Thanks!

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That's a rather strange experience, I agree. My guess is this: you went from a non-Store experience with a separate free subscription to Selling Manager, and now you've got a Basic Store subscription, which automatically includes the features of Selling Manager, thus negating the need for a separate subscription. So, it has "cancelled" for you on your behalf. I agree that it's a poor and confusing experience, and I'll bring it up with the Store PM.

As for the cancellation date, yes, that is my understanding--July 9 is your cancellation date. I've confirmed this with Marketing, who run this Promotion and write the T&Cs, but in the unlikely case that that's wrong, you can PM me after the fact and we'll work with Customer Service to make it right for you again.

[vintagenorth]

Hi, I got the same offer on one of my IDs. I did activate it and I also received that rather confusing email about cancelling my selling manager subscription. Figured it was just another glitch.

[tyler@ebay]

Hi everyone,

Due to the length of time that has passed since this thread began I have locked it from future replies. If this is still an issue that warrants discussion, don't hesitate to begin a new thread!