"Your ZEN is about to expire" email

nynik · October 2014

News to me. Did it always expire? Is this the stipend ZEN or the paid for ZEN? Is this ZEN assigned to a game or ZEN unassigned as yet? Questions, questions...

Essentially I received an email from PW saying I should spend my ZEN as it is about to expire. It was fairly vague on what ZEN it was talking about. I would like to know if anyone else has received a similar email, and if you ever got a response from support about it.

PW Support reference number: #141016-001031
Specific STO Forum and Web ticket: #141017-000097

ednarules · October 2014

Maybe its a new "feature" from cryptic to force people to stop stock piling ZEN, and spending it on what they want to pick.

Kind of like prepaid cell time, it expires in a month, add more, and you can carry it over for another month.

Wouldn't surprise me if so the way cryptic is doing things now.

lordmalak1 · October 2014

I got a similar one a few weeks ago, and assumed it was the single zen I keep in my wallet. As far as I know the zen transferred to your game don't 'expire', but I'm unsure about the ones in the cryptic wallet.

We've noticed that you still have ZEN sitting in your Arc Wallet. The Arc Wallet system will be going away soon, but we'll have more details on that later. In the meantime, don't let your hard earned money go to waste. There are tons of amazing items available. Log in and transfer your ZEN to one of your favorite games today!

Apparently, the wallet system is being eliminated, time to clear it out I guess.

dirlettia · October 2014

I have kept a lot of zen for quite some time and never had a mail about it expiring. Have you got some old zen sitting in the PWE wallet from before they moved to arc and had to assign it to a game as you bought it?

Alternately is there a link on the page somewhere which may indicate it is a phishing email to try and get your log in details?

If it is worded with something like 'Your zen is about to expire. To prevent this happening please verify your account is still active by clicking on this link' then it is absolutely a phishy mail.

nynik · October 2014

I am reasonably sure it is legit. Purely a notice. I did have 40 ZEN sitting unassigned in the old ZEN charging website - now assigned to STO. But frankly, I can only assume it meant that.

I will take serious issue if any of my assigned ZEN has been deleted. I similarly don't understand why they have to delete unassigned ZEN from the old purchasing method (if that is indeed all it refers to). Can't they just credit your ARC account?

tostrek2012 · October 2014

I got the same e-mail today too because I had zens in the wallet. Anyone knows when the Wallet zen is about to expire?

sevenschaser · October 2014

lordmalak1 wrote: »

Apparently, the wallet system is being eliminated, time to clear it out I guess.

It concerns me that real money I have spent on the game and that they already have could disappear. It is like putting money in the bank and them just saying it expires if you don't use the money. I understand if they bank went out of business but that is not the case here so why would it disappear.

If they want to really force my hand I will just have to convert it to dilithium, keys, and EC.

It upsets me they announce this a couple of days after the key sale!

Edit:
When is someone going to officially tell us when it will expire and what is going on?

zenbrillig · October 2014

I filed a support ticket on it. I encourage everyone else to do the same, because this is some serious shenanigans.

royalsovereign · October 2014

sevenschaser wrote: »

It concerns me that real money I have spent on the game and that they already have could disappear. It is like putting money in the bank and them just saying it expires if you don't use the money.

No, it is like they are saying, "This type of account is being discontinued. Please transfer your money to this other account which has additional features and use that account. If you do not transfer your money, you risk losing your money when the account is deleted."

Of course, a bank couldn't really do that. But they're not forcing you to spend it.

architect13 · October 2014

I received the same email. I transferred my 15 zen that I had gotten for doing some surveys a long time ago.

tostrek2012 · October 2014

I will send them a support ticket. It will be bad that my 5000 zen become "expired."

lordmalak1 · October 2014

tostrek2012 wrote: »

I will send them a support ticket. It will be bad that my 5000 zen become "expired."

The letter is referring to the zen wallet on your account, NOT your zen total ingame. They want you to commit your zen to a game, not keep it in the generic cross-game zen bank.

zenbrillig · October 2014

lordmalak1 wrote: »

The letter is referring to the zen wallet on your account, NOT your zen total ingame. They want you to commit your zen to a game, not keep it in the generic cross-game zen bank.

Which is a seriously anti-consumer move. When we bought Zen it was represented to us that we could allocate it to various PWE properties whenever we chose to do so. It was never mentioned that at some point we would be force to allocate or lose it.

Refunds are in order. And surely will not be forthcoming. Because that's how PWE rolls.

nynik · October 2014

Support could not tell me WHEN they will delete the ZEN (with the upcoming mothballing of the wallet), but did point me to a post on another PW game forum with the following information:

sparkiesoft wrote:

Hey all,

You may have gotten a recent email from us regarding the transferring of your ZEN. This is a legitimate email, and in no ways does it mean you need to actually spend your ZEN.

We are removing the wallet function and working on a more Arc integrated system, which means that you will need to transfer your ZEN from your wallet, to a game of your choice to avoid any potential delays.

The wallet will go away, but your funds will still be available. We're simply sending this message out so you do not experience any delays in using the contents of your wallet when it does. By moving it over now, you should not experience any delays when this change goes live. I can't say for certain when or how long, even if there will be delays when the wallet goes away, but this will help those that do not want deal with that when it happens.

This official message on another forum seems contrary to the email message and what I have been told by support.

ARE YOU TRANSFERRING MY ZEN OR NOT? WILL IT EXPIRE OR WILL IT NOT?

Support failed to specifically clarify if it was strictly the wallet ZEN vs. assigned game ZEN - even though I politely requested such a specific and clear definition.

eiledon · October 2014

royalsovereign wrote: »

No, it is like they are saying, "This type of account is being discontinued. Please transfer your money to this other account which has additional features and use that account. If you do not transfer your money, you risk losing your money when the account is deleted."

Of course, a bank couldn't really do that. But they're not forcing you to spend it.

Actually banks can and do, do this every day. Most banks have a system for Unclaimed Balances where funds from obsolete and unused accounts are transferred to allow account closure. For the most part this money can be reclaimed by the owner on application to the bank.

In the case of the Wallet here, if a player plays multiple cryptic games to which one would you like Cryptic to apply the funds? Guaranteed whichever one they picked would be the wrong one for some players.

nynik wrote: »

Support could not tell me WHEN they will delete the ZEN (with the upcoming mothballing of the wallet), but did point me to a post on another PW game forum with the following information:

Originally Posted by sparkiesoft
Hey all,

You may have gotten a recent email from us regarding the transferring of your ZEN. This is a legitimate email, and in no ways does it mean you need to actually spend your ZEN.

We are removing the wallet function and working on a more Arc integrated system, which means that you will need to transfer your ZEN from your wallet, to a game of your choice to avoid any potential delays.

The wallet will go away, but your funds will still be available. We're simply sending this message out so you do not experience any delays in using the contents of your wallet when it does. By moving it over now, you should not experience any delays when this change goes live. I can't say for certain when or how long, even if there will be delays when the wallet goes away, but this will help those that do not want deal with that when it happens.

This official message on another forum seems contrary to the email message and what I have been told by support.

ARE YOU TRANSFERRING MY ZEN OR NOT? WILL IT EXPIRE OR WILL IT NOT?

Support failed to specifically clarify if it was strictly the wallet ZEN vs. assigned game ZEN - even though I politely requested such a specific and clear definition.

Reading Sparklesoft's message seems clear to me, if you dont transfer your funds from the Wallet to a game, you won't lose them - but you would have to go through Customer Support to allocate those funds to a game ONCE Wallet is removed - thus the delay.

startrek1wars · October 2014

But will we still be able to use all of the payment options we have now?

qziqza · October 2014

startrek1wars wrote: »

But will we still be able to use all of the payment options we have now?

Why would payment options change? They are simply removing the unallocated Zen wallet from game. The current Zen purchase system, through Arc, has you allocate Zen to a specific game on Zen purchases. As stands any Zen not allocated is technically inactive, once transferred to game it becomes an active currency, no different to dilithium, ec and Lobi. my advice, allocate any sat in wallet to a game.. DON'T PANIC!

cem3212 · October 2014

So they are eliminating the Zen Wallet that is good for all their gaming properties but will not state when nor what will replace it.

In the future will their be no cross-games wallet of any kind & just each individual game's wallet?

I think the cross-games Zen wallet serves a positive function for players, but I understand that may be disagreed with. Players can have an arbitrary amount of Zen stored which they bought during a Zen sale/bonus then transfer to a game maybe having a discount/sale when that happens.

Sending out an email stating to move/use your Zen because it's going to expire soon, but no proper exact time or options/details is just subtle coercion which PWE seems to be getting good at with their games.

So they are willing to send out this type of email warning about our Zen but wont reveal the details about what will be replacing the Zen Wallet if anything or how future transactions would occur & yes to maneuver like this they already have been working on plans to handle this ordeal.

I wish they had a total Zen refund option for my saved Zen, even minus the stipend, because based upon some of PWE's/Cryptic's recent actions I would gladly cash-out!

somebob · October 2014

zenbrillig wrote: »

Which is a seriously anti-consumer move. When we bought Zen it was represented to us that we could allocate it to various PWE properties whenever we chose to do so. It was never mentioned that at some point we would be force to allocate or lose it.

Refunds are in order. And surely will not be forthcoming. Because that's how PWE rolls.

Except you haven't been able to buy Zen to just put into the wallet (using the standard purchase methods like ARC or the PWE website) for quite some time now. It has always been put directly into the game in question immediately.

If I had to make a guess what's going on? They're getting rid of the Survey for Zen thing (unless it is already gone, then I don't know) and this is a side-effect of it.

"Your ZEN is about to expire" email

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