Subscription didn't auto-renew?? Help!

[swethington]

I've contacted Avid support about this but have yet to receive a response so I thought I'd try here.

My annual subscription expired on Dec 10, although I had my account set to auto-renew. I'm basically trying to figure out why the auto-renew didn't go through (definitely not a problem with the card I have on file with Avid), and what I can do to reinstate my subscription without paying for a new one.

It already hurts a little to pay $200 after a year of little/no work (that's not Avid's fault of course), but if my only option is to start a new subscription for $100 more it will be a sad Christmas ...likely spent watching videos about how to use Logic or something, ha.

Anyway, has anyone else experienced this before? If so, was Avid able to help?

[swethington]

Just as a follow up, still no response from Avid.

Here's my case number if anyone is able to help: 04082009

[Southsidemusic]

Hey

Sorry to hear about this. I have seen others having the same issues and I know Avid is aware and will solve this.

Regarding the renewal you have a 30day grace period so you can buy the renewal manually from any dealer who are Avid prefered but you need to do that within the 30 day window of the expiration date i.e dec 10 2020 if i understood you correctly.

Let me know how you wanna go forwqrd and if you need any added help with your case nr. I will eacalate this anyway so Avid can look into this deeper.

[swethington]

Thanks!

If just buying a subscription renewal from Sweetwater or something works that I can definitely do that, but on the 'My Products' section at Avid.com it isn't giving me the option to enter a renewal code, only to buy again at the $299.00 price. (Before the subscription expired I remember seeing a field where I could input a new code but that field isn't there now).

Oddly though, I do also see an option to move my old expired perpetual license (which expired in 2017) to a subscription for $99. I thought I'd already done that back in 2017 but apparently not? The site lets me move this to the shopping cart so I assume this might be my best bet?

[originalscottyg]

---RANT WARNING---

I know it seems pedantic, but please use the correct nomenclature to avoid confusion.

Subscription = Rental - when you stop paying, you no longer have a license and cannot launch Pro Tools.

Support Plan = perpetual license + Annual Support and Upgrade plan that needs to be renewed every year in order to continue to keep receiving upgrades. If you stop paying, you still have a perpetual license that is frozen at the latest version that was released when your plan expired. This option has a 30-day grace period after expiration to renew.

I have seen so much confusion surrounding whether someone has a subscription or support plan, especially regarding which plugins come free with which plan. And Avid has not been particularly good at clearing up this confusion. I understand that paying every year seems like a subscription, but the differences between a support plan and a subscription are substantial.

P.S. Apologies to the OP. I guess I'm feeling extra triggered today.


So, please, if you have a perpetual license with a support plan, please refer to it as a support plan, and if you are on a rental (annual or monthly) then, and only then, refer to it as a subscription!

Apologies for the rant. But I have grown very weary of explaining the difference to people, especially those that ask "Where's my free Heat?!? I have a subscription!" No...no you don't. You have a support plan.


P.S. Apologies to the OP. I guess I'm feeling extra triggered today.

[swethington]

Thanks? I agree that Avid's subscription model is overly complicated - and I don't know any other company that has the balls to ask for an extra $100/yr if your subscription has been expired for some amount of time. It just feels punitive.

Regardless, this was finally solved....

I've had a subscription (rental, that I chose to pay annually rather than monthly) that was set to auto-renew but didn't, and now shows expired as of Dec 10 2020. Avid finally responded and said I'd turned off auto-renew (I didn't, but at this point it doesn't really matter because...)

In my account I also show a "perpetual product" that expired June 2017. I thought this was the license I'd surrendered to switch to a subscription (in 2017 I'm guessing) but I was still seeing the option to crossgrade to a subscription for $99. So I tried that and it worked fine. So now I have an active subscription and Pro Tools works again. Seems like I maybe shouldn't have been able to crossgrade that perpetual license (because I'm pretty sure I already did!) but it worked and saved me some cash. So, no more sad Christmas!

[originalscottyg]

All good. As I said, apologies for the rant. I post a lot on the Pro Tools facebook group, and almost every other post stems from confusion about the differences between support plans and subscriptions. I can usually tell what somebody has based on the price they say they are paying to renew. I couldn't actually tell which you had from your OP, which I think set me off. So, again, apologies as this wasn't necessarily directed at you, just a general rant. Hope you get your situation sorted!

[swethington]

No worries man! Your response threw me at first but I definitely get what you're saying, and I think it can be really helpful for users to help other users understand the distinctions between the different plans Avid offers (because as you said earlier, Avid hasn't done a great job of making it clear).

Anyway I'm pretty sure I have everything sorted out now, thankfully. Fingers crossed it stays that way!