ECA Update: Amazon discount gone "for the time being"; in process of self-destruction

I'm glad the ECA is showing it's true colors. For years I've said that they were nothing but a scam and people are finally seeing the truth of it. I hope they get permanently shut down.
 
Is there a way to take count of people who's cancelling from CAG? I know pretty much 99% probably will or already cancel. But it just neat if we know the total headcount to see how big of an impact it is from CAG itself.

Or how about rating this thread? if you rate, that's mean that you have membership and will cancel it.

I'm sending a gmail holiday card also... :)

EDIT: Right now only 2 CAGs (including me) rate this thread... so it's a good clean start for headcount.
 
What was the biggest discount anyone got from stacking multiple discounts? 30% off? 40%????

I bet there are some lurkers in this thread that just went batshit crazy on the exploit...I'd love to hear about the best deal gotten through the stacked discount...
 
[quote name='karkyco']What was the biggest discount anyone got from stacking multiple discounts? 30% off? 40%????

I bet there are some lurkers in this thread that just went batshit crazy on the exploit...I'd love to hear about the best deal gotten through the stacked discount...[/QUOTE]

It could get pretty damn big. Consider Amazon's price on a new release game ranges from $50-$60, so that'd be a $15-18 savings per game (max stacking was 3 I believe, so $30). If you ordered something like a dozen games, you'd easily save around $200. I saw one invoice with some crazy savings. Something like an $800 order taken down to around $500, though there were apparently Gold Box Quick Pick discounts in effect as well.

Looking at it from a base price perspective, getting games (30% stacking + 5% Quick Pick) means a $60 game becomes a $39 game, a $50 game becomes $32.50, and something like a $30 DS game becomes $19.50. Even funner would be stuff like the God of War Ultimate Edition. Amazon's base price of $90 - 30% = $63. You'd basically be paying the price of a new game for all those extras. I can definitely see the appeal.
 
[quote name='gi60']Can we join this thread with the sticky on main page? haha.. It's hard to follow both..[/QUOTE]

there is no need to follow both. The main topic is about cancellation, this topic is about benefits ECA provide or used to provide
 
[quote name='62t']there is no need to follow both. The main topic is about cancellation, this topic is about benefits ECA provide or used to provide[/QUOTE]
We should add the inability to cancel as a benefit then.
 
[quote name='Brian9824']Makes me wish i knew about the stacking glitch and took advantage of it :whistle2:([/QUOTE]

I partially agree...I mean to hear of some of the exploits, Judou talking about having saved hundreds, etc. it's crazy. But then I look at what a trainwreck this situation has become through these ECA business tactics and shennanegans, and I'm pretty damn glad I never handed them any information, let alone a credit yard...yeesh.
 
I don't want to cancel. I'm a paid member. I just want to stop auto-renew before I'm billed. Is there a way to do that?

You will be notified a month before hand of your account expiring. So you have time to cancel if you decided to do so.
http://forums.theeca.com/showthread.php?p=113970#post113970
Click to expand...

So basically they are saying it is impossible to simply cancel auto-renew, you have to cancel your account. I'm not sure that's legal, would love to hear an opinion from someone familiar with the law particularly as it pertains to 501(c)(4) organizations.

Clearly they are just trying to get all the 'free' members to cancel their accounts and if they can sleazily charge some unbeknownst victims' CCs on the side they are happy to do so.
 
Great article on the situation:
http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/ars...ancellation-gaffe-makes-everyone-look-bad.ars

I think the solution is obvious. KICK OUT THE FREELOADERS. People are abusing the free code? Kill THAT. Don't take away the ability to not renew your membership. Might have saved the Amazon deal too.

I'm NOT writing them, that's absurd. I can move real money around at my bank online, but I can't cancel a $20 membership? Riiiight. My credit card number changed since I joined, so when they try to bill it it'll fail, and hopefully that'll be the end of it. (I'm actually slightly paranoid though that they'd try to send me to collections or something insane.)
 
[quote name='Wolfpup']Great article on the situation:
http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/ars...ancellation-gaffe-makes-everyone-look-bad.ars

I think the solution is obvious. KICK OUT THE FREELOADERS. People are abusing the free code? Kill THAT. Don't take away the ability to not renew your membership. Might have saved the Amazon deal too.

I'm NOT writing them, that's absurd. I can move real money around at my bank online, but I can't cancel a $20 membership? Riiiight. My credit card number changed since I joined, so when they try to bill it it'll fail, and hopefully that'll be the end of it. (I'm actually slightly paranoid though that they'd try to send me to collections or something insane.)[/QUOTE]

You know logic isn't the ECA way. If it was, then they would've give out one time annual codes for Amazon.

But I agree with you. If there was abuse due to promotions than wouldn't it make more sense to stop the damn promotion? If having a electronic method of canceling member would lead to abuse then ban the people who are abusing the system.

As for your CC number changing, I'd be willing to bet they would send a collection agency after you. The ECA has proven they are petty and pathetic, and will do anything to demean the consumer.
 
A couple of people in the other thread keep saying they can't use a collection agency against you, because they are a non-profit, but as usual with CAG, it's a bunch of armchair lawyers who can't actually point out where they are getting this info from. I honestly don't know the answer, but even if that's the law, I doubt that will stop them from trying, and it certainly won't stop a collection agency from gladly taking the cases. We're talking about the lowest form of scum on this planet...maybe even lower the ECA. They go after people who have the same name as the person with the debt. They will do anything to collect three pennies from an old lady. And if something shows up on your credit report, you're still going to have wait months to get it off, no matter whether you are in the right or not.
 
[quote name='karkyco']What was the biggest discount anyone got from stacking multiple discounts? 30% off? 40%????[/QUOTE]

The best you could do just from ECA was 30% - and that was only if you happened to have codes saved from before the membership became free. I guess there was about 12 hours there where you could generate the old codes with a free membership but as expected they ran out pretty quick once the freebies came on board. I snagged a few as soon as I heard about the free membership because I knew they'd run out and I just wanted to be sure I had codes to use when a nice gold box item came along.

Keep in mind they had been running out repeatedly in the weeks leading up to that and it took various amounts of time to get them reloaded (sometimes a day, sometimes 2 weeks). So people had gotten in the habit of "hoarding" the codes simply to be able to use them for normal Amazon purchases.

The ironic thing is that if ECA/Amazon had simply provided a steady stream of codes such that you could generate them when needed for an order there would have been no need to "hoard" in the first place. While a small handful of people hoarded them to resell on eBay, most did so simply for their own use (because of the long periods when codes weren't available).

I admit I got a few games with 30% and 20% off - in some cases it was unavoidable since if you cancelled a preorder with one code and in the mean time had applied a newer one the stacking happened automatically.

I should note though that in most cases, Amazon made MORE money off of me than they would have without the ECA discount - even when I double and triple-stacked. Nearly every game I bought at full price but with the additional discount has been cheaper since then in various lightning deals or deals-of-the-day. Some games I bought with 20/30% off that have been cheaper since then: Persona PSP (multiple times), Ratchet & Clank, Katamari Forever, Magna Carta 2, Ghostbusters Slimer Edition, and a few others. In nearly every case I would not have bought these at full price (or even with the 5% gold box discount) without the additional ECA discount - and in every case they were available cheaper anyway within a month or so via other Amazon deals. So, yeah, they actually made more off me, anyway, with the ECA codes than they would have without.

So all this whining and fussing about stackers abusing the system is laughable to me. There is way more to the loss of the Amazon discount than the ECA is letting on - but they have a nice convenient scapegoat for it that apparently they keep harping on about.
 
this is what i am putting in my letter for all the people asking.

Dear E.C.A. ,

I (your name here) would like to cancel my account (your account name here) on your website www.theeca.com immediately as soon as this letteer is recived. Also I would like no further chrges placed on my credit information you have on file.

Sign Your Name
 
[quote name='darknight88']I can tell you guys there was a way to get more than 30% off w/ stacking and a few other steps but wont go into it.[/QUOTE]
Why not? Its not like we can do it anyways and ECA is never going to give us this discount again or be the same organization we would be a part of. I would like to know a bit of trivia. :)
 
[quote name='addicted2games']Why not? Its not like we can do it anyways and ECA is never going to give us this discount again or be the same organization we would be a part of. I would like to know a bit of trivia. :)[/QUOTE]
Since boatloads of members were joining for free with a membership code that Hal Halpin posted in Game Informer magazine, the Amazon discount codes were exhausted in a day or so (whereas normally it would take a few months to go through the codes). The ECA would then request Amazon rush a new set of codes for their members. In haste to make the codes, Amazon accidentally created codes that stacked with the old codes that had not yet expired; this happened twice. Thus, someone with all three codes could get 30% off their video games in an order.

Hal Halpin blames the current situation on people exploiting the stacking codes by creating deleting and creating new memberships to get more codes (which doesn't even make sense), which is why they had to make canceling accounts harder (which, again, doesn't make sense).
 
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[quote name='darknight88']I can tell you guys there was a way to get more than 30% off w/ stacking and a few other steps but wont go into it.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='Guerrilla']Since boatloads of members were joining for free with a membership code that Hal Halpin posted in Game Informer magazine, the Amazon discount codes were exhausted in a day or so (whereas normally it would take a few months to go through the codes). The ECA would then request Amazon rush a new set of codes for their members. In haste to make the codes, Amazon accidentally created codes that stacked with the old codes that had not yet expired; this happened twice. Thus, someone with all three codes could get 30% off their video games in an order.

Hal Halpin blames the current situation on people exploiting the stacking codes by creating deleting and creating new memberships to get more codes (which doesn't even make sense), which is why they had to make canceling accounts harder (which, again, doesn't make sense).[/QUOTE]

Yes, that was the way to get 30% off - but the quote above yours suggests there was some more shenanigans to get more of a discount and I have not heard of that before. I think we're all curious as to what that was (and gold box discount/trade-in codes/etc don't count since they are separate promos).

But this Hal dude is an idiot if he thought there was some connection between people creating and deleting accounts and the stacking. WTF!? I only ever had my one paid account until the very end when I signed my wife up (for free) because I thought they might come back with discounts tied to individual Amazon accounts and I wanted to make sure she had the discount to use going forward. I don't even see why there would be a reason to create and delete multiple ECA accounts unless there was some other promo they were exploiting - but that would have nothing to do with Amazon.

There was also no way to get the double or triple stacking unless you had codes left over from before so no amount of fiddling with the account or ECA codes would help you out if you just joined once the last set of codes was active.
 
Or this could all be a plot to get rid of free members who only wanted Amazon.com coupons. Once all free membership cancel their subscription, they would restart the amazon.com discount again.
 
[quote name='lostaccount']Or this could all be a plot to get rid of free members who only wanted Amazon.com coupons. Once all free membership cancel their subscription, they would restart the amazon.com discount again.[/QUOTE]
No.
 
[quote name='lostaccount']Or this could all be a plot to get rid of free members who only wanted Amazon.com coupons. Once all free membership cancel their subscription, they would restart the amazon.com discount again.[/QUOTE]

Yeah right, like anyone would want to be a part of this organization after all this.
 
LOL @ topic title.

And Amazon would be better off to start their own gamer's club with an annual fee if they want to give out 10% discounts rather than giving them away free to an organization with (at the very least) "tainted" credibility. C'mon Amazon...
 
[quote name='porieux']Doubtful Amazon would do business with them after this.[/QUOTE]
I honestly hope Amazon does a 10% off membership themselves, not even because I currently have issues with Teh ECA but something permanent would be nice. I have to pay tax on Amazon so it this would basically be taking it off.
 
[quote name='Vinny']You know logic isn't the ECA way. If it was, then they would've give out one time annual codes for Amazon.

But I agree with you. If there was abuse due to promotions than wouldn't it make more sense to stop the damn promotion? If having a electronic method of canceling member would lead to abuse then ban the people who are abusing the system.

As for your CC number changing, I'd be willing to bet they would send a collection agency after you. The ECA has proven they are petty and pathetic, and will do anything to demean the consumer.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='bigdaddybruce44']A couple of people in the other thread keep saying they can't use a collection agency against you, because they are a non-profit, but as usual with CAG, it's a bunch of armchair lawyers who can't actually point out where they are getting this info from. I honestly don't know the answer, but even if that's the law, I doubt that will stop them from trying, and it certainly won't stop a collection agency from gladly taking the cases. We're talking about the lowest form of scum on this planet...maybe even lower the ECA. They go after people who have the same name as the person with the debt. They will do anything to collect three pennies from an old lady. And if something shows up on your credit report, you're still going to have wait months to get it off, no matter whether you are in the right or not.[/QUOTE]

What's this other thread? I'm now officially...a bit more paranoid. I don't understand this group at all. You're an advocacy group who goes out of it's way to piss off the people you're advocating for?

As to those earlier BBB comments, it depends on the company you're dealing with. The ONLY time I've reported a company to the BBB was that horrible "Gameznflix". My account stopped working after a month, so I couldn't use the service, and couldn't log in to cancel the service. I submitted a half dozen or more requests to first fix, then cancel my service, and nothing happened. So I report them to the BBB, and Gameznflix completely ignore the BBB (which I think had a D or below rating from them, and said they usually ignored them).

Then I call my credit card company, and Gameznflix ignored THEM too-wouldn't answer the phone, talk to them, anything.

And...uh, yeah, don't use Gameznflix, if they're inexplicably still around.

But I'm hoping things don't go sideways like with that...
 
I received the following today. I looked back in this thread for when I contacted the ECA which was around November 12th. Take from this what you will. I'll still be watching my credit card.

Thank you for your letter requesting to terminate your membership with the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA). This notice is confirmation that your request has been processed and your membership in the organization is cancelled.

All credit card information relevant to processing your dues has been removed, so if you wish to re-join the association going forward new/updated payment information will need to be manually re-entered.

To re-join the ECA, please visit http://www.theeca.com.

Thank you.
Click to expand...


Edit: Poo... just read a few posts above.
 
Cancellation can now be done online from within your profile page finally, you can also opt for your membership to NOT auto renew
 
[quote name='sbains']Cancellation can now be done online from within your profile page finally, you can also opt for your membership to NOT auto renew[/QUOTE]
But won't they be overwhelmed?! They were stupid to remove it in the first place.
 
[quote name='sbains']Cancellation can now be done online from within your profile page finally, you can also opt for your membership to NOT auto renew[/QUOTE]

Yep, that was easy. Thanks for the update!
 
I can't wait until they say 'oops, that online re-release was an accident and never intended to work' so everyone rages for another two weeks.
 
ok so for the last few months i haven't been keeping track, but i just want to check, under my membership status it currently says auto renewal is turned off...so that means i'm good right?
 
My account currently says:

You Currently have a

ECA Full Membership

You have been an active member since:

XX/XX/2009 XX:XX:XX

Your payment history is:

Click here to view your order history

You used coupon code:

N/A

Your Membership term will expire:

05/06/2010 11:41:57

And will auto renew to:

N/A

Your auto-renewal feature is:

Off
Click to expand...
Does it mean I'm set now? I canceled it when they had the old feature that they allegedly claimed never worked and was never meant to be there.
 
[quote name='eau']Does it mean I'm set now? I canceled it when they had the old feature that they allegedly claimed never worked and was never meant to be there.[/QUOTE]
HINT: they lied.
 
[quote name='sbains']Cancellation can now be done online from within your profile page finally, you can also opt for your membership to NOT auto renew[/QUOTE]

I only see the option to opt out for auto renewal, but no where can I find cancellation.
 
What page is the option to cancel auto-renewal under? I can't find it and mine says it's set to auto renew.
 
[quote name='sbains']Cancellation can now be done online from within your profile page finally, you can also opt for your membership to NOT auto renew[/QUOTE]
thank you for this. just canceled :]
 
Goodbye and good riddance.

It was like a 5 step process:

1. No additional terms. Submit.
2. Hey look at these offers! Continue.
3. NO, turn off my auto-renew. Submit.
4. Come on, pleeeeaaaaase look at these offers! Continue.
5. YES! Cancel my subscription now.

Then they want feedback. nope.
 
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