G2A charging users account fee for not logging in for 180 days?

[Bouzoo]

So this is unexpected, yet not surprising. This picture was posted yesterday on Reddit from a user who got maield by G2A:

 

 

G2A also responded: 

Quote

G2A PAY charges an inactivity fee after someone has not logged into their G2A.COM account for 180 days. An e-mail is sent 3 days before the charge to remind the user and allow them to log in and easily avoid the fee. This fee is €1 and is taken from the user’s G2A Wallet (if there are no funds on the Wallet, PAY does not charge anything). Another €1 will be taken each month that the user stays inactive. If they log in, the timer resets itself and they have another 180 days before they are charged. If there are no funds left (or no funds to begin with) on their G2A Wallet, then the account is set to inactive. All a user needs to do to reactivate it is log back into G2A.COM. We never force the user to make a transaction or do anything with the funds. It’s just to let the system know the user is active, and the account has not been abandoned.

Why do we do this? To try and explain in as few words as we can:

It costs money to upkeep accounts (IT infrastructure, server maintenance, etc.) and if someone does not use the account, it doesn’t make sense to upkeep it. We don’t require these users to buy anything, just log in at least once every 6 months, just so that we know they are still with us. As a financial institution we are also monitored, supervised, and audited and have to back up and explain all our accounts and the funds stored on these accounts. Once an account may be considered “abandoned,” we take certain steps to make sure we are in line with all regulations, jurisdictions and laws.

 

This right here is some next level garbage. The most interesting part is:

Quote

It costs money to upkeep accounts

At least this is usual practice for every company since it costs money, must be why they are doing it. Obvious sarcasm. 

I am not sure how to even respond to this. Considering the big AMA fiasco (example), G2A just keeps on giving. 

 

What do you think?

[Brooksie359]

Well i guess that is one way to push people away from their platform. 

[sof006]

Pretty sure that's illegal. I'll be checking I don't have an account and if I do deleting it

[Guest]

They are stealing your money, pushing their members away from their platform therefore leaving them with a bad reputation. And how does it cost money to keep an account up and running, that is absurd! For the most part, how do they know that you haven't logged into your account for a while, sounds like they are sniffing around with your data. Get your shit together G2A!!!!

[FloRolf]

[Enderman]

30 minutes ago, sof006 said:

Pretty sure that's illegal. I'll be checking I don't have an account and if I do deleting it

Pretty much everything on G2A is illegal.

[Tech_Dreamer]

i could assume it's due to server maintenance issues & other greedy cost issues that might be behind this , but damn the alternate should be just removing the persons account , but forcibly charging them for not logging back in is a seriously low ass dick move.

 

But although you should know any company's clause change is inevitable against your favor  when you pressed that "Accept/Agree & continue"  button to start using their services under their terms & conditions.

[WereCatf]

1 hour ago, Bouzoo said:

It costs money to upkeep accounts

The thing is, it doesn't cost any more to upkeep an inactive account than it does to upkeep an active account. Maintaining the infrastructure does cost some money, yes, but they're going to have to maintain it anyways, if they wish to allow people to have accounts in the first place, so that can't be blamed on the inactive accounts. Also, individual accounts take something like 50KB of space at a guess, which means storage-costs per account are, quite literally, nil.

 

TL:DR; it's just unadulterated bullshit.

[Bouzoo]

Just now, WereCatf said:

The thing is, it doesn't cost any more to upkeep an inactive account than it does to upkeep an active account. Maintaining the infrastructure does cost some money, yes, but they're going to have to maintain it anyways, if they wish to allow people to have accounts in the first place, so that can't be blamed on the inactive accounts. Also, individual accounts take something like 50KB of space at a guess, which means storage-costs per account are, quite literally, nil.

 

TL:DR; it's just unadulterated bullshit.

I am not sure if you're quoting me, but just for clearance, I said obvious sarcasm. 

[thexzenon]

Another reminder not to use this piece of (sorry, just discovered emojis on the forum)

[D13H4RD]

And yet, people still buy from them... 

[WereCatf]

14 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

I am not sure if you're quoting me, but just for clearance, I said obvious sarcasm. 

I was technically quoting them, I just forgot to edit the quotation properly, as I'm busy doing multiple things and my concentration isn't quite there. Sorry.

[WereCatf]

13 minutes ago, thexzenon said:

Another reminder not to use this piece of (sorry, just discovered emojis on the forum)

[Jito463]

1 hour ago, PC_Master said:

For the most part, how do they know that you haven't logged into your account for a while, sounds like they are sniffing around with your data.

Actually, that's the simplest thing for them to check.  Any time you log into an account anywhere, the server records that data.  They don't even have to access your account to see how long ago since you've logged in.  Anyone with administrative access can see that very easily.  I can do the same with other accounts in Windows, by checking the logs.

[colonel_mortis]

Quote

It costs money to upkeep accounts (IT infrastructure, server maintenance, etc.) and if someone does not use the account, it doesn’t make sense to upkeep it.

Nonsense. Taking the LTT forum as an example, each user takes up maybe 1kB in the database (ignoring posts etc). You can get an enterprise grade 1TB hard drive for maybe $150. That means each account costs 0.000015¢ in storage space. And it's not like they can fee up that space if the account is inactive.

Of course, there are other costs involved with having space for the disk, backups, power, a system capable of processing the data, etc, but they still come to fractions of cents per month.

There are probably other costs involved with being a financial institution, but €1/mo is just them trying to make money off people for nothing.

Edited December 22, 2018 by colonel_mortis

[NumLock21]

The reason why g2a exist is because some people would rather save a buck or two, instead of paying the actual amount for the game or buy from a reputable place like Steam. They're the back alley of the digital gaming market.

[Noctus]

3 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

The reason why g2a exist is because some people would rather save a buck or two, instead of paying the actual amount for the game or buy from a reputable place like Steam.

Can save a helluva lot more than a "buck or 2".

[TetraSky]

I only have 0.59$ in my account from selling a key I didn't have any use for and it cost 3,12$ in fees to transfer it. Yeah not worth it.

 

Can't even buy anything either, I'm literally 1¢ under to buy anything due to their fees.

 

Honestly, this kind of shit is why I never link any credit card or my paypal account, to anything in a permanent way. I'd rather have to re-enter my info when buying something, than for them to just randomly charge me for shit. (I know they are taking it from your wallet, but still scummy)

[Noctus]

4 hours ago, Bouzoo said:

-snip-

I do find this odd tho. Checked my email and the last time i bought something from them was Sept 5 last year.

 

Received no other emails about inactive accounts etc. Even checked to reset password for my email to check and yup, i have an account. Guess ill check my bank statements.

[Bouzoo]

2 minutes ago, Noctus said:

I do find this odd tho. Checked my email and the last time i bought something from them was Sept 5 last year.

 

Received no other emails about inactive accounts etc. Even checked to reset password for my email to check and yup, i have an account. Guess ill check my bank statements.

I haven't used it for years and no problem, but I've seen multiple people on Reddit get it. 

[TetraSky]

2 minutes ago, Noctus said:

I do find this odd tho. Checked my email and the last time i bought something from them was Sept 5 last year.

 

Received no other emails about inactive accounts etc. Even checked to reset password for my email to check and yup, i have an account. Guess ill check my bank statements.

Do you have any remaining balance on your G2A wallet? If not, you're not paying anything. 

It would be like Steam taking money out of your steam wallet, they won't be taking it from your bank account.

[NumLock21]

20 minutes ago, Noctus said:

Can save a helluva lot more than a "buck or 2".

It's a figure of speech.

So is steam, can save a hell lot when you buy games during their sales period.

[Noctus]

13 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

Do you have any remaining balance on your G2A wallet? If not, you're not paying anything. 

It would be like Steam taking money out of your steam wallet, they won't be taking it from your bank account.

Ah right, i figured the bank details would somehow get used to charge the money instead of just using the wallet. Guess im safe.

[Noctus]

10 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

It's a figure of speech.

So is steam, can save a hell lot when you buy games during their sales period.

Yeah steam has big event sales. But i've seen G2A with consistently lower prices throughout the year, and bought things from them because of it.

[Bouzoo]

2 minutes ago, Noctus said:

Ah right, i figured the bank details would somehow get used to charge the money instead of just using the wallet. Guess im safe.

Without your consent, if G2A would charge you directly from bank, no matter which country you live in, that would be illegal.