11 tomes for a 12 month subscription, not fair

NicFit · June 25

For the Tamerial Tomes I got 11 tomes because my subscription date was 10 days off. I can’t get the 12th tome and support just doesn’t care. I paid for 12 months but didn’t get 12 months worth of the items. Why would the date I purchased my subscription matter? Either we all should have gotten the 12 tomes or all gotten none, not this partial thing. It’s just sitting there never able to be used. I can’t even purchase one month to fix it because I have an active subscription

NicFit · June 27

Guess I’ll just cancel my eso plus subscription and move on, no point in paying for something I don’t get the full value out of. At least now the eso plus isn’t worth hardly anything any more so no big loss in playing without it, guess they don’t want people to pay for this game anymore

Aislinna · June 27

I'm guessing your yearly ESO+ subscription was renewed at end of November of beginning of December 2025. For the first season of tomes, subscriptions were pro-rated beginning with January (11/12). If you renew at the end of the year again, you'll get 12 caches/premium tokens for a 12 month subscription.

My subscription renewed in May, so for the first season, I received 4 and then received another 12 when it renewed this May. There has to be a starting cutoff point at some point. Just glad they used January instead of April when they actually started the tomes.

NicFit · June 29

My renewal was Dec 20, why would some get 12 but the date makes others get 11 or even less. What are you going to do with any less then 12 but let them sit there doing nothing permanently. I don’t understand why everyone didn’t get 12 that had an active subscription at the time. I’m not paying for eso plus again as I feel short changed

Lord_Greylock · June 30

The reason everyone didn't get 12 is because your sub started in December 2025. So you don't get credit for months prior to Jan 2026. The people who got 12 had year-long subs that started in 2026. No one got credit for months subbed prior to January 2026. It is absolutely fair. Like Aislinna tried to point out, you'll get the bonuses for Dec 2026 if you renew at the end of this year.

NicFit · June 30

I’ll get 12 tomes when it renews in December because I’m paying for it again but I still have 11 tomes I’ll never get to use. I had an active 12 month subscription and got short changed. It shouldn’t have mattered what month my renewal was. I payed for 12 months that was active and should have gotten 12 tomes. Any less is just an insult by saying those other months I payed for didn’t count. We should of gotten 12, I didn’t pay for 11 months at the time and whoever thought of what month I payed for was trying to be cheap to players, I’m just canceling my eso plus subscription since they don’t want to make this right. I’ve been paying eso plus for years and to say part of what I payed for didn’t count because of the month I payed in is total bs. I can’t do a thing with 11 tomes, has to be 12 tomes to use them and there is no way to get just one tome for me. Might as well as gave me no tomes. I’ve refused to play the season and won’t play it ever as I was just ripped off by giving me a useless amount of tomes compared to what I payed for

Lord_Greylock · June 30

Why can't you just pay a little extra for a month-to-month sub in Dec and then get your 12 tokens, then pick up a 12-month sub again? Seems a better option than to have 11 "useless" tome tokens. Sure, you won't get it right now, and you'll have to wait, but plenty of people are in the same situation. Not ideal, but it is a solution. You can rest easy knowing that no one is getting credit for any months subbed in 2025.

NicFit · July 1

So I have to pay extra just to fix this. What kind of scam is that? Are you even aware of what you just said? Pay more money to fix a problem they created. That’s what this is about. Here’s your 11 tomes, want to use them? Pay us more. This is some total bs grift that I’m not going to take part in. What kind of garbage is this that they are trapping people to pay more because my money was paid on an earlier date then others. I was unhappy about it before but now you let me know what this really is and I’m pissed off now. I’m done giving them money if they are just trying to rip me off like this

SeaGtGruff · July 1

I also got 11 tome caches for an annual subscription, which has been active without any interruptions for several years now. I was surprised when I saw people posting in the forums that they'd gotten 12 caches, but I figured I wouldn't fret about it.

NicFit · July 2

Knowing that people got 12 instead of 11 for the price I payed is disappointing and feels like I got ripped off. I’ve also been paying for several years and just think this isn’t a fair way. I’m not paying more to fix it and just going to cancel my subscription as I’m done wasting money on a company that doesn’t care

Attorneyatlawl · July 2

NicFit wrote: »

Knowing that people got 12 instead of 11 for the price I payed is disappointing and feels like I got ripped off. I’ve also been paying for several years and just think this isn’t a fair way. I’m not paying more to fix it and just going to cancel my subscription as I’m done wasting money on a company that doesn’t care

I actually agree with you. They should have just given anyone currently subscribed the number of tokens that matched their subscription length, regardless of how far in it was. It's stingy, feels bad for the customers this way, and would have had no real impact on them to do so. Having a cutoff for getting them is ridiculous.

Reminds me of when they changed the racial bonuses a bunch, and only wanted to give one free race respec token per account, despite having 8 characters. Community backlash resulted in them finally giving 3, which still wasn't enough...

NicFit · July 2

They are going to lose a paying customer, I haven’t done any of the seasons task hardly, I skipped the night market and just about done caring about this game anymore. I tried arguing with support and all they do is quote the cutoff dates and close the tickets

tsaescishoeshiner · July 3

I get why that may feel bad, especially since you can't just buy an extra month of ESO+ to get to 12. But it's fair to everyone with how they set up the Premium Tome Tokens to start collecting on a certain date.

If they push the start date back for you, should they also push it back for people who subbed a week before you, and on and on? There has to be a cutoff.

They already had it start months before the Tomes started to account for this, which was essentially extra Tokens for anyone who subscribed before the Tomes started. Without that, you would have several months fewer, and were already gifted these extras.

NicFit · July 3

To me if it was active everyone should have gotten 12 tomes, I don’t see your reasoning in partial. Did my money expire? Active is active, anything less is just bs

tsaescishoeshiner · July 3

Well, do you feel that if someone was active on the end of a 12-month sub with two weeks left when the token distribution started, they should have gotten all 12 tokens?

Then what about the people whose sub ended one week before that? One month?

My point is that whenever a cutoff date is decided, there's always another edge case just before it no matter how many times you move it.

Still, they could have somehow accounted for people who had 10-12 tokens and had to wait almost a year to get more, but I'm not sure how.

NicFit · July 4

Yes, I feel like if they had one day left they should have gotten the 12. I’m sure that’s what happened with some one month subscriptions. Did they scale that back for them? How about the three month subscriptions? They weren’t scaled back either. The cutoff date is bs, I had paid for the for 12 months at the time, why are you stingy and not giving me the full amount when others got it

Maitsukas · July 4

NicFit wrote: »

Yes, I feel like if they had one day left they should have gotten the 12. I’m sure that’s what happened with some one month subscriptions. Did they scale that back for them? How about the three month subscriptions? They weren’t scaled back either. The cutoff date is bs, I had paid for the for 12 months at the time, why are you stingy and not giving me the full amount when others got it

As someone with a 3-month subscription that got renewed in December 2025 and March 2026, I got 5 Premium Tome Tokens on March 30.

I wasn't making any complaints, since December - January counted as a 30 day period (which in turn didn't count for 1 Token), while January - February and February - March counted as 2 30-day periods (and in turn counted for 2 Tokens). The 90-day renewal in March counts for the 3 30-day periods of March - April, April - May and May - June, which gave me 3 Tokens.

hiyde · July 4

I'm still a little fuzzy on how this all works.

Let's say I have 8 tokens today. Tomorrow, I auto-renew for 12 months.

Will I have 20 tokens? Or am I getting capped at 12 and forfeit earning any more tokens until I spend the 12?

Maitsukas · July 4

hiyde wrote: »

I'm still a little fuzzy on how this all works.

Let's say I have 8 tokens today. Tomorrow, I auto-renew for 12 months.

Will I have 20 tokens? Or am I getting capped at 12 and forfeit earning any more tokens until I spend the 12?

There isn't a cap on how many Tokens you can have, once the transaction for the 12 month renewal is made, you get 12 Tokens immediately, bringing your total to 20.

NicFit · July 5

Maitsukas wrote: »

As someone with a 3-month subscription that got renewed in December 2025 and March 2026, I got 5 Premium Tome Tokens on March 30.

I wasn't making any complaints, since December - January counted as a 30 day period (which in turn didn't count for 1 Token), while January - February and February - March counted as 2 30-day periods (and in turn counted for 2 Tokens). The 90-day renewal in March counts for the 3 30-day periods of March - April, April - May and May - June, which gave me 3 Tokens.

So you got 2 months while paying for 3 months worth, it’s stingy and I’m just done supporting a company that will do bs like this. I’m canceling my eso plus as it’s not worth it anymore

tsaescishoeshiner · July 6

NicFit wrote: »

Maitsukas wrote: »

As someone with a 3-month subscription that got renewed in December 2025 and March 2026, I got 5 Premium Tome Tokens on March 30.

I wasn't making any complaints, since December - January counted as a 30 day period (which in turn didn't count for 1 Token), while January - February and February - March counted as 2 30-day periods (and in turn counted for 2 Tokens). The 90-day renewal in March counts for the 3 30-day periods of March - April, April - May and May - June, which gave me 3 Tokens.

So you got 2 months while paying for 3 months worth, it’s stingy and I’m just done supporting a company that will do bs like this. I’m canceling my eso plus as it’s not worth it anymore

Right, and so imagine if they got 3 months of credit for being partway through one month of their 3-month sub. Then what about the person whose sub had 4 months left? Would they get 4? If so, what about the person who had 4 month-to-month subs in that time? They paid, too, do they get credit? How far back does it go, and does that ever involve not picking a final cutoff date?

Every exception that's added, however obvious or fair it seems, brings up a new case to consider. I don't know what would be fair to everyone.

Premium tokens were also not a feature when people paid for ESO+ back then, so it's more of a free thing as a courtesy. You got 11 months of a perk that wasn't part of the benefit when you enrolled, before the Season system even started. Hopefully it doesn't mean you miss out on a reward you wanted, but all content is free now so most people can save money this way.

At least that's how I see it, I can't fairly expect everyone to feel the same about it, of course.

hiyde · July 6

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

Right, and so imagine if they got 3 months of credit for being partway through one month of their 3-month sub. Then what about the person whose sub had 4 months left? Would they get 4? If so, what about the person who had 4 month-to-month subs in that time? They paid, too, do they get credit? How far back does it go, and does that ever involve not picking a final cutoff date?

1 year / up to 12 tokens. That's how far back they should have gone: 1 token for each of the past 12 months ESO+ was active on Tomes launch day.

That would mean for anyone subbed for 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10+ years straight, they'd have been treated like the loyal customers they are instead of flushing up to 8 month's worth of tokens and/or putting people in a position of having to wait many months until they are up for renewal so they could get the free Premium+ pass option that 12 month subscribers after 1/1/26 got immediately.

From that point on, everyone is in the same boat. You get, up front, however many months you pay for at a time.

That's how I would have onboarded folks into this system.

NicFit · July 7

That’s why I feel ripped off, been paying for the subscription for years and they short change me. For someone who was loyal enough to pay when they didn’t have to pay I should have just been given the full amount. Why the cutoff dates, did my money expire and go bad so they had to throw it out? It’s a minor gift anyway, for someone that was supporting this game franchise over the years since Dagggerfall. And now I’m done, I’m just going to cancel my subscription and move on, not supporting a company that makes me feel like they just don’t care

Vondreas · July 9

NicFit wrote: »

That’s why I feel ripped off, been paying for the subscription for years and they short change me.

I just got forum access after saying I wouldn't renew.

These guys and gals are awesome.

NicFit · July 9

I’m not renewing either, if this is how they treat loyal paying fans then I’m not supporting them anymore. I haven’t played much since this short change scam anyway so no big loss now. Don’t know why they would make a player just hate a game over some weird cutoff dates

NicFit · July 9

Wtf? I just logged in and they converted 7127 of my points into gold. I thought the entire amount would be rolled over to next season. What a waste of a game this whole season thing is becoming

Pixiepumpkin · July 12

Moral of the story is to not pay up front for a 12 month sub to any game. There are a gazillion reasons why it will bite you in the bum.

I have played wow since 2004 and ESO since 2014. I did a yearly sub one time in wow and once for ESO. Neither of them panned out to be less expensive over the year becasue life kept me from playing for months. The savings for buying a year up front was undone by not being able to play because of things out of my control.

And then you have oddities like what has happened to you. When a customer pays a ton of money for something and they are not treated as valued customers, that is the fast track to losing a customer for life.

hiyde · July 13

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

Moral of the story is to not pay up front for a 12 month sub to any game. There are a gazillion reasons why it will bite you in the bum.

I have played wow since 2004 and ESO since 2014. I did a yearly sub one time in wow and once for ESO. Neither of them panned out to be less expensive over the year becasue life kept me from playing for months. The savings for buying a year up front was undone by not being able to play because of things out of my control.

And then you have oddities like what has happened to you. When a customer pays a ton of money for something and they are not treated as valued customers, that is the fast track to losing a customer for life.

Totally worth it for me. I'm paying $40/year less for each of my ESO+ subs and even the year I was in the hosp for 3.5 months it was roughly a breakeven situation vs. subbing monthly plus I collected and spent all those crowns.

The annual pricing boils down to $11.66/mo for $16.50 worth of crowns which for me is worth it even if I weren't playing dailiy. ymmv, of course.

I also don't regret my $300 LOTRO lifetime account, either!

NicFit · July 13

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

Moral of the story is to not pay up front for a 12 month sub to any game. There are a gazillion reasons why it will bite you in the bum.

I have played wow since 2004 and ESO since 2014. I did a yearly sub one time in wow and once for ESO. Neither of them panned out to be less expensive over the year becasue life kept me from playing for months. The savings for buying a year up front was undone by not being able to play because of things out of my control.

And then you have oddities like what has happened to you. When a customer pays a ton of money for something and they are not treated as valued customers, that is the fast track to losing a customer for life.

Up until this I was happy with eso plus, as the post above said it’s a good value versus the monthly price. I think they should have just given the full amount no matter when you got it as I’ve never been short changed like this in any other game subsection because of the date of purchase. And they are losing a loyal customer over it. I went from enjoying playing the game to the point I’m not even keeping my items stocked in the alliance trader anymore. You introduce something it’s better to give the players a bonus so they associate it with a positive then give a negative as now I don’t care for the seasons since it’s all about spending money and not really getting anything in return if you don’t

Aliniel · July 13

So, by this logic, if you start your life insurance on January 1st, 2026, and you broke your hand in December 2025, you will go after the insurance company and cry to them about it?

Tomes are a new thing. They needed a cutoff date. If they accepted your case as an exception, Pete or Susan will come and cry about why November wasn't included. Then Billy and Jane will cry about October.

This is the same as if you were complaining about not having access to a chapter prior to its release.

The solution is fairly simple. Sub for 1 month to get only one token if you don't want to have "11 useless tokens".

hiyde · July 13

Aliniel wrote: »

So, by this logic, if you start your life insurance on January 1st, 2026, and you broke your hand in December 2025, you will go after the insurance company and cry to them about it?

Tomes are a new thing. They needed a cutoff date. If they accepted your case as an exception, Pete or Susan will come and cry about why November wasn't included. Then Billy and Jane will cry about October.

This is the same as if you were complaining about not having access to a chapter prior to its release.

The solution is fairly simple. Sub for 1 month to get only one token if you don't want to have "11 useless tokens".

And what would have been the downside of giving annual subscribers credit for the 12 months they paid for instead of an arbitrary 4 month cutoff?

People who bought lesser subs got their free battlepass quicker than those who bought the most expensive subs, they're forced to wait up to many months to earn 12 tokens. Make that make sense.

Is it the end of the world? No. But would it have been a wise PR choice? I really think so.