Anyone else NOT get the "free" three month Apple TV+ extension that was automatically supposed to happen?

[kirsch92]

So frustrated with Apple.
The 3 month Apple TV+ extension never happened for me like it was supposed to beginning Nov 1st, despite receiving an e-mail saying it would occur automatically. I've been charged twice now, for both Nov and December and am on my second call with Apple support trying to figure it out. The first time I was promised I would be receiving a refund for each of those months, but instead they just keep taking the money out of my PayPal account.
It's only galling because of this sentence in the e-mail: "You don’t have to do anything — just keep watching for free until February 2021."
Well, I've spent several hours trying to recover 15 dollars plus tax.
Argh!!!!
Vent vent vent

 

[pmiles]

Did you verify they actually extended your subscription when you got the email?

Mine shows I am still on the 1 year free trial and my monthly subscription is due to charge on February 16th, 2021 (previously it was December 16th, 2020). Not everyone got a 3 month extension... depended on when you activated the trial.

This is what it changed to after receiving the email.

What does it show under subscriptions in Apple TV? I'm guessing it shows you on a monthly subscription because if it showed otherwise, you wouldn't be getting charged right now.

 

[kirsch92]

Did you verify they actually extended your subscription when you got the email?

Yeah, that was the problem. They sent me an e-mail saying I was extended. And then they didn't extend me. Which I verified. And they said I would get a refund each month when I called to find out why I hadn't been extended. And I didn't get my refund. So I had to call again.
And then I spent hours on the phone trying to fix it.
Eventually I got to supervisor who had to SEND IN a refund request for the two months I'd been charged already, because someone else had to do the review and approval.
They never did figure out what happened.
I fixed it myself by cancelling my subscription and resubscribing through a different Apple ID under my Family account and moved to Apple One at the same time, which meant losing my last "free" month, but at least I got my money back on the other months. Which now, seeing that they extended the subscriptions out to July, means I gave up on more free months of Apple TV +.
The whole ordeal was very un-Apple, and makes me think they ought to spend a little bit more money on behind the scenes infrastructure and support, and a little less worry on what shape the bezel will take on the next device upgrade.
Or perhaps have offered another free year for the giant PITA this was to get partially sorted.
I'm sure I was an anomaly, but this must have happened to other people as well.

 

[pmiles]

It sounds like the original issue was that you never actually received an extension, it would have posted to your subscription if it had. First Mac Rumors got everyone excited about the extension... then a week or two later people got an email from Apple saying there would be an extension... then a week or two later it actually showed up in your subscriptions as having been extended. It wasn't until they actually altered your subscription end date that it became "real". Up until then, it could have been purely a hoax or rescinded.

Now we're seeing this again for an extension to July... the same set of events will likely play out. Again, if you don't see it on your subscription page, it's not "real". Apple is contractually obligated to what it states on your subscription page, not what's on a promotion flyer. They aren't responsible for errors and omissions due to a promotion, only that which is actually stated on your subscription page. So until you see that date change, assume your billing cycle will occur exactly when they say it will.

Anyone who has bundled AppleTV+ with any other service will not get the extension as the two cannot be billed separately. Bundled services only make sense if you know you would have paid a subscription for each of the bundled services for the duration of the contract. If you only really utilize one and only dabble here and there in the others, you actually pay more because you would have naturally stopped billing on the services you aren't actually using. Bundles make that possibility impossible. You can only stop all services together, not individually.

Not really making a comment about the OP... just trying to put this out there for others who may find themselves in the same boat. It's easy to find yourself in the same boat when it's all wrapped up with the word "free" on it.

 

[jlc1978]

I just got the extension email and notice - they added the estension on to my existing subscription so I am good until 2021. I was surporised they did since I was on a free sub from Tmobile after my free one for an iPad purchase. I wonder how long they will keep it as a loss leader? They could include it with every Apple hardware device purchase and spread the cost over all sales so any price increase would be small; especially if they raised prices globally to cover the costs of running the service.

My guess their next move will be to add a TV service like ATT and Tmobile offer which would allow them to subsidize ATV+.