Shmoop.com - ACE courses Locked Out this morning (9/17)

[allvia]

I have a current Shmoop monthly subscription that does not expire/renew until the end of month (9/29). However they have rolled out their new ACE recommended price plan as of this morning, and I have been locked out of all the courses I had started (History and Math). I have sent them a support request. When I signed up it was for a 1 month subscription that gave me access to ALL their courses, and I do not feel it right for them to force me to upgrade mid-subscription. When you try to access the courses it sends you to a sign up for the $87.68 monthly plan page. Again, I am only trying to access courses I had already started.

[hsfamfun]

I just had him check and my son is locked out of the two courses he is working on too. I just plan on contacting them and addressing the issue. I am hoping that they simply let him finish the two he was working on. We have 5 months left in the 6 month plan I purchased. He is also using the ACT prep and that is available to use.

[allvia]

I simply think they should honor the terms of the current subscription(s). In my case it was 30 days for ALL courses, for your son it was 6 months. Like you, I'm not asking for more than what we agreed to when we signed up. I guess we will have to wait until we hear back - hopefully we don't have to wait until after the weekend. It was my plan to work on the courses all weekend.

[jsd]

This goes against what they told ndelcollo after an email asking to clarify the wording on their site..

Thanks for taking one of Shmoop's ACE CREDITÂ recommended courses. Because we're all about transparency, we wanted to let you know that within about a month, we will be adjusting our subscription plans, and the price of a subscription that includes our ACE CREDIT recommended courses will likely increase.

If you choose to upgrade your subscription at that time, you will not lose any progress in your courses, but you will need to upgrade in order to continue accessing our ACE CREDIT recommended courses.

That is from the course description on one of the current ACE approved History courses. Am I the only one who is concerned that they will make you upgrade to the $87 or whatever price immediately when the price increase happens and not just if you need another month? Like if I pay $25 today to subscribe for the month and then on the 27th will I have to pay extra to get to the new price to continue in my course? Normally I'd assume you would finish the subscription month at the original price but the way that is worded has me wondering. The parts I stressed are the phrases that I am talking about.

Hi There,

You will be able to continue to access the course at $24.68 per month but not start a new ACE course when we start College Plus. If you want to start a new course then you will need to cancel your current subscription and buy College Plus.

All the best,
Shmoop Help

This answer is in regards to having a current subscription when the price increases. So I guess if you are taking all 3 History courses and are active in them before the 26th, you'll be able to finish those 3 without having to pay the new price. So as long as you start them before the 26th, you won't have to kill yourself to finish.

[sacredrain]

I agree with everyone. My friend who is working on her associates degree was locked out also. I checked the site and saw that one has to buy their new subscription plan to access the courses. Bad business in my opinion but still a bargain at the price mentioned.

[Toastmaster]

Wow.....let's hope that it was/is technical difficulties/Lean Start-up issues, and that this will be corrected shortly (with an apology! And perhaps future discounts!)

[CGaboury]

They locked me out as well. However, they really haven't 'locked' you out. they just added a page redirect. Go to your browser history and find a URL for the actual course you're looking to work on. Make sure you're logged in and cookied. It'll bring you to the page you want. I did this and completed a few classes already today. I plan to do this till they fix the obvious oversight. I paid for a service for a contracted amount of time. They cant change it till I'm up for renewal, which is in 28 days.

[jsd]

They locked me out as well. However, they really haven't 'locked' you out. they just added a page redirect. Go to your browser history and find a URL for the actual course you're looking to work on. Make sure you're logged in and cookied. It'll bring you to the page you want. I did this and completed a few classes already today. I plan to do this till they fix the obvious oversight. I paid for a service for a contracted amount of time. They cant change it till I'm up for renewal, which is in 28 days.

Sneaky, but nice find.

[CGaboury]

I reached out to Shmoop regarding this. Here's the email I sent:

"So I know that you guys recently decided to change your pricing for the ACE recommended courses. I started my subscription 3 days ago and today you locked me out because of this update in subscription fees. How is this justified? Shouldn't this price increase be something I'm subject to once my current month is over? I was in the middle of a course and it's now not permitting me to continue. It seems incredibly unfair to change the policy mid subscription when people signed up for a specific service at a specific price. From my point of view, I authorized you to charge me for a service and then once paid, you remove it. That's not right. I agree with you that the new price is still a very good deal, and I'm certain that I will continue my membership after this initial month at the more expensive rate. However, I strongly believe that it's unethical to block people from the services they signed up for."

And their response:

"We apologize for the inconvenience and are working as quickly as possible to get you access to your course again."

[allvia]

And their response:

"We apologize for the inconvenience and are working as quickly as possible to get you access to your course again."

I sent them a similar request yesterday and received the exact response this morning.