Expired Neocash :(

[beanmommy]

I've won/gotten various bits of Neocash over the months, but haven't given much thought to spending it. I thought I'd read somewhere (maybe here?) that TNT would Neomail me before any of it expired so I could spend it, so I figured I'd just deal with it then. But today I got this message:

Subject: Expired Neocash

Message:

Hello beanmom,

You had a balance of 150 NC that expired on 2009-06-07. We have given you the following item(s) in exchange for the expired Neocash.

* Pirate Music Track
* Darigan Citadel Fencing
* Kiko Lake Fencing

These items have been added to your inventory. Please be sure to place them in your closet to customise your Neopet.

Please refer to the NC Mall Shopping Rules to read our policy on Neocash Expiration.

The Neopets Team

(Yes, the broken link on the Rules is as it came to me, bleh.)

So I'm annoyed, not because I lost some of my NC (easy come, easy go, right?), but because I got stupid random Neohome items and I don't even have a Neohome and I don't want one but I can't give away the stuff. *grump*

[B55B55]

That's really stupid. They really should send you a neomail a week before the neocash expires not just after. It's not as if that would be difficult from a technological perspective. I don't see any real reason why they do it this way actually.

In fact, I think periodic reminders might encourage people to spend NC. For example they could remind users at 6 months, 3 months, 1 month and 2 weeks, 1 week and one day. People would be happier if they got to pick their own prizes, and being reminded that one had NC might motivate one to spend it, and consequently to buy more.

I'm a bit worried about the same thing happening to me. Particularly since I only have free NC so it has a number of different expiration dates. I'm glad to see that my Expellibox prize is finally showing up on my Neocash Log however. It wasn't for at least the first year of Neocash. So at least I know when that will expire now.

On an unrelated note I'm surprised how much free NC I've ended up with. I hope they keep trickling it out that way.

[Siniri]

That is annoying that they don't send you a warning beforehand. You can use your Neopets diary to set a reminder date for yourself. I've never used the feature, so I'm not sure how it works (i.e., whether it sends you a neomail to remind you of the reminder). I've set up two reminders -- one for a few minutes from now and one from tomorrow to test whether I get a neomail reminder. Or you could use your Outlook calendar, Facebook (set up a private event just for you), or Amazon gift organizer (give your NC its expiration date as its birthday, and you'll get a reminder a few weeks before -- just delete them after you spend so you don't get the reminder again the following year). Just set a reminder as soon as you get NC each time and you'll never get stuff you don't want again.

I'll update this tomorrow to let you know how the Neodiary reminder works (I got no reminder for the 10am one, but that could have been because I created it after reminders are normally sent out).

[Lee]

At least they gave you something. Could have been much worse.

But I agree, a weeks notice is the least that the NT could do.

[Rauven]

You at least got something...

I noticed i had 0 NC balance, and sent a bug report. After awhile, i got this message:

Hi,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. You have noticed your Neocash Balance go down because any unused Neocash that is over a year old expires, and this is what happened in your case. Normally, when Neocash expires, Neomail is sent to your account informing you of this, and Neocash item/s of equal value are purchased for you and are sent to your Inventory. Unfortunately, we have been experiencing some technical difficulties due to the recent upgrade/maintenance of the NC Mall, and you have not yet received the Neocash items or the Neomail even if your Neocash expired. We are currently working on a fix for this though, and you should receive your Neocash item/s soon. We apologize for any inconvenience and confusion this may have caused!

Best Regards,

Bernadette Plana
Neopets, NC Mall

So i guess i will get something as unuseful/ugly/just plain stupid as you, if not more....

[ginny-ROX]

So thats where all my neocash went and you know what I'm annoyed
It wasn't a year old
I didn't get anything of TNT
and they tricked me because Half the time it would say NC:200 and then the other half it would say NC:50
so annoyed with TNT

[Siniri]

Just an update that the Neodiary does not seem to send out any kind of reminder. It does highlight the dates with stuff on it, so if you could remember to look at your Neodiary at the start of every month, you could see at a glance when your NC will expire -- but then again, you could do the same by remembering to check your NC log once a month.

I'd suggest submitting an editorial question about it -- if they can set up automatic reminders and auto-buying once it expires, it should be easy to set a 1-week reminder neomail about it. I understand why they have the policy from both a legal and accounting perspective... and really, you could view it to be similar to gift cards, which often expire with no warning as well (and then you can't redeem them at all). But still, since it'd be easy to set up a reminder system and would improve customer service and might actually increase NC sales, there's no reason why they shouldn't.

FYI, for those who only have free NC (non-QEB), the next expiration date is Halloween.

ETA: I also just got a message about expired NC! It was sent today and said:

You had a balance of 125 NC that expired on 2009-06-15. We have given you the following item(s) in exchange for the expired Neocash.

* Warm Tyrannia Lamp
* Kiko Lake Fencing

These items have been added to your inventory. Please be sure to place them in your closet to customise your Neopet.

Please refer to the NC Mall Shopping Rules to read our policy on Neocash Expiration.

The thing is, I had 400NC in my account as of yesterday, and I still do as of right now. In addition, my NC log stands as thus:

DATE METHOD PAYMENT NEOCASH AMOUNT
2009-04-08 SPRINGNC01 0 USD 50 NC
2009-04-02 DAILYDARE0 0 USD 150 NC
2009-01-18 PRIZE 0 USD 150 NC
2008-10-31 TRICKORTRE 0 USD 50 NC
2008-04-10 FREE NC 0 USD 150 NC
2007-11-30 PRIZE 0 USD 150 NC

when I found out about NC expiring, I ended up purchasing a couple of items for my sand/beach gallery, which should have used up the first two batches of NC. Of course this was a while ago, so it might have only used the first batch and not all of the second batch -- but my NC has been at 400 for at least almost a week, and those items did appear in my gallery just today. So I don't know if my NC actually went poof back in April and they forgot to notify me and give me the items then, or if they just made a mistake... so of course now I don't know what to do. I guess since I honestly don't know if they made a mistake or not, they can always take them out of my account if they realize they did.

ETA again: Okay, PPT saved me from my confusion. I found a post I made that shows my NC did expire in April with 125 NC left -- it definitely disappeared from my account a while ago, but they didn't give me the items. At least one of them fits my gallery theme. *sighs*

[a_neezles_a]

Well, the items do make up for it

[Arka]

Where is a neodiary or a neocash log?

I can't find them?

[Siniri]

For the NC log, go to the NC mall, and click on NC account on the left-hand menu towards the bottom of the page. Then click on Neocash log. You'll get a list of when you acquired your NC. It does not list when you used them, though. You'll have to figure out which acquisitions are still outstanding based on how much NC you have on hand. For example, where I posted my log before, I had 400 NC outstanding, which were from the4 most recent acquisitions:
2009-04-08 SPRINGNC01 0 USD 50 NC
2009-04-02 DAILYDARE0 0 USD 150 NC
2009-01-18 PRIZE 0 USD 150 NC
2008-10-31 TRICKORTRE 0 USD 50 NC

NC expire after 1 year, so my 50 NC from 10/31/08 will expire on 10/31/09.

To get to your Neodiary, go to the Neomail page, and click on diary at the top. It's kinda useless, though, so I'm not sure why you'd want to use it.

[Arka]

Thank you very much! I didn't know about either of these.

[B55B55]

Maybe they're improving the system. I have some free NC that I need to use up, looks like from the expelibox, and I just got the following neomail. So it looks like they're warning me 60 days in advance to use it up.

Neocash Expiration Notice
Message:

You currently have unused Neocash that will expire in 60 days.

When Neocash expires (usually one year from purchase date) it no longer shows in your balance of available Neocash.

The amount of 150 NC is set to expire on 2009-09-05. In exchange for this amount of 150 NC, you will be given Neocash item(s) of equal or greater value after the expiration date.

If you would like to spend the remaining Neocash yourself, please visit the NC Mall today.
Please refer to the NC Mall Shopping Rules to read our policy on Neocash Expiration.

The Neopets Team

[ginny-ROX]

Your lucky you got a warning