Why it's so difficult to Downgrade from Premium Plus to Premium?
Hello WA Fam,
I hope you're all doing well. I am sharing my recent experience and seek your guidance on changing my membership plan from premium+ to Premium.
I have a lot of back and forth email conversations with WA support team and I am also in contact with Kyle.
what's the issue?I have been a WA Premium member since I joined WA way back in 2016. In between sometimes, I upgraded to Premium+ for specific series going on.
A few months back, I joined Premium+ for a series, and now I want to downgrade to Premium.
However, I am not able to, as the system prompted me to pay for a yearly subscription again, even though my current Premium membership is valid until November 2024, and it's not showing a pro-rated price.
but if I "resubscribe" as a Premium member, the support team says, "If you have more than 3 websites, you are going to have to delete all of the extra ones as Premium only allows for 3 websites."
However, when I joined Wealthy Affiliate back in 2016, I had 50 websites associated with my account. Over the years, with every Black Friday offer, those websites were grandfathered into my membership. Therefore, I believe my account should still allow more than three websites, as when I initially joined.
I've reached out to the support team multiple times, but the issue persists. Today once again I contacted Kyle, and waiting for his reply.
Has anyone else encountered a similar issue when trying to downgrade from Premium Plus to? If so, how did you resolve it?
Thank you all in advance,
Warm Regards,
Jivita
Recent Comments
17
Just want to update, that this is not the first time I upgraded to PP and then downgrade, but still never had any problem.
Here is the invoice for 2021-22
they have changed the platform memberships and now upgrades and downgrades are to the new memberships....no legacy memberships - if you leave it you lose it ...
shame they don't tell you before you upgrade nowadays.....
Your grandfathered in as long as you stay at premium plus. If you wanna go back to premium. Then you can only have three websites. But before you do the switch, you can transfer your other websites to another hosting service.
if you goto upgrade does it say grandfathered against the websites - if not then it has put you on a new scheme as you went monthly....
i really hope that kyle is able to put you back on the old scheme - although i doubt it ...
i did ask about taking a year out and coming back on the grandfathered payment as most other sites do- but nope, new account lose all your priviliges - so it is either stay or lose most....
good luck Jivita, i hope you are able to get back what you started with....
Hey Jivita,
As far as I'm aware, "Grandfathered" on a "no longer available membership" will only ever count as long as you NEVER leave that membership.
So, everyone who joined WA before March 20th 2020 will have the 50 websites (25 and 25) and they will remain being "grandfathered" to that "former" membership deal, forever potentially, as long as they DON'T CHANGE their membership status.
I kinda understand the point of "you can't return to a membership deal that is no longer offered", however, I do think the details for upgrading to PP from an "older Premium version" should be explained much better.
Realistically, if someone has a pre-2020 Premium account with hmmm, let's say, 15 websites hosted, they essentially wouldn't be able to upgrade to the new version of Premium Plus (at the "normal" price) because the "new" Premium Plus only allows for 10 sites hosted.
Sure, it's a fantastic thing to have grandfathered membership, but I guess it should be made a little clearer about the potential "losses" that could occur from upgrading.
I would say that the only person on the entire platform who can decide whether you can return to a membership deal "that is no longer available" is KYLE!
I'd also leave a message on his profile to contact you regarding membership, and at a guess, he'll be in Live Chat within 3-4 hours of you writing this blog post.
Partha
I am waiting for Kyle's reply Partha, since it's not mentioned anywhere, that once you upgrade to PP, you will lose your 50 websites.
Yup, that's what I meant by "It could be explained better" on the platform, by Kyle, or someone else in "authority".
I do understand it from Kyle's point of view, but there should be an explanation of this somewhere on the platform.
Realistically, what I'm saying is the Premium 50 websites membership is NO LONGER AVAILABLE, i.e. a NEW member cannot take up this membership option.
However, if you are CURRENTLY ON that membership, you will remain on that membership indefinitely until you leave the platform, or until an announcement is made that it is no longer available.
However, even "upgrading to PP for just ONE month" will mean that you have "left" your previous membership, and as the Premium 50 websites membership is no longer offered, you can't return to it.
That being said, it is Kyle who will need to deal with this, obviously, I can't speak for him, but he is the only person who can return you to a "grandfathered deal that is NO LONGER offered by Wealthy Affiliate".
Sorry, for your pain, and I agree, the details of what happens to "older" Premium memberships should be explained better somewhere on the platform (perhaps even as a "warning" prior to upgrading).
Yes Partha, so far I have created 5 websites that are up and running. If I had known that once I upgrade to PP, I would lose my websites, why would I have upgraded? What I am not clear about is when my premium membership is valid till Nov. 2024, why does the system ask me to pay again for the whole year?
Hmmm, I totally get your frustration, but just reading Diane's response and replies back, this is how I see it (and no it doesn't help you, sorry).
Let's say you renewed in November 2023 at a previous Black Friday deal, so $299.
That is the more-or-less the equivalent of $25 per month.
So, up until February 2024 you have "used" 3 months of your Premium membership, so the equivalent of $75.
This leaves your "membership balance" at $224.
You then upgrade to Premium Plus MONTHLY, this will take $99 from that balance, thus leaving your membership balance at $125.
However, the system will look at this as, "You have LEFT Premium Membership and upgraded to Premium Plus, therefore you are NOW a Premium Plus Member".
So as of today, let's say you have a total of $125 left in your "membership pot", this isn't enough for ANNUAL Premium, this is only enough for 2.5 months of Premium Membership ($49 per month, remember the "grandfathered deal you WERE on is NO LONGER AVAILABLE).
THIS is why I say that there should be a full explanation, and even a WARNING, when people choose to upgrade from Premium to Premium plus, especially for those pre-March 2020 Premium Members.
As I mentioned above, imagine if a pre-March 2020 PREMIUM member has created 25 websites, would they be allowed to upgrade to Premium Plus, as PP NOW only offers TEN hosted websites?
As far as I'm aware, upgrading to Premium Plus CANCELS your previous Premium Membership.
Sure you can return to Premium at any time, but under the NEW Premium membership rules.
I guess this is what SiteSupport was trying to say to you.
It's a bit of a mess, so I completely understand your frustration, we'll ALL have to wait to see what Kyle says.
It's not about math, Partha. What Wealthy Affiliate offers at $49 for Premium is worth more than just $49. Websites, hosting, plethora of trainings, along with access to weekly WAbinars, unlimited usage of the keyword research tool Jaaxy, are so valuable.
I think Kyle built WA on a very generous foundation. When Premium Plus was introduced, Kyle allowed all Premium members to keep their 50 websites. At that time, he never mentioned that joining Premium Plus would result in losing access to websites.
With one decision, Kyle would restrict all Premium members who joined before 2020 from even trying Premium Plus. Let's face it, no one wants to lose their websites.
Let's say there are just 10,000 members who joined before 2020. I'm sure there are many more than this, but let's take this as an example. These 10,000 people will never try Premium Plus because they always fear that they will lose their websites.
And let's consider this: if there is no restriction, and even if just 1,000 members try Premium Plus for just a month every year, that's great revenue.
I hope Kyle considers these points and provides some clarity on the matter soon.
I'm glad I read this, and I'm sorry to hear about this issue. I've been a premium member since 2018 and after reading this there is no way will I ever try the Premium Plus.
I agree that this is a very deceptive business practice. Whenever I renew I get a message about how great Premium Plus is, but I've never seen a disclaimer stating what I'll lose if I decide it's not for me.
I know it's Kyle's job to make money, but sometimes doing the right thing should take priority.
I wish you luck with this situation.
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I have changed my account to Premium from P+, but it still shows as Premium Plus, which is confusing because I haven't paid for Premium Plus this month and I have canceled my subscription to P+.
I am adding the screenshot which reads that I'll remain a Premium Plus member until the 25th of this month, even though I have not subscribed for PP.