Pre-Order Bug?: Popup warning for trial account about to expire on my real account!

I pre-ordered EotN when it first came out to get the cool new pre-order items. Just a few minutes ago, I got a big red popup in my game saying something like: Warning, you have approximately 1 hour remaining in your trial period. I was too shocked to take a screen shot before it disappeared. I know that pre-ordering gives you access to a trial key for a friend, but it seems like my account may have become a trial account.

I'll let you guys know if my account gets locked or if this message is harmless. Has anybody else experienced this?

its not a bug, its a bad decision by anet. the preorder comes with a trilogy trial key. if you order in the in-game store, it applies it to your account automatically whether you have the campaigns or not. you still have your full access, you just have a trial key on top of that. your account will be fine, you just miss out on getting a key to give to a friend.

Aye, but its not just the ingame store, its also the retail prerelease key that does it aswell...

bad job ANet... Fail!

had same, Anet should have given 2 seperate codes

just got mine =o 30 mins for factions left.

Yep, a pretty dumb idea if you ask me. They should have e-mailed buddy keys instead. They were a total waste on my account that already has the full versions of all the campaigns.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...rden/gw013.jpg

Just had the NF trial run out for me while playing factions lol.

Oh well, it's great to have trial keys auto-added for FULL accounts that don't need them. I'm glad I didn't pay one dollar more. ;-p

This happened to me as well, and also to our Guild leader. I've written to NC support about this and I recommend that you do as well so they become aware of the magnitude of the problem.

You do get a totally bizarre response though, so be warned. In fact, it's so bizarre I'm wondering whether support actually got my support call and I'm being scammed by a hijacker site.

I wrote:
I bought the pre-release bonus pack from the online store accessed through the GW login. While I was playing yesterday, I got a message that I had 30 minutes of my trial key left.
Why does the trial key apply to my account when I already have all three campaigns? I would much rather give it to a friend than waste it on myself.

The response I got:
Thank you for writing in about your problem. However, before we can assist you, we will need you to verify some information. While we apologize for what may seem like an inconvenient extra step, this is a necessary security measure which ensures that we are only dealing with the actual account owner and not an unauthorized user:

What is your 25 digit access key:
What email address have you used when you created your account:
Which version of the game have you bought (Standard/Collector's/Special):
When and where have you bought the game (shop name and address):

In addition to providing us with this information, could you please scan or photograph the actual insert showing the key and the receipt of purchase and send this to us as an attachment?

??

Clearly it's an automated response and they didn't read the original, but I responded again and am awaiting further feedback from them. They have been helpful in the past.

Maybe we will see a further spate of bots from the scammers.

This has been brought up in at least 4 threads already and Gaile is suposed to be looking into it.
but anyway
Same message but can still play OK
Why we had to get this added automatically is beyond me if you already had the 3 campaigns
WHY couldn't we have had the keys separate to give away to friends would have been better
this way we really didn't get the full bonus of the Pre order did we.
Yeah got it from online ingame shop but still a separate keys would be better IMO
to late now.

this is actually fraud. You've paid for the trilogy trial key (of course Gaile would claim it's 'free' like the bonus mission pack), and it's added to your existing account rendering it effectively useless.

don't worry your account won't became a trial account, you will be able to play after the trial period is over (I had the same annoying popup yesterday)

I found it bizarre than there wasn't a trial key for a friend. It must be because bots or spammers used trial keys.

It does mean than someone who wants a trial has to pay.

I think this is stupid.. what could they cost to email us the trial code, which we could give to a friend? this way they lose new potential costumers.

Cyberjanet, Plz...plz tell me the only info you gave was your order #.

Shame on anerf for even asking for alot of that info if it is a valid request from THEM... (and not a bogus one from a script-kiddie hacker).

the ONLY thing They didn't ask for WAS your ORDER NUMBER, and of course your CC number...

look at the e-mail I was sent..

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...asereciept.jpg

"your order was successful, your order # is:............

Please write this # down and keep it in a safe place. In the event there is a problem with your order, THIS NUMBER WILL BE REQUESTED BY CUSTOMER SUPPORT"

Folks, the trial key was not intended to be a "buddy key." It really was intended to be added to accounts in case someone did not own all three campaigns. If you own all campaigns, then thank you and please ignore the message, no harm, no foul. If you do not own all three enjoy the trial.

One thing to consider is this: The forums attract some of the most "attached" players, those who are more likely to own all campaigns. But as a whole, there are a number of players who don't own all three, and it is for them that we offered the trilogy trial.

We may offer a buddy key in the future -- I asked about that last week and they said that could happen. But in the meantime, this one is for existing players who may want to try out the other campaigns.

I'm not going the fraud route ;-P.

but if you look at the pic links I posted you will notice that my NF trial ran out while I was on nubcakes island (factions). So I'm to make a Factions character and head straight to NF, Because the clock is ticking? Now that the NF trial is over, which one is next? (since I never even got to pick the first one lol)

*here is what I did*
-bought Gwen pre-order and extra character slot
-transaction went thru
-made a Rit with new slot
-Didn't even think about trial keys or how they were added because I don't really need them...
-Played new character, and blammo got a 30 min. pop-up and then a 60 sec. one stating that my NF trial was going to end.
-scratched head and wondered...So, that is how the auto-added keys(trial) work.
-came here in complete discombobulation wondering what is going to trigger the next trial key, and on what character.

Hmmm...let's pretend I don't have all 3, just factions and one freshly created character...It looks like I won't be seeing NF, and/or any other campaigns if we are on a tightly scheduled time clock, that auto-starts...and picks a campaign for you. ;-P

I was in a game store last week, I forget which one and they had the trial cd for the trilogy and it was $5 or something.

So ya, buy to try.

Yeah, cause we all know CDs and free to make, and the packaging is free, and the paper media is free to print, and all of that is free to assemble and ship to retailers, and retailers and developers don't have to make a profit or pay their people anything.

C'mon. $5 to try all three chapters? So you do so, and hate it all; you're out a fiver. Big deal. If you can't afford to be out that fiver, maybe you shouldn't be thinking about buying games anyway.

$5 buy-to-try. Wow. If that's a deal-breaker... then wow.

sorry, but my purchase was made thru the online store. No cds, No packaging, No paper..the Media was/is digital.

That means No assembly (other than programming)...No shipping, No retailers.

They are making a GREAT profit. $4.99 USD for three weapons. The trial keys are thrown in there (and auto-added) so it sounds like better deal.

-if I was a dick, i'd interpret some of gaile's post as:
'we at anerf know that we can't milk much more from our long time supporters, so it's time to find new suckers...that is who the trilogy trial was intended for'

and that in turn would make me think that my $4.99 just isn't good enough, well because, I own all 3 campaigns.

I saw the trial in frys for $1.99. I think BB is about the same. Thats not really the pooint here. Maybe it me misreading the advertisement but a trial key seems like it should be a trial for anyone. That is what is labeled on the fry's and Best Buy product. I have been trying to get a friend involved in this game for sometime now, I wanted to give him my free trial from the preorder, instead I am told it is really useless because I own all three campaigns. Way to support your supporters, and potential future supporters.

Trail account free to all who own the three campaign just PM me!!! (Free trails are not transferable and are by no means to be shared with anyone)

I finally got a proper answer from support and this is what they said:

"The Trilogy trial offered in the Guild Wars: Eye of the North Prerelease Bonus Pack only applies to the Guild Wars account upgraded with such access key."

That implies that the access key you get contains the trilogy trial and it doesn't come on a separate piece of paper in the boxed set like every other trial key we've had.

What I really think is that any key you get with a product from the online store gets auto-added to the account it's bought from.

I'm kinda really off buying anything more from the online store, but I figured the prerelease money would come off the final product price so it wouldn't be a waste.

Now I reckon it is.