Has anyone else lost a "Lifetime" membership?

File a support ticket. I think something similar happened to Nick Gatel.

I’m in a similar boat; while my “Profile” says I’m an “Unlimited” member, I can’t start new forum threads.

I did file a “ticket” but have heard nothing beyond the auto response.

Ryan@backpackinglight.com

Obtaining customer service is often a lengthy process at BPL. See my post on customer service thoughts in this thread. Should BPL fail, it will be Ryan’s lack of understanding the value of customer service, although he is probably running things on such a thin string he does not have the resources to provide service.

I had a problem a while back and it was resolved but took some time. I even had to provide documentary proof (picture of my ID) that I was indeed Nick Gatel, and not Osama bin Laden.

I feel I have the right to be critical because I paid good money to become a member.

I contacted customer support 5 times regarding this issue. But, I think I finally figured it out on my own. It turns out that I was somehow magically granted a different username. So, when I was logging in with my old username, it was showing I was under the “Free” membership. When I went back and logged in under the new username, I found my “Unlimited” membership. That said, I had to pay for a basic membership to be able to access forums and see if anyone else was having the issue.

I even had to provide documentary proof (picture of my ID) that I was indeed Nick Gatel, and not Osama bin Laden.

I just snorted audibly.

Talking about such matters in the forums often yield no result. Only support from other members. Even the Bug Report and Feature Request threads fall on deaf ears most of the time. Customer support at BPL has been lacking since Addie left.

I used to be a forum member but got downgraded and cannot post in gear swap. Been here since nearly day 1 of this website and a member a few years.

Should BPL fail, it will be Ryan’s lack of understanding the value of customer service, although he is probably running things on such a thin string he does not have the resources to provide service.

Absolutely agree. It is absolutely mind boggling to me how BPL thinks they can label themselves a premium content provider, increase membership costs, and yet have such terrible customer service and slow response to issues. If they’re running on a thin string that’s their own fault and they subsequently should not be charging the prices they are for membership. To further add insult since they’ve made this change to premium content I have seen no increase in frequency nor value of any content they do produce and send out. They only sent 1 e-mail all of March.. I guess I’m just chafed about the new re-label of premium content and up-charging.

PS, the new forums stink too.

I finally got help from the help desk and got things straightened out.  In my case I had ended up with two user names as a result of the old to new BPL transition.  My new user name was a “free member” and the old one was “unlimited”.  Things seem to work OK now, but it took several weeks.  Typically 3-4 day turnaround on responses from the help desk.  Try clicking on “My BPL” to see what your status is with each user name.

Looks like I have somehow lost my Lifetime (/converted unlimited) Membership within the forums too, and cannot create a new thread. Great.

Same here Adam….lost mine and they can’t even fix such a small thing…….go figure!

I used the support thing to submit a message to them. Got an automated response in my email inbox. So hopefully they will sort it…