r/lingodeer • u/calculuschild • 13d ago
✅ Solved! Lifetime membership lost
I purchased a lifetime plan way back at the beginning in 2018 via the Lingodeer Website. I've used it on and off just fine for years, then took a hiatus around 2023.
Opened the app again last week and my account was still in place. Able to access everything.
I noticed that shortly after Google Play downloaded an update. I think it had been "archived" or something on my phone all these years until I opened it.
Then yesterday I went back in to actually start practicing again, and there are banners everywhere to buy Premium. To my horror, my account is also listed as "Free" now. Same account as I've always used. My streak history is still there showing activity accessing premium content from 2018 to 2023.
Tried the usual sign out/sign in, reinstall app, etc.
I emailed support hoping this would be a quick fix, but they are asking me for bank statements/PayPal receipts from 8 years ago. I have checked, and none of those accounts retain transaction history back that far. This is also before I started budgeting myself so my own history doesn't reach back either. I also delete most emails after 5 years, so I can't find any email receipt if they ever sent one.
Did something happen in the last 3 years that Lingodeer is purging old Lifetime accounts? Any advice?
EDIT Aug 20: Issue has been resolved! By sheer chance, I found an old credit card statement from 2019. Why did I have this sitting randomly on my hard drive? Because this very same issue occurred back around 2021, and I never cleared out my old laptop. I had totally forgotten about this until I went digging through my old files. So, words of warning to everyone, save a bank statement or purchase email or something if you bought any subscription!
Below is the response I received (from multiple email messages):
Thank you very much for your patience while we investigated this issue.
After escalating your case to our senior team, we confirmed that an issue with how some early membership data was stored prevented your Lifetime membership from being activated correctly during later system updates.
We have now restored the Lifetime membership to your account. Please completely close and restart the LingoDeer app to refresh your membership status. Your Premium access should then display normally.
On behalf of the entire LingoDeer team, I would also like to sincerely thank you for supporting our app over the years. We truly appreciate the detailed information, records, and screenshots you provided throughout the investigation.
...
Yes, we can confirm that Yiyantech was one of the merchant names used for LingoDeer purchases at the time. The payment record you provided is therefore related to your LingoDeer purchase, and we recommend keeping it for your records.
As far as we know, your case involved some specific circumstances and may not be the same as the cases mentioned on Reddit. What we normally do on Reddit is contact the users via direct message, collect the relevant account and purchase information, and pass it to our support team for individual investigation. We would therefore recommend that those users contact us directly so their cases can be reviewed separately.
...
We hope LingoDeer can continue to accompany you as you learn Japanese and explore more languages in the future.
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u/DeerlyNoted Junior Staff 13d ago
Please send me a message on Reddit with the email associated with your account and we will investigate immediately. We apologize that this happened and will make it right.
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u/calculuschild 13d ago
Reddit tells me your account cannot receive chats. Is Modmail ok?
Thanks for the response! I'm hoping to figure this out and keep a good record somewhere for the future.
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u/DeerlyNoted Junior Staff 12d ago
Got your mod mail and the info. We are investigating the issue. Thank you for your patience. 🙏
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u/keirdre 13d ago
Did you login with the correct details? I think I'd previously logged in with Facebook and that was needed to restore, even though they both use the same email address.
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u/calculuschild 13d ago
Good idea. I currently use my Google account, which does show I have been a member since March 2018, and all my activity shows on that account.
Eh, ok tried other logins and it doesn't work. I tried logging in with email but it tells me no account exists, and same with Facebook.
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u/keirdre 13d ago
Try emailing them. Their support was great when I needed to restore.
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u/calculuschild 13d ago
Yep I did that. Unfortunately they only ask for proof of purchase and my bank accounts don't go back for enough to pull up the receipts. I would think my account activity using the Premium lessons would be enough evidence but it doesn't seem to be.
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u/DeerlyNoted Junior Staff 12d ago
Concern is understandable, but we habitually ask for as much hard proof as we can. We'll try to verify your info against our records as soon as we can (hopefully today) and find a way to resolve your issue. We deeply apologize for this and will make it right. Thank you for your patience.
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u/voicesofreasons_ 13d ago
Not that I've noticed. Have u tried logging off and logging back in on the website to see if it's just an app issue?
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u/calculuschild 13d ago
Good idea. Unfortunately no it looks like it's the same state there.
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u/voicesofreasons_ 13d ago
That's weird. I logged into mine and it said free for a bit then switched back over to premium. Could you search your email? Maybe you still have to proof of the purchase somewhere?
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u/calculuschild 13d ago
Unfortunately I periodically purge emails over 5 years. I don't remember if I received an email or not, but it's long gone now. I didn't think I would need to track a purchase from 8 years ago.
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u/voicesofreasons_ 13d ago
I'm jealous of your organization 😅. This is also going to be unhelpful probably but in general how did you pay on the website? I went through the play store and PayPal so they both have receipts but I don't see anywhere on the website for purchases to be kept.
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u/calculuschild 13d ago edited 13d ago
Haha thanks. It was so long ago I don't remember the details, but it was through the website. I don't know if PayPal or Stripe or something was involved there, but their records don't go that far back anyway. I checked.
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u/voicesofreasons_ 13d ago
Yeah just wondering if maybe they would be able to look up your card number or something in their own records idk. But it seems like they probably wouldn't have had access to it at any point.
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u/calculuschild 13d ago
Yeah I think they go through PAYPAL on the website.
I did happen to find one old credit card statement with a PayPal transaction but not sure if its them. Fingers crossed.
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u/aykalam123 13d ago
That happened to me when I tried login with Google instead of using gmail email and password. It was fine when I logged in with password. Use proper login the same way you signed up.
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u/calculuschild 12d ago edited 12d ago
I currently use my Google account, which does show I have been a member since March 2018, and all my activity shows on that account. I didn't sign out between when it was working earlier this week and yesterday when I lost my membership, it's just been on the same login since the beginning as far as I know.
Just to be sure, tried other logins and they don't let me in. Logging in with email tells me no account exists, and same with Facebook. Password recovery also tells me no account exists with that email, for every email I have every owned.
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u/SilvitniTea 12d ago
Oh that is scary! I bought mine in 2021. I just went to open my app to make sure I still have my lifetime. For a second it made it look like I didn't have the membership but then it loaded up properly and showed my crown. I hope it is just an app error for you and they fix it.
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u/Free_Spirit_2020 10d ago
Thanks for this post. I just went and screenshot emails and receipts of the lifetime membership that I got. You can never be "too sure" and is good to have a back up. Happy you were able to find a solution :)
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13d ago
[deleted]
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u/calculuschild 13d ago edited 13d ago
That would suck. I only stopped for 3 years since I had a kid and kind of lost track. Lifetime should mean lifetime, right? I don't think they are that shady.
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u/kzcvuver Learning: 🇩🇪 13d ago
That info is for new users, Lifetime isn’t going anywhere for those who bought it. I have it, for example.
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u/Away-Theme-6529 13d ago
Yes. It was just speculation. But you’ve been using it, right? OP hadn’t been using it for years …
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u/voicesofreasons_ 13d ago
I hope not. I haven't really used it since after the year I bought it. But that's the point of having lifetime. A one time purchase that's there for me whenever I'm ready. Too many companies are abandoning their promises.
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u/DeerlyNoted Junior Staff 6d ago
Update: thank you for providing us information and alerting us to this issue. We are happy we were able to resolve this issue. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out at any time.