Evernote Premium codes on eBay?

[pangloss 0]

Hey all, I'm seeing a lot of Evernote Premium codes on eBay and elsewhere for much cheaper than the annual $45 subscription. Apparently these codes are from various partner promotions (like the mobile company O2), and people who don't use Evernote just sell them on eBay. Does anybody know if buying/using these codes is frowned upon? I found a couple of very old threads in which an EN employee warned that codes found on eBay might be pirated, but these seem very obviously legitimate. Thoughts?

[C6REW 416]

Hi,

 

I think the choice is yours. Personally it is not the sort of thing I would buy off eBay, to easy to scam and difficult to fight your corner should you be ripped off.

 

Regards

 

Chris

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Hey all, I'm seeing a lot of Evernote Premium codes on eBay and elsewhere for much cheaper than the annual $45 subscription. Apparently these codes are from various partner promotions (like the mobile company O2), and people who don't use Evernote just sell them on eBay. Does anybody know if buying/using these codes is frowned upon? I found a couple of very old threads in which an EN employee warned that codes found on eBay might be pirated, but these seem very obviously legitimate. Thoughts?

Evernote has stated in the past that any codes on Ebay are not from Evenote, the company. I'm pretty sure that is still the case. So just like anything else on ebay, buyer beware. Do your due diligence. Check seller feedback. Don't buy from new accounts or accounts that have only buying feedback since they may have a few good feedback (to get established and may even be from other accounts they have) before they start scamming. If the seller has a lot of the codes for sale, it's probably a scam rather than someone who received it as a gift and won't use it. Personally, at only $45 USD per year, it would not be worth it (for me) to take a chance on this on ebay. And that's coming from someone who has bought a lot of things on ebay and is migrating away from Evernote & has cancelled two premium accounts.

[Nancy M 160]

We are actively investigating this eBay seller right now. Please note that unauthorized reselling of Evernote Premium is prohibited by our Commercial Terms: https://evernote.com/legal/commercial_terms.php

 

Now, as to your question of whether it's OK to buy codes from eBay or other such sites. Of course, our official position is that you should never buy Premium from a vendor who is not an authorized reseller, but here’s why.

 

1. Let’s say you buy Evernote Premium using your credit card, and you later have a problem with your account. Ideally, you would contact customer support to get this problem resolved, but it is possible that you instead file a chargeback with your credit card company. When we get a chargeback, the money we received for the sale is returned back to the cardholder’s account. In addition, we get charged a penalty fee around $20. At this point, we downgrade your Evernote Premium account down to free, because by filing a chargeback, you’ve told us loud and clear that you did not want Premium. 

 

2. Let’s say that you buy an Evernote Premium gift code using your credit card, which you give to your friend, who redeems the Premium code on his own Evernote account. You later file a chargeback on the gift code purchase. When we’re notified of the chargeback, we downgrade your friend’s account from Premium to free, because, again, you’ve told us that you did not want the Premium. Your friend might be mad at you, but presumably you wouldn’t do this to a real friend.

 

3. Let’s say that someone sells you an Evernote Premium gift code which they bought using a stolen credit card. You pay the seller a discounted price for Premium, and then you redeem the code against your own Evernote account. When the real cardholder sees the charge on her credit card statement, she files a chargeback with her credit card company. At this point, we downgrade your Evernote Premium account down to free. What is your recourse? Can you get the Premium back from Evernote? Not really, since you never purchased Premium from us. Also, you actually cost us an additional $20 once you count the chargeback penalty fee. Can you get your money back from the seller? You can try, but you’re doing business with someone who has no compunctions using stolen credit card numbers to commit fraud. The sellers do this as a way to monetize their list of stolen credit cards into cash. They can’t get merchant accounts themselves, so they buy stuff and resell it.

 

4. Let’s say that someone sells you discounted Evernote Premium, but not a code. They tell you that they need your username and password in order to log in to your Evernote account so that they can upgrade your account on your behalf. Run away as fast as you can. They will almost certainly use a stolen credit card to upgrade the account, and we will downgrade your account once we receive the notification of chargeback. Also, why would you give your username and password to some random stranger on the internet? (I was surprised when I found out how often this happens. It’s more often than one might think.)

 

#3 and #4 are the most common type of chargeback we get here at Evernote. Yes, we downgrade a lot of users when we get these chargebacks. Will your account be downgraded if you buy a code from eBay or another similar site? Not necessarily. Sometimes we give out gift cards with free Premium codes if you attend an Evernote meetup or other similar event. Sometimes we might send you a Premium code as a thank you for answering an Evernote survey. If these codes get redistributed, we would have no way of knowing. And really, this is not a big deal. If you answer a survey and then give your reward code to your friend, that is not a crime. But don’t sell that code. That against our Commercial Terms. Also, it's lame. 

 

There are other legitimate ways to get Premium.

- You can refer a friend: https://evernote.com/referfriend/

- You can get a device that qualifies for Premium from one of our partner carriers (e.g. Docomo, Deutsche Telekom) or manufacturers (e.g. Samsung, Sony, Lenovo)

- Or you could buy Premium. 

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

... Also, it's lame.

This ought to be in the official verbage on Evernote's site

Nice post, by the way. It's good to have it set out in clear terms what the policy is, why it was made, and how to go about doing the smart / right thing.

[pangloss 0]

Yes, thanks for laying it out so clearly! I'm always skeptical of eBay sellers selling digital codes anyway, but since it seems to be such common practice it got me wondering. I assumed Evernote wouldn't really condone the practice, but you're right: it's also kind of lame.