When does being a premium member become a disadvantage?

When I discovered chess.com just over a year ago and realised what a fantastic resource it was, I glad signed up as a premium member in order to take advantage of the goodies on offer and as a way of saying thanks and being supportive.

I recently concluded a team game against a "pain in the neck" type player, which I won. When I got a winning advantage, he slowed down and would invariably take up most of his time allowance to make his move. He ignored my conditional moves, even when his response was forced, and despite announcing mate in six he played on until the end.

He wasn't breaking any rule but he was not the sort of player I want to play against, even allowing for the notion we don't have to like our opponent to play him/her. I told him what I thought and comforted myself I could simply time out of our next game. This is not something I have ever done before but I did not relish the prospect of another three months playing this irritating opponent and, moreover, my team had already one the match and that would have been the last game.

As the timeout approached, I noted the friendly warning and ignored it. When I next logged into chess.com, rather than see that I lost the game due to being timed out that I was put into vacation mode with another 24 hours on my clock. When it happened a second time I realised to my annoyance that this was one of the premium member features and after checking out not one I could disable.

I then had to accept the inevitable - the only way to escape was to resign and to add insult to injury my opponent also gained rating points as a result. It also seems to me that the principle in chess games using the clock where a person forfeits the game is being violated and creates a wrong precedence for players who can now abuse the system.

I've calmed down since and realise that being given a feature that makes becoming a premium member is something disadvantageous that I have to simply live with

Well it probably starts with your reactions to the player. Don't let your feathers get ruffled. If he wants to be a silly Billy, let him. Play on!

Lol you are upset, because the way you wanted to abuse the system, did not work. 

The chessclock is not meant to be used as a "I will let time run down and hope I will not lose any ratingpoints"-Tool.  

Announcing a mate in six and "telling him what you thought" might have caused him to actually prolong the game. It is not really nice. Players won't always resign when you want them to. Next time just smile and enjoy having a winning position for a long time.

Just let it go man and play some chess. 

Your overthinking this. Just play your games and disable the chat if you have to.

I would agree with this previous responses. This has happened to me once or twice also, and it is very annoying. What I do is simply start another game, then ignore the stalling player until they move. As the game is an obvious win it only takes a minute to respond. I don't react to their antics in any way. I like to think this is more annoying to them than letting them think they have got under my skin.

thanks guys - you told me what I need to know rather than want to hear.

just accept it and get on with playing chess in the way it should be played seems to be the message and one I will take on board.

shame though that chess.com has introduced a feature that imo makes things worse and we have limited control over who we play (I like xbigboy's idea below tho I suspect there are practical difficulties)

Perhaps turn-based games could have time controls like otb: 60 days / 40 moves etc.

The auto vacation thing is something I would actually like. I'm very prompt about my online moves, but if something were to happen, and I had to go away for a few days, I might lose a game or two on time, unless I remembered to put those games on vacation manually, before I left. If I'm leaving because of a death in the family, or something of that ilk, I'm not likely to remember to go onto this site and do that.  About the time some folks take to make their moves...... it happens. I've played some who would make their move on the last day, sometimes in the last few hours, consistently. That is how the entire game would go with them. I just start up an extra game, as that one is going to be a long time going. 

I can see why auto vacation can be an attractive feature for some but sadly besides stopping the likes of me doing something that would have been possible as a non-premium player, it is subject to abuse.

At the moment I'm playing a v.slow player (quite pleasant person actually) but every now and again when his clock is about to run out I find a bit later on that he is in vacation mode. Until I had my experience, I didn't realise what was happening. I really feel he shouldn't be allowed to do this.

Of course, you could just turn off auto vacation.

Edit: Sorry, seems actually impossible to do this - I was sure I once saw it in the settings.

I suppose the old adage applies with people like him and we've all had them..."play the board and not the player". Hope you haven't had any repeats like this.

Playing the board rather than the player is something I am still learning - I'm a lot more relaxed on this point these days - while I would rather play people who play in the "right" spirit, I am now less bothered when playing against those who don't.

Since posting though, I have played a game against a premium player who when it comes to him using up all his allocated time then goes into vacation mode. He comes out of it a few days later but because chess.com are generous on this score he can do this many times over without penalty. I do feel somehow this guy has abused the system by turning a 3 day game into something else. In a 3 day move match it is perfectly ok to take vacations when needed but even chess.com would say this is not the right use of the vacation facility. I really feel this is something they should look at!

now I'm more experienced I would have said nothing and do what Tekoa says and just play the board - I said what I did because I was just so irritated at this guys attitude and his lack of manners prior to that point.

The auto-vacation is a good feature for pm's, as they are allowed to join more tournaments, and when life happens, they won't time out.

The only disadvantage of being a pm is if you become addicted and your pets are starving due to all the time you spend on c.c!