Free chess mentor with membership question

I just checked this:

http://www.chess.com/membership.html

It says premium members get a free chess mentor membership. I'm suppose to get 10 days free per year. How do I get my 10 free days of chess mentor? 

Hi - I've received a message to say my free subscription has expired (which I'm sure is true) but I never had chance to use it.  I think I expected that I'd be able to use my 10 days any time during the year - I guess I was wrong?

I reckon I'd like to try it some time but can't be sure when I'll have the time to try it.  Any chance of changing the subscription type so we can use the 10 days during the year?  (Not happy sending a begging letter but shy bairns get nowt as they say in the north east ...)

Thanks, Chris 

FWIW

 I found it a touch confusing that chess mentor days started immediately .... but fair enough.

I sent support a question a couple of days back sans response .... so I'll try here.

I would like to get a platinum membership but know no-one to whom I could give the gold membership. 

Is there any sort of reduction?

I found it not just confusing, but somewhat irritating that the Chess Mentor subscription starts as soon as you pay for your Premium Membership (Gold in this case).  The benefits chart in the membership descriptions says 10 days/year.  I thought this was a little ambiguous so I emailed for clarification, but got no response.  I was notified that the Chess Mentor subscription had started when I paid, but had to go see my ill grandmother for a few days.  Vacation mode doesn't pause Chess Mentor, so when I got back, I got the Chess Mentor expired message without ever having logged into it.

I don't think it should be that much of a problem  to offer 10 separate days during the year of subscription, or at the very least not start counting days until someone logs into Chess Mentor and make it more clear in the signup description that that is what will happen.

Chris 

Just like to add my first post here as a new premium member. I'm not good enough to get the most out of this feature, so it would have been nice if the countdown started when you began using, rather than from the initiation of the upgraded account.

No problem though.. just my 2 Euro's :) 

Oh.. so that is what that message flashing up once was about mentor ending a few weeks ago...

Yep i was just going to finally check out the mentor side of the site when i noticed it said a free trial only.. (im a gold member). Had a quick look at the forum and found this thread. 

Like others here I also read, on the member benefits screen, that as "10 days per year" without clarification of when throughout the year, as i assumed it started when i choose to start it.

 I had no idea it automatically started nor indeed ended. When i briefly caught a display of soemthing ending I assumed i must have hit the link by mistake to start it and end it. 

 That is rather bit disapointing not getting to use it i must admit and likely to catch out more than just one or two people :s

 I would on the positive side just like to say it is great to see the staff so active and responsive. Truly a wonderful site and definately the best chess community site.

That sounds sensible Erik, very good cheers.

Yourself, i may be wrong but i assume Erik means that if he is changing it from "10 days" (gold) to "10 hours" [i also hope and assume that means anytime?] then the silver would be set at "2 hours" instead of current 2 days.

 If this is changed to hours, as and when one wants to use them, I would definately consider upgrading to the platinum account[again assuming that if i upgraded, i would be eligable for 30 hours?]

 Cheers

Cheers 

Erik, thank you for reconsidering. I too was confused. I have a silver and now realize I've wasted 50% of my two days and don't have time today to use it. I normally like to take time on the weekend to read.

Changing the system to a cell phone style "metered minutes" makes a lot of sense. Thus people can buy "add on minutes" to top up their chosen premium membership. Naturally having an expiry for those minutes encourages people to use them :)

Please let me know when this feature is implemented as I now have to wait a whole month before I can use the mentor system on an inconvenient work day.

BTW. I hope my membership money goes some way to help your hosting and software development costs.

UPDATE:

we have recently decided to change the way we handle chess mentor and chess.com memberships. details are on this page: www.chess.com/membership.html

thank you for your input! if you have any issues about this, please use the Contact link and we can work with you directly.

thank you! 

 fixed :) it's www.chess.com/membership.html

Looks good. Presumably I have to wait until my next montly payment for my "Silver 30 minutes".

Here's a question... do the minutes expire? So if I choose to suppliment my subscription with a "5 hour purchase, at $14.95" will I then have that 5 hours on account indefinitely? And will my next "silver month" simply add to my balance?

 your minutes do NOT expire :)