They did that with the staff shop two years in a row. The second time, they announced only the main shop closing date, and I assumed it applied to staff as well. When I submitted a ticket, I got a very rude response. IIRC, last year they accidentally closed one or both early, then reopened it/them with an apology and extended the date. Last year they finally got it right.
I've heard that they announced on JS FB that they won't reopen it. Which contradicts the post on the news that they erased. They don't even know how many people they will lose over this. I'm serious. I will bounce. If they can't even understand basic Neopian culture and norms, they just... If they don't back down and fix this, they will never fix anything. So I might as well cut my losses. Still hopeful they'll do the right thing here, but if they don't, I at least had a good 10-ish years on Neopets and made some good friends.
ETA: They finally got around to my ticket. I heard today that they said they'd deleted the prize ship data; I updated my ticket and suggested that they give everyone their points back (since they're still on our trophies); it's not a perfect solution, but I'd rather give some double points than some no points, especially since I think most would be honest. When I updated my ticket with this idea, I was frank and said that I was considering leaving. I cited the ongoing issues with the site, all the missing/broken puzzle/creative/interactive content. I said that I'd been patient trying to wait through the transition fixes, but this was taking my last bit of hope that Neopets would be restored since it's such a blatant disrespect to tradition/culture. I mentioned that many of my friends have been on the edge, too, lately, and that many will be returning for the AC, and they'll be shocked by the prize shop's closing with no announcement and all the missing/broken content -- and that if they don't have something major for them, they're going to lose them permanently, along with the half of the daily user base they've already lost. This is the response I got:
Quote:
Thank you for writing in.
Unfortunately tis true, the AC prize shop for last year's event is now gone.
We apologize for any confusion and will certainly take your feedback into consideration for future events.
We thank you for participating and hope you'll join again this year to earn new points!
The only thing that's kept me going is my friendships and Food Club. And Food Club just isn't worth it. I've been thinking about leaving for a while; I've had less free time, and there are other things I'd rather be doing. I'll still pop into PPT, but I'm going to self-freeze my Neopets account.
But I've got a lot of good stuff in there, so I'm going to take my time and give it away. The bulk of my NP, etc., I'm going to donate to TDN's avatar lending program. I'll be donating some things to my guildmates. But my PPT friends, as my nearest and dearest, are getting first dibs on basically everything. I'll make a separate post on what's available where, but basically my pets, battle set, clothes, gallery items, SDB, etc. are all up for grabs.