Preferred access privileges removed

You are still preferred, there are 3 types of accounts now, Free To Play (people who didnt spend at least 5€ ingame services), Preferred, Subcription.

they increased restrictions but just slightly, there isnt much change from first model

Here is a link Star Wars Features with a more detailed explanation of what you get for each, about your preferred boundle you can get it if you use a Referral Link it gives you, about companion with returning gear, now you dont need gear for companion all you need is a weapon, companions dont needs stats anymore, also now companion has a maximum of 50 levels of influence which previously was called affection and had 10 levels.

Also Artifact Quality items you need authorization, that can be bought with cartel coins or with credits from gtn, i recommend getting account wide version of it

I understand this, and before I left my account was preferred access, but since i came back on, some of my characters have items missing from their inventories. They also had mail with items from deleted companion data. on my main character, iChewz, he had lost all trooper companion items, and the ability to use artifact level items, as well as the other preferred access bonuses. I created a new character on a different server, but they had the preferred access bundle emailed on creation. I believe this is from a bug in the servers that caused characters to lose data during my absence. 

some items like Droid Companion armors became droid valuable parts or something like that and all you can do is sell them that could probably be the items missing from your inventory, about missing gear from companion like i said before all you can do witht he gear is sell it or use it as a outfit on companion for display, companions dont get stats from items anymore they only get more powerful from the influence you gain with them either by talking, conversation or gifts.

the artifact item equipment you probably been subscriber before you left the game and returned and that might have caused that, even as preferred you still need to buy Artifact Equipment Authorization. The Boundle might be an issue on their system or you already recieved it unboxed it and deleted the items when you were subscriber, as subscriber you can use unlock items such as *Display Titles*

I understand this, i was just curious because i have been away for a while so i was unaware of any bugs that caused loss of items. It is not a major issue though because in my absence I've accumulated a vast amount of cartel coins in my account. If need be i can always repurchase abilities. Thank you for the support

All of us are here to help, if you have Skype you can talk with me in there to get in touch ingame and i could help you in a more cutomized way *this is the same for everyone that needs help*