Lost Gems, slowly hate the game even more, TL has it programmed for us to lose gems

[caesarslaw]

Long time player level high 80s, I've been saving gems from the christmas recipes - not doing goals or anything like that just cooking from time to time. This morning, somehow - I guess TL saw I wasn't purchasing any gems - I lost my gems on adding coins/finishing food fast. All within 5 seconds. Oh well, I posted earlier too, after a couple of losses, I stopped playing as much, closed down the RS - this may be the final straw because I've lost interest in even cooking new recipes (I stopped decorating, etc).

I am so frustrated with TL refund policy - I understand some situations customers may wrongly ask for a refund, but with all the gem traps, this is just blatant stealing. Everything they do is under the guise of helping us/responding to feedback but it's just for own benefit - and that would be fine, but it's a scam. We should report TL as a scam, what else does a scam do besides take your money for no reason, and without your approval?

[enaid03]

I feel your pain. Over the weekend my 4 year old picked up my itouch to play a game and accidently bought me two of those 24 gem boxes, so I now own two pieces of junk.

Then, to top it off, while putting my device down on Saturday (had to take emergency call situation) I too taped the 100 gems for 100,000 coins in the only game I have bought gems to date. I don't need the coins, I just happened to have 101 gems. So needless to say, since those are the gems I bought, TL won't be getting anymore of my money until I have a change of heart regarding their accidental purchases.

[ultrafrog]

100,000 coins is easily gotten in a couple days. 100 gems takes months of gathering from mastering recipes or real money to purchase.

148 gems taken without permission is like getting $15 dollars stolen from you.

[caesarslaw]

....you mean we're getting scammed. That's why everyone posts here once they lose gems they paid for - we may be sheeps being used to the reply of "no refunds" or "your fault, not ours" but in reality, this is a scam. And scams are made to pay back the money and be accountable for their actions.

[cr4zy_eights]

Don't give them any money! Do not buy gems. I've wasted soooooooo many gems in the past.

[enaid03]

Yes, I couldn't believe that while I was putting down my itouch to write something, I looked down and realized I had gotten on 100,000 coin confirmation entirely by accident. I've saved and scrimped my gems from mastery from all games, and I play almost all of them daily. Its just FS that I had bought gems because I had really liked the Christmas decor. But, TL got me and my money in a shuffle to put my itouch down to deal with a bad situation.

So yes, it was money taken from me. I've lost a lot of mastery gems from the gem traps on junk. I'm stingy with gems otherwise.

But to take away 100 purchased gems when I had a crisis situation to deal with? I don't know if I will purchase again.

[ultrafrog]

Gem traps have been a part of the game since they started and hundreds of players have complained about them for months, probably going on a year now.

There really isn't any excuse that the game developers don't have enough time to put these features in anymore when this has been a top requested feature to have confirmation before spending gems. We can only now assume that it is put there on purpose.

Before I would have said to buy gems and spend them on what you want immediately to prevent accidental spending but now I can only say to stop purchasing gems at all. Don't encourage their behavior.

The worst thing players can do is to purchase gems to replace those stolen by gem traps since that is exactly what they want you to do.

[MidnightAeval]

Send an email to iTunes store customer service; iTunesStoreSupport@apple.com. They may be able to refund money lost and then they'll just charge back the developers. I'm sure if enough people complain they will look into the gem traps/non-refund policy of Team Lava's.

[nmishii]

The convert gems to coins popup comes up all the time for me in Bakery Story. I got stuck with converting 10 gems to coins once when I had 9M coins.

I had been getting the popup a lot more recently. This morning I had 104 gems. I bought a decoration only so I would get to under 100 gems and not accidently convert them to coins. I have been doing that regularly. There's really nothing I want to buy but I buy just to avoid that gem trap.

[Rachael98]

Send an email to iTunes store customer service; iTunesStoreSupport@apple.com. They may be able to refund money lost and then they'll just charge back the developers. I'm sure if enough people complain they will look into the gem traps/non-refund policy of Team Lava's.

TL clearly explains things such as this in their Terms of Service (TeamLava.com/Terms).

The actual in-app purchases are to do with Apple, but TL's own currency is not.

[MidnightAeval]

TL clearly explains things such as this in their Terms of Service (TeamLava.com/Terms).

The actual in-app purchases are to do with Apple, but TL's own currency is not.

Doesn't mean that there isn't ambiguous or vague/broad terminology in their TOS that Apple can revisit to see if they are abiding by the rules.

And hiding behind "gems don't equal real money" is cowardly of TL - for a lot of us is does equal real money, which Apple has control over.

[Rachael98]

Doesn't mean that there isn't ambiguous or vague/broad terminology in their TOS that Apple can revisit to see if they are abiding by the rules.

And hiding behind "gems don't equal real money" is cowardly of TL - for a lot of us is does equal real money, which Apple has control over.

Their ToS is very clear - to translate, they can do whatever they like and we agree to it by using their services.

Gems do equal money, but they are technically a virtual currency.

[ultrafrog]

But besides complaining to Apple what else can we do?

The best thing we CAN do is to continually appeal to Apple regarding Team Lava's poor business practices.

It doesn't do us a any good to just throw our hands up and say "oh well, it's in TL's ToS, so we let them do what they want".

With enough customer complaints to Apple, maybe they will take a second look at what TL is doing.

[MidnightAeval]

Their ToS is very clear - to translate, they can do whatever they like and we agree to it by using their services.

Gems do equal money, but they are technically a virtual currency.

I clicked on the link you provided and it didn't take me to their TOS.

Regardless, it doesn't hurt or cost anything but a few moments to type out an email expressing your disdain at their practices. It was merely a suggestion.

When they had their 40% sale on gems, but no one could buy the large packages to make use of the volume discount, I contacted iTunes support thinking they were restricting the purchase, and they apologized and gave me a couple movie rental credits to make up for the inconvenience. Since this happened to many BS players, I don't think it was an iTunes issue.

We won't get anywhere in life if we don't express our beliefs that something is wrong/unfair. Even if you get shot-down, at least you have the satisfaction of knowing you tried.

[caesarslaw]

absolutely!! I realize that every time someone says they accidentally lost/spent gems, we the forum members respond "I'm sorry, the rule is that TL won't give them back."

How about we do something about it, instead of playing to TL's tune and being sheep? I for one am tired of sending feedback or checking what happened to my gems only to be told that I speed-cooked or got coins. I'll send an email to Apple, and I already rated the game one star. Besides, I've deleted every TL game except BS where I barely play. I'm so angry.

[MidnightAeval]

iTunes support suggested that you enter feedback for the games here:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

[pinkster73]

Their ToS is very clear - to translate, they can do whatever they like and we agree to it by using their services.

Gems do equal money, but they are technically a virtual currency.

Rachael, all corporations have a broad spectrum disclaimer somewhere. It doesn't make it enforceable in all cases. You know the signs everywhere that say "not responsible for any injury" or something like that? If you are injured due to their negligence, they are still liable.