Buying Facebook game credits by mobile payment - false advertising, massive fees..

I have written about this before (in January, for example), but here goes again..

SimCity Social (Facebook game) is currently having Diamonds on sale. Diamonds are game credits, which can be used for various things in the game - you usually get one free Diamond when you level up, and you may have certain buildings that give you daily Diamond/s. You can also buy Diamonds, if you wish to get them faster and use real money..

There are various payment methods for buying Diamonds. One of them is Pay by Mobile, which is the one I use, whenever I buy Diamonds. (Generally, I wouldn't spend money on Facebook games, but the way my current phone credit deal works, often leaves me with unspent phone credit, which I sometimes spend on game credits.)

As you can see in the first screenshot (above), sale prices are clearly marked on the default payment method, which is credit card. The same goes for paying with Facebook Credits or PayPal, although I didn't take a screenshot of those options. However...


As usual, there are no sale prices for Pay by Mobile. In fact, I have played this game for as long as it's been available, and I have never seen sale prices for mobile payment..

Well, nothing I can do about that, so I thought I'd get 45 Diamonds for €10 (as selected in the screenshot, above)..


But wait! Once I continue from the previous screen, the deal has changed, and I'm suddenly just getting 43 Diamonds for €10. That's two less Diamonds than what I was promised on the price list..


When I click to select payment with my mobile phone, I get a drop-down menu, offering me various deals around that price range.. The original deal is not there, but they have now cleverly "softened the blow" by offering various tempting deals, and since I did really want some Diamonds, obviously, I picked the most expensive one, which is the best deal, at this point..


At least there are no more changes, when moving on to the next screen..


Here, the shop has sent me a text message about my pending purchase, including the total cost I'm about to spend - I could still leave it, but if I decide to make the purchase, I need to reply to that text message with "PAY".

As I wanted my Diamonds, I replied, and soon got four confirmation text messages - 2 x €5, one €2, and one €1. After that, the game added the 57 Diamonds to my account, which already had 3 Diamonds;


Screenshot after the new Diamonds were added..

OK, you are kept aware of the actual price, during the process, but it still pisses me off that people who use mobile payment, always seem to get the crappiest deal. No sale prices, constant false advertising with the price deals (and it's never a pleasant surprise when you start the process - the deal is always worse than what you were promised), etc..


It's not just about SimCity Social, either. Above, a screenshot of Jigsaw World puzzle shop. Another Facebook game.

This is a lovely jigsaw puzzle game, which gives you ten free coins per day (as long as you launch the game, even just to collect the coins), and you get a few coins on completing puzzles as well. So, it IS possible to collect enough coins for free, to buy more puzzles.. You can also complete the old puzzles again (which I find boring), or you can make puzzles using your own pictures, and swap them with friends. But you'll only get more coins on completing new puzzles, which were made by Jigsaw World.

As you eventually DO run out of puzzles, if you don't want to wait for a few weeks to make enough coins to get the next set, you might want to spend some money (or mobile credit) and buy coins.

Above, you can see that the cheapest deal is not so much. 1200 coins for €3.98. That's enough coins for at least two sets of puzzles, or more, if you haven't yet bought the cheapest sets - I have..


I wasn't even going to buy coins as I already knew about the massive mobile payment fee - I was just going with this, to take screenshots..

I selected the cheapest deal, €3.98..


But as I moved on to the next screen, €3.98 had suddenly become €8.33!!! That's an INSANE fee on a mobile payment!


They have the drop-down menu here as well, with other deals, and suddenly, €8.33 has become €8.50..


To rub it in, they show you the €8.33 price, which would buy you 50 Facebook credits - making you feel so special, now that you're about to spend just a little bit more, and get 51 Facebook credits.. But at the end of the day, it'll still just get you those 1200 Jigsaw World coins, which you were promised for €3.98..

No, I did not buy the coins. As frustrating as it is to wait, sometimes for several weeks, to make enough coins for more jigsaw puzzles, I would rather wait than pay those insane surprise fees.