**WINTER OF WOE - BONUS OBJECTIVE POINT**
As previously announced, the team will be distributing an additional point toward milestones to anyone who completed the Absorbing Man fight in the first step of the Winter of Woe.
This point will be distributed at a later time as it requires the team to pull and analyze data.
The timeline has not been set, but work has started.
There is currently an issue where some Alliances are are unable to find a match in Alliance Wars, or are receiving Byes without getting the benefits of the Win. We will be adjusting the Season Points of the Alliances that are affected within the coming weeks, and will be working to compensate them for their missed Per War rewards as well.

Additionally, we are working to address an issue where new Members of an Alliance are unable to place Defenders for the next War after joining. We are working to address this, but it will require a future update.

Gifting Badge Discussion [Merged Threads]

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Comments

  • GroundedWisdomGroundedWisdom Posts: 36,189 ★★★★★
    Wozzy101 said:

    Isman1998 said:

    Isman1998 said:

    Lormif said:

    Isman1998 said:

    Isman1998 said:

    Isman1998 said:

    undefined
    The only way to get the badge permanently was to spend 30 dollars? How is that not buying the badge?

    The Badge was a free add-on that came with the one-time purchase of 850 Units. The Unit Offer IS the purchase. Same price as that Offer always is. People bought and used 850 Units. The Badge came as a free gift.
    I don't like it either. It was nice to borrow a Rev now and then from my guys when I needed it. However, when we're talking Theft and Fraud, that's no joke. Unfortunately, that's the length of the greed that some people have. They don't care. They just hock off whoever they want, and the end result is no one can use it.
    If I can't get the badge permanently any other way it's not free. I paid for that badge. Unless there was some way to unlock it without spending money I paid for the badge, units, and whatever else came in that deal as far as I'm concerned.
    850 Units isn't just whatever comes with it. That's the Offer. That's the Offer every day. The Badge was a free gift, and it was abused. So they had to remove it.
    GW I get what you're saying. I honestly truly do, but I wouldn't had bought the offer if it wasn't for the gifting badge. I don't need to buy units.
    Like someone already said in this thread, whoever bought the offer most likely had the thoughts of "I want the gifting badge." not "I want the Units and hey look a gifting badge."
    then would you be willing to give back 850 units to get your money back? when I bought it I had the idea, "man I get the units and the gifting badge? cool, count me in." I can count on my fingers and toes the number of times I have gifted.
    I've legit said in this thread at least 3 times that they can take the units back if they give me my money back lol.
    How would you go about doing that? How many Accounts bought the Offer? Would you just send $30 to every Account used to purchase the Badge and hope it hits its target? That's not feasible.
    Unfortunately, the Refund Policy is in the TOS.
    You can send the refund to the card used to purchase the badge. Or if the same card ain't used send an email to the players and let them know. It is feasible, ain't no different from how Steam does it. If you ask for a refund on Steam they send you your money back and take away the game you want refunded.
    Same concept would work in this situation. Whoever bought the badge and wants a refund should get their 30 dollars back and the 850 units taken away.
    That's an insane amount of internal work.
    What if they don't have the 850 Units? Then that just compounds the problem.
    There's a reason they have a non-refundable policy.
    Kabam is company making hundreds of millions of dollars. Any company that takes money off customers has to be prepared for the internal work required to fix things when things go wrong. This isn’t about a no returns policy, no one has tried to return anything.
    Things going wrong is exactly what they're fixing. That doesn't mean they have to contradict their own TOS and refund money, least of which because the service they offered was exploited.
  • DshuDshu Posts: 1,503 ★★★★
    Lormif said:

    Drooped2 said:

    To be fair, I understand that people are upset. I'm not trying to snub them off. I'm just explaining what's going on so people understand. This was necessary. People were being scammed and frauded. That goes beyond just the monetary value in a multitude of ways.

    Correct I bought a gifting badge and got scammed because I dont have it.

    Fixing fraud by committing fraud? That's a new solution for sure
    This is not fraud, it is hardly even a bait and switch since the gifting badge had a value of 0
    If the badge had a value of 0 why wasn't it available in game for purchase with units or added to all unit offers. It appears to be valued at 30 dollars since that is the only way to get it
  • Waboba said:

    So how did people abuse it?

    They created a second account and bought the gifting badge so they could keep sending potions, energy reffils etc.. to the main account.
    What is strange to me is why has this never been adressed by the game team..people have done this since the introduction of the gifting badge, but now that act 6 just dropped, people are using this for potions and reffils, spending less money, and out off knowhere kabam realises that they are losing amount of cash, making them mad.
    Kabam should really reconsider how they are treating their costumers..
    And not even the 30$ the costumers spent was refunded.
    But if they're gifting from a second account, they're buying the same potions they could buy with units in the regular account... so I don't think that applies.
  • DNA3000DNA3000 Posts: 18,552 Guardian
    SparkAlot said:

    @Kabam Miike it is pretty obvious that it is CreditCard Fraud going on, but, it seems like a odd way to "fix" the problem.

    Person uses stolen CC to buy stuff. This is logged information, and can be traced to the account that bought it correct?

    That person then sells stuff to someone else. Again, this transaction is logged, is it not?

    So, to fix it, you ban the original person's account forever, and then remove the item(s) that they sent to the other person, and tell the buyer of the gifts that if they attempt to do it again, they are banned for life.

    Problem solved.

    Hypothetically speaking, you could use some financial fraud to buy iTunes gift cards, then use those to buy unit packs for a new account, then use that account to gift items to a third account. When the person whose information was stolen figures out what happened and they report it, it might not be possible to trace the fraud all the way to the account in question because the entity that gets the report would be Apple, and Apple might not share all those details with their app publishers.

    Plus, you know all those players who get mad at Kabam and decide to report a credit card transaction as invalid to get a refund? You start swinging the ban hammer instantly on all "fraud" transactions and you'll sweep up a lot of these players as well, because their pattern of activity will look like the fall out of a lot of different modes of fraud. Personally, I don't care that much about this corner case, but it is something Kabam needs to consider.
  • LormifLormif Posts: 7,369 ★★★★★
    Dshu said:

    Lormif said:

    Drooped2 said:

    To be fair, I understand that people are upset. I'm not trying to snub them off. I'm just explaining what's going on so people understand. This was necessary. People were being scammed and frauded. That goes beyond just the monetary value in a multitude of ways.

    Correct I bought a gifting badge and got scammed because I dont have it.

    Fixing fraud by committing fraud? That's a new solution for sure
    This is not fraud, it is hardly even a bait and switch since the gifting badge had a value of 0
    If the badge had a value of 0 why wasn't it available in game for purchase with units or added to all unit offers. It appears to be valued at 30 dollars since that is the only way to get it
    It is not valued at $30, 850 units is. As an added bonus you could get the free gifting badge. You get $30 value from the units and a FREE gifting badge.
  • iottoknow7iottoknow7 Posts: 22
    I love the game and have spent way too much on it because of that love, but the recent refund of just 300 units (just over $10 worth, basically) for the removal of the gifting badge (which cost $30 when you hit level 40) is just a slap in the face to the player base. I feel that Kabam is deaf to how their customers will react to their actions, and as long as they keep making money they won’t change that. I’m done giving any more money to Kabam. @Kabam Miike
  • Fugitive21Fugitive21 Posts: 221

    As a lot of people have pointed out Apple ARE giving put refunds for this, just get one and dont out anymore money into the game if this is the last straw or whatever for you.

    highly doubt that as it is policy anything over 90 days from an ingame purchase is non-refundable.
  • kmac_qtpkmac_qtp Posts: 62
    Lormif said:

    kmac_qtp said:

    kmac_qtp said:

    The Badge was a free add-on that came with the one-time purchase of 850 Units. The Unit Offer IS the purchase. Same price as that Offer always is. People bought and used 850 Units. The Badge came as a free gift.

    This idea doesn't need to be perpetuated any further. If someone bought 850 units without the gifting badge, that's what they bought. If they bought 850 units with the gifting badge, that's what they bought. The cost of the units vs. the cost of the units plus the badge doesn't make them the same - they weren't the same item - and in this situation people bought it with the badge.

    No one understands that concept better than Kabam. Sometimes you spend 200 units and get a 3 star crystal. Sometimes you spend 200 units and get a Cavalier crystal. By virtue of them both costing 200 units, you can't revoke every 4*, 5*, and 6* champion anyone has pulled and justify it by saying "well, it cost the same as a 3 star crystal." Conversely, if they were capable of doing so, Kabam probably wouldn't be fond of offering to revoke 3* champs that people got out of 200 unit crystals and giving cavalier crystals in place of them and that's perfectly fair. Why? Because those people didn't buy cavalier crystals. They bought something knowing what they were getting - non-negotiable.

    I understand that Kabam has a very real problem to address, but that responsibility is not on the customers or their wallets.
    That's not how it works, actually.
    The Offer is the Units. They're there day in and day out for the same price. That IS the Offer.
    They came with an in-game Badge to Gift. That was disabled because of abuse. That's about it.

    Also, we didn't actually purchase anything we own. We rented the license to use their product.
    AH, that clears it up. So it just doesn't work that way and if you bought the unit package with the intention of getting the gifting badge, well, sucks for you because that's not what you bought even though that's what we told you you were buying. But... you never owned any of it anyways, so you should just thank your lucky stars that we even made a game you could play.

    Aside from your inability to understand the concept of people seeing a deal and purchasing it as it is, you understand that what Kabam is doing is how game development studios fail? And I'm not really sure what your goal is aside from being a contrarian at all times, but you're definitely not helping the situation by minimizing the fact that people spent money for no reason other than to get that badge.
    No, it litterally is not.. People will get upset, some will quit, most will not. The people who pay for the game will not care, after all you made it clear you do not pay for the game.
    Ur litterally rite. I don't pay for the game. I'm just posting this stuff for the hell of it. Looks like we've got about 16 pages of people that pay for the game not caring about it either. Thanks for your contribution.

  • DukeZmanDukeZman Posts: 604 ★★★
    Lormif said:

    Dshu said:

    Lormif said:

    Drooped2 said:

    To be fair, I understand that people are upset. I'm not trying to snub them off. I'm just explaining what's going on so people understand. This was necessary. People were being scammed and frauded. That goes beyond just the monetary value in a multitude of ways.

    Correct I bought a gifting badge and got scammed because I dont have it.

    Fixing fraud by committing fraud? That's a new solution for sure
    This is not fraud, it is hardly even a bait and switch since the gifting badge had a value of 0
    If the badge had a value of 0 why wasn't it available in game for purchase with units or added to all unit offers. It appears to be valued at 30 dollars since that is the only way to get it
    It is not valued at $30, 850 units is. As an added bonus you could get the free gifting badge. You get $30 value from the units and a FREE gifting badge.
    That's a dishonest way to look at it. Many people ONLY spent the $30 for the badge. We would have spent the $30 if there were no added units. Conversely, I would have spent $0 if the badge wasn't included. It was all about the badge. The units were a nice bonus, not the other way around.
  • LormifLormif Posts: 7,369 ★★★★★

    I love the game and have spent way too much on it because of that love, but the recent refund of just 300 units (just over $10 worth, basically) for the removal of the gifting badge (which cost $30 when you hit level 40) is just a slap in the face to the player base. I feel that Kabam is deaf to how their customers will react to their actions, and as long as they keep making money they won’t change that. I’m done giving any more money to Kabam. @Kabam Miike

    you got $30 woth of units, the badge was free add on. You gained 1150 units, way more than $30 worth of units.
  • kmac_qtpkmac_qtp Posts: 62
    Lormif said:

    kmac_qtp said:

    kmac_qtp said:

    The Badge was a free add-on that came with the one-time purchase of 850 Units. The Unit Offer IS the purchase. Same price as that Offer always is. People bought and used 850 Units. The Badge came as a free gift.

    This idea doesn't need to be perpetuated any further. If someone bought 850 units without the gifting badge, that's what they bought. If they bought 850 units with the gifting badge, that's what they bought. The cost of the units vs. the cost of the units plus the badge doesn't make them the same - they weren't the same item - and in this situation people bought it with the badge.

    No one understands that concept better than Kabam. Sometimes you spend 200 units and get a 3 star crystal. Sometimes you spend 200 units and get a Cavalier crystal. By virtue of them both costing 200 units, you can't revoke every 4*, 5*, and 6* champion anyone has pulled and justify it by saying "well, it cost the same as a 3 star crystal." Conversely, if they were capable of doing so, Kabam probably wouldn't be fond of offering to revoke 3* champs that people got out of 200 unit crystals and giving cavalier crystals in place of them and that's perfectly fair. Why? Because those people didn't buy cavalier crystals. They bought something knowing what they were getting - non-negotiable.

    I understand that Kabam has a very real problem to address, but that responsibility is not on the customers or their wallets.
    That's not how it works, actually.
    The Offer is the Units. They're there day in and day out for the same price. That IS the Offer.
    They came with an in-game Badge to Gift. That was disabled because of abuse. That's about it.

    Also, we didn't actually purchase anything we own. We rented the license to use their product.
    AH, that clears it up. So it just doesn't work that way and if you bought the unit package with the intention of getting the gifting badge, well, sucks for you because that's not what you bought even though that's what we told you you were buying. But... you never owned any of it anyways, so you should just thank your lucky stars that we even made a game you could play.

    Aside from your inability to understand the concept of people seeing a deal and purchasing it as it is, you understand that what Kabam is doing is how game development studios fail? And I'm not really sure what your goal is aside from being a contrarian at all times, but you're definitely not helping the situation by minimizing the fact that people spent money for no reason other than to get that badge.
    No, it litterally is not.. People will get upset, some will quit, most will not. The people who pay for the game will not care, after all you made it clear you do not pay for the game.
    U rite. I've litterally spent $0. I'm just posting for the hell of it. Looks like we've got about 16 pages of people that pay for the game not caring about it. Thank you for your contribution.

  • messotmessot Posts: 1
    give me back my money
  • LormifLormif Posts: 7,369 ★★★★★
    DukeZman said:

    Lormif said:

    Dshu said:

    Lormif said:

    Drooped2 said:

    To be fair, I understand that people are upset. I'm not trying to snub them off. I'm just explaining what's going on so people understand. This was necessary. People were being scammed and frauded. That goes beyond just the monetary value in a multitude of ways.

    Correct I bought a gifting badge and got scammed because I dont have it.

    Fixing fraud by committing fraud? That's a new solution for sure
    This is not fraud, it is hardly even a bait and switch since the gifting badge had a value of 0
    If the badge had a value of 0 why wasn't it available in game for purchase with units or added to all unit offers. It appears to be valued at 30 dollars since that is the only way to get it
    It is not valued at $30, 850 units is. As an added bonus you could get the free gifting badge. You get $30 value from the units and a FREE gifting badge.
    That's a dishonest way to look at it. Many people ONLY spent the $30 for the badge. We would have spent the $30 if there were no added units. Conversely, I would have spent $0 if the badge wasn't included. It was all about the badge. The units were a nice bonus, not the other way around.
    except that is not how it was offered, my way is not the dishonest one. Sure you may not have gotten it, and I support you in getting a refund if you returned the 850 units, but that does not make my statement false or dishonest.
  • chrissbjordannchrissbjordann Posts: 120
    Cmon Kabam. 300 units is a joke. Most people bought the 30 dollar bundle (myself included) just for the permanent gifting badge. Do the right thing here and give the people the units they deserve.
  • DNA3000DNA3000 Posts: 18,552 Guardian

    It makes perfect sense to give 300 units when I spent $30, can't wait to convert my units into the money I spent. Wait, you can't. Thank you Kabam, you aren't even sending the 850 units to us for the amount of money we spent. Another thing that makes me want to quit the game. When will it end.

    I'm going to respond to this one as a proxy for all of them. You *got* those units when you spent that money. Now you're asking for those units *again*. It doesn't matter if you spent X dollars "because" you wanted the badge. You don't get to buy the badge. You only got to receive the badge as a bonus on top of the unit purchase. The 300 units is *not* in lieu of a refund for cash, because you got the units for that cash. It is a compromise compensation for the loss of the badge, because the badge has no actual value.

    You don't get to tell Kabam or any other company that adds a free item on top of a purchase that you didn't actually buy the purchase, you bought the free item and you demand rights associated with that. They get to decide what costs money and what doesn't, and you only get to decide whether to buy those things or not. You don't get to dictate to any business what they are actually selling and under what conditions.

    I swear I'm not making this up. I was waiting in line at an office for my cable company, and I overheard a customer arguing with the service person there for about half an hour. They were trying to return a cable tuner and get a refund on their account. The problem was that they had received that tuner as part of a add one get one free offer. They were trying to return the one that cost money and keep the free one. They refused to accept the fact that they couldn't return the paid one and keep the free one, because as far as they were concerned if they returned the one that cost money they should get those charges terminated. The free one had nothing to do with it.

    This is kind of like that, only sillier.
  • DshuDshu Posts: 1,503 ★★★★
    Lormif said:

    Dshu said:

    Lormif said:

    Drooped2 said:

    To be fair, I understand that people are upset. I'm not trying to snub them off. I'm just explaining what's going on so people understand. This was necessary. People were being scammed and frauded. That goes beyond just the monetary value in a multitude of ways.

    Correct I bought a gifting badge and got scammed because I dont have it.

    Fixing fraud by committing fraud? That's a new solution for sure
    This is not fraud, it is hardly even a bait and switch since the gifting badge had a value of 0
    If the badge had a value of 0 why wasn't it available in game for purchase with units or added to all unit offers. It appears to be valued at 30 dollars since that is the only way to get it
    It is not valued at $30, 850 units is. As an added bonus you could get the free gifting badge. You get $30 value from the units and a FREE gifting badge.
    If the badge is free why are you required to buy the 30 dollar deal to get it. The units are free the badge costs 30 dollars
  • DeeeezDeeeez Posts: 22
    I, for one, will enjoy selling off all but my 5* champs and maxed 4* r5s on my alternate account later this evening....that's my "gift" to myself. Finally breaking the MCOC chain affixed to my ankle. Their in-game message contradicts itself as a previous poster indicated (they will bring it back for special events??). That's EXACTLY when the majority of the abuse took place, in my opinion, because that's when gifting mattered the most.

    Break the chains people....
  • liquidkarmaliquidkarma Posts: 80
    edited March 2019
    just wanted to add my voice to the chorus - i only bought the $30 unit deal for the gifting badge. considering 30 dollars normally gets you 850 units, i think it is a poor move to only refund 300 units.
    a lot of people like to defend kabam's actions along these lines by saying all purchases depreciate their value (the number of used car arguments i've read i can't count on 2 hands)
    even with that argument, i think a 50% depreciation, so like 450 units, would be the bare minimum.
    i think it's pretty shady to only give 1/3 value.

    not sure about the cash refund some people are asking about, unless you never spent those 850 units that came with the badge i feel that is asking a bit too much. 850 units "back" would be more realistic i think. déclassé move, kabam.

    an added note, i usually gift revives and health to alliance mates in alliance war, like most who probably bought the gifting badge. perhaps a viable solution would be to be able to send health/revives that are already in your inventory to your alliance war-mates?
  • LormifLormif Posts: 7,369 ★★★★★
    Dshu said:

    Lormif said:

    Dshu said:

    Lormif said:

    Drooped2 said:

    To be fair, I understand that people are upset. I'm not trying to snub them off. I'm just explaining what's going on so people understand. This was necessary. People were being scammed and frauded. That goes beyond just the monetary value in a multitude of ways.

    Correct I bought a gifting badge and got scammed because I dont have it.

    Fixing fraud by committing fraud? That's a new solution for sure
    This is not fraud, it is hardly even a bait and switch since the gifting badge had a value of 0
    If the badge had a value of 0 why wasn't it available in game for purchase with units or added to all unit offers. It appears to be valued at 30 dollars since that is the only way to get it
    It is not valued at $30, 850 units is. As an added bonus you could get the free gifting badge. You get $30 value from the units and a FREE gifting badge.
    If the badge is free why are you required to buy the 30 dollar deal to get it. The units are free the badge costs 30 dollars
    the unit package costs $30, you can go look now.
  • Fred_JoeityFred_Joeity Posts: 1,168 ★★★
    edited March 2019
    Just my opinion, some ideas taken from other posts:

    1. I don’t think Kabam is capable of refunding your money since they don’t handle the transactions
    2. Why the heck would you sue over $30? (this is just me being annoyed at how far internet trolls are trying to push this) Anyways, please stop spamming everyone.
    3. Fraud is a pretty big issue, so in-game currency doesn’t really stack up to that. This is a real issue, so Kabam has a right to suspend a certain in game mechanic while they deal with it. Though it does make me wonder why they’re planning on bringing it back for Christmas...
    4. Kabam will bring back gifting when they solve this, if possible.
    5. You paid $30 for units, even if you bought the package just for the gifting badge. The badge technically has no value, however highly you yourself value it. Kabam has no idea what your intentions were when you purchased this.
    6. To reiterate, refunding your money would take a lot of time and effort probably better spent trying to fix the issue of fraud. Please stop asking about refunds.
    7. Complaining isn’t going to do much. You kind of have to accept this, or just switch to a different game. Like I said before, please don’t take this court over a $30 purchase (hopefully nobody was serious)
    8. I’m completely FTP so you can ignore my opinion of you feel like it. People will do that anyways, and I don’t really care. Just don’t flag me because I have a different opinion than you.
  • moonmebabymoonmebaby Posts: 41
    http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

    We won use this link to form a formal complaint. This is for iOS.
  • Repto23Repto23 Posts: 731 ★★★
    No ammount of units is worth a gifting badge, otherwise we could have bought it ingame. Only way to obtain the GB was with Cash. Kabam if youd like to take it back then refund us, not much to it.
  • Theshark1Theshark1 Posts: 77
    At least give us the proper amount of units which was 850 not 300
  • LormifLormif Posts: 7,369 ★★★★★
    shoot I came up with a potential fix for this. Make it so you cannot earn in game units but another resource, 1-1, that other resource is the only resource you can use for gifting. You cannot buy this resource for units, but you can buy things that cost units with this resource. Fixes it all from what I can see.
  • xNigxNig Posts: 7,221 ★★★★★
    I’m gonna be objective here.

    First of all, all of us who spent $30 for the Gifting Badge got the badge ON TOP of the units we were purchasing. So asking for a 850 unit refund is being greedy.

    To be honest, Kabam could have indefinitely removed the gifting feature, not compensate us anything, and it was well within their rights to do so. We would also not have any recourse since we DID get what we paid for, ie 850 units. Having a “goodwill” refund is already something that we should be thankful for.

    Secondly, IF Kabam decides to give a full 850 unit refund for those who have purchased the offer because of the gifting badge (no idea how much truth there is), should the gifting badge be re-enabled in future, does Kabam have the right to clawback 850 units from us?

    Lastly, because this issue affects peoples’ real life as it pertains to fraud, I can see why Kabam was given no choice but to put a stop to it. I agree that it’s the actions of the minority that harmed the whole community, but doesn’t everything in life work this way? That’s why we have rules and laws to protect the majority from the actions of the minority.
This discussion has been closed.