Pocket Gems, Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/11) */
Dear Ms***:
This letter is in response to your email of December 1, relating to customer complaint #XXXXXXXX submitted by *** ***
Pocket Gems' policy is not to publicly disclose the private details of actions taken on
players' accounts to other playersWe only engage in these conversations with the individual player(s) affected
That said, we have reviewed this situation in the context of our ToS and Code of Conduct, and have confirmed these bans are appropriateOur main goal with such actions is to maintain the game as a fun, fair, and competitive place for everyone
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 7, 2015/12/14) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because: Pocket Gems knows that
Google play store won't refund a purchase over days prior. Their response has always been "We don't handle credit card information." Apparently they don't have a check, stamp and an envelopeSo I'm still paying for a service they are not providing. Sincerely,Aaron ***

Per our Terms of Service we can alter, amend, or suspend an account for any reasonThis player was found to have cheated in a manner to gain unfair advantage over other players and was banned

Please provide us with the support ticket number(s) for your interactions with our support team so that we can audit and make sure this issue is being handled in accordance with our company policies

Please let us know what your in-game name is so that I can reference your original conversation with our support team and try to get this resolved through our internal systemsIf you can, respond to your previous support ticket and ask for *** directly

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/03/04) */ Dear Ms***: This letter is in response to your original email of February 29, relating to customer complaint #XXXXXXXX submitted by *** ***We were able to locate the previous support conversations started by Mr***
with the account information he provided in his response, regarding the Pocket Gems game War DragonsThere have been several separate conversations over the past few months, but we assume that the complaint in this report was in response to the one submitted most recently before this reportOn February 21, 2016, Mr*** contacted us with the following complaint: "I have been having issues with your game since I started playing some ten weeks agoMost bugs are just an inconvenience but some are actually wasting the money that I have spent on your game giving me absolutely no value for what I spendA perfect example took place during the last event "king of the hill"During that event no less that twenty attacks that did not register for the event and in reality that number is most likely closer to thirtyEach of those attacks I had spent money on healing boosts, energy, and attack boosts that were wasted, not to mention the food, and chests lost for those attacksOn that event weekend alone I spent $and lost all that I mentioned above plus whatever levels that I couldn't reach because of the bugs within the gameThen shortly after that the game froze on me for some hours which has happened three other times in the last four or five weeks for hours, hours and hours before it was resolvedWhen I could not get into the game I contacted your corporate office by phone to express my concerns and was told to contact you guys at game supportMy issues are simpleI have spent on average $a week from the beginning and the bugs within the game are taking a good portion of my hard earned money and not giving me anything in returnI do expect to get what I am supposed to get when I support you guys with my cashSince your product is not performing as it should and I am loosing money I expect some kind of in game compensation or a complete and total refund of all cash that I have paid thus farPlease understand that I do not expect any machine to be perfect but the level of issues, that is literally costing me my hard earned money, should be addressedI am not a freeloader and only want what I paid for....nothing more and certainly nothing lessI do love this game and want to continue playing here but make not mistake, at years old I will fight for what is mineLet's work this out fairlyP.SI can't be 100% sure, because I did not keep up with it that closely , but I have some serious doubts that I have all of the event dragon fragments that I should have." Later that day, the Pocket Gems support team responded with: "I am terribly sorry for the trouble you have been experiencingCould you please tell me if there is any specific issue you would like me to address for you? We are making a concerted effort to fix all issues currently plaguing War DragonsHowever, bugs in code are extremely varied in their difficulty to fixSome bugs can take minutes to fix, and others can take monthsThough it seems like bugs should theoretically be super easy to fix, it's actually extremely hard to code some of these thingsThe team is doing the best they can to fix the many issues facing the gameThank you very much your patience and understanding." Over the next two days, Mr***'s reiterated his general frustration with various aspects of the game, and repeated his requests for in-game compensation for collective perceived gameplay lossesPocket Gems' policy is to credit players for specific issues that have quantified and verifiable in-game consequences, which unfortunately did not apply in this circumstanceIn no conversation did anyone representing Pocket Gems say "come to California and sue us" as Mr*** allegesThat kind of response would be completely counter to the Pocket Gems' support team's policy to advocate and assist our players to the best of our abilityWe are happy to work with Mr*** on any specific issues he's experiencing and will continue to assist him to ensure that his (as well as the rest of the community's) gameplay experience is as seamless as possibleWith regards to refunds specifically, only Apple can issue them for purchases made through the App Store, as developers don't have access to the billing information submitted therePocket Gems is actively working on improving its technical foundation and fixing any issues that are reportedLike most live software, not every bug is caught in the QA process before going live, but we have a large team dedicated to fixing these issues when they do arisePocket Gems would also like to point out that the terms of service applicable to War Dragons state: YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT USE OF THE SERVICE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK AND IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSEWITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, NEITHER POCKET GEMS NOR ITS AFFILIATES OR SUBSIDIARIES, OR ANY OF THEIR DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, ATTORNEYS, THIRD-PARTY CONTENT PROVIDERS, DISTRIBUTORS, LICENSEES OR LICENSORS (COLLECTIVELY, "POCKET GEMS PARTIES") WARRANT THAT (A) THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR THE SERVICE MATERIALS OR USER CONTENT WILL BE VIEWABLE TO YOU OR (B) THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE OR ERROR-FREE OR THAT ERRORS WILL BE CORRECTEDPlease feel free to contact me with any questions at (XXX) XXX-XXXXInitial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2016/03/07) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) I do not "expressly agree" to any loss created through criminal intent to defraud and theft as a result of that fraudNothing short of a full refund of all money paid to Pocket Gems will be acceptablePocket Gems has a responsibility to produce a "fully working" product to its customersAt no point have they used any disclaimers about their product being so full of bugs and glitches that you most likely will loose your moneyWhen you purchase a product a full disclosure of these issues should have been provided for their customers to make an informed decision to spent money or notPocket Gems has failed on this count and in fact guilty of defrauding everyone that has spent money on this gameFurthermore Pocket Gems has issued updates to the game making claims that the issues will now be resolved with these updates and that simply is not the case continuing with their fraudulent behavior to get players to continue to spend money believing that the game has been fixed$(USD) will be in my hands within the week or further action will be taken against them through criminal warrants, civil suits, and complaints filed with the FBI's Internet Crime unit, The Federal Trade Commision, ITunes, Facebook, etcThis will not go away by trying to stand on some sort of disclaimer that they themselves have breached by their own admissionFinal Business Response /* (4000, 16, 2016/04/04) */ Dear Ms***: This letter is in response to your original email of March 24, relating to customer complaint #XXXXXXXX submitted by *** ***The assertion that our disclaimers do not apply to Mr*** is without legal meritsOur Terms of Services apply to all users and are legal bindingAnd as such, even though the team is committed to providing as solid of a gameplay experience as possible, Pocket Gems has never guaranteed that this will be the caseFrom the Pocket Gems Terms of Service: YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT USE OF THE SERVICE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK AND IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSEWITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, NEITHER POCKET GEMS NOR ITS AFFILIATES OR SUBSIDIARIES, OR ANY OF THEIR DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, ATTORNEYS, THIRD-PARTY CONTENT PROVIDERS, DISTRIBUTORS, LICENSEES OR LICENSORS (COLLECTIVELY, "POCKET GEMS PARTIES") WARRANT THAT (A) THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR THE SERVICE MATERIALS OR USER CONTENT WILL BE VIEWABLE TO YOU OR (B) THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE OR ERROR-FREE OR THAT ERRORS WILL BE CORRECTEDThat said, while those are the legal policies covering this issue, on a situational level the support team is happy to help Mr*** or any player with any issues they might encounterWhile we can't guarantee a desired outcome in terms of compensation or immediate game fixes, the support team's goal is to help players enjoy War Dragons to the best of their ability (albeit within policy)It appears that Mr*** has sent in several support tickets since this case was opened, which seem to have been resolved satisfactorily, and we are happy to keep working with Mr*** via these channelsAs mentioned previously, Pocket Gems is highly appreciative of dedicated players like Mr***, and as a team we'd very much like to see this engaged community continue to play and enjoy War DragonsFinal Consumer Response /* (4200, 18, 2016/04/06) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) All that I hear from your response is a classic example of skirting around the issuesYou are more than qualified to hold any political officeYour disclaimer does not apply since I never agreed to the termsThe issue seems to be with Pocket Gems and the attitudes of its employees that no matter what the customer s to pay the consequences.your customers are not in charge of hiring qualified programmersYour customers are not in charge of managing those programmers to make sure that the job is being done correctlyAnd et we pay the pricePlease explain how you believe that this is fair or right! You talk about getting a refund from Apple but a refund just does not cover itFor example when you have these events you play for "event rewards" and within these event rewards you have event dragons as part of the awardsWhen the attacks don't register you can't get your proper rewards while others that have not been as adversely effected get their dragonsLast month I missed Bixi by fragmentsWithout that dragon I can not breed the "big" dragon for that monthThis gives the players with fewer glitches and bugs an unfair advantage over the rest of usAnd what about the countless hours spent in these events to reach those goals only to fail because of bad management at Pocket GemsDoes a refund from Apple cover that? Not even close! You talk about "industry standards" so I have to ask, is it industry standards to let your customers pay the price for your mistakes and only get attitude when they try to get things resolved? If so that your industry must be full of scammers and thieves that only care about the money and not the very customers that keep their business in businessWith this kind of attitude and policies you would completely fail in any other businessSo please explain to me how you believe that you are so special that you don't have to moral in your policies when dealing with your customers? I'm betting right now that not one of my questions or concerns will be answered, much less answered with any positive outcomeI have never requested anything that I didn't pay for with my time and my money and you have the nerve to treat me like a thief! That's rich! Now please respond some more with your company doublespeak so the rest of the world can seeI just want what is mine!

Dear *** * ***,
Our records indicate that you did not purchase those free passes, and that you obtained them fraudulently or otherwise via methods that are in violation of our terms of use If that is incorrect -- if you actually purchased them, please provide us with evidence of your
purchase
Best,
*** ***
General Counsel
Pocket Gems, Inc

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because: I have left several unanswered emails as well
as even called and not received one word back in response. I have invested numerous, numerous hours playing this game as well as real money for rubies to advance further in the game.Sincerely,Todd***

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:
Prove how the so called fraud was committed, don't just speculateOnce you prove that, I will then take you seriously, until then, pocket gem is nothing but a fraud and scamI will drag this until a valid reason is given
Sincerely,*** ***

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because: I opened the Revdex.com web page and got the following informatuion
*** ***
Pocket Gems, Inc
years in business
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** ***
Using this information I called the number and asked for technical support. I was told they were busy so they took my phone number, email address and ticket number and said they would have someone respond.
Sincerely,Todd ***

This player was banned for cheating and, per our Terms of Service, will not have their account restored

It is not 100% guaranteed that the highest damager will receive a fortIf they cannot hold more forts, or if another team contributes enough, there is a chance they will not receive the fort

There is no complaint hereThey’re mad that we sold a dragonNo refund will be given

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because: After much correspondence with your team of lacky customer service representatives, I received knowledge that you changed the drop rates on the even several times, giving an unfair advantage to those who purchased after I didIn addition, you do not supply us with these critical data to determine if you are showing favoritism. Under the consumer right act of ***, section and 45, I demand refund for the purchase of digital product which I'm not satisfied withAs you are an international company, you must abide by all international law, both in the states and else wareYou cannot change your policy in the middle of an eventYou cannot give another customer unfair treatmentYou're running a business, and your customers are not happy with your hidden changes. Section and Refund my purchase or get your legal team together, you will need them.Sincerely,*** ***

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/10/14) */
VIA SITE
*** ***
Golden Gate Revdex.com
Broadway, Suite
Oakland, CA XXXXX
Dear Ms***:
This letter is in response to your email of October 6, relating to customer complaint #XXXXXXXX submitted by *** ***
On August 29, 2015, Mr*** (whose player name in Pocket Gems' mobile game War Dragons is Dracorubio) contacted Pocket Gems with the following message with concerns regarding gameplay and connection issues in War Dragons:
Skirmish event SUcKS!!!!!!
Connection issues suck - keep getting booted, unable to enter, the prange spinning wheel of death
Matchups totally unfair, diamond can attack bronze
Wait between skirmishes too short, should be six hours instead of one to recharge - WE ARE NOT GOING TO WASTE MONEY ON RUBIES!!!!!!!!
Pocket Gems support responded to Mr*** the next day (August 30, 2015):
Hi DracorubioSorry about thisMy immediate suspicion is that your device is running out of RAMI would recommend the following:
Killing all other apps on your device,
Closing all tabs on safari (or any other browser installed),
Rebooting your device
Restart the game
Let me know if you see an improvement after trying thisThank you
As for the match-ups, teams are being matched up with other teams in their same leagueThis is true except for platinum and diamond leaguesThere are too few teams in the diamond league in order to provide a fun experience, so we mix platinum and diamond together in events like this
That was the last communication we had with Mr*** on this matter
The technical and gameplay concerns raised in Mr***'s complaint are areas of War Dragons that Pocket Gems is actively working on improvingLike most live software, not every bug is caught in the QA process before going live, but we have a large team dedicated to fixing these issues when they do ariseIf Mr*** has specific concerns about his game we are happy to discuss this via game support, but so far we haven't received any further communication beyond what was provided above
Terms of Service
Pocket Gems would like to point out that the terms of service applicable to War Dragons state:
YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT USE OF THE SERVICE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK AND IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, NEITHER POCKET GEMS NOR ITS AFFILIATES OR SUBSIDIARIES, OR ANY OF THEIR DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, ATTORNEYS, THIRD-PARTY CONTENT PROVIDERS, DISTRIBUTORS, LICENSEES OR LICENSORS (COLLECTIVELY, "POCKET GEMS PARTIES") WARRANT THAT (A) THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR THE SERVICE MATERIALS OR USER CONTENT WILL BE VIEWABLE TO YOU OR (B) THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE OR ERROR-FREE OR THAT ERRORS WILL BE CORRECTED
Please feel free to contact me with any questions at (XXX) XXX-XXXX
Very truly yours,
*** ***
Player Experience Manager
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/10/16) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Their continued refusal to address game issues is unacceptableThis is reflected in the game's online forums, where it is clearly evident that a growing number of customers are becoming more and more dissatisfied with the quality of service that PG is providing, for what they advertiseThe service is supposed to provide reasonable entertainment value at no cost but the quality of entertainment has degraded to a point where it is no longer enjoyable to play the gameWeekly 'special events' cause massive server hangups making it impossible to even attempt to playThese events and the game in general are clearly designed to force customers to pay in order to derive any tangible benefit as relted to game performanceThe two clauses referenced above have nothing to do with the nature of the thousands of complaints regarding the quality of service that PG is (sic) providingThey are in direct conflict with both in-game and outside advertising promises, which constitutes fraudulent representation of an advertised product
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/11/02) */
Dear Ms***:
This letter is in response to your email of October 16, relating to customer complaint #XXXXXXXX submitted by *** ***
Mr*** has not contacted Pocket Gems since August 29, 2015, so we have not been able to discuss any of his concerns directly with him - but we are always happy to hear feedback and engage in constructive discussion if we would still like to contact us
That said, we'll address the concerns raised in this most recent response individually:
Mr***'s comments begin with:
"Their continued refusal to address game issues is unacceptableThis is reflected in the game's online forums, where it is clearly evident that a growing number of customers are becoming more and more dissatisfied with the quality of service that PG is providing, for what they advertise."
The War Dragons forums to which he's referring are located here: http://wardragons.pocketgems.com/
The forums are a mix of many discussions surrounding strategy, gameplay, team recruiting, events, updates, feedback, and technical issuesWhile there are definitely many threads about ongoing technical issues, they by no means are the dominant topics
In fact, Mr*** has been called out by other players for being overly negative and bringing down the spirit of the forumsFor example, in one thread (http://wardragons.pocketgems.com/forum/all-forums/general-discussion/XXXXX-unus...⇄ in response to feedback about a recent in-game event, Mr*** (forum name "***") stated:
"By how they do during game time, not during special events.Special events are designed to con people into spending money to get relatively worthless prizes whereas during gameplay it is the wars that determine team rankingsThe two should remain separate, especially when PG refuses to address the ever constant disconnection issues during these eventsBesides, we all know that the events are geared towards CC suckers garnering the pigs share of prizes anyways!"
To which another forum member (Lx460) responds:
"Is EVERY post you make whining about people spending money? Do you think development, maintenance, etcis free? Would you rather be clicking to X out an ad for some stupid product every seconds? Or completing surveys to "earn" rubies? How the *** do you think this game exists? I can tell you it isn't just a labor of love to entertain you
To be successful at this game one must choose to devote time and effort or moneyYou seem to complain about (or have excuses for) bothWhy don't you just play another game if it makes you this miserable? On top of that, you constantly suggest class action suits, reporting to Revdex.com, etc...and people call ME the troll? Get real."
Back to Mr***'s claims, in which he continues by stating
"The service is supposed to provide reasonable entertainment value at no cost but the quality of entertainment has degraded to a point where it is no longer enjoyable to play the gameWeekly 'special events' cause massive server hangups making it impossible to even attempt to play."
War Dragons is continuously improving performance and fixing bugsFor instance, the latest update to the game contained over bugfixes and reduced startup time from an average of seconds to seconds (in addition to adding several new player-requested features)We currently have most of our engineers working on improving overall technical stability, which has visibly been paying off in meaningful improvements
Mr*** continues:
"These events and the game in general are clearly designed to force customers to pay in order to derive any tangible benefit as relted sic to game performance."
It's unclear what Mr*** means here, as performance and stability are not influenced in any way by paying for in-game items
Mr*** concludes:
"The two clauses referenced above have nothing to do with the nature of the thousands of complaints regarding the quality of service that PG is (sic) providingThey are in direct conflict with both in-game and outside advertising promises, which constitutes fraudulent representation of an advertised product."
Pocket Gems' Terms of Service are not in conflict with any Pocket Gems advertisingThe excerpts from the Terms of Service were included to point out that anyone playing one of our games has acknowledged and agreed that the game is provided to players with no guarantees regarding service or technical performance
Again, if Mr*** would like to discuss any of these issues directly with our support team, we would be happy to hear from him
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/11/04) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Regarding the complaints in the forums not being the 'dominant' topic: Of course they are not the dominant topic - most of the posters are high level players who are also paying players, discussing their strategies and findingsTheir quotes of other player responses to my 'gripes' in the forums are exactly that - PLAYER responses, not PG'sFor a more representative sampling of player complaints regarding the game's issues the correct place to go is the Apple Store reviews -the majority of those give the game the lowest rating possible due to its unsolved technical issues and player advancement opportunities if they are non-paying playersThese players feel an entitlement to what they pay for (rightly so, because they pay to play), but PG does not provide equal opportunities for advancement for non-paying playersTheir advertising is designed to lure people in, without due warnings that expectations of advancing significantly in the game are only possible via cash outlaysThier excuse of quoting their Terms of Service re 'non-guarantee of performance and playability" are in direct opposition of what they so blatantly hyper-advertiseMy reference to game events being "tailored to forcing players to play in order to derive tangible benefit as related to game performance" is not about connectivity or physical gameplay, but rather the in-game experience of obtaining game-related awards, bonuses, etc which help the player advance in rankingThis favoritism towards paying players is not stated anywhere in the terms of service nor is it expressed or communicated to players in ANY form - it is not stated anywhere that they must pay to expect significant advancement within the gameRegarding their connectivity issues having been 'improved' - I have not seen any improvement in connectivity issues; I still experience numerous disconnects, lags, and the same extended game botime as when I startedNothing in that respect has improvedAgain, they do not state anywhere in game advertising or service terms that older devices are not adequatelt supported

We do not discuss bans with anyone other than the impacted partyIf your teammate was banned for cheating they will have to reach out to our support team at ***

What are your ticket numbers in Zendesk? Our team would be happy to review those to make sure they were handled correctlyThat said, we have no phone customer support so any phone calls will not be received by our support team

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:II provided ticket #s the last time I responded.Sincerely,*** ***

This is what they do every timeThey ask to send in a "in-game ticket" and that they will investigate the issueAttached is a copy of the email that states what I just saidThe issue happens all the time and they say they will "investigate it"Listed below is a ticket number from oneThe other issue I wasn't given a ticket number. It has the issue number in their support email
*** ***
Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:Sincerely,*** ***

Please contact our support team at ***If you already have, please let me know what your ticket number is so that I can investigate and make sure your ticket is being handled appropriately