User blog:GeoFruck/My Accidental Dino Purchase Saga

The other day, a really distressing event happened to me in Tiny Village, to the point where I seriously considered the possibility that I may stop playing. As this event unfolded, however, I have now found new found joy, not only in the game, but about TinyCO in general. Here is how it went:

I logged on and was collecting coins, as usual, and eagerly awaiting the completion of my pyramid in just a few minutes. While I was doing this, I was also chatting online, so I wasn't fully paying attention to everything going on in my game. But, how much do you need to pay attention when collecting coins and starting more recipes.

So, after collecting coins, getting resources from the market, getting my stores loaded up, and receiving the awesome 50 crystal reward, dime, and new permanent crystal producer, I shortly noticed afterwards that I had a new dino egg in my den, which should have still been empty. My first thought was, “hey, cool, they changed the reward in the pyramid challenge to a different dino. So, then I went to see what dino it was, and it turned out to be a Minmi. Then I thought, that's awesome, I got a free Minmi. I felt like I had somehow stumbled on a really cool bug or something, and was feeling like the TV gods were smiling down upon me.

It wasn't until a few more minutes had passed that I noticed my crystals. I had gone down in crystals by over 300 of them. My heart began to sink as the reality of what had happened was slowly and resistantly digested by my brain. I had somehow just purchased a Minmi without so much as seeing a screen, or when the egg appeared in my den. I panicked and thought about what I could do.

I decided to send a ticket in to TinyCO. No matter how remote the chance, it would be the only way to undo this terrible tragedy. So, I drafted the following:

Geoffrey Rucker Aug 22 00:27 OS: 5.1.1 Model: iPad2,1 Software: 1.13

Hello TinyCo,

I really hope you can please help me. I am not sure how it happened, but I apparently just purchased a Minmi Dino by mistake. I didn't even see anything pop up like what normally happens when I accidentally hit the den, I just all of a sudden noticed a new Dino in my den and I was down by 300 some odd crystals. Please help me somehow undo this. I have been saving crystals for months for a nice habitat or two, one of the storages, or something like that. I wouldn't even buy a Dino now that you have given us fusion. In any case, I just really hope you can help. My TinyID is GeoFruck.

Best Regards, Geoffrey Rucker

Sent from my iPad Then, shortly after that, I sent this:

Additional comments: now that I've regained my composure, somewhat, I'd like to explain what I remember happening, in case it might help. I logged in and saw bingo was put up. I went to the free daily, and noticed that two of my squares had gray boxes in them, as if missing a graphic. Thinking that something did not load quite right, I exited, shut the program down and restarted it. I actually did this twice, I think, because the gray boxes were still on my card. So, once I gathered myself from the excitement of another round of bingo, I noticed an egg in my den. I looked at it and it was a Minmi. I was confused, but during this time, I my pyramid also finished and I received my reward for that. While I was thinking that you may have changed the pyramid reward, I noticed my crystals. My heart sunk, and I contacted you. Best Regards, Geoffrey Rucker

Sent from my iPad

August 22, 2012 00:41

So, I hunkered down, and set myself up for a long wait for a return response. The next night, I was gathering coins in my village again, as usual. Checking out my new Minmi and trying to think that it was cool and not have it turn my stomach. Then it happened again. Yep, collecting coins near my den, and this time I noticed that it happened, I was the proud new owner of a Mesohippus egg. This time, it was almost laughable, I mean twice, within 24 hours of each other. But now I was out over 500 crystals total. I simply decided to send the following:

Hello TinyCo, I am extremely disappointed to add to this that it has happened again. This time I now have an unwanted mesohippus in my den. I saw when it happened this time. I was collecting coins next to my den, the screen paused for a little while, and then I had an egg in my den. No other screen popped up, nothing. In the past I have accidentally tapped the den, but the next screen that popped up seemed to have another box that needed to be tapped as well, and that's what always prevented me from accidentally going through with an inadvertent purchase. I don't know if the Dino purchasing has changed or anything, but now I can't even check that, because I don't have enough crystals.

I really hope that you can somehow reverse these purchases. I have been saving crystals for months, was up to almost 600 crystals, and now I'm down to about 50. I have spent money on this game in the past, and actually have some gift cards that I am holding on to, in the hope that a crystal sale will come around, with the intent to purchase some more at that time.

I have been enjoying this game for months. I have appreciated the attention that TinyCo gives to it, and really haven't had any major technical issues with it. And I really want to continue enjoying it, but these incidents have really taken the wind out of my sails. I really hope that you can somehow correct this, because I would consider it a courtesy if you did. I don't feel entitled to these crystals, as I did not directly purchase them, I simply spent my time collecting them while I was otherwise enjoying the game.

I have also been becoming somewhat disenchanted with the seemingly more marketing-oriented tone of the game. I have seen games go down that road, and quickly become shells of the game that they could have been. One of the things that I liked about this game, when I became more engaged with it, was the tone that I got from TinyCo, in that it was less marketing-oriented at the time. But, more importantly was that TinyCo seemed to be a company that wasn't defined by the company itself, but by the individuals that make up the company, and the customer base that had helped you achieve the level of success that you have. Essentially, you seem to actually care about your customers, which is a rare thing in today's world.

In the end, you will decide whether you will address this issue of mine, and one of two things will happen. I will somehow have this situation resolved by TinyCo. In which case I will become a huge proponent of TinyCo, and probably post this entire saga in public view, in order to demonstrate that TinyCo does really care about their customers. Or, I will receive some type of canned response explaining something or other about how you can't help me and you're sorry, so either keep playing or not. In which case I will probably just become less interested in this game, and TinyCo in general, and quietly disappear into the background.

I apologize for being so verbose, and I know you all are busy, so I will patiently wait to see what comes of this.

Best Regards, Geoffrey Rucker

Sent from my iPad

August 22, 2012 21:50 I was really baffled, I mean, I had never accidentally bought anything, only tapped the wrong recipe a few times. Now, I was out all of these crystals, without even a second screen popping up (which I do think has been removed). Later that night, the update came out and the coins were back to the original size. I hadn't even realized how used to the smaller size I had become. Suddenly, I realized why I had this problem, and sent the following:

Hello TinyCo, I just want to add one more short comment on this. I think the small coins contributed to my accidental purchases, and I doubt that I will have a problem with this again now that the big coins are back. Thank you for bringing these back.

Best Regards, Geoffrey Rucker

Sent from my iPad

August 23, 2012 05:22 Still just waiting to hear from them, and the next day I received a response:

Hi Geoffrey,

Thanks for the feedback! We really appreciate you taking the time to write in. We're working on improving the game at every turn, and this helps us a lot. If you have any additional ideas, questions or concerns, please feel free to send it my way.

XXXXXX Community Manager TinyCo Inc.

 August 23, 2012 15:53 I was kind of over the whole ordeal at this point, and had come to the conclusion that I would never see the crystals again. So, I just assumed that he hadn't read my string of reports, and said as much:

Hello XXXXX, Thank you very much for getting back to me so quickly. I don't blame you if you didn't read through the entire set of e-mails, as I know you all are busy. What my main concern was whether TinyCo would be able to reverse the accidental purchases of the two dinos, a mesohippus and a Minmi. I didn't and still don't want these dinos. I want the 528 crystals that were accidentally spent. If there is anyway you can reimburse me the crystals and remove the dinos from my village, that would be hugely appreciated. However, anything that you can do to reimburse me with some amount of these crystals, and/or removing the dinos would be a welcome compromise. Thank you for your time.

Best Regards, Geoffrey Rucker

August 23, 2012 23:33 I was still hanging on to a thread of hope that I may be able to get the crystals back, but expecting to have to wait a few more days to get a response. The next day, I opened up my village and there was a big purple blob covering my entire screen. Nah, just kidding. My crystals were back. Holy Moly my crystals were back. I could not believe it, so I went to check my ticket:

Hi Geoffrey, Thanks for being so understanding. While we can't reverse accidental purchases in every circumstance, I'm able to go ahead and credit your account with the missing currency. It should appear next time you start the game.

Thanks for your patience, and thanks for playing!

XXXXX Community Manager TinyCo Inc

Wow, I was absolutely floored. As some of you might have noticed from my comments lately, I had become somewhat disenchanted with TinyCO, and thought they had gone the way of the big company that just treats their customers like a single data point. The fact that they cared enough to give me back the crystals, was unbelievable. So, sorry that took so long, but I wanted to include the messages in order to demonstrate that this actually happened, and to supply some much needed positive feedback about TinyCO. Another good thing that can be gained from this is what my momma always used to say to me "Life is lik...no, ...You get more flies with honey then you do with vinegar."

There has understandably been a lot of negativity going on about TinyCO lately, but my attitude toward TinyCO has changed drastically, and they now have my benefit of the doubt.

Now, don't just read this and go buy some dinos and try to do the same thing. I mean, really....would you even think about doing that? I know some people might, but if you do, you are taking your own chances. Don't come crying to me if you don't get your crystals back.

As far as the other issues TinyCO has been having, yes, they are having a lot of problems with the android versions lately. I'm not going to make any excuses for them. I'm not all of a sudden a fanboy or anything that immature, I just have more respect for them. So, with the issues that they are having for Android, the best thing you can do is to send them the crash reports that they have explained about. During this whole thing, I actually found out that they get a crash report like this sent automatically from iOS users every time it crashes on an iOS platform. If they don't have that same kind of data for Android, then it won't ever be as stable a build. I'm actually really surprised that Android doesn't offer that type of functionality for developers. It would be very beneficial to their platform if they did, but, what can you do, people and companies all over have their problems.