Mobile Payments Now Available - garbage? perhaps

[ffron]

In my opinion, this is a bad idea, well kinda, for example, $5 added on to my cell bill would only be 2000 spark cash when $5 outta my paypal account would be 3500 spark cash. Come on OS stop trying to rip people off and make it the same as purchasing it from a credit card, paypal etc. Same as the earning free spark cash, sure its a easy way but for a few people i talk to 99% of the time your contacing customer support or waiting a week to get anything

[AParadiseLost]

If they lose customers, this way they have personal information they can sell.

[irix33]

If they lose customers, this way they have personal information they can sell.

LOL.

I like the way you think. :D

[pizzaFTW]

I think it's a good idea actually... There are some people that can't buy prepaid cards because there aren't any shops where they live and neither have a credit card : o.
I would actually use it if T.T Dominican Republic was in the list for mobile spark cash.

[FlashBoom]

If they lose customers, this way they have personal information they can sell.

LMFAO
10char

[Celtic_Princess]

If you look back through the forums, there are a number of users who requested that this form of payment be put in place because of the difficulty involved in buying SC using other methods for them.

If you do not feel comfortable using it, there are other ways to buy SC that might suit you better :)

[DarkSlasher]

Yeah, I don't have a credit card, and I can't buy cards. It's the only way I can finally buy SC. :þ

[irix33]

Well, I think the OP's question is why the difference in SC when charging through phone and through credit cards/Paypal.

A possible reason is that charging through phone might be a more expensive service for OS as I am sure the phone companies will charge OS a fee for that service.

So OS just pass this extra cost to the consumers instead of absorbing it themselves.

[soleinstinct]

Well, I think the OP's question is why the difference in SC when charging through phone and through credit cards/Paypal.

A possible reason is that charging through phone might be a more expensive service for OS as I am sure the phone companies will charge OS a fee for that service.

So OS just pass this extra cost to the consumers instead of absorbing it themselves.

Lol, no surprise there ;p

[nab753]

If you look back through the forums, there are a number of users who requested that this form of payment be put in place because of the difficulty involved in buying SC using other methods for them.

If you do not feel comfortable using it, there are other ways to buy SC that might suit you better :)

we understand some players requested it but why do they only receive 2000 sc per $5 when credit card users receive 3500 sc...just because they r desperate doesn't mean you should rip them off :)

[wannabeguyo]

If they lose customers, this way they have personal information they can sell.

I lul'ed
10char

[DF001]

If you look back through the forums, there are a number of users who requested that this form of payment be put in place because of the difficulty involved in buying SC using other methods for them.

If you do not feel comfortable using it, there are other ways to buy SC that might suit you better :)

Yes but 1500 sc makes a diff..let's say you wanted to buy 50$ of sc...that would be 20k sc with phone but 35k sc with other ways of payment..

we understand some players requested it but why do they only receive 2000 sc per $5 when credit card users receive 3500 sc...just because they r desperate doesn't mean you should rip them off :)

Seconded.

[nab753]

sorry for the 2nd post but i also noticed that if u buy $100 sc u receive 70,000 sc but if u by $100 on phone service u receive only 40,000 sc...thats like half o.o huge rip off? i think yes

[DarkSlasher]

Well yeah, the more you pay, the bigger the difference. :P

[wunamon]

If they lose customers, this way they have personal information they can sell.

You read them like a book man. apart from this who thing being a big scam because u get 1500 less spark cash then if u use the other methods. they have a plan B to sell your information either way.

*Note to outspark* If you really wanna make money. try the tried a tested means. make the game more fun and accessible and stop these childish ways of making money. There is a saying which goes that a good thing sells itself. take a hint from giants like coca cola and tobacco companies. they selling dangerous stuff but at least they make it fun to use and dont come across as people who wanna take your money.
please stop underestimating your users. Basic marketing dictates that retention of old customers is better than gaining new ones.

[Eternal_Doom]

If they lose customers, this way they have personal information they can sell.

Lol. 10char

[wunamon]

Well yeah, the more you pay, the bigger the difference. :P

they say for every $1 you get 400 SC
the table below will further explain to you why this is a garbage means of ripping poor gamers of their hard earned money.
Credit card/ game cards --------------------------Mobile payment

$5 = 3500 ------------------------------------- $5 = 2000

$10 = 7000 -------------------------------------$10 = 4000

$25 = 14000 --------------------------------------$25 = 10000

if I am not mistaken this goes to show that the more you buy Via mobile payment, the less you get in form of spark cash. let me put this in mathematical terms you are losing 42.86 % on any purchase when you buy through the mobile payment method. That is almost half what you should be getting. There is no reason outspark can give to explain this huge percentage. even if the service providers are requesting a commission.

[wunamon]

If you look back through the forums, there are a number of users who requested that this form of payment be put in place because of the difficulty involved in buying SC using other methods for them.

If you do not feel comfortable using it, there are other ways to buy SC that might suit you better :)

Come on. i agree that this method is enabling people from other countries to also buy SC. The problem here is that this method is too expensive. You might as well encourage paid gifting in-game because for every purchase, the user is actually getting approx. 42.86% less what a person using all the other methods is getting. i say this is unfair because most of those that this service is supposed to help are those without the privilege to access SC. Selling SC to them for almost double the price is really not a good solution. we just recommend that Outspark review and reconsider the whole thing. check my previous reply for a mathematical representation. let me know if u think i am wrong to say it is unfair.

[wunamon]

Well, I think the OP's question is why the difference in SC when charging through phone and through credit cards/Paypal.

A possible reason is that charging through phone might be a more expensive service for OS as I am sure the phone companies will charge OS a fee for that service.

So OS just pass this extra cost to the consumers instead of absorbing it themselves.

Even if the phone company charges a fee, I don't think that it should mean that people using the service should pay almost double for SC since they getting 42.86% less than people using paypal and credit cards. even if that's the case, make the consumers aware of this fact, at least they can appreciate the honesty.

[thalegend7695]

If they lose customers, this way they have personal information they can sell.

Is that why my address was on Ebay last night? :(

[ximpurityx]

You read them like a book man. apart from this who thing being a big scam because u get 1500 less spark cash then if u use the other methods. they have a plan B to sell your information either way.

*Note to outspark* If you really wanna make money. try the tried a tested means. make the game more fun and accessible and stop these childish ways of making money. There is a saying which goes that a good thing sells itself. take a hint from giants like coca cola and tobacco companies. they selling dangerous stuff but at least they make it fun to use and dont come across as people who wanna take your money.
please stop underestimating your users. Basic marketing dictates that retention of old customers is better than gaining new ones.


Well said, they need some new sales tactics. It's not even 2k sc with $5 its 1600.. i might have used this method, but NO way when i'm just getting ripped off.. they refuse to fix whats wrong with the game sucking the fun out of it already, they wont get more money from me for a game that just about isn't worth playing anymore.
I guess they figure with all the kids that dont have cc's that play this game oh an easy way to get sc, they will do it anyway and drive their parents up the wall with cell bills and stop them from playing the game.

Yet another bad move outspark! get your brains out of your wallets and make the game what it used to be!

[wunamon]

for more information about the Zong mobile payment go to www.zong.com. there is some intersting information there which explains why you will not get the same SC as someone using a credit card.

[ffron]

Yeah i just read through the site, Outspark delete this, ok its good for some people with no credit card paypal etc. But for expample, a younger player uses their parents cell phone for spark cash, first comes $5 then comes $100. Sure it may not happen but most likely it will. If you wanna keep this service then increase the amounts, sure were not expecting the full 3500 for $5 but why not make it like 500sc for $1. That sounds more reasonable. As a few others have said before, this has to be the dumbest idea in all of outsparks history and according to my knowledge, you guys havent been around as long as some of the other major mmorpg games

[ninja_frogz]

they say for every $1 you get 400 SC
the table below will further explain to you why this is a garbage means of ripping poor gamers of their hard earned money.
Credit card/ game cards --------------------------Mobile payment

$5 = 3500 ------------------------------------- $5 = 2000

$10 = 7000 -------------------------------------$10 = 4000

$25 = 14000 --------------------------------------$25 = 10000

if I am not mistaken this goes to show that the more you buy Via mobile payment, the less you get in form of spark cash. let me put this in mathematical terms you are losing 42.86 % on any purchase when you buy through the mobile payment method. That is almost half what you should be getting. There is no reason outspark can give to explain this huge percentage. even if the service providers are requesting a commission.

Yea it said 400 sparkcash per $1 which is almost what it should equal to if I was to buy via paypal ($1 in my currency).

:o A split second after I bought some I realised "that can't b right?!" So I used a calculator (so smart!) and yea...realised I got jipped!!!!!!!!! Ofcourse I complained on the written error they made!

Not buying more til they fix the written error...and if it's worth my $ O.o

:o :o I'll read the fineprint next time :o :o At least I bought it with credit which was gonna expire in a couple of hours ;)

[soleinstinct]

they say for every $1 you get 400 SC
the table below will further explain to you why this is a garbage means of ripping poor gamers of their hard earned money.
Credit card/ game cards --------------------------Mobile payment

$5 = 3500 ------------------------------------- $5 = 2000

$10 = 7000 -------------------------------------$10 = 4000

$25 = 14000 --------------------------------------$25 = 10000

if I am not mistaken this goes to show that the more you buy Via mobile payment, the less you get in form of spark cash. let me put this in mathematical terms you are losing 42.86 % on any purchase when you buy through the mobile payment method. That is almost half what you should be getting. There is no reason outspark can give to explain this huge percentage. even if the service providers are requesting a commission.

ALSO NOTE: SparkCash is an in-game thing, meaning that they can reproduce millions of sparkcash with a few clicks lol so there really is NO real reason for the difference. It's not like IRL Money where you have to work to get the spark cash. Lol, also SparkCash isn't like a bank in which the SparkCash is made, it's made once a player buys. So... why the difference? ._.

[wunamon]

ALSO NOTE: SparkCash is an in-game thing, meaning that they can reproduce millions of sparkcash with a few clicks lol so there really is NO real reason for the difference. It's not like IRL Money where you have to work to get the spark cash. Lol, also SparkCash isn't like a bank in which the SparkCash is made, it's made once a player buys. So... why the difference? ._.

Actually it is not as simple as you think it is. firstly i think they need to have a sort of control over SC to control the economy and balance of the game community. Also Outspark must show some form of value to the currency so that the service provider can attach some form of real value to it. for instance they have the value of virtual currency to real currency to be $1- 400SC. let us
assume that Outspark will just reconsider and renegotiate with Zong about the rates so that it will seem fair to the users making use of this new feature.

[SKiNG]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. We will review the situation.

[wunamon]

ALSO NOTE: SparkCash is an in-game thing, meaning that they can reproduce millions of sparkcash with a few clicks lol so there really is NO real reason for the difference. It's not like IRL Money where you have to work to get the spark cash. Lol, also SparkCash isn't like a bank in which the SparkCash is made, it's made once a player buys. So... why the difference? ._.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. We will review the situation.

thanks for that and we hope something is done. and also can outspark also include a payment method that includes African countries. depending on relatives in the US for SC is a bit redundant.

[ninja_frogz]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. We will review the situation.
Thanks for hearing us! ^^,

[philiplr]

Most businesses will actually take a loss on certain items to hold customers to their store. This way of paying by phone is for a select few users who can't set up a paypal, credit card, or buy the cards. There is probably a charge that outspark has to pay by billing this way which is very high. However, no matter how much someone spends through this method, outspark still makes a profit, because they are selling pixels of info which costs them nothing to produce.

So even if it costs Outspark something like $1 per $5 for credit card purchases, but $2.50 per $5 for phone purchases, they could still credit the user with more spark cash without actually losing any money. Even if they could make a few extra dollars here and there, they should avoid any sort of service that makes them appear to be ripping someone off, since people won't use the service. Then those who do use the service will feel ripped off and even those who don't use the service will feel that Outspark is ripping people off as well.

At the very least, they should explain the cost difference to avoid messy public relations complications.

[CSR_Joker]

Hi everyone,

After reviewing your feedback here and other comments sent to us, we are pleased to announce Zong Pricepoint adjustments.

Please see the official announcement posted a few minutes ago:

http://outspark.com/forums/showthread.php?t=196814

Thanks again for providing feedback. Keep it coming!

[devin_nicolai]

Its a waist of time, unless you use your friends cell phone, lmao.

[A_geezy]

Good Day Outspark community:

We are pleased to announce that with the opening of our new Zong Mobile Payment option, we will be increasing the current conversion rate from 400 to 500 Spark Cash for every 1$ you load. That means that each time you use the Zong service, you get 500 Spark Cash for every 1$ you spend.

We will be making this adjustment on April 21, 2009 at 3:30 pm PST. We will also be awarding all those who have already used Zong an extra 100 Spark Cash for every 1$ you already spent!

We at Outspark are doing our best to make sure all of our you, our customers, can find easy and accessible ways to purchase Spark Cash and make the most out of your gaming experience.

Thank you and happy gaming!

But if you use a credit card you get 700SC per $1, so it's still a sham... unless daddy took the credit card away but doesn't know about the phone bill yet.

BTW, how come Zong get's to buy and sell CS outside of Outspark, but we can't?

This is just a glorified 3rd party site :(

[ffron]

OK you raise the price but it is still not $1 = 500sc. I only get 2000sc for $5 NOT 2500. Come on OS learn your math

[irix33]

Well, we have to show our appreciation to OS for taking the effort to review and improve their services.

Yes, the phone payment method is still not as good as CC or Paypal, but it is just another alternative for us.

For those where this is the only way to buy SC, you have to ask yourself is it worth it? Knowing that you will get more from the other methods. Only you can decide for yourself.

For those who can use CC and Paypal, nothing has change for us. :)

[shoodoo]

If you look back through the forums, there are a number of users who requested that this form of payment be put in place because of the difficulty involved in buying SC using other methods for them.

If you do not feel comfortable using it, there are other ways to buy SC that might suit you better :)

This is very true!
Many 18- kiddies have no form of payment (or entertainment) other than texting... finally they can get some shiny new clothes!

[shoodoo]

Hi everyone,

After reviewing your feedback here and other comments sent to us, we are pleased to announce Zong Pricepoint adjustments.

Please see the official announcement posted a few minutes ago:

http://outspark.com/forums/showthread.php?t=196814

Thanks again for providing feedback. Keep it coming!

YAY! it will soon be worth it!