PopReach giving the runaround

[AllissaAnn]

Hey Smurfy pals! I have been going back and forth with PopReach for 15 business days now. First, they wanted all my receipts. Which I supplied....over 100 of them. Then they wanted my Smurf ID which when I last played was not a thing. So I created one. Next, they could not "validate" my receipts. When I questioned how they could not be "validated" as they come directly from Apple, my Apple ID account, they said because I did not have my original Support ID. Which of course was how I began my original ticket to them explaining how game corruption and glitches froze my game rendering it unplayable (yes years ago) and I eventually sold my iPad, thus deleting all iPad content for its new owner. So no Support ID. They then made an offer for a small amount of Smurfberries that comes nowhere close to what I purchased. I said that was rather insulting considering the amount of money I put into my original game. I asked if I could think about it. They said yes. Refusing to accept defeat I decided I was going to find that original support ID since it was so important so I could begin rebuilding with what I feel I deserve. So into storage I went to find my old 2008 Mac in hopes that I had something Smurfs' Village somewhere on it so I could get the original game support ID. Luck!!!! I had an old .ipa file on the hard drive. The old version of iTunes. I synced up an old iPhone 5c and the game version 1.18 (I think. Talk about way, way back) appeared on my 5c. I was able to get through the old opening Beeline screen (memories) and achieve visual of my original game support ID. HA! I felt really, really, confident. This however is still not good enough for PopReach as with this support ID they “can not check my account”. I can not believe this is happening. This is not Smurfy at all. Any suggestions? I’ve asked for a supervisor and apparently they do not transfer tickets to supervisors. My jaw is on the ground. I have now provided them with all that they asked for and am still not compensated. Any suggestions? Tech hacks? I just want to play Smurfs' Village again. I finally have a brand new iPad. I know all that I achieved and built is gone. But they can help rebuilding not feel so sad and gain a paying customer back.


TLR Opened support ticket, supplied all asked for. 15 days later still not compensated.

[Purple!]

AllissaAnn I am a bit confused on what you want PopReach to do, are you asking for them to reimburse every item you ever bought, but put it on a different device and on a different account?

[AllissaAnn]

I think EO's would be really hard to resend as I couldn't even tell you what I had purchased there were so many. I really just want the purchased Smurfberries credited to what would be my new game as I'm pretty confident my original game is gone since I did delete when I sold that iPad. I understand that there is now cloud save and local save in addition to a Smurf ID that would better save the game and allow Customer Support to assist. I think that is great as once my original game was corrupted it was barely playable.

[Purple!]

I can see why they might be hesitant to reimburse all your missing berries. The fact that it is years later and you no longer have the iPad you purchased your items on makes for a unusual situation for reimbursement.

I know that when I have had problems and my village started over all the berries bought on that device are all there, but not the ones from devices that I moved the village to, so those would be lost forever.

I’m honestly surprised they are willing to offer you anything, There is a great possibility that players would exploit their generosity in situations like this.

I think it’s cool they are willing to give you something, I really don’t know of another game that would do that under the situation.

You really should have dealt with this when the loss happened, asking so long after the fact makes the situation way more difficult. Maybe you can refer them to the forum where they can see you are an active long term player, these guys don’t have a history with you, that might help.

I hope you can get this worked out, I do think you need to give them time, it may be beyond the policies of just the customer service person you are dealing with. How did you leave it with them, did they say they would get back to you?

[AlleycatttSmurf]

My husband spent hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on this game when it started and Capcom then Beeline (a branch of Capcom) were the game developers - for the first 3-4 years.

Then he did not play for several years and deleted the app from his device.

When he decided to start up again and put the game back on his device it was in no way expected that Bongfish (who were the developers at the time) should be liable for any previous expenses.

You can’t expect a company to honour receipts for products that weren’t even purchased through them.

[debbles smurf]

Is the game still on that old device. If so what you need to do is firstly update the game app in app store. From there open the game save it under new smurfy id. Then open game on the other device and load the saved game.

For me I lost my game was not impressed. So I grabbed a very old device and saved it to cloud. I then loaded the save onto the other device. Pop reach were kind enough to resend a couple of eos I had won in the mystery box. I had sent them photos of my village to show that I had those eo's prior to the game going up in smoke. From there I created a smurfy id and save the game when I can.

Hopefully you can get the game back.

[AllissaAnn]

I guess I'm just a little old school guys. I still buy DVD's and have original NES game cartridges. SV was the first and only online game that I ever played using real money. And it was a great game until all the bugs, corruption, etc began and items that I purchased began to disappear one by one. I know that every developer that has had a hand in SV did not cause those issues maliciously, but my personal opinion is that if someone is spending money on your product then they should be getting what they pay for. I did try and set things straight with customer support when these issues occurred. But at a certain point my game just wouldn't even get past the load screen. Plus Apple products, OS/iOS, age out and lose support. I actually got on here and wished you all a Happy New year in 2018 and said how much I missed you and wish I could be playing and gifting you all again. Days later, which I did not know until 5 months later, the beautiful and remarkable Spelling Bee had responded to my post and said to PM her that with receipts Bongfish could credit me, give me levels back, VIP back, but I'd still have to rebuild everything, She just wanted me to be playing again. That is just how AMAZING she really was. I wasn't even asking! She just saw my post and replied kindly with the offer. I did PM her and she never responded. Alls well there as I only had my 8gb 5c at the time. I think her recent passing just reignited my passion for the game. This is an amazing group of people. I guess I just wanted to try my best and come back with a compromise as my village was unplayable when I stopped which I do not feel I caused. Maybe I feel like Bethany's offer didn't have an expiration date. I'm just upset because it feels like Popreach is dropping bread crumbs. Asking me to supply something, which I do, then they say not good enough. And the process has just repeated for weeks. Anyway thank you for your thoughts on the issue and listening to me. I'm just rambling at this point. Hopefully, I will be back as a player and not just a spectator.

[Purple!]

AllissaAnn Did you forward them Spelling Bees PMs, that might help.

I think your biggest problem is that the developer changed hands in the time you were away and it’s kind of like knocking on someone’s door and telling them the people that use to own the house use to let you use the pool, and not understanding why the new people are not ok with it.

I understand your frustration, but I do think you are being a little unfair with PopReach, they are not responsible for what happened to your game, even though they own it now. I would feel differently if the corruption happened While they were the developers.

[AllissaAnn]

debbles smurf i tried updating the app. It’s an iPhone 5c with a very old version of the game. Like a Beeline version of the game. It refuses to update. I suspect the version of iOS might be the reason. It’s running iOS 10.3. I’m not to tech savvy so just breaking out my old 2008 Mac and syncing the 5c to an old version of iTunes was just me getting creative and desperate for my original games Support ID. Thank you for reaching out to help me though. I really appreciate it.

[AllissaAnn]

I'M BACK! SO, SO, VERY HAPPY. Special thank you to Mirza at PopReach and her supervisors for working with me. I'm really excited to be playing again.

[IslandLife]

Welcome back. May you have many smurfy times ahead. I'm amazed that Popreach was able to help you... was in agreement with Purple! there! Good to hear.

[Purple!]

That is great news AllissaAnn welcome back!

[AllissaAnn]

Thank you! Its good to be back. I’m glad we were able to come to a compromise.