In late March 2010 I bought a $330 IGG point card from the Lords Online buy coins page.
For my $330 I got 6000 points, which can be be converted 1-1 for LO coins and 1200 IGGems.
Assuming the IGGems had value and doing some research I purchased the card. Unfortunately I soon discovered the IGGems were totally worthless for converting into any Lords Online game items.
Never mind that Lords Online previously said the following about their IGGems.
"IGGems Usage
IGGems can be exchanged for a certain item in the upcoming IGGem Store.Also, you can exchange IGGems for game credits."
"And soon, we will be adding more and more fantastic goods and in-game items to the IGGem Mall, so stay tuned for more great news!"
Well the "great news" never came, it only got worse. Plus the gems were in fact not convertible to game credits as stated.
In speaking with a live chat operator, I was informed that the IGGems were "real life items" and not game items. I informed the operator there were 13 pages of game items. The live operator suddenly lost the ability to communicate. In fact there are a total of 115 items in the IGGem store. 100 game items and 15 "real life items"! That is 13% real life verses 87% game items. You can find the sorry excuse of an outlet for your IGGems here, be advised there are no plans to add any items for the Lords Online player.
http://pay.igg.com/iggem_mall/iggem_store.php?top_cmt_id=0&cmt_id=0&start_price=0&end_price=0&x=17&y=9
Let's look at the lead off item, a Play Station 3
It is yours for a mere 45890 IGGems. If you were to spend $330 and collect 1,200 IGGems at a pop, you would have to spend 38.24 purchases of $330 each or $12,619. How many play stations do you think they will sell?
Lord's Online did have this to say.
"We've seriously considered about it. Since the Gem is a appendant of IGG points, we can not exchange it into LO points directly. We know it's indeed a loss for LO player to purchase IGG points, in view of this problem, we will add a part of events in which you can use the Gems in near future. Hope it will be a better solution than purchase the object items.
When the event of the Gems coming up, we will inform you in advance."
Near future LOL. Lords Online wanted to change the entire character of the gems from where you buy in a store items YOU WANT to a wheel of chance! I informed them that this was not acceptable due to the fact that I am an advanced player and in essence the wheel would contain a lot of junk I do not need.
I informed Lords Online that if "We know it's indeed a loss for LO player to purchase IGG points", that they should stop advertising the point card on the Lords online buy coins page entirely. Unfortunately this fell on deaf ears.
While Lords Online understands it is a loss for their player, my loss was 1800 coins. For the same money I could have purchased 7800 game coin directly verses the convertible 6000 points.
How did Lords Online want to compensate this 1800 coin recognized loss? Believe it or not, various packages of game items totaling around 240 coin. And this was only in consideration that I am a level 2 VIP customer! That is a very generous 1/5 of my loss!
I started complaining about my IGGems on April 1, Lords Online made their 1st offer on May 26! This was after numerous e mail attempts addressing this situation. Nearly two months.
My guess is the regular none VIP player would totally get the shaft! Leave your comments below if you have had any bad experiences with IGG point cards or anything else. I know if you leave any derogatory remarks on the forum they will promptly be deleted.
PS
The following paragraph is contained in the end user licence agreement. Upon contacting them and letting them know I intended to sue, they removed the fax number for which they were to be notified. This was after I told them I would fax them. While they stipulate Venue, they have failed to provide any information as to whom shall be served and at what address. The company is not registered in LA County or listed in State corporate records. The fax number deleted from the EULA was (909)612-1681. Be advised that the bottom of the form states "Latest Update: June19th, 2009". This is clearly a lie. It is recommended that players copy the EULA that is/was in effect when you signed up to play the game.
Note: 18. CHOICE OF LAW AND VENUE.
This Agreement is governed by and shall be construed and enforced under the laws of the State of California, without applying any conflicts of law principles that would require application of the law of any other jurisdiction. You agree that all actions or proceedings arising in connection with this Agreement shall be tried and litigated exclusively in the state or federal (if permitted by law and a party elects to file an action in federal court) courts located in Los Angeles, State of California.