Tikis Talk Billing and Increasing the Size of Your Games!

Red: Life on Pogo easy? What about that Quick Quack badge? That was almost impossible! *Grumble* Anyway, let’s jump right in with today’s questions shall we Green?

Joey from Omaha Nebraska writes: “I think my account is almost up, but I don’t know how much time I have before it ends. How do I check my subscription information?”

Green: Ah, easily answered, but its one of those things that can be a little confusing the first time you try it. This one may take a few visual aids. First off on the main page, click on the “My stuff” button and click on the “My Account” link that pops-up. It should be the fifth one down.

Red: This will take you to the Account screen where you can change some account settings, and your email address etc. Under the small Club Pogo logo on the right hand side you will see a “View Your Subscription Info” link. Click it, and then type your password into the next screen, for security reasons.

Green: Now if all things have gone according to plans, you will be our billing screen. It will likely look like this:

Your billing method by default is “Active”. This means that when your account is about to expire, it will automatically renew itself using your credit card info on file. Another thing you might notice on this screen is the number of days remaining on your account if you have any sort of gift subscriptions or promotions on your account, such as Guest Passes.

So, if you are on a guest pass, it will say “Club Pogo Guest Pass Days Remaining: 7 of 14” If you have active billing, once all this time is used up, it will roll you over the active credit card on file.

Red: So, now if you don’t have any current promotional time on your account and you want to see how much time on your account until you are billed again, go ahead and click on the “Billing” button on this screen. It’s a green tab at the top. On the Billing Info page under your billing address you will most likely see something like this:

Your next billing date will be listed. This account will bill again on the 17th of October 2007. Please note that as the text says, you account will be pre-charged 5-7 days before your account renews. The funds for renewal will be on hold with your account until the day that your account expires. If you don’t have enough funds, your renewal will fail and your account will lapse! Green: Great, that about does it for your billing information, but guess what? I have another question about billing!

Richard R from San Francisco California writes:

“I changed my billing information on my Pogo.com account and now my credit card has a pending charge for a dollar! Does it cost a dollar to change your billing information???”

Red: Richard, the short answer is a big fat NO! We do not charge your credit card to change your address. But Green would you please be so kind as to explain exactly what is going on with your credit card and why Richard is seeing a one dollar charge pending?

Green: Thanks Red, this is a pretty common issue with sort of a confusing explanation. This pending charge is what we call a pre-authorization.

Any time you change your billing information our billing system automatically contacts your banking institution. It starts to process a one dollar charge on your credit card, to make sure the Credit Card information is valid.

Once this pre-authorization charge of one dollar goes through, it is canceled on our end and dropped by both parties. You might see this on your bank account, especially an on-line statement for a few days, but after 3-5 days it will delete itself from the system and your card will never be charged.

Red: Thanks for that Green. Now we have one more question left for today.

Wesley W. From Little Rock Ak. Asks:

I just got a new monitor and the Pogo games look TINY! Why did you make them so small?

Green: Haha, Wesley, the games are not smaller your Pixels are smaller! And now you have more of them! AWESOME!! Ahhh, don’t you love progress Red?

Red: Hey Green! We are supposed to be helpful, why don’t you try to explain it in English? Also explain how to fix it! I’d answer it myself, but it’s your turn ya know! Sheesh!

Green: Fine, fine! Okay, okay!

Your new monitor most likely is larger than your old monitor, and it can display more information at once. We call this the monitors “Resolution.” All Pogo games run at approximately the same resolution.

Pogo games in particular are designed to take up about 775 pixels (Picture Elements) of width, and about 500 pixels of height. This doesn’t include any browser window edges where it tells you the game room etc. Your new computer screen most likely can display something like 1600(width) by about 1200(height) pixels or more!

With a computer monitor like this, you could fit about 4 Pogo game screens on the same monitor at once! I made a little graphic to demonstrate this.

Older monitor at 800 by 600 pixels

Modern monitor at 1600 by 1200 pixels

As you can see Pogo games on the older monitor take up more space.

If you want Pogo games to appear larger follow these easy steps:

1. Right click on an empty spot on your desktop
2. Click “Properties” in the small box that pops-up
3. This will bring up you Display properties, control panel.
4. From here click on the “Settings” tab.
5. You will see a slider for “Screen resolution” If you slide it left, you will decrease the resolution of your monitor (Increasing the size of the games)You can set this to whatever you like, but if you want the games as large as possible, without cutting them off, we recommend 800 by 600 pixels!
6. To save you your settings, click on the “Apply” tab. Your monitor will flash for a second, and then show you the new resolution. There should be a message that comes up asking you to “Accept” the new settings.
7. Accept the settings, otherwise your monitor will switch back to the old resolution in about ten to fifteen seconds.

How is that Red? Will that work?

Red: Fine, yeah that will work, but your graphic looks like you created it in 10 seconds with MS Paint! If you prefer a drier less “Tikified” version of this answer, you can check out the Changing Screen Size FAQ on our help site.

Green: You’re such meanie!! And yes, I did make that graphic in MS paint! It’s awesome! Anyhoo, that’s all for today folks, see you on Pogo! Bye!

Red: And let’s leave you with a Tiki Pumpkin! Happy Halloween Everyone!

The Tikis Carved Into a Halloween Pumpkin