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A Lot Of Work To Do At BingoFabulous.co.uk

Bingo Fabulous Co UkVisit: www.bingfabulous.co.uk

Site rating: 4 / 10

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First Impressions & Ease Of Sign up

Bingo Fabulous is my first encounter with the massive Globalcom network of Bingo sites and their software. The site looks impressive enough and everything is easy to find from the homepage. Sign-up was nice and straight forward, but that's about where the fun ended.

Sign-Up Bonuses

First off, you have to fund your account with £20 to receive the 100% sign-up bonus. Like most Bingo players arriving at a brand new site, I like to give it a try before I put a lot of money down. The sign-up bonus is a good way of prolonging the stay, to become a regular customer as it were.

So, being a first go, I didn't want to have to put a lot of money down to start with. If you put the minimum in, you should still get a bonus in my opinion. As a result, I didn't get my bonus as I only wanted to try from the beginning. Further deposit bonuses work on the same principle - minimum £20 deposit.

This penalises a lot of players. Personally, I don't like tying a lot of money up in gaming accounts. If I feel like playing I'll chuck a fiver or a tenner in and have a go. At that rate I'd never get anything back from Bingo Fabulous in bonuses. Setting minimums that high sends me just one message - We want lots of your money.

Ease Of Use

Ok, funding the account was fine, lots of great payment options and you can fund from as little as a fiver (just don't expect any bonuses). I was looking forward to giving this new gaming software a spin. Familiar with the offerings now of other online networks' software, it was nice to get a crack at something new.

From the beginning I felt like a newbie again. The Bingo window is oddly set out. The chat looks like it's cut off, the entry box to the left of the chat - it was very disorientating and not immediately obvious how to join the chat.

There are lots of other usability issues as well - things like blue text on green backgrounds, tiny icons and lack of options and things to fiddle with. It took me ages to spot the tiny Mute button for the sound, and changing between games was difficult.

The opening screen gives you a list of rooms to play in, however, it's not obvious which ones are the 90 ball version. Getting back to the screen is difficult despite being told where to press. Initially I thought I'd pressed the button suggested, but it turned out to be a refresh balance button.

Buying tickets is complicated as well - the wording is misleading and there's no financial feedback to explain what you're spending. The price displayed as per 'card' - but the most obvious way to buy on the page is by the strip. To me, a strip is a 'card'. A single ticket is called a ticket, not a card in the UK. I suspect this is part of a problem with American programmers trying to set up a UK version of the game. We'll go into this again in more detail later.

So, I selected a strip of 6 - thinking it was a single card - the price per card was advertised as £1 which seemed reasonable for a strip. The box says you have 6 tickets, with no cash total apparent. So I click buy tickets. To my horror my balance dropped by £6 - for one game! I don't think this is deliberate, more that it's poorly thought out for the users.

The problems didn't end there - the help button opened an empty window with an error message, and the cards are very difficult to read due to their 3D styling. On the 90 ball game there is no indicator as to numbers remaining to the win on your tickets and I couldn't find a way of setting it up as an option.

As I mentioned, I suspect the 90 ball version of the game was made by American programmers, as from what I can see there's little understanding of the mechanics of the game. When the lines are won, on other software you get a notification that the line's gone - a noticeable pause in the calling and a popup. This doesn't happen here, carries straight on into the two lines with no pause and only a small notification on the prize money board away from the main game.

Other problems include the calling - There are no notifications and they use old fashioned rhyming numbers - however, loads of them sound made up as every single number has a rhyme with it - which is not the case. The lack of feedback on the amount to go for the win, the on a rail feel and difficult lay off all made this a less than satisfying online bingo experience.

Community Spirit

Once you get to grip with the awkward layout of the chat part of the Bingo - the community was busy. A number of people were in playing, the CMs were friendly and helpful as well.

Prize Money

The money was good for the amount of people playing - £20 full houses and £10 lines around midday with 30+ players. The range of ticket prices was good as well - however, I was amazed after playing a game where the tickets were a pound each, the prize money wasn't a lot bigger than in the cheaper games. There were the same amount of players in them, so they must have been playing to a budget per game methodology rather than actual tickets - which to my maths would have meant bigger prizes.

Security

Generally good everything is padlocked and as should be. There is one small compliant here - on the downside they do send an email with both your password and user account name - I'd rather just get the user name to be honest, and the ability to reset the password if I forget it.

Overall Feel At BingoFabulous.com

I can't see myself returning to the site to be honest. They did have a few good things going for them, small deposits and a wide range of payment options. The chat was fine and there was a range of games.

But, and it's a big but, they need to look at the software running the games. I will be signing up at some new sites in this network to see if the problems are just in their implementation of Globalcom's Bingo platform, or a global issue. As well as the usability issues, the bonus structure also needs to be rethought. Overall rating - 4 / 10 (28th September 2006)

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Visit: www.bingofabulous.com

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