The below was originally posted to community.istaria.com this morning, but I doubt it will stay as my other thread complaining about not being able to cancel was quickly deleted.

I am sure this will be deleted here, but I'll be posting this on other boards where EI has no moderation power. I'll also be reporting to the better business bureau and have already called my bank to dispute the charge put against my account.

I have tried repeatedly for the past two weeks to cancel my account. I put in a support ticket, I called every number listed on EI's website repeatedly, I checked multiple times daily to see if I could cancel via the normal online method. I tried emailing every email address I could find. There has been NO WAY to cancel my account.

Originally I just wanted to cancel for a few weeks because I don't have the money for the game right now. After two weeks of trying desperately to cancel, I got charged this morning for $12.95, which will overdraw my account when it posts and cost me a $39 overdraft fee (the overdraft fee will not be removed until the end of my bank's investigation, which could take up to 45 days) This charge, I might add, does not come from I-pay but from EI directly, which means they are also NOT using Pay-by-touch as they claim.

Due to EI's stubborn refusal to deal with billing disputes in a manner that is even vaguely upstanding, I will now never play this game again. This behavior goes beyond anything that can be confused with new game owner mistakes and falls into illegal and dishonest territory.

I am calling EI this morning and affording them one opportunity to make it right by contacting my bank and withdrawing the charge before it posts to my account and causes an overdraft fee. It will not bring me back to the game, but I'll come back here and post letting everyone know that EI took care of their mistake. This is assuming, of course, I actually get someone to answer the phone...which I've yet to have happen.

Also note that there is STILL no way to manage or cancel your account on the istaria website. I still have no subscription listed despite being billed this morning.

*added note for gucomics forum*

Please Woody, reinstate your billing alert. As of now there is still no way to cancel your account, and if you enter your billing information (which I never did, by the way) it is being hand processed by EI directly...not being handled by Pay-by-touch as all are being led to believe. This company is not only acting dishonestly, but they are illegally deceiving people about their billing practices and then making it impossible to stop billing. Thanks to them I now have to decide whether to use what few dollars I have remaining to put gas in my car to get to work, or buy food. Their inability to cancel my account cost me $51.95 of the $60 I would have had left over after bills hit this Friday. I have less than $9 to get me through next week

The consumer alert is still on the front page. It's just not the big red monstrosity it was for the previous week.

I'm sorry, Woody, you're correct. I was extremely upset this morning and for some reason did not see that the alert was still there, probably because I was scanning for the red border still. I apologize for my oversight.

Originally Posted by Serenisa:

The below was originally posted to community.istaria.com this morning, but I doubt it will stay as my other thread complaining about not being able to cancel was quickly deleted.

I am sure this will be deleted here, but I'll be posting this on other boards where EI has no moderation power. I'll also be reporting to the better business bureau and have already called my bank to dispute the charge put against my account.

I have tried repeatedly for the past two weeks to cancel my account. I put in a support ticket, I called every number listed on EI's website repeatedly, I checked multiple times daily to see if I could cancel via the normal online method. I tried emailing every email address I could find. There has been NO WAY to cancel my account.

Originally I just wanted to cancel for a few weeks because I don't have the money for the game right now. After two weeks of trying desperately to cancel, I got charged this morning for $12.95, which will overdraw my account when it posts and cost me a $39 overdraft fee (the overdraft fee will not be removed until the end of my bank's investigation, which could take up to 45 days) This charge, I might add, does not come from I-pay but from EI directly, which means they are also NOT using Pay-by-touch as they claim.

Due to EI's stubborn refusal to deal with billing disputes in a manner that is even vaguely upstanding, I will now never play this game again. This behavior goes beyond anything that can be confused with new game owner mistakes and falls into illegal and dishonest territory.

I am calling EI this morning and affording them one opportunity to make it right by contacting my bank and withdrawing the charge before it posts to my account and causes an overdraft fee. It will not bring me back to the game, but I'll come back here and post letting everyone know that EI took care of their mistake. This is assuming, of course, I actually get someone to answer the phone...which I've yet to have happen.

Also note that there is STILL no way to manage or cancel your account on the istaria website. I still have no subscription listed despite being billed this morning.

*added note for gucomics forum*

Please Woody, reinstate your billing alert. As of now there is still no way to cancel your account, and if you enter your billing information (which I never did, by the way) it is being hand processed by EI directly...not being handled by Pay-by-touch as all are being led to believe. This company is not only acting dishonestly, but they are illegally deceiving people about their billing practices and then making it impossible to stop billing. Thanks to them I now have to decide whether to use what few dollars I have remaining to put gas in my car to get to work, or buy food. Their inability to cancel my account cost me $51.95 of the $60 I would have had left over after bills hit this Friday. I have less than $9 to get me through next week

Serenisa,

Contact your bank. Tell them you cancelled your EI account two weeks ago and that EI is not authorized to withdraw any more money from your account an that any such attempts are fraudulent and criminal in nature. Your bank should then void any withdrawals from EI and also not allow any more in the future.

Then contact your state's Attorney General's office and give them the details.

Horizons sounds like a cool game.. but EI looks to have watched SOE/Lucas ARts during the Trials of Obiwan/NGE debacle and thought it made good sense adn then gone farther...

Hopefully for those of you that still play and believe in the game it will be fixed for you soon.

Well I forwarded this thread to someone I met on the IGDA forums, a forum for game developers. He is a game attorney.

Tom Buscaglia, Esquire
The Game Attorney
T. H. Buscaglia and Associates
Miami, Florida USA
Tel (305) 324-6000
Toll Free 888-848-G-LAW
http://www.gameattorney.com
http://www.GameDevKit.com
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

and I told him about Serenisa's problem so maybe he can help? I too liked Horizons, but the passing off of this game to people who care less about the few remaining subscribers is pathetic. True the MMO market is tripling to quadrupling in the next few years due to the possible income. But without the fans, there is no market.

someone sent a death threat to someone at EI ... the forums are down again for a far more important reason.

too far... good lord, someone went too damn far.

i think i speak for everyone in istaria when i say i hope everyone at EI is safe and they get whoever did this "taken care of", put away.. whatever exactly that would entail.

and may this not be the death of the game we all love...

Originally Posted by dorrin:

someone sent a death threat to someone at EI ... the forums are down again for a far more important reason.

too far... good lord, someone went too damn far.

i think i speak for everyone in istaria when i say i hope everyone at EI is safe and they get whoever did this "taken care of", put away.. whatever exactly that would entail.

and may this not be the death of the game we all love...

hehehehe. I sent that "death threat" (to peaches, the lead moderator, not EI). I said, exact words "I hope you die a horrible death". Some death threat:P. I was rude (duh), but I'm not sure how they could precieve that as a threat.

EDIT1:What to know why I said that? Cause she put my posts (which were under moderation) under an auto-delete. I didn't want this. So I decided to get my account banned. I went to the forum rules and looked for something obvious to violate. At the very bottom it said "No death threats". I couldn't believe it. Was it actually necessary to put that in there? So, I went "what the heck" and sent a single line email to Peaches. It was as rude as I could make it without feeling guilty. Thus my account was deleted. I'm just surprised by the (once again) over-reaction:P.

EDIT2: Was that rude? Yes. Mean? Yes. Uncalled for? Yes. Cruel? Probably. A death threat? Certainly not. It in no way threatens anyone's life.

hmm you were on auto delete on the board? so every post you made has been deleted without anyone checking it?

and you wanted your forum account banned? or your HZ account?