Friend trying to join...

[Dhalin]

I have a friend who loves dragons, and wants to join... he is downloading the client as we speak, but he seems to be having trouble getting his credit card number to work.

Now, normally I do not advocate ripping someone off, but since their billing system doesn't work, and they surely Know it doesn't work... I'm looking for advice.

He says that it refuses to allow him to enter his CC info, giving some error I think it says something like error: Account_Number or something like that.

Anyways, in another post, it says that some people have created accounts and not even gotten billed for it. He says that it appears as though he can log into his account, and go as far as "Create New Character" and it (of course) gives him errors when he attempts to click the "Play Horizons" button.

My question is... when he installs .NET 2.0 and Horizons... will he be able to play?

--Dhalin

[Zexoin]

he just has to ignore the error and go back to the logging page. enter email and password, he can play without paying.

[Solitaire]

Tis hard to advocate taking advantage of the situation and playing for free, but EI won't even get off their butts to help out people who are actively trying to hand them money. He can try opening up a ticket with them, but who knows if they will even attempt to help out. Since he can make it to the "Create New Character" screen, he probably will be able to play it so tell him to consider it a 'free trial' and go with his conscience for now. Hopefully someone with the knowledge, skills, resources and desire will be able to obtain the game and fix things so that we have a more secure future. Tis not like these balless wonders at EI/PME even have the courage to show up here anymore and address the problems to us directly.

[Dhalin]

Okay, thanks for the help.

And yes, I wouldn't usually advocate using a paid service for free... any other place, that is usually software piracy. A long time ago when I was younger, I used to do stuff like that, but nowadays I've been behaving a lot more, lol.

But... hey, if we try to hand them money and their systems won't let us do it and let us play for free, there really isn't much we can do about it....

The way I figure it, is if they really cared that much about a few new players playing for free, they'd fix the system and make it secure...

--Dhalin

[BKBanzai]

I think it's .net 1.1 framework (or 1.x) but not 2.0.

There's a free trial, I'm not sure of the duration whether it's 1 or 2 weeks. I'd suggest trying it out, since it is free for that period and having him put in a ticket that he is unable to enter his CC info.

[C`gan]

Tagath's been trying to get a payment in since November when his account "expired" thanks to their billing setup. E-mails, phone calls, website visits, all have reached the same conclusion: the current management and the current billing company cannot resolve billing issues for multiple accounts on the same credit card, cannot set up new accounts for billing consistently, and cannot bill consistently. Two of my guildmates have three accounts between them. Recently, they were billed in one month for SEVEN. Needless to say, they're leaving.

[IndyMan]

Some friend you are trying to get his CC number into EII hands. You should tell him to skip past the CC and just play. That way he cannot get bitten by an "accidental" overbilling.

[MadDwarf]

dragons arent worth the trouble this game can become.

The best advice you can give any FRIEND at this time as to horizons is to stay away from it. Till at least its no longer in the hands of PME or that PME decides they might actually want to engage in something that remotely resembles IT and development for the game.

[Amerelium]

Can't believe they are too incompetent to set up billing. And they want to host other's games? Any 12-year-old with basic web knowledge can do this. It baffles me...

[Justa Mirage]

Can't believe they are too incompetent to set up billing. And they want to host other's games? Any 12-year-old with basic web knowledge can do this. It baffles me...

It's not baffling... if it was automated, and worked well, there would be no way that PME could "slip in" a few charges here and there to pad the pocketbook with the "manual billing" they attempted to implement in August.

When I play CoH, they auto-bill my credit card, when I played (past tense) Asheron's call, they auto billed me, no mess, no worries. Even Vanguard is set up on auto-billing for me now.

Horizons was this way with auto-billing, they charged me 6 months before the buyout for 1 more year. Even the billing page says, "next billing cycle is"

This cycle has come and gone, and yet I still don't see a charge on my CC. If Pay by Touch truly is doing the automated billing, they should have ran my credit card by now.

[Dhalin]

dragons arent worth the trouble this game can become.

The best advice you can give any FRIEND at this time as to horizons is to stay away from it. Till at least its no longer in the hands of PME or that PME decides they might actually want to engage in something that remotely resembles IT and development for the game.

I told my friend about all of this, and he still insists on trying the game out.

He says "Well, I can play it at least for 14 days, even if their billing system doesn't work, maybe even longer. Might as well try it!"

I said "um, okay..." and by now he probably has the whole game download done.

--Dhalin