Comments About EI Billing Post

[Raisty]

Just like to say I called up and got a refund for the billing in august. So if you got charged after the sale call up and complain they do know about it. The lady I talked to had to talk to their supervisor.

[Steelclaw]

You *can* call PBT and ask for a cancellation and a refund. This is an easy solution, but does nothing to make anyone outside aware of what's going on. Apparently, this does not guarantee that you won't be charged again. Going this route is agreeing to keep it "our little secret".

So, DON'T do that.

You want to make people (like your bank, credit card issuer, or company) aware of EI's shenanigans. The easiest way is to follow the instructions provided earlier:

Contacting your credit card issuer will allow you to dispute the charge. This is a significantly more powerful option because it informs Visa or Mastercard that you have had a problem with EI Interactive. If you feel you have been incorrectly charged by EI Interactive and want the credit card industry to be aware of your experience, do the following:
1) Request a cancellation from PayByTouch, but do not request a refund.
2) Dispute all charges, where appropriate, with your credit card company.

It's a little more difficult, but it is far more powerful than contacting the BBB and more likely to get some sort of action.

[RuneDragoon]

alright, the immortals finished forum maitenance, so, here I go to antagonize them. I am feeling evil today.

[Menkure]

I would strongly advise against doing anything antagonistic against EI...

One of the things EI was able to use to defend their case against the Montana AG was lay blame on Tulga and members of the Horizons community for "sabotaging" their attempts to get a new and secured billing system up... While the investigators felt it was a farce, they had to give them "the benefit of the doubt" and thus a chance to fix things.

EI used that to stall the investigation, according to my sources.


This is why I would STRONGLY advise against antagonizing EI or the Savage Eden community. If things went again as badly as they did before, EI could theoretically blame everything on those players who were attacking them, and act as though it isn't really their fault to begin with.


Best thing is to follow through on the cancellation suggestions that have been made here on the forums, by Virtrium. Contact PBT, and your credit card. If you go through all the steps outlined, and you are still charged by EI Interactive, then I would strongly recommend you contact your state attorney generals' office and file a complaint with them.

-Menkure

[Steelclaw]

Buh. That wasn't a good idea.

I suggest you delete those posts, post an apology and cease all communication with those people on the Immortals forum.

Why?

1) You're not doing them any favors... in fact, it looks like you're cvffat them off.
2) You're making Horizons, its community, and the company running it look bad.
3) This can cause problems for Virtrium.

It's good that you're getting the word out, but do that in your blog, or some neutral territory, don't do it in their forum. (At least, if you do, don't involve or mention HZ, and FFS, don't tell us about it here!)

[RuneDragoon]

Alright. My Delete buttons are no longer available, could a mod kindly erase my posts including this note, I never thought it would cause trouble for us.

Moderator's Note: The post has been deleted as per your request.

[LaughingOtter]

Seconding what Steelclaw said. We have no beef with the players & fans of Immortals USA, or the folks that make it. As Dangit once put it, don't pee in their Wheaties.

[Steelclaw]

Just for clarification, I was referring to the Immortals forum when I was talking about deleting posts and apologizing.

[RuneDragoon]

Just for clarification, I was referring to the Immortals forum when I was talking about deleting posts and apologizing.

I will do it.

[Steelclaw]

Looks good. Thanks for cleaning up. Hopefully the stuff with the Immortals stops there and disappears.

[RuneDragoon]

yeah sorry, I can be an idiot sometimes and not see bigger pictures. So let me hope that it stops there and all that. :|

[Lunhilde]

It's real easy to get angry, but when we get angry, that's just when they send the guys in the white coats and claim none of your complaints are valid as obviously, you're crazy.

At least in my experience. >.>

But yah. They wanna play let em play. If they're having billing issues too I'm sure they know about it, after all they're gamers too.

[Fratricide]

This is what I was charged... 6 month acct... So... once I realized that I was being charged by EII... Umm.. who incidently I "thought" I cancelled my acct with in Nov 06... I contacted my bank.. they dialed me through to PBT... and I had them refund my cash.. which did happen within a few days of my dispute. I was also charged in Jan07 for 2-6month subs.. which were unrecoverable... BTW... on your bank statements... the charge number should be followed by the phone number of the Charging party...



07/17/2007
EII (had the defunct web address here)
07/14 CARD #2041 PO# **** 866-6094729, TN
-$53.70

07/10/2007
EII
07/09 CARD #2041 PO# **** 866-6094729, TN
-$53.70

08/16/2007
EII
08/15 CARD #2041 Po# **** 866-6094729, TN
-$0.99

08/16/2007
EII
08/15 CARD #2041 PO# **** 866-6094729, TN
-$0.99



Anywho... be well... hopefully everyone else can solve their issues with EII as well..

[cgacfox]

I just got off the phone after reading the exact date that VI took over. It took a while for the lady to find the July charge but she did and she is refunding it. BTW, she told me that I had 10 (TEN!!!!!) accounts with EII but they were all cancelled. I only had 4 subs and since the billing mess-up they were only billing for 1 sub. Very interesting.

[Shur]

hmm, good to know, though i wish i had known the date of handover sooner. i called PBT when it became apparent halfway through August that EII no longer owned HZ and had them cancel payment, however i show a charge on 8-16-07 that is clearly not valid, being a full month afterwards. at teh time i did not know whether it was invalid, and did not ask it to be refunded.

my real concern however, is that i show a charge from EII on 7-18-07 (the date of handover) should i ask that this charge be refunded, or is it a legal billing by EII?

[Spartikus]

Ask for a refund.. Gaming companies bill you a month in advance.. If you cancel your account with a company your acocun is still active untill the cutoff date your next payment is due because you have paid them for it. EI billing you on the date they sold the game (or it was taken from them) was invalid. There is a slight grey area there that could possibly be argued making it Virtriums responsability to go after EI for the account monies but that isn't going to happen. They have already tried.

IMO take it up with your CC company as the instructions suggest.

[Fyrethorne]

Have just checked my credit card account, and I also have been fraudulently charged by EI on 27th July 2007.
The statement says the charge comes from Www.Eiinteractive.Com Franklin TN. Nothing about Pay By Touch.
Can I still ring PbT to get a refund and cancel or do I have to deal with EI directly ?(goes green at the thought). That is, did ALL billing for EI go via PbT? I am a little confused, and want to make sure that the EI thieves don't keep billing me.
I already rang my bank and they say I have to have documentation proving that I have cancelled my account. Would it be possible to get an email from Virtrium stating that no further billing for Horizons should come from EI?

[Spartikus]

Fyre: a letter from Virtrium would do nothing for your bank.. Is your CC directly linked to your bank acocunt? I dont understand why your bank is even involved in this? If you used a CC, follow the instructions here in this thread given by Horizons_CS. Call PBT and cancel the recurring charges. Then call your CC and dispute the charges.. That puts the Ownus on EI to prove that they are entitled to the payment. Kind of hard for them to prove considering (A) They never got your permimssion to bill your CC in the first place... and (B) They no longer own the game they are billing you to play.

Good luck

[Shur]

it shows up as EIInteractive.com on your statement, but PbT handles the transaction, so call them to un-handle it.

[Fyrethorne]

Thanks for the quick reply people.

I called Pay by Touch (which was kind of wierd since I am calling from Australia and her accent was so difficult to understand!) and the lady confirmed that EI had charged my account for Jul AND August. Totally fraudulant! So I asked her to cancel the charges and refund the payments and she did.

Hopefully the problem is solved, but I will be watching my credit card statements closely for the next few months. Thanks Virtrium for being honest and coming up with an easy solution for the problem. I'm with you on this one- let's move ahead to make a better Horizons!