EI Interactive - Dude, we want to steal your money!
For those of you who don't know me, allow me to tell you a little something about myself. I'm a gamer, notably MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games)
I have played many games over the years, from Everquest to World of Warcraft to Saga of Ryzom, you name it and I've probably at least run the trial. This post, however, is about a little game called Horizons and a little company called EI Interactive who insists on becoming my "arch enemy" of sorts. Please, allow me to elaborate.
On July 21, 2006 EI Interactive purchased the MMORPG Horizons. Horizons is a struggling niche game with only a few thousand subscribers. I could go into all the reasons why I love that game, but I wouldn't want others to rush to try it only to be burned by the current owners. Anyway, my original intent was to ride out the change in ownership and see how it went, but I came into a little financial trouble.
So at the end of July I began to attempt to cancel my account. Let me describe to you, my friends, how this went.
Late July 2006:
I go to the account management page on the istaria.com website and attempt to cancel in the "normal" method for this type of game. Hmm, it would seem that page does not work. I have no subscription listed, therefore nothing to cancel. The only option is to enter in a credit card number and I'm not about to do that...I'm trying to cancel, not subscribe again!
I put in a support ticket. I'd seen quite a few complaints that these weren't being answered, but what the heck, might as well give it a shot.
I go to http://www.eiinteractive.com/contact.htm and call every phone number listed. You'll note that there are no longer phone numbers listed on that page, nor is their Montana address listed. Wonder why they removed contact information? That's an odd move for a "reputable" company. All phone numbers I called led to one of two places: a circular automated system with no valid choices, or a line that rang more than 15 times before saying "all circuits are busy" and then disconnected you.
I emailed every available email address stating I wished to cancel my account. I never got any response to those emails.
I waited. At that point, there was nothing further I could do but wait and hope that they got my account cancelled. You can reasonable assume from this post that my waiting was in vain.
August 9, 2006:
I get billed for $12.95. The charge overdrafts my account! EI in one action ensures I will never play Horizons again.
I post on the forums located at community.istaria.com/forum and posted accusing them of fraud. I also emailed again every available email address, gave them all of my contact information, and accused them of fraud.
Edward Andercheck, chairman of EI Interactive and other companies, called me personally at work. Sounds good, right? Oh no, not good at all. You see, Mr. Andercheck's primary concern in calling me was to brow beat me, threaten to sue me for libel, and in general repeat over and over that it was not fraud. His attitude was absolutely atrocious. He was condescending, arrogant, abrasive, and generally very difficult to communicate with. He told me multiple times to shut up when I was trying to direct the conversation away from his lecture on the definition of fraud and back to what was important, my billing issue. He did, however, agree to refund my bank account for the money they billed me.
Just to cover my bases, I filed a complaint with both the Better Business Bureau and the Internet Crime Complaint Center and, at the advice of my bank, filed a charge dispute with my bank. I requested a complaint form from the Montana Attorney General.
EI refunded my charge. I canceled my dispute with my bank, and had my bank refund the overdraft fees associated with that charge. The complaint form from the Montana Attorney General never arrived, but I let it slide. It looked as though EI Interactive might be at least attempting to get billing straightened out since they put up links for cancelation and billing problems. Oh but wait, my story does not end there!
What did I wake up to this morning? If you said ANOTHER charge from EI Interactive, well you'd get the gold star of the day!*
I have NEVER entered into a billing agreement with EI Interactive. At no time did I click, sign, or agree to, any billing by this company. The EULA I agreed to every time I logged into the game said Tulga Games, the billing screen I signed up with originally said Tulga Games. At no time did I agree to maintain my subscription and I have in fact attempted through every available avenue to CANCEL.
Edward C. Andercheck can claim libel all he wants, this is fraud pure and simple. You can censor me on your forums EI Interactive, but you can't silence me everywhere! I'm not afraid of you, nor will I be brow beaten as I was last month.
I have played many games over the years, from Everquest to World of Warcraft to Saga of Ryzom, you name it and I've probably at least run the trial. This post, however, is about a little game called Horizons and a little company called EI Interactive who insists on becoming my "arch enemy" of sorts. Please, allow me to elaborate.
On July 21, 2006 EI Interactive purchased the MMORPG Horizons. Horizons is a struggling niche game with only a few thousand subscribers. I could go into all the reasons why I love that game, but I wouldn't want others to rush to try it only to be burned by the current owners. Anyway, my original intent was to ride out the change in ownership and see how it went, but I came into a little financial trouble.
So at the end of July I began to attempt to cancel my account. Let me describe to you, my friends, how this went.
Late July 2006:
I go to the account management page on the istaria.com website and attempt to cancel in the "normal" method for this type of game. Hmm, it would seem that page does not work. I have no subscription listed, therefore nothing to cancel. The only option is to enter in a credit card number and I'm not about to do that...I'm trying to cancel, not subscribe again!
I put in a support ticket. I'd seen quite a few complaints that these weren't being answered, but what the heck, might as well give it a shot.
I go to http://www.eiinteractive.com/contact.htm and call every phone number listed. You'll note that there are no longer phone numbers listed on that page, nor is their Montana address listed. Wonder why they removed contact information? That's an odd move for a "reputable" company. All phone numbers I called led to one of two places: a circular automated system with no valid choices, or a line that rang more than 15 times before saying "all circuits are busy" and then disconnected you.
I emailed every available email address stating I wished to cancel my account. I never got any response to those emails.
I waited. At that point, there was nothing further I could do but wait and hope that they got my account cancelled. You can reasonable assume from this post that my waiting was in vain.
August 9, 2006:
I get billed for $12.95. The charge overdrafts my account! EI in one action ensures I will never play Horizons again.
I post on the forums located at community.istaria.com/forum and posted accusing them of fraud. I also emailed again every available email address, gave them all of my contact information, and accused them of fraud.
Edward Andercheck, chairman of EI Interactive and other companies, called me personally at work. Sounds good, right? Oh no, not good at all. You see, Mr. Andercheck's primary concern in calling me was to brow beat me, threaten to sue me for libel, and in general repeat over and over that it was not fraud. His attitude was absolutely atrocious. He was condescending, arrogant, abrasive, and generally very difficult to communicate with. He told me multiple times to shut up when I was trying to direct the conversation away from his lecture on the definition of fraud and back to what was important, my billing issue. He did, however, agree to refund my bank account for the money they billed me.
Just to cover my bases, I filed a complaint with both the Better Business Bureau and the Internet Crime Complaint Center and, at the advice of my bank, filed a charge dispute with my bank. I requested a complaint form from the Montana Attorney General.
EI refunded my charge. I canceled my dispute with my bank, and had my bank refund the overdraft fees associated with that charge. The complaint form from the Montana Attorney General never arrived, but I let it slide. It looked as though EI Interactive might be at least attempting to get billing straightened out since they put up links for cancelation and billing problems. Oh but wait, my story does not end there!
What did I wake up to this morning? If you said ANOTHER charge from EI Interactive, well you'd get the gold star of the day!*
I have NEVER entered into a billing agreement with EI Interactive. At no time did I click, sign, or agree to, any billing by this company. The EULA I agreed to every time I logged into the game said Tulga Games, the billing screen I signed up with originally said Tulga Games. At no time did I agree to maintain my subscription and I have in fact attempted through every available avenue to CANCEL.
Edward C. Andercheck can claim libel all he wants, this is fraud pure and simple. You can censor me on your forums EI Interactive, but you can't silence me everywhere! I'm not afraid of you, nor will I be brow beaten as I was last month.
posted by Ayanla at 6:24 AM
21 Comments:
OMG! What a shame, Horizon had such potential.
Good for you, for laying down the Fraud hammer on them. Their subscription base should be aware of this issue, morever have a right to be aware of this issue.
You notice they have buttons in that link that direct you to billing problems prior to July 21rst as well as after July 21rst?
I'm having the exact same problem. But now there are no numbers to call to complain. And my credit card company says i have to talk to them first before they can do anything *laugh*
Do you happen to still have any of those phone numbers written down that you might be willing to post?
yep, I'm having the same problem. I couldn't find a link to terminate my account so I sent support an email. Here was their response:
Please use horizons.eiinteractive.com to cancel your account. Thank you for your service. You ticket is being forwarded to billing for records.
Problem is, there is nothing on that site now. All I know to do now is tell them the site is unavailable, to cancel my account and I will also be notifying my bank to stop payments. If that doesn't work, I'll file complaints. Thanks for the links...
I just wanted to say that I had all of these very same issues with "Enhanced Interactive Communications Corp" (let me first say that there is NOTHING that is enhanced about they way they comminucate as a company). I never did receive a personal call from Mr. Pencilneck... I mean Andercheck. Had I received a call from him, I would have been so cheery, chipper, happy, and unbustably nice, that he would have pooped in his pants from frustration. After three months of unwanted charges, and three months of many many attempts to cancel my account, and three months of filing disputes with my bank for $12.95, I was advised by several banking associates to cancel my check card and order a new one. Since I used a check card to start up service with TULGA GAMES (not EI Interactive), the card-swap worked. I no longer receive charges from EI. As a side note, I also filed a complaint with the BBB. I received an e-mail notification from them apologizing that the mail they sent to EI Interactive was returned to them. Their only comments were "Sorry" and "If you have another address, we will try again".
If anyone out there has Mr. Edward C. Andercheck's personal info, I would LOVE to get my cold twisted fingers on it.
:)
Happy Gaming (With other MMORPG service providers, of course)
Oh, and I also did some digging on the EI Interactive website, and found the e-mail for Mr. Pencilneck. His e-mail is eca@eiinteractive.com. I also found a suspiciously neat listing for an Edward C. Andercheck on ZabaSearch.com. This may not be the right E. C. Andercheck, but he lives in Franklin, which is mere miles from Nashville, where their supposed headquarters is located.
The house address I found was 1207 Natchez Road, Franklin TN, 37069. The phone number that goes with that information is (615) 790-9971. I am in no way suggesting that anyone call, write, or visit Mr. Andercheck, but I do think that he isn't acting like the chairman he is paid to be. I thought it was interesting, so I wanted to post it on this site since I shared such intimate frustrations with all of you, because of EI Interactive.
You can go to the eiinteractive.com website, and see pictures of all of the employees who are taking your $12.95 a month.
How's that for contact info?
I'm having the same problem now, I can't cancel my account and nobody will respond to my emails.. What should I do??
can someone give me some insight..
mcbrayerj@cableonbe.net
I am not a gamer, but have had business dealings with Andercheck in the past. What a nightmare! Boggles the mind how he keeps his lovely home in Franklin, his prize Walking Horses and the rest of his lifestyle trappings. Frankly, I am amazed he is not in jail. Most unethical "business man" I have ever had to deal with - it appears he running a giant shell game (speaking of games!) with the companies he is "running". They fail; he buys a new SUV. Sorry you all are going thru this - by all means call the BBB.
EI obviously hasn't fixed their billing issues yet. I got billed again after ensuring that I wouldn't by unsubscribing and getting email notification of said unsubscription for the SECOND time after I got billed fraudulently by Tugl last year. I foolishly turned off paper statements without setting up any email flags, so, by the time I realized I had been billed, the window to dispute the charge had passed. This year, they billed me again. Fortunately, I had email alerts this time. I so no choice but to close my account and open a new one. It has been several months since EI's acquisition of Horizons. I would have thought they'd have fixed this by now...
Did you notice that Mr. Andercheck is now heading up a NEW MMoRPG?
New Game World, Inc. Announces the Open Beta Testing of Immortals USA
(Press Release)
Characters Created in the Open Beta Test Will Not be Deleted.
Irvine, California, August 3, 2007— New Game World, Inc., publisher of interactive entertainment content, has announced the commencement of the Open Beta test of an exciting new MMOrpg, ImmortalsUSA. The free Beta period launches at 12:00am Pacific Standard Time on Friday, August 03, 2007, offering gamers a glimpse into the multifaceted Immortals world.
"The Immortals experience is an exciting and dynamic epic MMO adventure inside ancient Chinese mythology." says Edward C. Andercheck, Chairman of New Game World, Inc. "Our partner, Honor Games International, based in Singapore, created this unique rich beautiful world employing a development team based in Beijing and Xiamen, China. Their first hand knowledge of this culture is apparent in every aspect of this vibrant game."
Characters created during open beta will not be deleted at launch. However, all characters created prior to August 3rd will be deleted. This will allow all players to begin the open beta on the same foot, experiencing the game with thousands of new players in North America.
"Our collaboration with Honor Games International has been a great experience." Said Steve Wade, Vice President New Game World, Inc. "I've been fortunate to help a lot of companies bring their games to the U.S. And HGI is really doing a great job in helping us adapt to the American market."
Those joining the open beta will eligible to compete in many different events created just for the Open Beta. Gaming systems and Best Buy gift cards, are just some of the many prizes that will be awarded during daily events.
Everyone who registers for an account will be allowed to participate in the open beta of Immortals. In order to register for an account and download the game, players should visit http://www.immortalsusa.com
About Immortals:
5,000 years of Chinese mythology, all in one game. There is possibly no other MMORPG matching the breadth and scope of Immortals in putting together the time-honored deities, heroes, creatures and demons from years of Chinese mythology.
The world of Immortals has four distinct starting realms, one for each race, each with an entirely different feel. Characters can be created in the demonic Underworld, the Heavens, the Earth or even Under water. Characters which are created during open beta will not be deleted at game launch. All Characters that were created during the closed beta, prior to August 3rd will be deleted, allowing all players to begin the Open Beta on the same foot, experiencing the game with thousands of new players in North America.
About Honor Game National:
HGI provides interactive entertainment, with a team of over 70 professionals in Singapore and Xiamen, China, specializing in development on both PC games and MMORPGs.
About New Game World, Inc.:
New Game World, Inc., is the publisher of online interactive content products including, MMORPGames, casual games, web-based online game portals, and game information sites. NGW is a community of people who bring leading edge innovation to online games, popularize those games, and then dream of still more innovative new games. New Game World is a company that nurtures and supports the dreams of the ever-expanding virtual community of online gamers.
New Game World is a whole new virtual world of online gaming.
I wonder if they're using Horizon servers?
Hello,
I kindly ask that people do not drag your hate for Ed or horizon F*** ups to New Game World or Immortals.
My name is on that press release to, and my company has an untarnished name and I would prefer to keep it that way.
I am handling the business development for NGW and I asure anyone that the company is sound.
I took a lot of flack when i signed on with Ed and his new company. I knew about the horizon's issue and is actually when i contacted him to offer my services to fix all his mistakes and that is when he told me about New Game world.
Horizans is a big mess. I and New Game world have nothing to do with it.
New Game World is separate from EI. and in fact the only linking factor is Ed's venture captiol.
Once again I would ask you all not to bring your personal feelings to this new game and company and refrain from spamming MY forums.
If anyone would like to speak privately , please feel free to email me at: support@newgameworld.com and put Out of the mouth as a subject
Steven, I have been spammed, almost certainly by EI, with promotions for Savage Eden, Immortals, and other EI-related subjects. I want to stop receiving these emails but have no way to unsubscribe from them.
I know they have an email list, tha a lot of people do not want on. If you can give me your email I can have it removed.
However, I don't plan to use that list ever again for Immortals or New Game World, Inc.
-Steve
Just so you people know, Horizons the game is no longer owned by these fraudsters. Since July 18 2007, it has been in sole possession of Virtrium, which is comprised of several old Horizons developers. If you were ever subscribed to Horizons under EII's tenure, I strongly urge you to check your credit card's billing and dispute any dubious charges they have made.
I would encourage the Blog's Poster to re-visit Istaria if he hasn't done so already.
EII/PME/Whatever did screw up, and bigtime, and I (as well as any other Horizons player) will confirm that.
However, EII/PME does not own Horizons anymore as of July 18, 2007. A new company, called Virtrium, now does, and Virtrium is owned by the previous Tulga Employees, with the exception of David Bowman. This includes all of the names you got to know and love, including AmonGwaereth, Rick, etc. The same guys who developed for Horizons pre-EII, are now handling it Post-EII.
They now have a stable billing system, one that works from the get-go, and are even offering different payment plans and packages that can make the game look very attractive, and I'm sure even more is in the works in the future.
The game has been updated once already with some fixes and optimizations ever since Virtrium took over, and Blight has been resurrected, as well as a 2nd Client re-work there as well, said to greatly tweak how the Client works, more sound bug fixes, and some graphics overhauls, for greater performance.
They also gave us all a 'grace period' of sorts, so that you can log in, for free, to verify what everyone is saying, is true. How long that "grace period" lasts, I do not know, but I logged in the other day, and was getting 44.8 FPS in the middle of NT. Odd, I don't remember getting anything above 20FPS on the same computer hardware with the same settings.
Also, Music was once again playing on my dragon, whereas I would sit in silence all day long before that newest patch.
Now is the time to see what everyone's talking about, and give Horizons another go.
I do agree with another poster above, though: Please don't spam the other games that EI are involved with; it is childish and against the law. Just please don't do it.
Oh yes, one more thing....
I also did a Player Search, and the list of players found was truncated. I do not know how to look up exactly how many players are on the server, other than using Player Search, but I heard the figure was 60+ Players, On Order (this isn't counting Chaos, obviously), in the middle of a weekday. Hardly Prime-time, to be sure.
They were not all Tier I newbies, either, I saw a lot of Lv100s, Lv80s, Lv50s, and so on.
The things that Virtrium are doing seem to be working wonders. They have accomplished in a mere month and a half what EII couldn't do in a whole year.
Please have tatharnuar (at) gmail (dot) com removed from the list.
This is all totally true. I made the unfortunate mistake of responding to a craigslist ad claiming a "Game Testing" position at a prominent company. It all seemed a bit sketchy, but I went ahead and decided to see where it was and say fuck it if it turned out to be a fake. Anyway I went in for my first day and it all seemed legit. Little did i know that they would throw away the W2 i had signed, let all of my paychecks bounce and then leave town after I had made their website. Just to let everyone know. YES, this company is run by frauds. YES, they are the same company as ei interactive. YES, they will steal your money and screw you out of whatever they can. YES, they have no idea what they are doing. Do not trust Ed Andercheck. If you have any questions or just need info on how that company works please email me and I will tell you whatever you want to know. joshua.dev01@gmail.com
Horizons has been repurchased by it's original developers. EI are out of the loop and the billing problems are solved. Finally!
Development of some kind has started and there is once again hope for the games future. I've just renewed my sub. :)
Graeme
It's true! The evil monster that is EI is no longer in control of Horizons (now termed Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted). I waited so long in hopes that the game would get back to the good old days, and they finally are!
There are so many new things going on I don't even think I could begin to list them (hello new Tier content!).
Virtrium's customer support is also amazing. I've had to submit a ticket or two when starting up again and they figured it all out so I can get back on and back into the swing of things.
They also offer a free 2 week trial so old and new players can come in and see how much it has all changed.
I'd definitely suggest taking a look at it again, you could probably find a lot of your old friends as they toughed it out through EI's reign of terror as well (probably better than I did as I was afraid to come back. I'm glad I did). As you can probably tell from my new blogspot name (hehe), I'm more than excited for the game to be back.
Another cool thing, they've got merchandise now. So we can all sport the old Horizons logo or the new Istaria stuff. That was definitely a surprise.
I wouldnt be so quick to assume anyone was paid.
I heard that guy Steve who was working at New Game World wasn't paid and quit. Their community manager "Vyrl" also had wage theft issues with Ed Andercheck and the game producer "cyr3n" was also on board for less than 2 months due to unpaid wages. Several staff members have also not been paid to this day. Class action lawsuit anyone?
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