Horizons CD key

silverblade

I hope that I don't become a Horizon basher, but my experiences over the last week have started to become annoying. After a number of people on MMORPG.COM discussed the pros and cons of Horizons with me I became really interested in the game. 

I wanted to download the trial but being a resident of Australia could not as the free 7 day trial is for US only. I then purchased the game in a store (EB) and was told that they had heard that all the latest shipment to Oz had an incorrect CD key.  They provided me with a produce support number and even let me use their phone for a number of attempts to get through the help line (great customer service).  After trying and not getting through before the help line closed, I am trying again today. 

The scam is that they shipped the product with the incorrect CD key, online support just has not responded and I'm stuck trying to call a help number that charges $2.95 per minute for me to fix a problem that they created!!!  The Horizons email support is not responsive and because I do not have a valid key (because the one on the box in wrong), I cannot create an account to log in to get to the online live help.

This is what I call as bad customer service combined with a disregard for fixing a stuff up that should never have occurred.

silverblade

Just an update to say that I finally managed to get hold of the Oz distributor (Atari) and their reply is that all the current batch of Oz Cd Keys are wrong and they have been waiting over a week now for a response from the States to give them new CD keys.  Until they hear from Estaria there will be no CD keys.. hence no game for me!!!   This sucks!

Viridia

Wow... that is definately a new low in customer support.....

I currently play Horizons, and I did love it at first..... but it really does feel like a sinking ship at the moment, the company seems badly organised and the playerbase seems to be dwindling as the promised features fail to appear fast enough, and current craft and adventure schools are nerfed into unplayability.... more and more good players leave

I still love the world and the idea of an unfolding storyline and I am still playing, I have found a guild of good RPers and I can enjoy the game to a certain extent even with the current problems, but this thing with the CD keys really does seem like another example of a badly organised company that really doesn't care about its players.

Personally I am now waiting to try Saga of Ryzom and see if it can give me the interesting evolving storyline and comunity I would like to find in an MMORPG

 

silverblade

Hmmm.. this all makes me think I shouid rush the game back to whence it came!!  The update wtih the CD key is that I atually got another CD key this morning from Atari.... and guess what??  It doesnt work either.  I think I will give them one more chance and then pull the plug.  At least I havent lost any cash on a subscription.  The sad thing is that this is happening to every person who bought the latest batch of the game in Oz... not a good way to turn around that dwindling player base is it?

sidey

Actually, here is our experience with AE customer support...

We (my wife and i), are also in Australia, and did not have trouble registering for the 7 day trial.

However, after i got the cd key for the 7 day trial (fileplanet), i couldn't activate the account (incorrect cd key etc) and so i emailed the support@istaria.com. Within 36 hours, they had replied and provided two new cd keys for me.

This is when i realised that the original cd keys i had gotten were correct, however, it was ME who had clicked on Create Account instead of "7 Day Trial Account" which was why i kept getting incorrect cd key...

I thought i'd share this to show that AE can do some things right, that their customer support did get back to me promptly.

Having said the above, and having tried the 7 day trial now, on the verge of buying the game, we discovered (through forums and some in game channels) that the biggest problem for us seems to be the lack of "need" for grouping and higher level rewards (there really isn't any!) ... we love the crafting but the lack of community has put us off for now, we'll wait for WoW

G'luck to Horizons .. i hope it takes off, but until they improve the content, i think it will be an uphill grind...

Mercucio

Atari has CD-key issues from several of the titles that it vends.  For example, I have had problems with NWN and both of the sequels over the CD keys.  Either not on the inside cover of the manual or not on some piece of paper that was suppose to be within the box but not there.  For this sole reason I have not purchased the Horizons game.  It just seems that any title that I buy with Atari as the publisher is doomed to cause me grief so I avoid them as if they had the plague.

I did try the 7 day trial and I enjoyed the game a lot.  My one problem that was related to the CD key from GameSpy was resolved within 24-hours just like their CS people had quoted as their goal. This actually made my trial a 6 day trial but it was still an interesting game.  I would have subscribed if they had offered a way to go around the Atari publishing.  For a $60 purchase price of the CD I'm just not willing to gamble that Atari may have gotten a box right.

I suppose, that, what I'm to say is that I feel your pain...Atari has done this all to often it seems.  I'll never understand how a company like this has ever managed to keep going...They have been like this to the vendors and customers since the '80s.