ComplaintsforSimutronics Corp

• Initial Complaint

  08/18/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  Simutronics permanently banned my accounts, Ereztheex and Yashar, for unattended experience gain and inappropriate comments. I admit to these actions but believe that a permanent ban, particularly for a character with over 20 years of history, is disproportionate. The staff's decisions were based on personal bias, looking beyond in-game interactions as personal attacks, rather than an objective evaluation.There is also a glaring lack of diversity within Simutronics, likely contributing to biased decisions and unfair treatment. My attempts to resolve the issue were met with dismissiveness, and I was even removed from their Discord channel for speaking out, further demonstrating their disregard for customer concerns.Resolution Sought:Immediate reinstatement of my accounts (Ereztheex and ******) without further retaliation.A commitment to open, constructive communication from Simutronics.An audit of Simutronics business practices to address bias and unprofessional conduct.

• Initial Complaint

  04/20/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  Simutronics is an online gaming company, specifically the creator/owner of Gemstone IV (previously Gemstone III). Ove the course of the last year, I have paid them in excess of $14,000 for for in-game items. Recently, they have made up charges against me because they didn't believe I paid them enough money for what I "earned". I have been unable to resolved this with them, and have asked for a full refund of my purchases. In response to this, they have permanently banned me from the game and stopped comminicating.

• Initial Complaint

  06/07/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On the date of May 31, 2022, I received an email from the Simutronic's Lockout Department, informing me that my account with them has been locked out indefinitely. By their own admission, Simutronics used my out-of-game actions even though they have clearly stated many, many times in the past that they (Simutronics) cannot police or enforce behavior that occurs outside of their game and other official media (twitter, discord, etc) . Furthermore, my request for an appeal to this lockout has not been replied to in the least.

  Business response

  06/15/2022

  Regarding our former customer ****** *******, who filed a complaint with you on 6/7/2022 (Case ID ********):

  
  

  This individual was a player of one of our online games (GemStone IV).  He was previously banned for a lengthy period of time from our game due to a violation of our terms of service.  After returning, we concluded his conduct was still disruptive and thus unacceptable. Therefore we have decided to terminate Mr. *******'s subscription to our game service as per the Terms of Service he agreed to when signing up.

  
  

  While Mr. ******* attempts to skirt our Terms of Service by conducting a great deal of his offending behavior in a chat side-channel (called ****) that we do not control, this never-the-less is where a large number of GemStone IVs players communicate and we have deemed such behavior toxic to the game's community and the game service.

  
  

  Our actions are in accordance with our Terms of Service , sections 10 and 8.  Some relevant points below:
  

  
  

  Simutronics reserves the right to terminate User's membership if it determines, in its sole discretion, that User has engaged in unacceptable conduct.
  

   

  Either User or Simutronics may terminate User's subscription to the Services at any time.

  
  

  In certain situations, the overall pattern of behavior on an account or a set of linked accounts may be determined to be disruptive or abusive, even if no one single act clearly violates any specific policy. In such cases, Simutronics reserves the right to determine what patterns of behavior are defined as "high-maintenance" or "disruptive" and may take action against the account(s), ranging from a simple request to moderate the high-maintenance behavior, to total lockout of all linked accounts.

  
  

  Our in-game policy also states:

  
  

  GemStone IV is designed for the enjoyment of everyone, and as a general rule, any behavior which is specifically targeted to lessen that enjoyment for another player may be in violation of GemStone IV policy.  While what is disruptive is an extremely long list, it includes things such as vulgarity, harassment, sexual misconduct, cyber-bullying, out of character threats, doxing, and actions specifically targeted to be disruptive.  Threatening violence, using hate speech, and engaging in any sort of personal harassment can result in immediate account termination.

  
  

  After the ban, we observed Mr. ******* ramping up his toxic behavior in this same chat channel, with statements seemly made by him to include what we, in our opinion, consider racist rants, hate speech and even what appears to be an extremely disturbing threat:

  
  

  "GemStone has made me want to load my AR-15 and pop a few kids in the local elementary"

  
  

  In addition to intending to never do business, communicate with or be in any way associated again with Mr. *******, we have alerted the authorities about this incident as well.

  
  

  --
  

  ***** ******* ********* * *** *********** ****

  Customer response

  06/15/2022

  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  I believe I have been unfairly targeted in this regard as many dozens of people use **** to perform and carry out the exact sort of behavior that I have been banned for, including but not limited to; targeted cyber-bullying of a previously suicidal person, selling in-game currency, characters, and items for real-world money, threatening, harassment, foul language, sexual conduct and a laundry list of other infractions yet the company has never enforced any sort of their policy on these people nor did they enforce their policy of not using the REPORT system for out-of-game actions for the multitude of people that abused this action in their attempt to ban me.  It is also very obvious that Mr. ******* both cannot detect satire nor has he respected me as a person.  He has never met me in person and yet makes assumptions about me being a racist.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** *******

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩