So here is the latest on my situation with CSIO Technologies (Basically just a one-man outfit named Cory Ryder) and his SKRS Shifter Scam
The Background:
On June 7, 2017, I placed an order with CSIO Technologies for their SKRS Shifter, order #6270, so that I may improve my stream viewers’ experience by using real shifting when driving in American truck Simulator. I was already aware that there was a 2-3 week assembling time on the product. However, talking to other people about CSIO, they stated that when CSIO starts assembling my product, it would go from "processing" status into "assembling" status.
https://faelandaea.com/custom_images/csio_technologies_scam/SKRS-CSIO_Dispute_Evidence_10.jpg
So on June 13, 2017, when I saw my status was still "Processing", I sent a support ticket. It was read, but ignored. I say it was read because of pure common sense. I myself run multiple businesses online. I go by a sense of professionalism that acknowledges the rules of customer service. If a company has a support ticket system in place, and you use that official system to make a query, it is automatically assumed that the company has received and at least read your message within 24 business hours of sending. Therefore, regardless of what anyone may say, I stand by the acknowledgement that my message was received and assumed read, but blatently ignored.
https://faelandaea.com/custom_images/csio_technologies_scam/SKRS-CSIO_Dispute_Evidence_09.jpg
I was patient, and I gave CSIO Technologies plenty of time to reply. He chose not to. On July 9, 2017, over a month after my order, I sent another support ticket. This one politely asked for a status update or, if there were issues, to let me know so i may make a decision about possibly cancelling my order. Again, the message was successfully received, read, and blatently ignored.
The PayPal Dispute Fiasco
On July 18, 2017, 9 days after my second contact attemopt and over a month and a half after placing the order with no status change, I made the hard decision to dispute the charge with my financial institution, n this case the PayPal Pre-Paid Mastercard. I filed the dispute online, and annoyingly enough, the system somehow tried to attach my dispute to some "$0.00" amount instead of the "$144.90" amount. This one was on PayPal, but they swear I clicked on some "0.00" transaction which, to this day, I cannot find any evidence of in my transaction history. Suffice it to say I was annoyed, and as a result they threw out the dispute.
On August 2, 2017, I filed a second dispute, this time by phone, with PayPal. The agent told me he had everything needed and all I had to do was wait for the investigation to complete to get the result. Again, this time on PayPal, they messed up the investigation. That first agent never told me I had to download and mail some letter to attach to the investigation. A day before the investigation completed, I called to check up and a second agent told me, "Sorry but we’re missing a required letter" … well, gee, THANKS for calling me and saying, "Hey, we noticed you hadn’t sent this IMPORTANT piece of documentation in, so can you do that, please?" Least to say, THAT dispute was dropped. At this point I am getting seriously irate.
On August 17, 2017, I called and stayed ont he phone with another agent, making a new claim, and this time I wouldn’t let the out-sourced agent hang up the phone until I clarified with him that I had everything he needed so I could make sure they have everything. This time I included not only the letter, but I included screenshots of the unanswered support tickets, as well as screenshots proving my product was NOT being assembled, and was NOT shipped. That investigation did not conclude until September 16, 2017. THIS is where it gets really interesting. Remember the CSIO guy? The one that doesn’t exist and doesn;t reply to customers?
Well, he did decide to exist long enough to reply to my bank’s investigation. He contacted them and somehow convinced them that the charge is valid and not refundable, so my bank has now decided to DENY my charge-back under some pretense that it is a valid charge and I am ineligible for a refund. Want to hear the best part about that one? Okay, here goes … this is directly from the CSIO SKRS product Page … look at the highlighted yellow:
https://faelandaea.com/custom_images/csio_technologies_scam/SKRS-CSIO_Dispute_Evidence_08.jpg
I am now awaiting special documentation from PayPal so that I may appeal the decision to the issuing bank, using updated information I have gained (which is about to also be plastared all over this article).
Plenty of Outburst Online
As some of you know, I am a YouTube streamer. Suffice it to say that I have been venting over the last few episodes about this fiasco. Some of my viewers told me, "Guess what? You aren;t alone!" … As it turns out, apparently there are a LOT of people starting to encounter this issue. Many things have been pointed out to me, the most recent being that CSIO is apparently shipping shifters based on influence. That’s right! If you are a famous streamer, like Squirrel, then he will immediately process your order and get it out to you. Why? because if these people have a good experience, they will say so, and then people who aren;t influential will just look like fools when we speak out about being screwed over by this scam. Well, it’s not going to work, because people are starting to use Reddit, Facebook and other media to speak out about this scam.
Let’s start with the Better Business Bureau. Check out this link on their rating of CSIO Technologies:
Wow. An "F". That’s right. CSIO Technologies is rated an "F" … that’s as bad as you can get from the BBB. On that page, you will see that there are 11 complaints currently. I just filed mine yesterday, so that complaint list is going to be 12 shortly. I imagine more is to follow. Just look at some of the quotes from the complaints:
I still have not received my order, nor will the company respond to any of my inquiries. We pre-ordered the SKRS shifter with the EasyJake, the total cost was $144.90. We received the shifter, but not the EasyJake. The shifter does not work. We have contacted the company four different times and still not have heard from them except to get a generic notice that they would contact us... as soon as possible. This has been going on since August. We did not ask for a refund. We asked for the shifter to be replaced and to get the EasyJake that we paid for; however, we have not had any contact from the company. I have called and left messages also, but they do not return my calls. I placed an order on February 21, 21017 for a left hand drive shifter with an easy jake and an 18 speed medallion for the price of $154.90. It was paid in full at the time of purchase. At the time the order was placed, the company stated their timeline from order date to ship date was three weeks. I... have attempted several times to contact them regarding my order. I have messaged them through facebook,, issued a ticket on their website on March 27, 2017, and have left multiple voicemails with no response. It is now August 16, 2017. I went on their website again today to see if there was any update on my order status. It still is the exact same as the day I ordered it. I called multiple times and could not get through to anyone. I have never spoken to anyone from this company or received any response from this company. I did leave another message today asking someone to return my call ASAP. I think I have been more than patient. I feel I should have received some kind of update. I really am beginning to feel like this is a scam.
Those are just a few examples from the 8 complaints the business failed to even respond to. Out of 11 complaints, 8 went unanswered even through the BBB. Wow. I bet mine goes unanswered as well. Oh, and add to that, there are also only negative reviews on the BBB web page for them as well. NO positive reviews at all.
Granted, you might read some of this and think, "Seriously? That’s like a handful of people." But remember, you’d be surprised at how few people even think of the BBB as a place to report tyheir issues. Nowdays social networking and forums seem to be the place to gather to get and send feedback on just about any subject out there. So let’s hit Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/trucksim/comments/58pnhr/the_skrs_situation/
https://www.reddit.com/r/trucksim/comments/6mnzwt/whats_up_with_csio_tech/
https://www.reddit.com/r/trucksim/comments/68medf/skrs/
https://www.reddit.com/r/trucksim/comments/6q6ehr/any_substitutes_to_csio_skrs/
https://www.reddit.com/r/trucksim/comments/5o8u6w/skrs_problems/
https://forum.scssoft.com/viewtopic.php?f=188&t=244282#p775694
I could go on and on. There’s actually a LOT more threads saying the exact same thing, but you get the picture.
My Next Steps
I plan to keep fighting for my money back. If my bank doesn’t side with me on this, they will lose a customer there as well. However, I spoke to an agent recently who says that if i can provide enough evidence that I am not alone in this, as well as the screenshots proving he will not communicate with me, then they will go ahead and grant me the charge-back. Thus, this article came into being. What I thought would be just gathering documentation for myself has now become an effort to help educate the public and make sure others do not get burned by this scam. I am also filing my formal complaint with the BBB.
If I appeal to my bank, and i am again denied my money back, I will then be approaching, with my lawyer by my side (he’s an awesome guy, too), the Attorney General for both my home state as well as the state CSIO is in, which is Minneapolis, MN.
I will be editing this article as I make progress. Wish me luck.
UPDATE – September 20, 2017
https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?url=https://faelandaea.com/the-csio-technologies-skrs-scam/ – Quite the response to a post I made linking to this article. Almost everyone saying the same thing, with the exception of one individual – vernongt47 – Who appears to be every scammers’ dream customer. "Patience is a virtue", he says.
Sorry, folks, but that is NOT the way to do business.
I have also contacted again my banking institution. They are willing to re-open the investigation. Let’s see what happens this round. Someone from the investigations team is going to be calling me tomorrow.
The story so far:
- Fact: The company never has and never will reply to any message I have ever sent them.
- Fact:: The company will never voluntarily give me a refund or cancel my order, so a charge=back or court order action is the only route to take here.
- Fact: This is happening to multiple people, as seen by the "F" rating on the BBB web site, as well as the immense support and feedback I have received on Reddit, Steam and Facebook.