Category: Ramblings

The CSIO Technologies SKRS Scam

Published on Monday, 18 September 2017 20:24

Faelandaea

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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.

http://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.

http://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:

http://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:

https://www.bbb.org/minnesota/business-reviews/computers-hardware-software-and-services/csio-technologies-llc-in-minneapolis-mn-1000007167/reviews-and-complaints?section=reviews&reviewtype=neutral

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=http://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.

My Thoughts on Various Anime Genres

Published on Thursday, 06 July 2017 07:09

Faelandaea

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The following article is based of an online listing of anime genres I read recently, which prompted me to use it to answer a question I get asked very often … “Which kind of anime do you like?” Well, I may as well give my thoughts about every single genre, so here goes …
… Wait … before I get started, many thanks to Cheeky Kid for writing the article that inspired this journal entry.

Action: Oh I definitely dig action. My favorite in this genre definitely would have to be SAO (Sword Art Online), which in my eyes easily falls under Fantasy as well.

Adventure: Adventure definitely also falls within my most liked genres. This is especially true if the show not only has adventure, but also romance mixed in.

Comedy: With how my life goes, if there is one constant in the universe, it is the need for a good laugh. That is why I tend to hide behind humor to mask when I am the most stressed. In a third person sense, watching humor and actually laughing (and not faking it) actually really makes me feel a lot better most times. My favorite comedy type is that which is harem or romance based (see below).

Demons: On this one, it’s neutral. I am not attracted to demons as a genre. A lot of other genres I watch happen to have demons in them, though, so they don’t put me off. But they aren’t the main reason for me to watch an anime.

Drama: This one I am extremely touchy on. Drama with a happy ending … hell yes. I love Drama. But in the world of anime there is plenty of Drama that has some seriously fucked up endings that leave me more depressed and sad than when I started to watch the show in the first place. I see enough fucked up endings in real life … so I steer clear of those for entertainment. But make a good Drama that has a good ending that isn’t seven kinds of fucked up and I am a happy camper.

Ecchi: Yup. I watch it. But mainly for the comedy aspect. Panties do absolutely nothing for me. But in Ecchi and Harem anime, I get so many laughs that it definitely improves my mood. Both genres are centered around perversion a good portion of the time, but how they present it makes me laugh like mad. The best comedy I have ever watched has been in Ecchi and Harem categories. That is why on my anime list on my web site you see a lot of titles from these genres.

Fantasy: Definitely a top category for me. This one is a no-brainer. I mean … just read my profile … if you know me as a person and think I am not into anything adventurous, then you definitely do not know me at all 🙂

Game: This one really depends. SAO is an AWESOME game Anime. But others I never really got into. Some of the mainstream ones, like Yu-Gi-Oh and Dragon Ball Z I never could seem to get into (maybe because they are all over the place and string on for hundreds of episodes), but there are a few game genre anime out there that have captured my heart.

Harem: This is a touchy subject for some. For me it really depends on the plot. I am always supportive of the knight in shining armor that swears to protect females at all costs, or simply stick up for what is right no matter what. If people fall in love with him for that … who can blame them? In other aspects, though, I think I relate to harem male characters a lot… especially the awkward ones that seem clueless at times. To some folks, harem is nothing more than some guy fantasizing about being surrounded by females. For me … the male protagonists in this genre seem to always strike home when it comes to being the awkward underdog trying to do what is right in the world. Other anime genres have protagonists like this, also, so my feelings on this aspect are not limited to harem.

Hentai: For those that do not know, Hentai literally is Japanese for “Pervert”. Honestly this is not a genre that attracts me, because a lot of it is pretty much just an animated variant of porn, and I am not a big fan of porn. But there are a few titles out there which can be classified as Hentai that are frankly hilarious. But if I had my choice of watching Hentai or Harem, I’ll choose Harem any day.

Historical: This is not a genre I go out of my way to watch, but I can say that a lot of my favorite anime has a lot of historical elements to it. Some of my favorite titles do fall within this category.

Horror: Count me out on this one. And I feel the same about anything horror related. Due to events in my life, I definitely have a bit of PTSD when it comes to blood and gore. I also have an extremely visual mind and horror genres in all aspects of entertainment, anime or live action, tends to hit me hard in a very negative way. I have seen enough crap in real life to watch stuff like that on a screen. I watch entertainment titles to forget … not to remember.

Josei: This genre is aimed at women from ages 18-40 by itself, but there are anime titles that fall into this category in ties with other genres as well. If the plot is romantic enough, I’ll enjoy it. Let the “Chick Flick” jokes begin, but I don’t care. I watch what I watch.

Kids: Nope. Hate to say it but anything rated for kids I can never seem to watch. Anime for me has to have some adult natured plot and a serious aspect to it (even in the comedy genre). Fortunately, kids level anime is rare and I don’t have to sift through much of it to find other anime that I actually do like.

Magic: Yes, please, but only if it has other elements I like, such as romance and adventure.

Martial Arts: Just like Magic, a good martial arts anime has to have a plot that has romance and adventure/action in it as well. Shows that are strictly fighting do not excite me that much. Mix in the other stuff and it works out good, though.

Mecha: I tend to pick up on Mecha anime if it has a great plot to it. As with Magic and Martial Arts (see above), I don’t go out of my way for Mecha. But if the plot has those other elements I love, then awesome. I think one of my favorites in the genre would be Full Metal Alchemist.

Military: There are titles in this genre I like, such as Fullmetal Panic. Code Geass is cool, also. However, Military is not a genre I go out of my way to watch.

Music: You know what? It may be just coincidence or just luck of the picks, but I have honestly not watched any anime with any major musical plot. So on this genre, I can’t make any statement, really. I never really knew music was a major Anime genre. Now I am curious, so I am going to track down and watch some titles to check out the genre. I play music in real life, so I guess I am a bit surprised at myself as I type this that I never took in any Music genre anime. Hmmm. Time to Google some titles.

Mystery: Oddly enough, like Music (see above), I haven’t watched any anime that is surrounded by mystery. The reason I say this is odd is because as far as live action films go, I love mystery. I am a huge Sherlock Holmes fan. I am also an addict to NCIS and CSI. So why the hell haven’t I taken in similar shows in the anime genre? Good question. Like the music genre above, I need to check this one out!

Parody: Parody that appears off and on in another series I am watching makes me chuckle sometimes. But as a genre this isn’t one I go for as a whole.

Police: I am actually in the midst of watching a very bad-ass Police based series as we speak called Psycho-Pass. Cool show. This genre definitely has some cool titles in it.

Post-Apocalyptic: Not a theme that snags my attention by itself. But if it has other elements I like, such as a romantic twist, then awesome. Now, stop that face-palming and asking me “WTF? Romance in a post-apocalyptic state?” Believe it or not, yeah, I fantasize about that a lot. Honestly, the only thing that keeps me from really wanting the human race to plow itself into such a state in real life is I can’t fathom the amount of cats that would be victimized in the process. Yeah … I said it. Cats. That’s my whole reason I hope for anything other than war. I love cats and don’t want them caught in our idiotic crossfire.

Psychological: Oh fuck the hell yes. Death Note was a favorite of mine in this genre. Need I say more?

Reverse Harem: Not my cup of tea. Probably because I am a guy. But I have had roommates into this genre and I have seen some really hilarious stuff in this genre. For you ladies, I’d imagine this genre strikes you the same way as harem strikes me … lots of romance mixed with comedy relief. It’s a great mix.

Romance: I cannot emphasize enough that this is probably my top genre of anime interest. Toradora, Kaichou wa Maid-sama, Golden Time, Clannad (Oh definitely Clannad) Kimi ni Todake, My Little Monster … All are outstanding titles. One on my wish-list as of tonight to watch is Sakurasou no Pet no Kanojo. Remember how I said above I love cats? This one should be awesome.

School: Let’s face it. Like, 99% of anime seems to take place in some sort of school environment. Be it high school or college or some fantasy school for wizards and mages … Suffice it to say I do not consider this a genre but rather an environment, I guess. One thing I do love about a lot of school-based anime is kind of an alternate reality to my past type thing. Growing up, I was bullied a lot and I never fit in. So I find myself getting into school plots a lot and practically yelling at the screen for the underdog to succeed. I believe in multiple lives, and I just hope that in a future life I can be as brave and pure as some of my favorite school-based protagonists.

Sci-Fi: To me Sci-Fi, like School, as a genre is quite broad. Throw in adventure and romance, mix it with some sci-fi, and you have a winner from me.

Seinen: Like Josei, this is a demographic and also a genre. This one aimed at males 18-40. Ergo-Proxy is one of my favorites in this genre.

Shoujo-ai: Not my cup of tea. I know, I know … a lot of guys go bonkers for girls falling for girls … but it’s just not my cup of tea.

Shounen: I am not a fan of this demographic, mainly due to my age. I think the only title that ever held my interest for more than 5 minutes in this category was Fairy Tail, and that one only lasted about 5 or 6 episodes for me.

Shounen-ai: Again not my cup of tea.

Slice of Life: I get enough of that in real life, I guess. I have tried watching Anime from this genre and can never really get into it.

Space: Space is cool, but like Sci-Fi, toss in some romance and adventure, please.

Sports: Sports generally bore me. I have seen some cool anime with a sports theme, but it’s not something I go out of my way to watch.

Super Power: At the risk of repeating myself, I’ll just say “See Sci-Fi and Space” descriptions above.

Supernatural: Oh hell yes. If the plot is good, though.

Tragedy: No, thanks. I get enough of that in real life.

Vampire: if it has vampires, I will most likely watch it. No, not cliché. Just a lot of Vampire based anime has kick ass plots to it. Hellsing was an awesome series and iconic to that standing.

Yaoi and Yuri: Both genres do not really do anything for me.

Well, there you have it. So if you are one of my anime friends and considering tossing titles my way to watch, this should give you a better idea of what I like and how I feel about certain genres.

Track IR 5 with Pro Clip

Published on Thursday, 31 December 2015 09:40

Faelandaea

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So in anticipation of getting my Track IR, I watched YouTube videos on setting it up with games I already have. For Farming Simulator, it is literally a bloody nightmare, but I am working on that even as I type this. However, for games like ETS2, it works natively and even has built in profiles to work properly with those games. I hopped into ETS2 … crashed … realized major patches had come out that broke my mods, and started a new profile. Ah the joys of a modded game being updated. But either way, after starting a new profile and hopping into the truck, all i can say is WOW!

Now – a little bit of history here. I had Track IR already once – years and years ago. I think it was version 3 at the time. I’m not sure. But I was pretty much exclusively an armchair pilot who went on to real flying afterwards. But in the simulator – FSX – I was strictly a virtual flight deck pilot. In the virtual flight deck, especially on advanced airliners like the PMDG 737, there were gazillions of knobs and such to click with the mouse to have a smooth flight. At the time, TIR was so sensitive to my head movement, that I ended up actually sending it back for a refund because I could not hold my head still enough at all to click a single knob on the flight deck. It made for a very interesting – and very disastrous – test flight that ended in me closing out the game else I’d eventually crash the plane anyway.

Now, years later and coming into 2016, I have been doing a lot of driving games that do NOT need knobs, etc switched on and off around me. Whatever I do need is hard mapped to buttons on my Logitech G27 setup that I use. Thus, I decided to give TIR another try. I am glad i did, but there are some things I;’d like to post here to help save some people some money:

Do NOT bother with the “Pro Clip” add-on. It;s junk. Not only does it add an extra wire to the side of your headset for the cat to play with, but it just doesn’t work – at all. You will see many YouTubers who got it to work, but they are advanced programmers and geniuses who did scripting or something to get it that way, because I guarantee you they didn’t just slide a few sliders and get this thing to work. No matter what I tried, even positioning the clip just like the ONE YouTube poster who actually posted his clip (straight vertical), it would not read my head properly. I;d turn left – the camera would go UP and left. I look right, camera goes DOWN and right. It kept thinking I was rolling my head somehow. It also was VERY VERY glitch-ridden in the movements, and it was a nightmare.

I had almost given up and once again pondered a second return of the TIR setup when I noticed on my desk the little hat clip I had set aside. The hat clip is a reflector only version of the head piece, and it is the basic item you get if you do not want to use the track clip pro. It;’s passive, where the Pro is active (giving off beams of light instead of just being reflectors). I scrounged around and found a hat, ditched the Track Clip Pro, and restarted the TIR software. BAM! I didn’t even have to configure anything and it worked out beautifully. All i had to do was hit the hotkey to re-center the camera based on ym new clip position and I was in business. It was right after that when I went into ETS2 and had a wonderful set of 2 drives with this thing on.

I’ll have to keep posting and let folks know how it works in FS15. I am following Reef’s awesome advice here: http://fs-uk.com/forum/index.php?topic=169990.msg1195394#msg1195394

Anyway, for those considering TIR, save your money and just get TIR 5. Don’t bother with the Track Clip Pro. I should have researched more, because a Google Search actually found a LOT of people out there who had the same struggle I am having, or different struggles, which all ended the same – with them using the basic hat clip and tossing the Pro Clip back in the box.

Trump for Grand Nagus

Published on Friday, 28 August 2015 09:38

Faelandaea

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Fast Food Risks

Published on Friday, 18 April 2014 04:18

Faelandaea

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