Purchase Problem

[msc918]

I have just purchased Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchmans' mine for the new price of $9.99 US, they gave me a reference number through email right away however they are not providing me with the game key to play the game full and gave me a message instead that said "Thank you for submitting your order for Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine: Digital Download-Digital Version using Plimus. Your order is currently being reviewed by our staff for quality purposes, this process is usually completed within a few minutes, however, please allow up to 12 hours to hear back from us." I have purchased online games before and upon purchase they immediateley provided me the purchase key. However why is Himalaya Studios giving this message upon purchasing the game? I paid by my visa online and is concerned...it has been 6 hours since I purchased and I havent heard from them nor have I received any response to my inquiries. If anyone has had a similar experience please give me some reassurance, that this is not some hoax...thank you...

[GameDevChris]

Sorry to hear about the delay time you're experiencing. We use Plimus as our e-commerce payment processor, so we don't handle the transactions directly.

Plimus are very particular about security and fraud protection, so they can be quite rigorous about ensuring that only valid and authentic Credit Card purchases are being made through their system. Due to this, sometimes first-time Plimus buyers who purchase via Credit Card will get flagged for additional security measures. If I recall correctly, the flagging can be based on certain criteria, such as the buyer's location, the fact that they're purchasing with a Credit Card, and several other factors.

If your purchase gets flagged, you'll usually be called by a Plimus support member on the phone number you provided during the purchase process, to confirm that it was indeed you who bought the game. Once you do that, they should process the order very quickly. If you're not near the phone when they call (or if you provided a dummy number), that will delay the process a bit, however.

Understandably, this delay time and inconvenience is a common complaint amongst a lot of customers who purchase games from indie developers who use Plimus to process payments. Fortunately, it doesn't happen to every purchaser, and the fact that Plimus are so thorough means that at least their security is iron-clad and they're working to keep your credit card safe. This isn't a hoax or a scam, but a security measure designed to prevent such things.

Anyhow, please send us an e-mail at mailto:contact@himalayastudios.com">contact@himalayastudios.com if your payment still hasn't been processed by the time they said it would be and I'll get it sorted out.

[msc918]

Hi, thanks for your reply, its been over 12 hours and I havent heard from them, I am sending an email to the address you have enclosed in the hopes that will resolve this right away. Honestly if I had known that I had to go to that much trouble, I would not have bothered. Thanks again...