Most alarming among the issues, many users claim they have been charged the monthly $9.99 subscription fee multiple times within the span of a few days.

"I could sum this up as the worst online gaming experience I have ever had," Shacknews reader Tyro described to us. "I applied for a monthly subscription. I then noticed I was charged two times on 11/03 $9.99, one time on 11/04 $9.99, and one time on 11/05 $9.99."

Other users have only been billed once, but find themselves unable to use the service they've paid for.

"I checked the account pages on both web sites," wrote Mayella_EU in the support thread. "It doesn't show I have a subscription. Yet my credit card was charged."

Further compounding the issue, Hellgate customer support has been slow in responding to complaints according to many of the unhappy subscribers. A 392-post support thread on the official Hellgate: London forums has cropped up following the closure of the temporary billing/subscription forum.

Shacknews has contacted Flagship, but has not yet received a comment at this time. Hellgate community managers are aware of the issues, and promise an update on the situation soon.