Out of Pod Experience

This is a warning to all Eve players as to the type of "customer service" you may encounter if you choose to deal with EA Origin "store". CCP should be very cautious in partnering with EA (IMHO) as such partnering may lead to franchise-damaging experiences.

Thursday morning a fellow gamer informed me that EA was offering a game time code for Eve Online. I checked out the store and sure enough the offer was there: USD17 for a 60-day time code plus an in-game ship. This is a very good deal, as I normally pay USD39 for a 90-day subscription and that does not come with the in-game ship.

So at about a quarter past 9:00 am CST I purchased two codes using PayPal. I had to make 2 separate purchases because the store would not allow me to change the quantity. I can see how this would be appropriate for an actual game (doesn't really make sense to buy two copies of Battlefield 3... or even one copy. Meh.)

At 9:22 and 9:26 I received email receipts from PayPal for the purchases ($18.93 including sales tax). The merchant is listed as "DigitalRiver US Inc atlanticpaypalcs@digitalriver.com" but the detail line reads "EA *Origin.com order", so I guess that it is all right.

Over the next hour I refresh the "Order History" screen for Origin, but I never see my time codes show up. So I contact (via live chat) EA about it. While explaining to the drone, erm... "customer service associate" what has happened, I notice that I receive 4 new emails at 10:53 and 10:54; two each from PayPal and EA Origins store. The emails are order cancellation and refunds for my order. No reason for the cancellation is provided. I explain this to the rep and he says that there must be some problem with my PayPal. "Yeah, sure" I think, knowing full well that he's completely full of ****.

So I order another time code and this time attempt to pay with my credit card. After a truly maddening 7 or 8 screens to check out (really!), Origin Store aborts with the message "Payment Authorization Failed". I explain this to the rep, and of course he says that message means there is a problem with the credit card. Now I'm prepared to wager a substantial sum that the card is 100% ok (as I'd used it the night before), and indicated such to the rep (I think I may have even accused him of lying to me...)

I'm getting very frustrated now. I'm trying to give EA money and they seem to be working very hard to prevent that.

I take the credit card to another website and make a tuition payment for my son's after-school care. Of course it works fine. I call the credit card issuer and verify that the card is in good standing. It is. I ask about recent transactions. They report the tuition payment charge, but say there's nothing from EA or Origin; not even any denied charge attempts.

I would tell the EA rep about this, but of course he's closed the chat because I've timed out. *sigh* So I start another chat, wait another 5-10 minutes, and get a new rep. I explain all the trouble to the new rep. He suggests I try yet another card, as obviously there must be some problem with the PayPal system *AND* the first credit card. It is utterly impossible that EA Origin store's system is incorrect.

So I use a different credit card. I get the same "Payment Authorization Failed". Now the rep is telling me he's discovered that my order has been placed into some "review" queue and it will take 24-48 hours for it to be reviewed. UNBELIEVABLE!

I tell him that this is completely unacceptable. He tells me that he has no ability to affect this review. He indicates that the review is a random selection for security purposes. Whatever. I say "fine. I'll cancel that order and place a new one so that I'm unlikely to be in the review queue." He recommends against that, but doesn't explain why.

I empty my cart and return to the store to re-add the time code. Except now it is "NO LONGER AVAILABLE".

:shock:

I AM LIVID AT THIS POINT. The two monitors before me paled, paralyzed with fear. A monitor across the room yelped in alarm. The air sizzled with the burning hatred of a thousand suns.

I told the rep that this would not end well for EA (and I intend to make good on that threat). I completed the post-chat survey with absolutely no ambiguity as to my dissatisfaction.

MDD

I had a very similar experience with these guys just this week. Well, over the past few weeks. It has taken that long to actually get the game (Sims 3) downloaded. I bought it for my kid via GamersGate. The activation key wouldn't work. Not in the EA Store. Not on the Sims 3 products and downloads page. Not after setting up an Origins account. Four or five back-and-forth exchanges with GamersGate tech support, including sending screenshots, it turns out EA had given them a bad activation key.

So now with the good key I was able to download the game. But my daughter says it won't install. "Activation key not valid."

As the bowl of petunias in The Hitchhikers Guide said, "Oh no. Here we go again."

Your problem right there. While it sucks for you, dealing with EA makes every discount useless.

Moving from General Discussion to Out of Pod Experience.

Good luck with that.

You appear to be labouring (get stuffed EVE spellchecker - there's no such thing as "American English" and labouring does indeed have a "u" in it) under the misapprehension that EA actually give the tiniest **** what it's kool-aid quaffing fanboi customer base think.

EA has been shoving it's big Electronic Appendage (EA - c whut i did there?) further up it's customers' collective ass year on year and shows no sign of stopping soon. Why would they? It's not like sales are down is it?

I've had nothing to do with EA since I actually saw the Origin EULA in the run up to the BF3 release. Some folk had enough a lot earlier and some still deal with the numpties. No biggie; we each have a different level of crap we'll put up with before bailing.

EA will take notice of what you have to say when it believes you capable of affecting it's bottom line.... not before, and I'm sure vague threats from dissatisfied customers have them quaking in their boots. Yours must be the very first such missive they have ever received and I am sure that they have several teams of customer service reps just leaping into action to address the issues you raised. Perhaps.

Just boycott the buggers; eventually the rest of the world will catch up... or not...


...probably not.

hmmmm I have purchased a couple of games from them and had no problems what so ever, either with paypal or my cards, thanks for the heads up though, will try to buy elsewhere before attempting their crap

and people complain about Steam.

Sad thing is that most people are apparently well aware of EAs less than sterling reputation but still take it in stride.

Still, you have my sympathy; personally I try to stay away as far as possible from them as I can and it worked out well so far.

You would think EA would be thrilled to take your money, but be pissy if you tried to get a refund.