EA SUCKS. Everything about EA sucks.

[TheMailMan78]

Ok first off let me start by saying I pretty much value my own decisions. By that I mean I don't expect sympathy when I make bad decisions. You have seen me take on countless threads because people made piss poor decisions. Well I made one myself by buying Battlefront two years ago. I tried like hell to get a refund and kept getting "disconnected" from the chat.

Well today in one last attempt I tried to get a refund on a game I only played 12 hours on in two years. Why? Because the servers were dead. DLC was also dead. The games a dud. Today I finally got my refund.......or so I thought.

Here is where I thought EA were stand up guys......

Erick: Thanks for contacting EA Customer Experience, my name is Erick. How may I assist you today?
you: I bought Battlefront a while back for 80 bucks. I have a grand total of 12 hours in it stretching over a year. The game NEVER has any players and just plain sucks honestly. I know its well past my refund period but honestly its just taking up space on my HD.
Erick: i see dont worry i can refund that for you
Erick: just give me the Invoice number and ill do it right away
you: Where do I find that?
Erick: in your email my friend.. if you bought the game in origin they will send you an invoice number. but if you
you: hold on let me look
Erick: arlight ill just be right here
you: Order Number: 100XXXXXXXXX
Erick: Thank you
Erick: i was able to find the game you purchased would you like me to refund it now?
you: yes please.
Erick: alright
Erick: Done! game refunded my friend would there be anything else that i can help you with
you: Was it added back to my paypal or did I get EA credit?
Erick: yes it will take 1-3 days for that to happen
Erick: would there be anything else i can help you with
you: paypal or EA credit?
Erick: Paypal
you: Awesome! Thank you.
Erick: your welcome
you: That's all I needed.
Erick: thank you for contacting Ea, End the chat session by clicking on the end chat button. Have a Great Day!
Erick: Cheers!
Erick: End the chat session by clicking on the end chat button. Have a Great Day!

Ok so next thing I know is I get an email saying something went wrong with my refund.....DAFAQ?

Hello refused Themailman78,

It seems we’ve hit a snag in our attempts to process your recent refund request. This is likely due to either an issue with your payment method, or an unexpected technical error on our end. Either way, we’d like to help you get your money back.
Please contact Origin Help as soon as you have a moment, and one of our agents will make sure your request gets into the queue.You may also want to check with payment method to make sure all your contact information is up-to-date.

Erick D.
EA Help


So contacted them again. Next I meet up with this joker named "Patrick John" which I swear this guy is a Nigerian Prince.

Patrick John: Thanks for contacting EA Customer Experience, my name is Patrick. How may I assist you today?
you: I just got a refund but it says there was an error.
you: Order #: 100XXXXXXXXX
you: I spoke to Erik
Patrick John: Hi there, I would love to help you with that , Before we proceed may I have your first and last name, as well as the email linked to your origin account?
you: XXXXXXXXXXX.com My name is XXXX XXXXXXX
Patrick John: Nice to meet you XXXX, let me just check it for yu.
Patrick John: you*
you: no problem.
Patrick John: let me just check it, and please stay on chat,
Patrick John: So XXX, I'm sorry. but to be honest with you, I think there might be a confusion with you and the previous adviser.
you: Excuse me?
Patrick John: He made a mistake on refunding the game, it will automatically fail because this game was bought wayback 2015 and we cant refund that game which you have played already.
you: 12 hours man. That's all I got out of it and I stopped playing because the servers were dead.
you: What kind of circus are you guys running over there?
Patrick John: I'm being honest with you, I talked to that agent , and he made a mistake.
you: Dude read the transcript. I was pretty clear up front the situation.
Patrick John: Yes, I did read it. and he did make a mistake so I apologize for that. what I will do is I will file a case that he mishandled your concern.
you: Well I would rather have a refund on the broken game you sold me instead. If not I'm gonna post this conversation all over every tech enthusiast site I am a member of. Ill also never buy a EA game again which will suck but, I am 39 years old and sick of being screwed over by gaming publishers. Your call.
you: I RARELY ask for refunds. I take my licks and even defend you guys but, this? This is unacceptable.
Patrick John: I really understand where you are coming from, and I apologise for everything.
you: Ok then I just want to be clear. I was sold a dud of a game. Promised a refund then I am denied the refund and your willing to compensate me by reprimanding bad behavior from a fellow co-worker?
you: Seems legit.
Patrick John: I see, so just to give you a heads up, the customer did tried to refund it, and it will take 5-10working days, however it failed, and its because the game was purchased wayback 2015,
Patrick John: 2 years.
you: And?
Patrick John: and heres the link where you can see the refund faqs
Patrick John: https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/origin/origin/what-s-the-great-games-guarantee
Patrick John: Check the Link.
you: The game never had servers. I kept hoping it would get better with patches. Like I said I gave it TONS of chances.
you: Fair enough. You just lost a paying customers and this will be all over every site I am a member of.
you: I'm to old for crappy service.
you: Good Day Sir.

So as you can see I'm slightly pissed and want this to be a warning to anyone who buys an EA game in the future. They don't back their games and will screw you over if given a chance and then attempt to make it seem like they were on the up n' up. Well sadly I wont be buying anymore EA games. Also before you chime in and say "you waited two years" I didn't. I tried several times and I'm pissed because they admitted they made a mistake and then reneged on the agreement. Share this all over.

 

[erocker]

U mad?

 

[TheMailMan78]

U mad?

lolololol I IZ!

 

[Toothless]

Every company I've worked for backed their word if an agent messed up. EA isn't going to miss 80 bucks and all that should've happened is "this is a one time courtesy refund, we cannot do it again, sorry for the misinformation."

Makes me iffy if I want to get BF1 now.

 

[erocker]

Initially giving a refund, then taking it away is pretty low.

 

[mad1394]

Right. So EA will not refund a game I bought 2 years ago.
Thank you for the insight.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Right. So EA will not refund a game I bought 2 years ago.
Thank you for the insight.

Read papo. Read.

 

[mad1394]

Read papo. Read.

Thanks but I would rather wait for the movie.

 

[erocker]

Btw, thread will most likely be closed at an indeterminate time... Soon. We all know where this is headed.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Thanks but I would rather wait for the movie.

Then you shouldn't chime in to things you don't understand. Just sayin.

 

[qubit]

I feel for you mm. Looks like they just went into droid mode and went according to the standard flowchart which would correctly deny a refund in normal circumstances instead of legitimately processing an exception.

Situations like this can be investigated by management and refunded, just needing a referral from the front line staff. Yeah, that was shit customer service all right. EA know there's a problem with the servers or number of players on them, but continue to sell the game in this state, which is pretty low.

All I can suggest is that with any game from any company, if it doesn't behave properly when you buy it, just get that refund asap and don't give it a second chance.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

I always thought the rule of thumb was, if you can't buy it on Steam, or at least get the equivalent of Steam's play it less than 2 hrs and refund it for any reason, you're taking your chances.

In my honest opinion, that game was definitely not worth it from the get go. There were obvious signs it was very shallow on content, which is why no one wanted to play it very long.

The only good thing that's come from them screwing up that game is they finally listened and are fixing most of the deficiencies in that game with the next one, which will even have a campaign.

I'm sure that's little consolation to those whom got screwed buying the first, but like you said, you have to be careful with your choices, and that game had lots of red flags.

The thing I totally agree on though is that they should honor an employee's word if a refund is promised and attempted. You clearly told him you knew it was past the refund period, and he attempted it anyway, yet being past refund date was their main excuse after the fact. If they were interested in repeat customers, they'd own up to such mistakes, and fulfill the promise.

I had a similar occurrence with DirecTV Now recently. Someone in the DTV North Carolina call center assured me I could still get their $60 plan for $35, but in checking the promo had ended 4 months prior. It's actually more often the case that customer service is shady, than responsible. Very rarely do you see otherwise.

If I were you MailMan I'd call them back and ask if you can at least get a serious discount on the upcoming Battlefront II, because that one actually looks worth playing. Mention your stress with the denied refund promise, and that if they can totally change BF2 based on complaints of BF1, they ought to show that they care about those whom got screwed over on the last one. Also mention that their customer service employees aren't trained consistently, and that the customer shouldn't have to bear the brunt of a denied promise.

If all that fails and you still want to boycott them, report them to the CA.

 

[qubit]

The thing I totally agree on though is that they should honor an employee's word if a refund is promised and attempted. You clearly told him you knew it was past the refund period, and he attempted it anyway, yet being past refund date was their main excuse after the fact. If they were interested in repeat customers, they'd own up to such mistakes, and fulfill the promise.

The thing is, I'm sure the customer droid he spoke to can't physically do the refund, because Computer Says No, hence he should have just referred it up the food chain to authorise that refund and I bet he knew it. There's no excuse for this treatment of their customers. Shambolic.

This seriously contrasts with the superb customer service I had a couple of days ago getting my faulty PS4 controller (USB port loose and poor contact) replaced under warranty. It came with the PS4 Pro so they gave me a refund worth more than the price of a new controller and told me to keep the difference. On top of that, they didn't even want the faulty controller back! I now have a lovely red replacement controller.

I was put on hold a couple of times, presumably so that the customer service agent could speak to management to authorize this. This is how you do customer service and surprise surprise I spend lots of money at Amazon and they're my go-to place for buying anything online.

 

[infrared]

Wow, that's really crappy of them. I'd understand a straight up no, but to agree to refund and then back out isn't fair.

And this REALLY bugs me..

Patrick John: Yes, I did read it. and he did make a mistake so I apologize for that. what I will do is I will file a case that he mishandled your concern.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

The thing is, I'm sure the customer droid he spoke to can't physically do the refund, because Computer Says No, hence he should have just referred it up the food chain to authorise that refund and I bet he knew it. There's no excuse for this treatment of their customers. Shambolic.

Yeah I totally understand a lot of companies have their policies, promos, etc, hardcoded in their database, but like I said, they could have at least offered him a 40 pound credit on his next purchase. They've already indirectly admitted by totally changing the formula with BF2 that they screwed up the first, yet here they are back at square one screwing over those whom bought BF1.

And if you're going to hardcode your financial policies into your database, you better be sure the employees that work with it are trained properly. This one obviously wasn't, so all the more reason to compensate him somehow, just based on the stress they put him through.

Even the horribly run (mostly because AT&T owns them) DirecTV Now offered me a $70 credit just for telling the chat gal I was promised the $60 plan for $35. I didn't even have the name or ID of the agent that made the promise, and I'm not even a paying customer yet. I've only been on the trial period so far.

I think it's safe to say that most PC players agree that EA sucks. Not sure about console gamers, but it's hard to mistake how PC players feel about them.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I've never gotten a refund from EA. I did get a free game from Dark Spore servers getting closed but that's it.

I believe credit cards (paypal too) will only allow reimbursement for charges about 30 days old, otherwise they have to do a credit. Only people high up the totem pole can authorize a transfer of funds to a customer in that sort of scenario, no chat monkey will.

And seriously, you're not getting a refund. The purchase was way too long ago. You probably could have in the first 30 days, not two years later.

 

[Vya Domus]

Since when did we forgot EA is all about profit ? Like every other publisher. No point in threatening them. I am pretty sure they know well enough people hate their shady tactics in general but since the same very people still buy their games they can't be bothered. Of course they screwed up with the support but they don't have to make up for it , legally speaking.

 

[qubit]

Yeah I totally understand a lot of companies have their policies, promos, etc, hardcoded in their database, but like I said, they could have at least offered him a 40 pound credit on his next purchase. They've already indirectly admitted by totally changing the formula with BF2 that they screwed up the first, yet here they are back at square one screwing over those whom bought BF1.

And if you're going to hardcode your financial policies into your database, you better be sure the employees that work with it are trained properly. This one obviously wasn't, so all the more reason to compensate him somehow, just based on the stress they put him through.

Well yeah, whatever form of compensation they could have offered, they should have just done it and kept him happy. Regardless though, for an exception situation like this it should have simply been referred to a manager by the droid.

@FordGT90Concept I do like chat monkey.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

The only thing you could maybe do is ask for a free game on Origin. They might take you up on that offer. Mind you it will be a limitied number of titles that often only retail for $15 or less.

 

[natr0n]

U mad?

 

[5DVX0130]

Yes, the rep made a mistake. Something went wrong, and they could have handled it better.
Same could be said for how you handled the situation.

That said…
The refund policy is clear.
You had plenty of time, and two years is way past anything reasonable.
You got twelve hours out of it. Which at 5$/hour means you got 60$ worth of entertainment out of it.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

...since the same very people still buy their games they can't be bothered.

Well at least they were bothered enough by what people complained about BF1, to make many much needed changes with the next one. I'm sure that was more out of panic and lost sales on BF1, than caring about customers though. They clearly have dollar sign retinas.

 

[Vya Domus]

Well at least they were bothered enough by what people complained about BF1, to make many much needed changes with the next one. I'm sure that was more out of panic and lost sales on BF1, than caring about customers though. They clearly have dollar sign retinas.

You're right , but only when the sign is large enough. With these little things unfortunately, nah.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Honestly I wasn't expecting a refund until they said they would give me one......then I ya know.......I kinda expected it. The reaction they gave was a dick move. If I would have gotten a hard "no" to begin with that would have been a different story. Also I have been trying for a refund since 2015.

 

[Crap Daddy]

So what happened with Erick?