EA, maybe lied about Sim City refunds. .

I don't even know if I want to report on this. But, apparently, EA "officially," said, that you can get a refund from that new Sim City.

This guy went on the EA customer service chat, and they said no. The guy brought up the article in question, and they still refused. [Err!, the customer service dude was probably told to refuse these transactions.] Do with this what you will. Big : (

[Full Truth: I found this in a Polygon thread, that guy brought it up first. ~ Also, I don't have a gaming PC. Even if I did I wouldn't know what to do with it, but I bet PC gaming is fun.]

[Edit: I found this Kotaku article:

Lately, a rumor has spread about how EA might ban users who request for refunds on SimCity. It's bunk. This was a widely-posted chat, in which a sales rep supposedly tells someone that if they tried to dispute the refund claim on SimCity through their bank, they'd get banned on Origin. Naturally, the image scared folks.

I'm thinking that this guy's order might have been digital or something. So,. well there's that. Carry on.

Amazon giving returns has nothing to do with EA giving them or not.

Technically, that says you can "request a refund." It doesn't say you will be given one.

Also, I don't really have a whole lot of remorse for these people. Obviously, the servers should be working and EA absolutely shit the bed on this but...STOP PRE-ORDERING GAMES. It's that simple. You had to wait less than a day to figure out the servers were completely fucked.

All of this could've been solved if you people didn't preorder it and waited a week to see how it is.

Even Jeff and other gaming journalists have been saying to stop pre-ordering shit unless you know 100% what it's going to be. Waiting a couple days wouldn't kill you. Sadly, you bought a license and not a game, and they don't have to refund you.

Seriously. For fuck sake, people.

What the hell is wrong with you people? The game is broken and it's not the consumer's fault for pre-ordering. All complaints about this are completely justified. The expectation should not be that a product won't work, that's just insane. If I buy something, it should work as soon as I get it. If it doesn't the company should offer a refund.

I love the mentality that one shouldn't complain about a game because they pre-ordered it and that the joke should be on them for daring to show loyalty to something.

You're probably just mad because you missed out on preordering.

@cameron: I think what they are implying is that there is a conflict of interest because EA doesn't have to care about the game working on lunch day because so many people have pre-ordered. I think the idea is that EA doesn't have to make a good or even working Simcity game, because have already sold a ton of copies through the pre-order.

Which is of course, bullshit. EA cares very much that Simcity doesn't work. This is damning their image even among the most patient gamers.

That picture is being pushed everywhere. Some people seem to forget that get could very easily be edited. It could very well be true, but I'm going to need more evidence than that.

Everytime i for some reason need to buy a game at retail and am also for some reason at an EB games or such (rarely thank fuck), the asshole behind the counter gives the ridiculous preorder sales pitch in the happiest manner possible. To which i look at them like they just killed my mother and tell them preordering is stupid. To which they look at me completely perplexed, like it's not a response they ever get.

The nail in the coffin for me EVER considering a preorder was when gamestop went into receivership here in Australia and due to a legal loop hole they weren't required to refund their preorders of Diablo 3 which came out like the day after.

There is nothing good or necessary about preordering a game in this day and age, and it just serves as an excuse for the publishers to exclude content that should be in the regular release.

The expectation is that it won't work. That's the reality we now live with.

Honestly, what should EA care once they have your money? We see time and time again nobody learns from this. Not EA certainly, and not most customers. EA will go bankrupt before anything changes.

Preorders = guaranteed money = not worried about our product really

Why is it that people could bitch about any other game before this that had to be always online, but now its "HA serves you right for preordering, you have no right to talk because blah blah".

Because we are wise to the game now?

This man speaks the truth.

Sorry if this posts twice, I wrote something and it said it was posted, but it isn't showing up. Anyway, I just don't know how anyone could think that. The game now has a one-star review on Amazon and that is unlikely to ever change, they would need 1000 five-star reviews just to get to anything near respectable at this point. A bad user score on Metacritic might not mean anything, but a bad score on Amazon does. That's what parents will use to buy games for their kids in December and they sure as hell aren't going to buy the game with a one-star or a two-star average. EA has to care about this.

Too late! Just pre-ordered Heart of the Swarm! Even with their always online requirement!

I'm a rebel.

That's really terrible, And they can ban your account for disputing a charge? That's super messed up. EA has been making some serious missteps with this entire process, I really want them to turn it around and return to being the EA from a few years back.

@hangedtoaster: No-no they said on Twitter, that they won't ban your account. I don't what that customer service rep was told, by superiors. But ah, hm.

@hangedtoaster:

I totally agree with you and that is really really terrible. I guess this is how it goes with big companies. They really really tend to milk out the masses on everything.

I do agree with people saying that nobody should EVER preorder or generally buy from EA but that's a different story.

EA threatening to ban customers for requesting a refund should be punished no matter how you look at it.

Personally the only reason I would think to tell people don't preorder is two fold: first its helpful to them, this is going to keep happening so you should really stop preordering any game. And second I'm getting sick of hearing people complain about this kind of thing. Its just...man I'm sorry you spent your money and feel like you didn't get its worth but its just hard to care anymore unless they actively harm you.

@cameron: I agree with you that it should work like that but this is not the world we live in.