This is the most ridiculous customer service story I've ever heard. In short this guy was charged twice for Battlefield 3, tried to complain, and was blocked from playing the game.

I cannot believe that this happened, let alone that it's legal. Now I've heard a few ridiculous stories about people dealing with EA support, but could this have actually happened? Anyone have a worse story? I think the news should be widespread that these people are just downright assholes.

Wow. And apparently that double payment thing happened to a few people, you would have thought EA would be all over it. I smell lawsuit fodder.

@Inkerman said:

Wow. And apparently that double payment thing happened to a few people, you would have thought EA would be all over it. I smell lawsuit fodder.

Good. I hope Battlefield 3 tanks. And trust me, I have been a Battlefield fan throughout the years, but they have gone too far. Their crappy advertising in Battlefield 2142 and now with everything surround Battlefield 3. I really hope this guy gets some sort of reparations.

I had a poor experience with EA customer support the other day. I was trying to activate my Mass Effect 1 cd key so I could download the free Bring down the Sky dlc, but unfortunately all traces of ME 1 has all but vanished from the Bioware community site I was directed towards by google. So I contacted them and it took me to EA instant chat or whatever and I sit there and wait a while. After like 5 minutes, someone shows up and I explained my problem. Next thing he does is send me to the same page I found on google. I tell him I've already tried that and there isn't anyway to activate ME 1 on that website, then I wait about ten minutes for a response. Finally a message pops up and it says the basic "Thanks for contacting us....." stuff and he disconnects. Literally no help. Not that big of a deal, since I was just trying to download some shitty free Dlc, but right now my game money is split between either BF3 or Skyrim and that didn't help. Reading this may have been the final push I needed to wait for skyrim.

And people WONDER why some of us are sticking with Call of Duty for Christmas...

Man, I'm kind of glad that I got the console version. Well, as glad as I can be knowing I don't have the 64 players. :(

@Makoto_Mizuhara_Sakamoto said:

And people WONDER why some of us are sticking with Call of Duty for Christmas...

I still wonder that.

@Skytylz: That's crazy! Not you, but the support! I would refuse to ever purchase anything from a company again even if they made me wait for support, let alone actively ignored me. As for BF3 vs. Skyrim, that's your preference in games of course. But be warned that, literally, you could spend that $60 on BF3, be charged $120, and then receive nothing while convincing a deceitful, slimy company that their practices are perfectly acceptable. Or you could play what's shaping up to be one of the best games this year being published by a well respected company that self develops and self publishes great, if not exceptional, games. But I understand...decision, decisions :P

Yep, made a thread on shitty EA customer service regarding The Sims 3. Really bad customer service, I got way more help by a forum user than people who actually get paid to fix problems.

@Sogeman said:

@Makoto_Mizuhara_Sakamoto said:

And people WONDER why some of us are sticking with Call of Duty for Christmas...

I still wonder that.

Especially since CoD4 is still great on PC

@huntad: You still have to deal with Origin on 360 and PS3.

EA sucks.
I'm not even surprised or shocked when I hear these things, just think: yeah, bound to happen.

@TaliciaDragonsong: I am absolutely stunned a company can act like this with a real, tangible product. Personally I think the multiplayer is pretty fun, but I went in and sold my X360 copy of BF3 to Gamestop earlier today just because I read about the bullshit Origin users are suffering through. EA can suck it, I hope that copy gets sold and resold to potential "new" copy customers a thousand times.

@Makoto_Mizuhara_Sakamoto said:

And people WONDER why some of us are sticking with Call of Duty for Christmas...

Not really, whatever floats your boat man godspeed to you.

@DonPixel: Look at it this way- I won't have to deal with any shitty "Big Brother" walls put up by Activision. The only way they'll do that is if I torrent the PC version of MW3.

@MaddProdigy said:

@Skytylz: That's crazy! Not you, but the support! I would refuse to ever purchase anything from a company again even if they made me wait for support, let alone actively ignored me. As for BF3 vs. Skyrim, that's your preference in games of course. But be warned that, literally, you could spend that $60 on BF3, be charged $120, and then receive nothing while convincing a deceitful, slimy company that their practices are perfectly acceptable. Or you could play what's shaping up to be one of the best games this year being published by a well respected company that self develops and self publishes great, if not exceptional, games. But I understand...decision, decisions :P

I should buy Call of Duty?

I'm one of the few Origin defenders out there but even I know that this is some bullshit on EA's part.

@Makoto_Mizuhara_Sakamoto: You still stuck with yet another COD, as I said if you like it go for it.

Yeah, I've heard of a bunch of people being doublecharged (once when they preordered, once when the game released). 
 
 
Pretty fucked. If EA's trying to take down Valve, this isn't the way to do it. I've only ever heard people say good things about Valve's customer service, and the handful of times I've dealt with them it's been quick and painless.

Try to defend Origin now...idiots.

Someone actually bought BF3 from Origin? Just use Direct2Download next time, alot cheaper and their customer service is top notch.

EA IS THE DEVIL AND THEY SHOULD BE SHUNNED FOR ALL ETERNITY! LONG LIVE CTHULHU!

@WickedCobra03 said:

@Inkerman said:

Wow. And apparently that double payment thing happened to a few people, you would have thought EA would be all over it. I smell lawsuit fodder.

Good. I hope Battlefield 3 tanks. And trust me, I have been a Battlefield fan throughout the years, but they have gone too far. Their crappy advertising in Battlefield 2142 and now with everything surround Battlefield 3. I really hope this guy gets some sort of reparations.

Bit of a dumb time to say that when news about how well Battlefield has sold came out a few days ago.

@Makoto_Mizuhara_Sakamoto said:

And people WONDER why some of us are sticking with Call of Duty for Christmas...

Yeah I do wonder that, but hey if you like playing the same game with more gimmicks and flashy unbalanced kill streaks every year so be it.

Man, EA was starting to get their shit together again too. I feel shitty for DICE. Hopefully people don't let this get in the way of supporting the developer. They made an awesome game and are worth the support, but it sucks that you have to go through shit like this to even try to support them.

I'm still of the opinion that the guy got what he deserved. However frustrated you are, you don't tell another person to fuck off and shove something up their ass. That's just not right. Anyone who would say that to someone else deserves to get screwed over. Anyone with two brain cells knows that is only going to make things worse, and evidently it did make things worse. Yeah, the customer service he received sucked, but that's no excuse to act like a complete dick. He should have hung up and contacted his bank and his country's trading standards authority. Shouting at the guy was always a dick move, and now if he does contact other people about it, EA are just going to say that he verbally abused their staff and then this guy hasn't got a leg to stand on.

@MattyFTM said:

I'm still of the opinion that the guy got what he deserved. However frustrated you are, you don't tell another person to fuck off and shove something up their ass. That's just not right. Anyone who would say that to someone else deserves to get screwed over. Anyone with two brain cells knows that is only going to make things worse, and evidently it did make things worse. Yeah, the customer service he received sucked, but that's no excuse to act like a complete dick. He should have hung up and contacted his bank and his country's trading standards authority. Shouting at the guy was always a dick move, and now if he does contact other people about it, EA are just going to say that he verbally abused their staff and then this guy hasn't got a leg to stand on.

EDIT: Basically said this.

Had the guy been more diplomatic and polite ("look, I know it sounds weird, but I'd really appreciate it if you'd look into this for me, I bought your product and I'm looking for some help with my account", etc) the supervisor would have realized that he wasn't in a yelling contest and would have brought himself to the same level as this gentleman, probably culminating in him getting his problem fixed. When dealing with customers, I will always go the extra mile for a friendly customer no matter how stupid their problem sounds. If they're an asshole all I want to do it shut them down as fast as possible.

Someone has been on reddit.

As others have said, I am pretty sure the person that posted this did nothing calmly. He called the number, ranting and raving and they probably hung up after the third time they were told to fuck themselves. I have yet to meet a company that didn't eventually do me right if I approach them, calmly (assuming I have a genuine, uncontestable complaint). How I rate their service is always based on how long it takes them to fix the problem and how many people I have to go through to get it done. Swearing at the poor customer service guy just makes you an asshole and, in my book, means you don't deserve to get your money back.

Why is everybody assuming what this guy wrote is true? And yes i know people have had this problem already with the double payment. But he could just be a douechbag who hates origin for no good reason and is trying to make the double payment problem seem like it is happening to more people then it actually is.(And sorry for my bad english)

@niko555 said:

Why is everybody assuming what this guy wrote is true? And yes i know people have had this problem already with the double payment. But he could just be a douechbag who hates origin for no good reason and is trying to make the double payment problem seem like it is happening to more people then it actually is.(And sorry for my bad english)

Whether the story is true or not, the guy involved is clearly a douche bag. Even if it is 100% true, all he did in my eyes is make himself look like an idiot child that doesnt know how to communicate with other humans in a rational manner.

Weird. I've been in contact with EA support multiple times, and every time they resolved my problems without a fuzz. First time was with my Dragon Age 2 order not going right (didn't get the code for the DLC), after which they promptly activated all the extra content I should have gotten. Another time was with the free Mass Effect 2 download. Couldn't find a code to download it anywhere then, either, but after a couple minutes they made sure I could download it.

I'm not trying to excuse this sort of behaviour, though. If this is what seriously happened to the guy, I find it pretty appaling treatment of a customer. But I really don't believe that everyone who's ever contacted EA support had a bad experience with them. At least, no more than with any other company.

Taken from the /r/gaming Reddit circlejerk, which was reposted from 4chan (4CHAN) with little to no evidence.

I think that speaks for itself.

@Kazona said:

Weird. I've been in contact with EA support multiple times, and every time they resolved my problems without a fuzz. First time was with my Dragon Age 2 order not going right (didn't get the code for the DLC), after which they promptly activated all the extra content I should have gotten. Another time was with the free Mass Effect 2 download. Couldn't find a code to download it anywhere then, either, but after a couple minutes they made sure I could download it.

I'm not trying to excuse this sort of behaviour, though. If this is what seriously happened to the guy, I find it pretty appaling treatment of a customer. But I really don't believe that everyone who's ever contacted EA support had a bad experience with them. At least, no more than with any other company.

Asshole customers get treated like assholes. 10 bucks says that when the customer service person picked up, the first thing guy said (if this isnt all made up) was "You fucking assholes fucking double fucking charged me for fucking battlefield fucking 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" At which point, when the customer service person freaked out about having their ears blown out, they hung up.

I hate EA and won't touch Origin, but this story reaks of utter bullshit, whether it is made up or not.

@DrPockets000 said:

@MattyFTM said:

I'm still of the opinion that the guy got what he deserved. However frustrated you are, you don't tell another person to fuck off and shove something up their ass. That's just not right. Anyone who would say that to someone else deserves to get screwed over. Anyone with two brain cells knows that is only going to make things worse, and evidently it did make things worse. Yeah, the customer service he received sucked, but that's no excuse to act like a complete dick. He should have hung up and contacted his bank and his country's trading standards authority. Shouting at the guy was always a dick move, and now if he does contact other people about it, EA are just going to say that he verbally abused their staff and then this guy hasn't got a leg to stand on.

EDIT: Basically said this.

Had the guy been more diplomatic and polite ("look, I know it sounds weird, but I'd really appreciate it if you'd look into this for me, I bought your product and I'm looking for some help with my account", etc) the supervisor would have realized that he wasn't in a yelling contest and would have brought himself to the same level as this gentleman, probably culminating in him getting his problem fixed. When dealing with customers, I will always go the extra mile for a friendly customer no matter how stupid their problem sounds. If they're an asshole all I want to do it shut them down as fast as possible.

Pretty much this.

Do note that we're not saying the the service he received didn't suck, but he did nothing to help himself.

@Makoto_Mizuhara_Sakamoto said:

And people WONDER why some of us are sticking with Call of Duty for Christmas...

I still wonder that.

@WickedCobra03 said:

@Inkerman said:

Wow. And apparently that double payment thing happened to a few people, you would have thought EA would be all over it. I smell lawsuit fodder.

Good. I hope Battlefield 3 tanks. And trust me, I have been a Battlefield fan throughout the years, but they have gone too far. Their crappy advertising in Battlefield 2142 and now with everything surround Battlefield 3. I really hope this guy gets some sort of reparations.

This stuff bums me out and I see it on a regular basis. DICE and their game gets so much shit when it is EA that is fucking up all the time.

A friend of mine paid for BF3 about a week ago, and had been playing quite a lot since he bought it. Then yesterday when he came home, he found that he had been banned for "fraudulent activities" and that his copy of BF3 was completely gone from his origin account. Support didn't tell him anything, and after spending almost two hours talking to them, he at least got a refund, but no one would tell him why the hell they would ban him.
 
So yes, I am of the opinion that EA is pretty fucking bad, and their customer support is utter shit, and I've experienced it myself on several occasions.

@Willin said:

I'm one of the few Origin defenders out there but even I know that this is some bullshit on EA's part.

What tragic event must occur so one becomes an Origin defender...

I work as IT Support myself and have to put up with some of our own guys phoning in shouting and screaming because they cant do something on their computer or think we have randomly cut their functionality. Our policy and im sure its the same everywhere is, if the customer is abusive to you they get one warning and then you can tell them you are going to hang up, ive had to do it a few times myself and im sure ill have to do it again sometime in the future.

It costs nothing to be polite and you can get to the root of any problem much faster if you explain yourself clearly and show a little respect to the person trying to help you with your problem, when you start throwing blame around and screaming at that person you instantly loose any goodwill you may have received and you then become a problem customer. Id have hung up on him too, they say the customer is always right but in my experiance that is rarely the case.

@MattyFTM: Quite true! But considering I've heard stories similar to this one, I'll take this particular one at face value and assume he spent at least 1 hour being "calm", as he stated. According to the story, he didn't get angry until after the third time when it was obvious they were simply ignoring him. Yes, perhaps calling them up and just going off was a little inappropriate. But on the other hand, anyone who just ignores a paying customer with a legitimate complain deserves whatever obscenities can be thrown their way. That's what shocked me most when I first read the story, the fact that certain members of the support team obviously have active disdain for customers.

If he had just called up and the first thing out of his mouth was, "Fix my fucking game you idiots" maybe EA would have a leg to stand on. But even then, and I'm sorry for them, they are customer support. They should fix the problem, no matter the language being used. If they can't handle the wording of a sentence being a little too harsh they should find a different line of work. Having your feelings hurt is NO excuse to take $120 dollars of someone's money and then ignore them.

@DrPockets000: Relates to your comment as well.

Won't solve customer service problems but just in case somebody missed it: Playing BF3 on PC with Origin removed.

" This release is dedicated to our fans worldwide who bought this game on legal way and don't want to install the trojan from Electronic Arts to play online."

And let's be honest, considering the overly greedy approach EA is taking to... everything, I'm biased to consider a story like this true.

I mean for fucks sake, give me one reason why I should even think about EA doing something reasonable. They demand to put a fucking trojan (Origin) on your PC if you want to play their games. A fucking trojan. They don't care how they get the money, if they get a huge chunk by selling personal user data to advertisers etc., then they will do that. If they think they may just so have the slightest chance of getting away with the most ridiculous crap, then they will do that (Origin).

EA has its reputation for a reason. For a goddamn well deserved reason.

I've had no problems with Origin so this doesn't concern me at all. I do know a guy who had a similar problem though, they charged him twice for something like C&C4 or some other terrible game. He called in and got his money back and everything. Oh well, less angry people to play with in BF3 is a good thing

That story is bullshit.

That's why I bought a physical copy 
 
Who would pay for a preorder before receiving the game anyway? I'm not defending their terrible support in any way, but this has always baffled me.

I have no problem with Origin, but customer service is key when your service includes the ability to lock people out of purchased services.

@Makoto_Mizuhara_Sakamoto: Not really. How can I get double charged by origin when I bought the game retail?

@Jack268: Because they just want the billing part over and done with? That's what I like about some services, I'd rather pay and know that I have the money spent and not have to mentally subtract that amount.