EA has reached a new level of douchebaggery.

I managed to talk a few my friends into doing the right thing and sitting on their Star Wars: The Old Republic account by not activating them until a month or so down the road when (hopefully) many of the launch bugs will be done away with. Love or hate the game, it's sound advice any MMO vet would give a good friend.

Anyways.... guess what my bud showed me today?

That's right folks. EA is using up his free 30 day time even tho he hasn't activated his account yet. I've never seen a gaming company every try to pull this shit in my life and I'm appalled by it. No wonder EA wants a "you can't sue clause" because this will generate one doozy of a class action if word gets around. He said he even tried calling EA customer support at 650-628-4322 and they told him EA doesn't handle SW:TOR billing support and gave him 855-467-9867 to call in order to reach Bioware directly. It's a dead line asking people to call back later.

Good luck to those of you getting screwed out of time you're entitled to.

So, you're telling me that if I or anyone buy this game next month or later, we'd all be SOL and wouldn't get the free month advertised on the package?

Wait, how does it even know that he owns the game if he didn't even register it? Something's not right here.

That doesn't even make sense

@SlasherMan: Yeah this seems really weird. Maybe an error?

Money isn't earned, it's taken. Wake up and smell the something something.

@SlasherMan said:

So, you're telling me that if I or anyone buy this game next month or later, we'd all be SOL and wouldn't get the free month advertised on the package?

Wait, how does it even know that he owns the game if he didn't even register it? Something's not right here.

I think they installed it and linked it to their profile, but didn't enter subscription information/use a game time card (which is required to play).

Was he in the beta?

How could the system know how many days of game time he has left if he didn't activate the account? Something isn't right here at all.

@TheHT said:

@SlasherMan said:

So, you're telling me that if I or anyone buy this game next month or later, we'd all be SOL and wouldn't get the free month advertised on the package?

Wait, how does it even know that he owns the game if he didn't even register it? Something's not right here.

I think they installed it and linked it to their profile, but didn't enter subscription information/use a game time card (which is required to play).

But if they linked it, that means the game was activated. Which makes all of this a non-issue, since all MMOs start the countdown the moment you activate/link the game on an account.

This is bullshit as I haven't entered my code yet and it doesn't even allow me to see my "Subscription"

@SlasherMan: Yeah, pretty much.

@SlasherMan said:

But if they linked it, that means the game was activated. Which makes all of this a non-issue, since all MMOs start the countdown the moment you activate/link the game on an account.

This is exactly right. All MMO's do this. If the account wasn't activated, he couldn't have entered in any of his details.

It'd be great if MMO's only charged you for time spent PLAYING, but that's just now how it works.

People throw money at things but don't read anything.

If he can't even access the game because he hasn't entered a CC or a time card, then it is indeed bullshit that they are already counting down his free time.

@Jimbo said:

If he can't even access the game because he hasn't entered a CC or a time card, then it is indeed bullshit that they are already counting down his free time.

Don't enter your code until you can do all the steps. It says quite clearly that you need to set up a payment method

I was loosing days while I downloaded the game on my slow ass internet connection. I didnt even have the game and they where taking my "free" 30 days. Its pretty god damned slimy.

@SlasherMan: Game is registered, but does not have an active subscription, no billing info entered, and the account is not active. The game will also not let him log in. You do the math.

@SlasherMan: Game is registered, but does not have an active subscription, and the account is not active. You do the math.

@Buzzkill said:

@SlasherMan: Game is registered, but does not have an active subscription, and the account is not active. You do the math.

If the game's registered, then it's been activated, which makes all of this is a non-issue and your claims misleading. The account doesn't need to have an active subscription for it to be considered active, it only needs to have subscription time on it. The moment the game got registered, the account got the 30 days and started counting down. That's how all MMOs work.

Nothing to see here folks.

I'll never be surprised by anything EA does these days.

Sooo... same as every other MMO? When you put in your gamecode your free time starts. That's it. Same as every other MMO. You seem to have this hate thing for EA and this game, first you say TOR authenticators are a way for EA to money grub, now this?

I'll update this when I hear if he got his refund or not, but my roommate's washing his hands of the matter because of this. We both feel it's entirely unreasonable for him to be burning free time simply for registering his retail code but not entering any billing info or activating his account because he doesn't want to play for a few months.

My original statement still stands. EA Douchebaggery indeed.

@Buzzkill: But he did activate his account.

ENTERING YOUR CODE = ACTIVATING YOUR ACCOUNT. WOW DOES IT EXACTLY THE SAME WAY

You have completely disregarded the logical explanation as to why this is the case and has been for all mmo's.

BOLD TEXT FOR "LALALA I CANT HEAR YOU."

@Bocam said:

@Jimbo said:

If he can't even access the game because he hasn't entered a CC or a time card, then it is indeed bullshit that they are already counting down his free time.

Don't enter your code until you can do all the steps. It says quite clearly that you need to set up a payment method

And that in itself is bullshit. The game should not be counting down game time while his account is currently in a status where the game cannot be played. They can't say you have '30 days of game time', start counting it down and still not let you into the game. Well... they can, clearly, because they're cunts, but they shouldn't.

If the game requires a payment method to be set up before you can play it -which again, makes a mockery of the so-called 'free game time' included with the game purchase, but whatevs- then doing so should be a pre-requisite for 'activating' the game in the first place.

Who the hell buys a game right when it comes out just to decide they'll play it in a few months? Seems weird to me.

Also looks like this is bull, the account was registered, so there's really no issue here.

Pretty retarded to buy a game just to let it sit. But that's certainly their own business.

I was under the impression too that a Payment method had to be selected for me to play/for days to be counted. The days counted but unless I chose my Payment method I couldn't play. So I chose a method, and now I'm playing.

I'm not even mad at them, because for me this is a matter of days lost, and thats nothing to me.

Subtle troll ended up being obvious. Thanks for the chuckle OP.

This reminds me of the tight ass rules Blizzard has with free trial stuff and SCII.

Eh.

@Buzzkill: Contact the better business bureau.

shouldn't have registered to EA yet.

You've done nothing but complain about this game, but you spent 60 dollars on it?  And then call people 'sheeple'.
 
Grow up dude.

@Brodehouse said:

You've done nothing but complain about this game, but you spent 60 dollars on it? And then call people 'sheeple'. Grow up dude.

I didn't spend a dime lol. Anyways here's an update. EA customer support agrees with him the time shouldn't be ticking down but keeps giving the same bullshit run around of you have to contact bioware directly at 855 467 9867 but it's a pre-recording asking people to call back later.

As for the posters who are just chiming in to personally attack me, what a wonderful community you guys are. You make Gamespot look like angels lol.

Yo friend done goofed OP. Forgive me for saying this, but you do look a tad foolish right now.

Oh my god man stop being so pointlessly mean to EA.

I mean with their track record for excellence its clearly entirely your friends fault.

EA would never do something with the goal of reducing the amount of days it will be before you have to give them more money, same way that they would never lie about monthly fees being necessary in the first place.

For fucks sake, it almost as if you think a customer should have basic rights.

@coakroach: @Buzzkill: So do you guys not care that every single MMO in existence does it this way and it's just a standard in MMOs? Or are you just in "WE HATE EA CAUSE THEY ARE THE DEVIL!!!" mode? And it's not even a bad standard, if you activate your game, the clock ticks. Simple as that.

@CL60: I sure don't. A shitty practice is a shitty practice, nomatter how many people are doing it.

Edit: Reads a couple posts in the thread.... oh, so it's not even a shitty practice. The other companies still don't matter, though.

Your friend entered his code. That was his mistake. Otherwise all of the boxes sitting on retail shelves would be losing their game time, and that wouldn't make a lick of sense.

@CL60 said:

@coakroach: @Buzzkill: So do you guys not care that every single MMO in existence does it this way and it's just a standard in MMOs? Or are you just in "WE HATE EA CAUSE THEY ARE THE DEVIL!!!" mode? And it's not even a bad standard, if you activate your game, the clock ticks. Simple as that.

My understanding is that in order to start getting access to the game you must pay for a subscription through either a credit card or a game card.

Since he hadn't done that he didn't have access to the game, but his free 30 days that come with his copy still ticked down even though he still had no access to it.

Of course this is all based on what Buzzkill has stated, and so could be totally erroneous for all I know, but considering EA's appalling track record in terms of doing right by its customers or even its employees I dont find it hard to believe.

A shitty business practice is a shitty business practice no matter how many other people are doing it.

Buzzkill you dumb.

Poor grammar was done on purpose, I apologize.

@MikkaQ said:

Who the hell buys a game right when it comes out just to decide they'll play it in a few months? Seems weird to me.

Also looks like this is bull, the account was registered, so there's really no issue here.

My roommate bought the game before launch because he wanted the pre-order items and wants to support SW:TOR. He's also smart enough to listen to his friends and wait for a month until the Bioware works the bugs out of it's launch. He does not want to suffer through launch problems because it might turn him off to the game permanently, so he decided to wait a month before jumping in. Now EA is screwing him out of his free time that is a cost included in the retail purchase of the game.

If you brainless fanboys can't get past the fact he's being screwed by EA douchebags then I pity you for you ignorance. Leave the hate out of this thread and stick to the facts. He does not have an active account, never put in his billing info or activated, and EA is costing him the free time he's entitled to by purchasing a full retail product.

My statement still stands on both accounts. #1: EA are being douchebags. #2: He's losing game time he paid for.

Get a clue guys... only the ignorant or obnoxious cannot see the truth behind this situation.

If EA are stating it's a Bioware issue than it's a Bioware issue, no need to continually shit on EA just to be cool.

The second issue is an issue with MMOs in general. Rift actually did it well where your time didn't start until you first logged in, which is how it should be. What's happening here isn't unique to this game so stop acting like it is. Sure it shouldn't be happening that way and it sucks that it is but your friend isn't entirely faultless for actually registering his game (really, how many people are going to register the game and then not play it for a few days/weeks? Not many).

Buzzkill read the posts in your own topic.

And stop with the pointles hate on EA

@niko555 said:

Buzzkill read the posts in your own topic.

And stop with the pointles hate on EA

Seriously. Take this advice.

So the moral of the story is don't buy games you're not going to play? I figured the whole 'wasting money' thing would have been enough to dissuade most.

@Buzzkill said:

As for the posters who are just chiming in to personally attack me, what a wonderful community you guys are. You make Gamespot look like angels lol.

Considering you yourself admitted to creating your account (with that specific name) mainly to troll and piss people off in another thread I really don't know why you're looking for sympathy here. Marry christmas!

I guess you didn't know that registering the game activates it. Now does this game come with a code that activates the free time? If not, assume that you registering it is the same as activating it. To me the active subscription is the free time, until you add more money/a card to it. You are getting free days; not actual time in-game.

So your case now is "why can't my friend log in" which is probably a server issue so I would call and bother EA.

@CL60 said:

@coakroach: @Buzzkill: So do you guys not care that every single MMO in existence does it this way and it's just a standard in MMOs? Or are you just in "WE HATE EA CAUSE THEY ARE THE DEVIL!!!" mode? And it's not even a bad standard, if you activate your game, the clock ticks. Simple as that.

My understanding is that in order to start getting access to the game you must pay for a subscription through either a credit card or a game card.

Since he hadn't done that he didn't have access to the game, but his free 30 days that come with his copy still ticked down even though he still had no access to it.

Of course this is all based on what Buzzkill has stated, and so could be totally erroneous for all I know, but considering EA's appalling track record in terms of doing right by its customers or even its employees I dont find it hard to believe.

A shitty business practice is a shitty business practice no matter how many other people are doing it.

Why'd he spend $60 on a game (that he won't play) when it will be $20 in a few months?

Also why'd he open the box if he wasn't going to play it yet?