30+ hours (almost 5 days,over)to get what i paid for, congratulations Origin...

[Sandytimeman]

What are you talking about? I LOVE Origin, it makes not buying EA's games so much easier when they're not on Steam!

I don't get this criticism, you know Valve doesn't offer their games on other digital distributions right? Seriously go find Portal 2 on Direct 2 Drive or Green Man Gaming...etc.
The don't have it, why? Because Valves makes their games exclusive to steam. So why is it that EA gets so much flak for Origin, they are pretty much doing the same thing.

Only reason I'm mad at EA for Origin is because I got the first two ME games on Steam and now they want me to download a new program for the third game. Fuckkk that. I'm not hopping ship on a new service that has literally been filling every forum I visit with horror stories like this one. When they smooth our their service and clean up their TOS then I'll consider it.

Edit: Also I have no incentive to start using origin. If I bought the game on Origin, I would be paying for Boxed game price without the cool box or anything. If maybe say Origin was offering to xfer over my EA steam games on their service and bring my DLC from ME 2 with it....then I might be willing. But until then, there are alot of games and alot of other non-game media that I want to buy, I can spend my money elsewhere.

 

[Mekado]

This thread is a prime example of what is wrong with the escapist.
Complete and utter fanboyism.
Seriously people criticize Origin and other Digital Distribution services and are like lol stupid other services why don't they learn from Steam.
Then people with common sense come along and are like, but wait Steam has had the same problems before and still does.
Fanboy response, you're argument is stupid, I never had that problem so those problems never ever happened, to anyone.
But the OP has a problem with a company that the fanboy doesn't like OMG everyone is having a problem with this service, it is never going to work, burn down their offices, drag the employees to the street and shoot them in the head and use their families as slaves as repentance!

Good God, I think I love you.

EA isn't allowed to have difficulty with one person.

Valve is allowed to have difficulty thousands of people with not just impunity, but praise.

YAY!

Not to nitpick but it's much more than 1 person, their forums are flooded about similar cases.

 

[Akimoto]

OK, I decided that I would try to give EA and Origin a chance, I am a fan of Steam, so this is a big deal for me. Seeing how they handled it in your case I think that I might have been right when I have disliked it so far.

Did Steam suck this bad before? I never bought any of my games online so my biggest upset was having to be online for the entirety of the game until it was fixed later. My limited experience makes me want to hug Origin and tell it to "Pull your socks up sonny" - program cycles usually involve sh*tloads of bugs and angry users. EA's PR is not helping it much either and customer service for games are usually crap.

 

[Frostbite3789]

Snip

Try waiting over a week for a code to play Dead Island.

Steam es #1 customer support. Derp.

Edit:

Did Steam suck this bad before?

Yes. Still can.

 

[viranimus]

Not entirely sure what Origin has to do with all this. The money goes to EA, the billing and registration is done via a bioware operated page on an EA domain with the actual billing handled by 3rd parties. So not exactly seeing where Origin, the digital distribution platform comes in at because you A: should not be using origin for anything remotely related to ToR, and B: Should not be trying to set up a subscription through that DD client when there is no need to even install that client for the game.

Anyway, I do confess that EA DOES have serious issues when it comes to accounts and billing issues.

 

[Mekado]

Not entirely sure what Origin has to do with all this. The money goes to EA, the billing and registration is done via a bioware operated page on an EA domain with the actual billing handled by 3rd parties. So not exactly seeing where Origin, the digital distribution platform comes in at because you A: should not be using origin for anything remotely related to ToR, and B: Should not be trying to set up a subscription through that DD client when there is no need to even install that client for the game.

Anyway, I do confess that EA DOES have serious issues when it comes to accounts and billing issues.

I didn't install the client, i just bought the game via their service.

As far as "shouldn't use origin" goes, i was SENT to origin by the "buy now!" button on www.swtor.com, i certainly did not go straight to origin.

Origin has "something" to do in all this because i gave them my money and they gave me nothing but excuses and a headache. No ETA on when i'd obtain what i paid for 4 days ago, no nothing.I'm just waiting for a stupid unlock key that i can then use on swtor.com , and it seems it's not possible to provide this within a few days, unlike every other DD service i ever used.

 

[Yopaz]

OK, I decided that I would try to give EA and Origin a chance, I am a fan of Steam, so this is a big deal for me. Seeing how they handled it in your case I think that I might have been right when I have disliked it so far.

Did Steam suck this bad before? I never bought any of my games online so my biggest upset was having to be online for the entirety of the game until it was fixed later. My limited experience makes me want to hug Origin and tell it to "Pull your socks up sonny" - program cycles usually involve sh*tloads of bugs and angry users. EA's PR is not helping it much either and customer service for games are usually crap.

I've never had any problems of this nature with Steam, I remember once during one of their big sales (I think it was summer sale) they ran out of keys for Mass Effect 2 (EA again) and then they made it impossible to buy it and put some other game on sale that wasn't supposed to be marked down to make up for it.

 

[viranimus]

Not entirely sure what Origin has to do with all this. The money goes to EA, the billing and registration is done via a bioware operated page on an EA domain with the actual billing handled by 3rd parties. So not exactly seeing where Origin, the digital distribution platform comes in at because you A: should not be using origin for anything remotely related to ToR, and B: Should not be trying to set up a subscription through that DD client when there is no need to even install that client for the game.

Anyway, I do confess that EA DOES have serious issues when it comes to accounts and billing issues.

I didn't install the client, i just bought the game via their service.

As far as "shouldn't use origin" goes, i was SENT to origin by the "buy now!" button on www.swtor.com, i certainly did not go straight to origin.

Origin has "something" to do in all this because i gave them my money and they gave me nothing but excuses and a headache. No ETA on when i'd obtain what i paid for 4 days ago, no nothing.I'm just waiting for a stupid unlock key that i can then use on swtor.com , and it seems it's not possible to provide this within a few days, unlike every other DD service i ever used.

Ok, I guess I was not seeing that in your specific situation you decided made the purchase through origin. then chalk it up to another reason why people should not be purchasing games via Digital distribution. I mean last I heard back when the TOR preorders opened up EA had a massive snafu in that they charged all preorders the full price of the item, then refunded the difference between the preorder amount of 5$ and the MSRP that got charged all without notifying customers in advance that they would be charged the full purchase price, locking up credit card available funds for a week and in many cases causing overdraft fees. Its known and has long been known that EA/Origin have repeated problems in processing monetary transactions. I know personally I would not have even let it get to that point. Sorry to hear your having this level of difficulty. If its any consolation, the game is good enough, but no it is long term not worth it or this kind of aggravation.

 

[Mekado]

Not entirely sure what Origin has to do with all this. The money goes to EA, the billing and registration is done via a bioware operated page on an EA domain with the actual billing handled by 3rd parties. So not exactly seeing where Origin, the digital distribution platform comes in at because you A: should not be using origin for anything remotely related to ToR, and B: Should not be trying to set up a subscription through that DD client when there is no need to even install that client for the game.

Anyway, I do confess that EA DOES have serious issues when it comes to accounts and billing issues.

I didn't install the client, i just bought the game via their service.

As far as "shouldn't use origin" goes, i was SENT to origin by the "buy now!" button on www.swtor.com, i certainly did not go straight to origin.

Origin has "something" to do in all this because i gave them my money and they gave me nothing but excuses and a headache. No ETA on when i'd obtain what i paid for 4 days ago, no nothing.I'm just waiting for a stupid unlock key that i can then use on swtor.com , and it seems it's not possible to provide this within a few days, unlike every other DD service i ever used.

Ok, I guess I was not seeing that in your specific situation you decided made the purchase through origin. then chalk it up to another reason why people should not be purchasing games via Digital distribution. I mean last I heard back when the TOR preorders opened up EA had a massive snafu in that they charged all preorders the full price of the item, then refunded the difference between the preorder amount of 5$ and the MSRP that got charged all without notifying customers in advance that they would be charged the full purchase price, locking up credit card available funds for a week and in many cases causing overdraft fees. Its known and has long been known that EA/Origin have repeated problems in processing monetary transactions. I know personally I would not have even let it get to that point. Sorry to hear your having this level of difficulty. If its any consolation, the game is good enough, but no it is long term not worth it or this kind of aggravation.

Oh, if i had known if would have been this freaking difficult i'd have gotten it at the store, that's for sure...

Previous dealings with DD services were without problems though (gamersgate,steam) so i foolishly thought the biggest kid on the block would have their act together a little.

 

[CoL0sS]

This is the first time I write a post on the Escapist since I have a rule of watching but not participating. HOWEVER, I bought a copy of fucking Syndicate for pc and because of their retarded "Release Date Check" some sort of anti-piracy system which did not pass on my pc I was unable to play it.

I TALKED 15 PEOPLE IN EA, 15. 7 told me the exact same instructions which I kept repeating DID NOT WORK but they completely ignored me (this was through chat) and when they gave up they kept either telling me to wait because their servers were busy OR that I rebooted my pc. another 7 closed down their chats on me (stay classy EA) and one uber bastard said the game WAS NOT OUT YET and said it was the demo (there's no pc demo) and when I showed him THEIR OWN WEBSITE which said that the game was indeed out he called me a liar....

Holy crap dude. Accumulated anger would probably cause me to explode in bloody mess of giblets. I hope you're handling it better than I would.

 

[CoL0sS]

Well, last contact with EA, They can be sure they'll never have a cent of my money again.....snip

You were completely right to ask for a refund, and you handled it relatively reasonably considering how much time you waited (Although honestly I don't think two days is that long. It took GAME more than 3 months to handle my refund).
However, I had a friend who worked at customer support and I can tell you it's the least gratifying job a reasonable,sane individual can have. Always stuck between pissed off (and rightfully so) customers and supervisors who scream at you for not following guidelines (e.g. automated responses). God forbid you offer someone a refund. You're effectively shit-canned. There are always assholes who'll abuse their power and play you for a fool, but you were lucky enough to get an apologetic person who generally wanted to help you. Well, uhm until you requested refund

 

[Mekado]

Well, last contact with EA, They can be sure they'll never have a cent of my money again.....snip

You were completely right to ask for a refund, and you handled it relatively reasonably considering how much time you waited (Although honestly I don't think two days is that long. It took GAME more than 3 months to handle my refund).
However, I had a friend who worked at customer support and I can tell you it's the least gratifying job a reasonable,sane individual can have. Always stuck between pissed off (and rightfully so) customers and supervisors who scream at you for not following guidelines (e.g. automated responses). God forbid you offer someone a refund. You're effectively shit-canned. There are always assholes who'll abuse their power and play you for a fool, but you were lucky enough to get an apologetic person who generally wanted to help you. Well, uhm until you requested refund

2 days to obtain a digital download i got charged for, without any explanations, while being bounced from agent to agent without any clue as to what's going on (i had to paste stuff from their own forums, apparently they weren't aware a EA dev said it was fixed on the forums) while being told they sent my purchase to a "fraud department" while refusing to refund me for something i didn't get ?

I think that's plenty

Oh and i know customer service sucks, did it for years.If we ran the company i work for this way we'd be bankrupt within a year.I understand "stupid" lvl1 agents but there's supposed to be someone in the house that can actually you know...fix things.

Edit: oh and also i'm at 4 days now.

 

[Li Mu]

Why the fuck did you buy with your credit card? That's for EMERGENCY USE ONLY YOU GIT! Jesus, you don't belong here, spending your credit card money on games and raging, thinking we'll give a fuck.

I think you need to calm down and grow up a little.

 

[Griffolion]

This is getting frankly stupid.I bought the old republic and some gametime yesterday morning and i'm yet to receive anything at all.My best friend irl convinced me to play and even though i didn't think 80$ was very reasonable (the game is fun, but it's not revolutionary) i bought it anyways. They charged my credit card 30 seconds after purchase but they can't send me a code within 24 hours ? what kind of backwoods service is that ? every other mmo in the world gets you online within 30 minutes of taking your money...

Asked the very unhelpful live chat techs, nobody knows anything and aside from offering me discount coupons left and right they don't have any answers and keep on "it's processing" , stuff your discount coupons, like i'd ever do business with you people again...

Sorry for venting but this is getting enraging, and frankly i'm starting to think about just calling mastercard and cancelling all this, origin is discouraging me from playing a bioware game (good work EA! )

Sorry to hear this. But it is EA we are talking about here. Don't tell me you're actually surprised by all this?

All I can say is, if they don't so as promised, get onto their online customer service and play hell with them.

 

[CoL0sS]

Well, last contact with EA, They can be sure they'll never have a cent of my money again.....snip

You were completely right to ask for a refund, and you handled it relatively reasonably considering how much time you waited (Although honestly I don't think two days is that long. It took GAME more than 3 months to handle my refund).
However, I had a friend who worked at customer support and I can tell you it's the least gratifying job a reasonable,sane individual can have. Always stuck between pissed off (and rightfully so) customers and supervisors who scream at you for not following guidelines (e.g. automated responses). God forbid you offer someone a refund. You're effectively shit-canned. There are always assholes who'll abuse their power and play you for a fool, but you were lucky enough to get an apologetic person who generally wanted to help you. Well, uhm until you requested refund

2 days to obtain a digital download i got charged for, without any explanations, while being bounced from agent to agent without any clue as to what's going on (i had to paste stuff from their own forums, apparently they weren't aware a EA dev said it was fixed on the forums) while being told they sent my purchase to a "fraud department" while refusing to refund me for something i didn't get ?

I think that's plenty

Oh and i know customer service sucks, did it for years.If we ran the company i work for this way we'd be bankrupt within a year.I understand "stupid" lvl1 agents but there's supposed to be someone in the house that can actually you know...fix things.

Ugh, 2 days is more than plenty, and it's a damn shame big companies can get away with this. To me, worst part is back and forth exchange of e-mails with various "techies" when I have to explain my problem again and again only to get an automated response. I hate it when I have to resort to petty threats before somebody takes notice, especially since it's just a matter of someone actually wanting to help out. You know, actually doing their fucking job.
I remember I once had used PS3 sold to me as new and I had to contact head distributor of Sony products for my country before I got anything done. Dude was really pissed about the issue (since it happened to a lot of people) and he handled it in 24 hours.
Anyway, I'm glad you managed to reverse charges that fast. Hope that this doesn't happen again anytime soon.

 

[pbteyeofharmony]

Classic EA for you. They start a digital distribution service because they want some of that Steam money, and then go ahead and make it inferior to Steam in just about every way beside peak download speed. They don't understand how to play like an underdog. Or maybe they're so excessively greedy that they refuse to "lose money" on big sale events and competent support. Seriously, for everyone's sake, don't use Origin. If you can't use Steam, buy the physical disc and then download the DRM-free version off the internet if you can. EA needs to get the damn picture.

 

[Mekado]

This is getting frankly stupid.I bought the old republic and some gametime yesterday morning and i'm yet to receive anything at all.My best friend irl convinced me to play and even though i didn't think 80$ was very reasonable (the game is fun, but it's not revolutionary) i bought it anyways. They charged my credit card 30 seconds after purchase but they can't send me a code within 24 hours ? what kind of backwoods service is that ? every other mmo in the world gets you online within 30 minutes of taking your money...

Asked the very unhelpful live chat techs, nobody knows anything and aside from offering me discount coupons left and right they don't have any answers and keep on "it's processing" , stuff your discount coupons, like i'd ever do business with you people again...

Sorry for venting but this is getting enraging, and frankly i'm starting to think about just calling mastercard and cancelling all this, origin is discouraging me from playing a bioware game (good work EA! )

Sorry to hear this. But it is EA we are talking about here. Don't tell me you're actually surprised by all this?

All I can say is, if they don't so as promised, get onto their online customer service and play hell with them.

Yeah i was surprised they couldn't deliver within 4 days, call me an eternal optimist (riiiiight )

 

[Mekado]

This would be funny if it weren't so sad.

So apparently EA finally started to send out game keys.....other customer's game keys!

There's a crop of "key already in use" topics on their forums, this is priceless...