EA blanket-deactivating Amazon Sim City keys

[Uratoh]

http://consumerist.com/2013/03/18/ea-disabling-user-accounts-because-it-thinks-any-contact-with-amazon-must-be-a-refund-request/

I would like to apologise for the original version of this post. I misunderstood the article, and was wondering where EA got information such as 'which customers contacted Amazon at all', when in reality it was 'EA just deactivated every Amazon activation key for Sim City'.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Oh PLEASE tell me that the consumerist is a joke website like the onion. PLEASE.

Because if EA is actually doing this, then I have no more words for how !@#$ing stupidly evil it's become.

[EDIT]
Apparently the consumerist is a serious website.
...DAMMIT EA, why do you keep doing stuff like this? HOW does this kind of thing help you AT ALL?

 

[Comando96]

Oh PLEASE tell me that the consumerist is a joke website like the onion. PLEASE.

Because if EA is actually doing this, then I have no more words for how !@#$ing stupidly evil it's become.

Browsing through it...
It wouldn't appear so. A consumer rights website, and it for all intents and purposes appears to be legitimate.

With the Financial year just having ened we are getting into the Worse Company in America Award season ¬.¬
http://consumerist.com/2013/03/18/h...the-2013-worst-company-in-america-tournament/

...oh well...

EA are bastards.
No change.
Carry on.

(I haven't bought any of their games since Orgin was released, so I feel like I'm on a bloody Moral Mountain for having given the cunts no money for a long time).

 

[tangoprime]

Is there any huge, flamboyant, way of saying "I told you so" to people who defended Origin? If so, please let me know. I haven't purchased an EA product since they pushed Origin. I'll continue to not do so.

 

[DoPo]

We all had this debate way back when, and it didn't stop people from using it, etc...but I see this article.

http://consumerist.com/2013/03/18/ea-disabling-user-accounts-because-it-thinks-any-contact-with-amazon-must-be-a-refund-request/

So I see this, and it makes me ask. How does EA even know these people contacted Amazon? It's not ABOUT a refund, so EA isn't directly involved on an account by account basis in this, so does this mean they've been monitoring Origin user's emails and flagging things like 'sent to amazon@whateveramazon'?

At what point did anything in that article make you think Origin was involved in some way (aside being the distribution platform)? The article explains that people contacting Amazon were banned. No mention of Origin in any of that. The article points to two sources - Reddit and a GameFAQs thread, neither of which hint at this. So far, I can see you pulling stuff from thin air here. Or am I overlooking some information. I'd assume EA have lots of ways of finding people who contacted Amazon aside from spying. Say, Amazon itself may be (b)cc-ing EA in replies or just sending headsup. Or maybe any feedback for a product on Amazon goes also to the owner of the product.

 

[Uratoh]

At what point did anything in that article make you think Origin was involved in some way (aside being the distribution platform)? The article explains that people contacting Amazon were banned. No mention of Origin in any of that. The article points to two sources - Reddit and a GameFAQs thread, neither of which hint at this. So far, I can see you pulling stuff from thin air here. Or am I overlooking some information. I'd assume EA have lots of ways of finding people who contacted Amazon aside from spying. Say, Amazon itself may be (b)cc-ing EA in replies or just sending headsup. Or maybe any feedback for a product on Amazon goes also to the owner of the product.

I'm questioning if there ARE other ways to get the information. I don't know how the relationship between the two companies works, etc, and with all the Origin-is-spyware stuff when it launched, I was wondering if that's it, or if there's a less...evil...explenation.

 

[DoPo]

At what point did anything in that article make you think Origin was involved in some way (aside being the distribution platform)? The article explains that people contacting Amazon were banned. No mention of Origin in any of that. The article points to two sources - Reddit and a GameFAQs thread, neither of which hint at this. So far, I can see you pulling stuff from thin air here. Or am I overlooking some information. I'd assume EA have lots of ways of finding people who contacted Amazon aside from spying. Say, Amazon itself may be (b)cc-ing EA in replies or just sending headsup. Or maybe any feedback for a product on Amazon goes also to the owner of the product.

I'm questioning if there ARE other ways to get the information. I don't know how the relationship between the two companies works, etc, and with all the Origin-is-spyware stuff when it launched, I was wondering if that's it, or if there's a less...evil...explenation.

Well, that's quite a leap of logic going there, to be sure. Your immediate thought was "SPYWARE" when nobody else suggested it.

Moreover, I re-read the Reddit post more closely and...it suggests that EA disables keys from Amazon as a whole. Doesn't specify it's for people who contacted them. And given how most people (I suppose) would contact Amazon about the game for one reason or another, the overlap between disabled keys and contacting people is going to be close to 100%. So there you go - an alternative explanation - EA are dicks and are just blanket banning Amazon keys, while you are filtering that through paranoia and trying to spread it. Seeing how people are quite happy to jump onto any perceived mistake by EA, without fact checking or thinking, that's a pretty dick move on your part, too, I'd say.

 

[Uratoh]

Well, that's quite a leap of logic going there, to be sure. Your immediate thought was "SPYWARE" when nobody else suggested it.

Moreover, I re-read the Reddit post more closely and...it suggests that EA disables keys from Amazon as a whole. Doesn't specify it's for people who contacted them. And given how most people (I suppose) would contact Amazon about the game for one reason or another, the overlap between disabled keys and contacting people is going to be close to 100%. So there you go - an alternative explanation - EA are dicks and are just blanket banning Amazon keys, while you are filtering that through paranoia and trying to spread it. Seeing how people are quite happy to jump onto any perceived mistake by EA, without fact checking or thinking, that's a pretty dick move on your part, too, I'd say.

I will admit I could have worded things a bit better. But you're being fairly aggressive and more than a bit insulting when I didn't *STATE* 'EA is using origin to read people's emails'. I asked 'how does EA know about this? etc. You're the one who read 'I am spreading spyware propaganda' into my poorly worded question @_@.

 

[direkiller]

We all had this debate way back when, and it didn't stop people from using it, etc...but I see this article.

http://consumerist.com/2013/03/18/ea-disabling-user-accounts-because-it-thinks-any-contact-with-amazon-must-be-a-refund-request/

So I see this, and it makes me ask. How does EA even know these people contacted Amazon? It's not ABOUT a refund, so EA isn't directly involved on an account by account basis in this, so does this mean they've been monitoring Origin user's emails and flagging things like 'sent to amazon@whateveramazon'?

capcha: FREE BAG. no thanks, it probably has a spy camera in it.

I don't think you can call Origin spyware when they are disabling keys they sold to Amazon. It's Inventory not Origin

What seems to be going on here is because Amazon stopped selling the game EA deactivated the keys. Someone got a little carried away/mistake at EA and disabled used keys that were not on the refund list.

It's a stupid thing to do and CS was dickish to be sure but this is not a case of Spyware

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Hey guess what?

FUCKING CALLED IT!

Called it in 2011.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.308724-EAs-Origin-is-creepy-and-watches-you-sleep

Yup, EA apologists told me I was overreacting, and EA even slightly reworded their EULA, doesn't matter, still never downloaded Origin, because I fucking called it.

 

[Uratoh]

Hey guess what?

FUCKING CALLED IT!

Called it in 2011.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.308724-EAs-Origin-is-creepy-and-watches-you-sleep

Yup, EA apologists told me I was overreacting, and EA even slightly reworded their EULA, doesn't matter, still never downloaded Origin, because I fucking called it.

Sorry, someone with better reading comprehension than I looked it over, it seems they 'just' blanket disabled all the Amazon activation keys without regard for people who might have actually bought the game and not wanted to return it, then said anyone who lost the game that way had tried to chargeback.

 

[DoPo]

Well, that's quite a leap of logic going there, to be sure. Your immediate thought was "SPYWARE" when nobody else suggested it.

Moreover, I re-read the Reddit post more closely and...it suggests that EA disables keys from Amazon as a whole. Doesn't specify it's for people who contacted them. And given how most people (I suppose) would contact Amazon about the game for one reason or another, the overlap between disabled keys and contacting people is going to be close to 100%. So there you go - an alternative explanation - EA are dicks and are just blanket banning Amazon keys, while you are filtering that through paranoia and trying to spread it. Seeing how people are quite happy to jump onto any perceived mistake by EA, without fact checking or thinking, that's a pretty dick move on your part, too, I'd say.

I will admit I could have worded things a bit better. But you're being fairly aggressive and more than a bit insulting when I didn't *STATE* 'EA is using origin to read people's emails'. I asked 'how does EA know about this? etc. You're the one who read 'I am spreading spyware propaganda' into my poorly worded question @_@.

Oh no, you didn't STATE it but that's only a technicality. You sure as hell heavily implied it and now pretend you didn't. The title is a heavy handed "IS ORIGIN SPYING, HUH?!", the op reads as "Here is some people with keys disabled IS IT BECAUSE ORIGIN SPIED ON THEM?!" - you know with nothing to support that except "Well, I think so" and you finish off with "capcha: FREE BAG. no thanks, it probably has a spy camera in it."

It's a leading title, leading OP, all based on no support. A giant leap of logic to be sure but it's not much different than a lie.

Am I annoyed - sure, do I have a reason - non-sequiturs shouldn't be default mode of thinking, so I'd say yes.

 

[Glaice]

I knew something was off with Origin in the first place! As much as Steam has been it's main competitor, they don't do such things as far as I know.

 

[Eddie the head]

Is there any huge, flamboyant, way of saying "I told you so" to people who defended Origin? If so, please let me know. I haven't purchased an EA product since they pushed Origin. I'll continue to not do so.

Now wouldn't be the time considering the link provided didn't say anything about Spyware. At all. To get Spyware form what they said in the link you would need some heavy biases. I'm not sure how most of this works but I'm pretty sure that Steam knows that the key I used to activate "Tomb Raider" came form Amazon. And I might be assuming something here but if I asked for a new key form Amazon I think they might contact Valve.

To me this just looks like incompetence on EA's behave not Spyware.

Oh no, you didn't STATE it but that's only a technicality. You sure as hell heavily implied it and now pretend you didn't. The title is a heavy handed "IS ORIGIN SPYING, HUH?!", the op reads as "Here is some people with keys disabled IS IT BECAUSE ORIGIN SPIED ON THEM?!" - you know with nothing to support that except "Well, I think so" and you finish off with "capcha: FREE BAG. no thanks, it probably has a spy camera in it."

It's a leading title, leading OP, all based on no support. A giant leap of logic to be sure but it's not much different than a lie.

Am I annoyed - sure, do I have a reason - non-sequiturs shouldn't be default mode of thinking, so I'd say yes.

It's kind of funny isn't it? I don't even like EA, but attacks like this mean I find myself defending them more then I should. There are plenty of reasons to dislike EA, pick one you don't need to make them up.