EA just approved my refund for SimCity
- Thread starter ResonanceSD
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I almost would have sided with you if it wasn't for the $2+ an hour they charge for just calling them to address an issue you have with their product.bug_of_war said:
That is the exact opposite of customer service. It allows them to create a bad situation then charge you for trying to rectify it with them before involving legal measures.
If I want a refund from another company I an do so without the procedure costing me money.
EA did not provide customer 'service' by giving a refund. What they did is what we - in Australia and New Zealand - call "not breaking the law" and nobody should be congratulated for not breaking the law... but they sure as hell tried to set up a method so they could get away with breaking the law.
So yeah, fuck EA.
That is the exact opposite of customer service. I agree with you that charging a customer for help is bad, is that 2 dollars on top of the cost of making a phone call as well? Or is that all together?Abomination said:
Actually EA did provide customer service by giving a refund. It is in their policy (and Valves for Steam and most other online businesses) that they do not often give back refunds. It's a bad policy but it is also a legal one as by signing up to Origin or Steam you accept the terms and conditions of using the product. They showed by giving back a refund that they cared about their customer.
People get congratulated all the time for not breaking the law. Calling an ambulance for someone having a drug overdose or some form of life threatening injury is generally considered a good thing and people often congratulate people for not allowing a person to die and thus being a liability for the persons death. I got congratulated for returning a woman's purse and was given the money in the wallet as a reward, I could have gotten the same money if I kept the wallet but I decided not to break the law. There's a ton of things people get thanked/congratulated for in terms of not breaking the law.
Dragon Age 2bug_of_war said:
Westwood
Maxis of Sim City 2000
Online passes
"From Ashes"
Their Dante's Inferno marketing
What they did to dead space
The shit that is Battlefield that comes out like an annual cancer on gaming
^ the fact that the shit is so popular amongst console frat boys that the entire industry felt the need to emulate it.
I tried to use another Sync program between two people in SC4. While it was usable, there were still a lot of inconsistencies. Far more when the two players tried to play at the same time. I'd try it if you want between a few people. (Can easily be done with junction folders too... Just get on a modern OS to use them) but get ready to be underwhelmed. Sadly, SC4 just isn't built to have it's save files modified while you play it.Sectan said:Haha I went the same route and bought Simcity 4 during the Simcity shitstorm. Some escapists should use dropbox or whatever it's called and start a region together. That'd be pretty neat.gmaverick019 said:pretty interesting, i thought by now they would've cut off customer support with some bullshit "cap limit" for refunds or something.
still, broken game is broken, glad you got your refund, you can join us awesome pleb's in simcity 4
This is terribly, terribly incorrect. The fair trade and consumer laws in New Zealand and Australia can NOT be signed away. They take precedence over any EULA or Terms of Service you might agree to, in fact those very EULA and ToS are ILLEGAL in ANZ. "No refunds" works in the United States because the US has terrible consumer laws. It does not work for ANZ because "No refunds" is illegal in those nations.bug_of_war said:
There's a significant difference in those scenarios because in many cases people would do those things WITHOUT needing the law to tell them to do so. We know very well that EA gave this discount because they were obligated to do so, not out of the kindness of their heart.
Actually I was wrong, it was $2+ per MINUTE on the phone call which costs more than an international phone call from Australia on a regular domestic line. It is simply an intentional barrier to any claims process that they are REQUIRED by Australian law to have. Typical corporate bullying tactics of consumers and it's an example as to how terrible the culture of their customer service is.
Happy to help. EA doing badly in a poll for consumers isn't a bad thing. The fact that BoA is even in the poll to begin with is nuts.likalaruku said:
Yeah it's illegal in ANZ, but EA is an American company, and as you pointed out, America has terrible consumer laws. Using Origin, an American product, and agreeing to their terms and conditions doesn't that technically mean we are agreeing to the terrible terms and conditions, regardless of the fact that we live in a country that forbids such actions for taking place?Abomination said:
Yes and no. Yes there's a difference between life and death, but not the wallet scenario. As for most people doing the right thing...I'm gonna have to sit on the fence. I know lots of places in the State I live in where in which you make sure you don't loose shit, because if you do you aint never going to get it back. Believe it or not there are still people whom have no morals, and while I returned the wallet due to believing it be the right thing to do there are people whom would not have done so, or would have returned the money but skimmed the cash out of the wallet and pretend that that's how thy found it.Abomination said:
Wow, that really is lame.Abomination said:
No. To do business in a country means abiding by that nations laws, I'm pretty sure. EA doesn't get to carry the US jurisdiction over, they've come into the ANZ court, and they play by those rules. Otherwise they get sued under Australian or New Zealand Law.bug_of_war said:
Worst part is, you rarely get through. It's a charged support line, which also has a queue, which also disconnects you every 5 minutes if you don't reach the head of the queue.
Dragon Age 2 is not a bad game. It has some problems such as the re-using of environments, but fundamentally it is a perfectly fine and functional game that could have been better had EA not cut development time.ResonanceSD said:
EA is not the only company doing online passes, and as far as I am aware their online passes are only required for unlocking their multiplayer, which is far better than lets say...Arkham City, where an entire campaign was cut from the game so as that people whom buy it used get screwed over and have to pay more for content that should have been all included.
The From Ashes DLC had begun development after the main campaign had been completed. When announced for release the price for Mass Effect the main campaign and multiplayer added up to $90. This is what everyone agreed apon for that content. Then, they realised they had enough time to begin working on DLC, thus instead of paying people to sit around and jack off EA paid Bioware to make DLC. By the time the game had to be in stores the DLC was complete and ready to be released. Playing Mass Effect 3 without From Ashes is fine, I did and did not feel as though there was missing content. Playing with From Ashes made me feel like the DLC I bought was worth it as it added to my base experience.
Dead Space is still a decent video game series. It's no longer horror, but really the first game lost most of it's horror elements after chapter 4. Micro-transactions are entirely up to you, and you can go through the game just fine without them.
And who cares if Battlefield is a popular game? Honestly it is a good game and I don't see why people on this site seem to vomit profusely when a military shooter is released. The FPS genre is extremely popular so of course there are going to be more FPS games. Battlefield 3 was excellent, and until Battlefield 4 comes out we can only speculate. And it's not just console frat boys who play Battlefield.
Thank you, I was not aware of this.Loonyyy said:
I personally have never had to use their support line, so I was also not aware of this.Loonyyy said:
No. Believe it or not but the ANZ governments are not strangers to how international business operates and have their own share of multi-billion dollar companies. If you sell your product in ANZ then your company must adhere to ANZ commercial law.bug_of_war said:
Those are scenarios where someone should know better than to lose their money. I mean, just because you lost it doesn't mean someone will find it. If I find money, even though it is "illegal" I will keep it for myself because if not me then someone else. We are talking about broken promises and an actual duty of care. Breach of contract. An agreement between a person and a company. "I agree to pay you $XX and you agree to give me a product/service that functions as you say it should." If I don't give them the money and I somehow obtain the product I am breaking the law. If I do give them the money and they give me a product that does not work as advertised that is also breaking the law. What's more it's a breach of trust between both parties.
Me finding someone's wallet is different because I never told that individual "If I find your wallet I will return it to you." and they never gave me compensation before hand for that service I promised to provide them. Since there is no duty of care I am considered a good person for returning it to them if I was to do so because I was not OBLIGATED to do so. That is going above and beyond. That is customer service. Doing more than you are legally obliged to do.
It isn't just a one-off thing either. That is EA's customer service culture. "We will deal with you if we HAVE to." Not "We will help you because we WANT to."
Abomination said:
Not making an effort to return it is a crime, "larceny by finding"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft_by_finding
Yet you will find it to be seldom enforced or next to no effort put towards such "crimes" due to just how absurd it can be.ResonanceSD said:
Certainly it's a crime not to but being honest with ourselves it's there to ping people who "find" incredibly valuable and important items knowing who the owner is and not returning it.
One good deed does not erase a history of sins.bug_of_war said:
Look at it from his perspective, yeah he got his money back but he had to spend what was no doubt a significant amount of valuable time to do. Valuable time that he would not have had to waste had EA's standard method of business not lead to the games unsatisfactory state of functionality; be that directly or indirectly. How many times has the OP been burned by EA? How many times has his attempts at customer service been fruitless?
The OP was helped successfully, once. To then go and express how poor a company to do business with EA is, is perfectly reasonable. Let's look at a somewhat similar situation to make my point more clear.
You go to the movies and while you're there you find that the theaters are poorly maintained, the bathrooms filthy, the projector simply will not function correctly, and that all their popcorn is stale. Dissatisfied you walk out of the movie and ask for a refund. The staff and subsequent managers that you speak with are all very polite and apologetic, and in the end you are given a full refund.
Are you going to leave the theater and then recommend it to your friends, or are you going to tell them what an awful experience you had and to instead try another one? Customer service is triage. By the time the customer reaches that point, all hope of making a good impression on them has gone out the window. If you still recommend that theater, despite it's awful condition, based solely on that you got a refund after you had a bad experience, then you my friend are insane.
Another user pointed that out to me. I was unaware of that. Then I wonder why it takes ages to get refunds from Origin and Steam...I am legitimately curious.Abomination said:
Abomination said:
Let me clarify, I never said that lost money would be returned to the owner, what I meant that if I lost my wallet, or something that I had my own ID with my address and or phone number in it, in certain areas in my state, I would not expect to get it back or even here about it being found. As for Sim City the Consumer Distributer Agreement is, "I the consumer give you money for the product you have advertised" if you are unhappy with the product or if it has flaws it is up to the distributer to replace the product, fix the problems, or issue a refund. EA issued a refund, and whilst I'm not saying we should give them a pat on the back and a gold medal, I am saying that we should in return show them the decency of walking away with our money and not flipping them off. As you said, they upheld their end of the bargain and followed the rules, so why bust their balls over it?Abomination said:
I was never aware of this for a few reasons. 1) I have never had any of my games/products from EA screw up on me, thus personally I have never had to use the customer service myself. 2) I have had friends whom have had to contact EA in the past whom all have said that their issues were sorted out quickly and without any hassle. 3) There have been instances of people on these forums and others where in which EA has copped blame for something that it has never done or was not it's fault, thus I take everything I see with a grain of sand and do not immediately believe it.Abomination said:
I'm not saying you're wrong, a few people have backed up your statement on the customer service issue (and there was that one picture someone linked), I just prefer to make sure it isn't someone making up stories to make EA look worse.
Oh grow up! You get yourself excited for a game, and you get let down. Fine. Deal with it.ResonanceSD said:
You got a refund, be happy. Don't make some childish vote because the game wasn't perfect the first time. If you do that with EA, and not with say Bethesda, then you are a hypocrite.