[codecow]

Actually, I don't think that either Mirror's Edge nor Dead Space was part of the EA Partners programm.

Correct, Visceral (and DiCE) are both part of/owned by EA, we're not partners.

[SatelliteOfLove]

Stop supporting EA. It's the only way.

Our strongest power as gamers, but often willfully given up for trinkets and sweet nothings, time and time again.

[SmokyDave]

Stop supporting EA. It's the only way.

The people that haven't sussed this yet can't be reached.

[Toma]

Germans are affected too. Shows €10 but is still 2500 points. So like given Fifa is expensive in Europe because the sport is popular...does that mean Madden is cheap in Europe?

Super cheap.

Since you can't buy it in Germany at least, so no money spent!

[A Human Becoming]

I could do a huge write up explaining the economics of not for profit hospitals and how they can operate trying to make minimum profit.

I'd read it.

[darthbob]

Insanely frustrating. The rep contacted the higher ups, I assume they have the authority to manage some of the funds associated with user accounts in a limited manner. Why not reach some sort of reasonable compromise the user would be happy with? Give him the DLC pack -- I don't know. The only time I've really had to deal with this kind of nonsense was with Amazon and they were nothing short of amazing. Protocol is protocol I guess. Seems like the moment he mentioned "legal" the conversation was essentially over with said rep.

I do chat support for, well, not a similar product, but technology where people buy digital goods for actual money.

Anyways, this is essentially the same with my company, and to some extent, myself. The moment the customer mentions anything to do with 'legal', I send 'em my canned script and "nope" on out there.

[Glass Rebel]

Stop supporting EA. It's the only way.

It's incredibly easy for me to ignore Origin with the exclusives atm being mostly uninteresting.

[Barkley's Justice]

seems like a typo

[Sye d'Burns]

seems like a typo

Even if it were a typo, no, especially if were a typo, they should have had no problem issuing a refund.

[phosphor112]

Even if it were a typo, no, especially if were a typo, they should have had no problem issuing a refund.

This. EA is a fucking scam from start to finish.

Buy BF3? Buy an online Pass? It's ok, no more official servers for the consoles! Their shit is just stupid.

[lobdale]

I don't understand at all. It says 7.99 for 1250 points, you bought it, and you only got 1250 points? Why should you get more points than it says?

Ah maybe I get it now. It says "get the DLC" and that 1250 points are enough, but it's not enough.

[Derrick01]

Stop supporting EA. It's the only way.

Yeah this people. They even make it easy for you by not making anything interesting anymore! There's no excuse.

[Yagharek]

Yeah this people. They even make it easy for you by not making anything interesting anymore! There's no excuse.

Combine this with reporting it to the ASA as was linked earlier. OP please post an update once you have done so.

[Haunted]

Aren't DICE and Visceral fully owned though?

Actually, I don't think that either Mirror's Edge nor Dead Space was part of the EA Partners programm.

Huh, for some reason I had them pegged as EA Partners, before they got bought.

Weird. Thanks for the correction, guys! :)

[Bitmap Frogs]

If EA fucks you over it is your fault for buying their product.

At this point, specially people on this forum, we are well aware of EA's shady business tactics and total disregard for customer satisfaction.

[surly]

I don't understand at all. It says 7.99 for 1250 points, you bought it, and you only got 1250 points? Why should you get more points than it says? Ah maybe I get it now. It says "get the DLC" and that 1250 points are enough, but it's not enough.

Yeah, that's exactly it. Underneath the main heading it says "with 1250 FIFA Points you can purchase the EA SPORTS UEFA EURO 2012 expansion pack", but that's only true if you live in the US, despite the advert popping up in other countries using local currency.

I've reported them to the Advertising Standards Authority, so I'll see if anything comes of that.

[King_Moc]

If EA fucks you over it is your fault for buying their product.

No. It's EA's fault.

[iNvid02]

i saw this deal too and am also from UK

alarm bells rang when i remembered this is retailing for £15-£20 at places like amazon and play

EA never bothers to match retail pricing, let alone undercut it by around 50%, they think £39.99 for pc pre-orders is a good deal

so i passed on the deal

[LuchaShaq]

It's probably beyond the remit of some jobsworth call centre employee.

That's no excuse.

I've had Amazon/newegg/gamefly give me expensive refunds just with a conversation with some random call center chat window in like 5 minutes.

Companies like EA deliberately make their customer service shit so they aren't expected to help ever.

[Derrick01]

No. It's EA's fault.

It's half and half, at least for hardcore gamers. You should expect to get screwed by EA by now, and deserve no sympathy when making threads to complain about it. That doesn't excuse their asshole behavior but if you knew someone was a thief would you trust them with your stuff? I'd hope not.

[wrowa]

Super cheap. Since you can't buy it in Germany at least, so no money spent!

Huh?

[Alex]

That's why you don't give EA money. Give it to Valve.

Valve has about the worst customer service in the business. Luckily you rarely need it, but god help you if you do.

[Glass Rebel]

Huh?

No PC version. 08 was the last I think.

[Para bailar La Bomba]

Valve has about the worst customer service in the business. Luckily you rarely need it, but god help you if you do.

Plus most problems are solvable from their forums.

No PC version. 08 was the last I think.

Like everybody else?

[Glass Rebel]

Like everybody else?

Pardon?

[saunderez]

Valve has about the worst customer service in the business. Luckily you rarely need it, but god help you if you do.

Yep. Lost my account back around the Half Life 2 days, their customer service treated me like a filthy pirate and I never got anything back. To this day I refuse to buy retail games on Steam. I only use it for indie stuff I can't get elsewhere these days.

[Morphis]

It's half and half, at least for hardcore gamers. You should expect to get screwed by EA by now, and deserve no sympathy when making threads to complain about it. That doesn't excuse their asshole behavior but if you knew someone was a thief would you trust them with your stuff? I'd hope not.

I detect a hint of cynisism here. It indeed doesn't excuse their behaviour, but saying that the customers shoudln't complain is like rolling over.

This should be picked up by a site with some readers. I have written stuff for a gaming site in the past, that site I'm sorry to say isn't around anymore. But this would've been something to write about.

Atm I work at a customer contact center. We're always able to solve stuff like this, in cases where the customer is clearly in the right. It's either a shitty customer contact center or extremly shady business if they can't help in this case.

[Para bailar La Bomba]

Pardon?

Not sure what you're talking about, the topic on conversation was Madden sold in Germany. Nobody gets a PC version anymore.

[Yagharek]

Customers should always complain when they get shafted. Even if "they should know better" in the case of EA.

Nothing can excuse their blatant fraud in a multitude of cases now. Unfortunately they keep catching people unawares.

[Glass Rebel]

Yep. Lost my account back around the Half Life 2 days, their customer service treated me like a filthy pirate and I never got anything back. To this day I refuse to buy retail games on Steam. I only use it for indie stuff I can't get elsewhere these days.

Unless you also lost the pamphlet with the serial on it I have a hard time believing that. Not saying you're lying but from my experience they're highly cooperative and polite.

Not sure what you're talking about, the topic on conversation was Madden sold in Germany.

It's an Origin thread so I assumed he tried to look up the PC version and ended up not finding it.

[saunderez]

Unless you also lost the pamphlet with the serial on it I have a hard time believing that. Not saying you're lying but from my experience they're highly cooperative and polite.

They claimed one of my pre-HL2 games was pirated (I had Half Life 1, Opposing Force, Blue Shift and Counterstrike registered to my account). I had jewel cases with CD keys for all of them but evidently one of my CD keys must have been found in a keygen (as in they think I put it there) so I was labelled a pirate and according to their TOS "there is no recourse for account bans for piracy". Maybe things have changed now but back then they were complete and utter dicks.

[Easy_D]

Huh, for some reason I had them pegged as EA Partners, before they got bought. Weird. Thanks for the correction, guys! :)

Not so stupid now, am I?

[Glass Rebel]

They claimed one of my pre-HL2 games was pirated (I had Half Life 1, Opposing Force, Blue Shift and Counterstrike registered to my account). I had jewel cases with CD keys for all of them but evidently one of my CD keys must have been found in a keygen (as in they think I put it there) so I was labelled a pirate and according to their TOS "there is no recourse for account bans for piracy". Maybe things have changed now but back then they were complete and utter dicks.

Ugh, that's horrible and total bullshit on their part but you're missing out on a lot of PC games if you avoid Steam.

[Dead Man]

Anyone who got burnt by this shit needs to take it to whoever handles consumer complaints in the UK. Shit is unacceptable.

[Bitmap Frogs]

Customers should always complain when they get shafted. Even if "they should know better" in the case of EA. Nothing can excuse their blatant fraud in a multitude of cases now. Unfortunately they keep catching people unawares.

Yes, that's probably a more reasonable position.

[witchedwiz]

Wait, do they speak in Italian?

Not to sound racist but most indian-based customer supports for italy make peter griffin sounds like a native speaker...

[MrNyarlathotep]

They claimed one of my pre-HL2 games was pirated (I had Half Life 1, Opposing Force, Blue Shift and Counterstrike registered to my account). I had jewel cases with CD keys for all of them but evidently one of my CD keys must have been found in a keygen (as in they think I put it there) so I was labelled a pirate and according to their TOS "there is no recourse for account bans for piracy". Maybe things have changed now but back then they were complete and utter dicks.

That's quite surprising as one HL key unlocked all HL associated products on Steam, as they had no way of differentiating what product any of them were, so you in fact had 4 valid Steam keys that each unlocked all of those games.

Gunman Chronicles also unlocks all of those games too IIRC.

On Topic, I'd say there's a pretty good chance a euro site will pick up on this, as the week before E3 sites are desperate for anything to post because there's not really any actual news.

[JaseC]

That's quite surprising as one HL key unlocked all HL associated products on Steam, as they had no way of differentiating what product any of them were, so you in fact had 4 valid Steam keys that each unlocked all of those games.

Not to nitpick, but Opposing Force keys aren't Steam-friendly (and never have been, despite some people claiming otherwise -- I created additional Steam accounts way back in the day for the purpose of giving Counter-Strike to a few mates and distinctly recall my Opposing Force key not working):

Opposing Force CD-keys cannot be registered through Steam. Opposing Force was included in a retail Half-Life package. The Half-Life CD-key included in the package will unlock all of the games in that package, including Opposing Force.

I've often wondered why this is. It's particularly strange when you consider that, as you said, the other keys in the Platinum Pack activate the Steam version of said pack.

Gunman Chronicles also unlocks all of those games too IIRC.

And oddly enough, GC itself isn't on Steam.

[mclem]

You should expect to get screwed by EA by now, and deserve no sympathy when making threads to complain about it.

Caveat emptor doesn't just apply to companies you *expect* to get screwed by.

Nevertheless, this is pretty clearly false advertising to me. As someone who is an experienced viewer of lawyer dramas on TV, I think you have a case.

[Toma]

Huh?

Is 2012 the first one to get a German release? I remember searching for Madden 10 and 11 and not finding a release here. Good to know.

Same goes for MLB the Show btw. Amazon doesnt show me a proper German release.

[JonnyBrad]

Anyone got a link to the Av Forums thread?

[Frankfurter]

Way to go, EA. This could have been 7.99 for EA (which they earned with a misleading advertisement), while by now those guys got a chance that this will become a nice shitstorm all over the internet.

I'll start: EA sucks. Origin sucks.

Btw. to help getting back your money and building up a shitstorm I'd advice you to send this story to every major UK internet website related to gaming and every single print magazine related to gaming.

[PjotrStroganov]

Mistakes happen. It can be settled in a normal way. The way it's being handled now is infuriating to see.

[EuropeOG]

Free money.

[Yagharek]

Way to go, EA. This could have been 7.99 for EA (which they earned with a misleading advertisement), while by now those guys got a chance that this will become a nice shitstorm all over the internet. I'll start: EA sucks. Origin sucks. Btw. to help getting back your money and building up a shitstorm I'd advice you to send this story to every major UK internet website related to gaming and every single print magazine related to gaming.

What if this has already been done >.>

[Bleepey]

I'd read it.

I'd just post my lecturer's slides but I am on my touchpad and typing that shit is tedious.

[michaelius]

EA is doing us favour - if they get shafted they won't be buying from Origin anymore and we can get rid of that shitty service sooner and have EA games back on steam.

[-MikePriester-]

Anyone got a link to the Av Forums thread?

Here ya go:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/pc-ga...gin-again.html

[JonnyBrad]

EA are complete idiots having read that thread. They probably have done this to 10-20 customers max. But by not issuing a refund/honouring the deal its going to end up on the front of Kotaku/Eurogamer and give them a load of bad PR.

[kurtrussell]

Wow! Good job you guys! You totally revealed EA's scam to the world!

They would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for you pesky kids!