f13.net

Hi all,  A bit of a funny story that I thought worth sharing...

A few months ago EA changed its login system to coincide withe rollout of its new Origins store.  As a result folks needed to create new Origins accounts to log into EA, and to access their downloadable content.  I noticed this when I lost access to my DLC for Dragon Age and Mass Effect.  In order to access my content I dutifully logged into the Origins system and attempted to change my password.  They required one of those "hard passwords" with a certain number of special characters, Capital letters, numbers etc...  While annoying I dutifully submitted a password that confirmed to all of their rules but unfortunately the password system kept giving me an error and it wouldn't let me change the password or access my account.

So I decided to seek customer support.  Unfortunately, EA's new support system demands that a support requester access the support forums which requires, you guessed it: a login and a valid password.  Since my issue was that for some reason I couldn't get a valid password I was at an impasse.  I began to scour EA Origins site for an email or something I could send a support request to.   To my dismay, no such email exists, the ONLY way to access support is to post on the website.

Feeling a bit desperate I sent an email to the only place I could find an e-mail for:  Investor relations.


I received no response.  Finally after about 50 tries, I realized I could force any password I wanted if I just ignored EA's warning message.  Problem solved thanks to terrible coding.

So this morning I received a response from EA (approximately 1 month after I sent the e-mail):


To sum up:  they wanted me to change my password so I could log into their support forums to get help.  This suggests the following:

1.  Even though the letter wended its way to EA's customer support, no one bothered to actually read what my problem was.
2.  It takes EA support almost a month to send out a form letter.
3.  Jesus most likely died in vain.

I know this probably isn't any great revelation, but I found it amusing.  They really plan to compete with Steam with this?

They are obviously taking the piss as evidenced by this line:


Does the Concern Department have a Concern-O-Meter to determine their level of concern? Either that or their support has English as a 3rd language. Or CS people in Fly-Swat, Botswana really do not give a fuck what your problem is.

I know a fine Indian chap named Deepinder.  I'd wager you're chatting with India!  Usually most companies make them change their names to Bob or Steve, which sounds utterly silly.

Phone almost always works for me. Everywhere except the State of NY, because you literally can't call most of the offices; and Time Warner, because they're unable to ever fix anything, ever.

Just had my hdmi stop working, saying I need an HDCP display. After using the HDMI for three weeks. So the low level tech dicks around with useless stuff, the next level has me repeat what I've already done. Either replace the box (we already have it set up with our series recordings, so..no) or have a tech come out. Can the tech come out after 5pm, when I'm not working, or on the weekend. No. Back to component.

If you're wanting to compete with Steam then crappy customer support really isn't an impediment. Steam's customer support is atrocious. Although, from reading that EA story it's a close-run thing.

EA does not have a customer support line either (at least that I could find).

866-543-5435

thanks!  i couldn't find it anywhere on their website!

It must be hidden to keep away the annoying customers!

Internet detective thread is needed?

It looks like "contact us" requires a login (wut?), but using Advanced Search will find a ticket with the support number and contact info in it.

If anything, I'd consider it a website bug that the Help/Contact Us link leads to a freaking login page.

I found it hidden at google "ea customer support phone"

 :oh_i_see:

yeah, I mean hidden on their actual site. Unless you think needing to leave a company's website to google their CS number is a reasonable option?

I only care about results. 12 years of IT work has made me uncaring as to methods.

The "machiavellian american management culture" (term I heard a friend's dad, who is a CEO, use at her housewarming party last month) sees customer service as an expense that does not make them money. And while I find it reprehensible that people providing customer support do not even take the time to read what the issue is, the reality is that the person that sent that email probably has some ridiculous quota of tickets they have to handle in a day and spending time to fix an issue the first time is something that would more likely result in them losing their job than them actually being praised for it.

Good job on missing the point I was making then, Mr Terminator.  :oh_i_see:

This is true for most departments I've found. I've worked in a few Operations groups that were asked to effectively "bill" marketing, sales, and proserv groups to prove that we were providing a valuable service by.. you know, keeping the product we sold running. :P And there were always idiotic meetings at those places when we did technically non billable work.. like patching the web servers.

I love this quote! It's like Pygmy (http://chuckpalahniuk.net/files/features/pygmy-book-excerpt.pdf), but real!