It happens with EA games

A story speaks about a console, its marketplace, and several failed transactions. The problem is: In this case Microsoft is responsible for 3 basic things only:

1st: Billing and credit card processing, etc. (Payment) — Payment was processed

2nd: Forwarding a notification of purchase to the game with in game purchases — The confirmation message comes only after they notified the publisher

3rd: And delivering most of the money to the publisher, namely EA in this case. — If they would forget this, it would look odd in their books in no time.

If all of the above happened, and the terms of the sale says the purchase is final without refunds or compensation, they have every reason to consider it as final. And it is up to you to decide if you want to register your card for such purchases to make your life easier. There is 0 problems with it.

On the other hand: Electronic Arts is responsible for:

1st: Providing support for the title in question

2nd: When Microsoft notifies them about a purchase, they should process that

3rd: And they should deliver the online products.

Normally after a failed purchase you should contact EA and they can verify the transaction and you can get your product even if the purchase didn’t register the first time due to technical problems. It is a perfect little system.

Only one should compensate the poor player: EA. And even then they should only deliver the products in question.

I would like to finish at this point. But it would be highly unfair. I bought some in game items in another EA title, on another platform. I haven’t got the product I paid for, so I contacted the support. Even after months, there was no response on the original support ticket. Other support channels said only their studio can verify the purchases, so phone support, origin support, etc. cannot help.

And on Facebook site of the studio, quite a few people complained about unresponsive support. And I was not alone with such purchase related problems.

They told me how to contact some part of the management about the issue. Still no response. Months later, I managed to talk with one helpful support agent. While support was unable to give full compensation (of equal value) and was unable to handle the issue, they recognized: they promised an answer from someone higher level in hierarchy and compensated for the delay with some cheap game key.

In these months I spoke people who ended up with same problems on XBOX, Playstation, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, etc. devices with EA games. But I haven’t seen similar problems from other publishers. And most other publishers tend to make sure if you contact their support you can talk with someone who can handle your request and there are no several months long delay.

If there would be nothing more to add, I would be happy. But the issue doesn’t end here. I got some nice Bioware points, Launched Mass Effect 3, and tried to buy some packs. Of course I only seen an Error message, my purchase wasn’t possible. And tried it for a few days and the issue stays the same. At that point there were no external store involved with in game purchases.

EA has quite a history.

EA was voted as worst company in USA a few times, but here in Europe they were even worse. And the incident I described weren’t the first one I had with them.

EA advertised some release dates for several pieces of software in Hungary, and their terms of purchase said the game will be playable on the announced release date.

For quite a few games I waited for the release date. The game didn’t activate. Contacted support. They told me to wait a few hours. On next day they found out in our region there is a different release date. And even if I said their offer became a binding contract at the purchase, they simply didn’t care about it.

It happened repeatedly, and some release dates were wrong on their page even months after I have notified them.

Now why it is so important? Lets see their little big dispute with Steam. Both sides confirmed it is about DLC sales and in game purchases. It is about who should handle in game purchases? Should EA handle them fully? Should Steam do it for them?

I know one thing for sure. After some issues with EA not fulfilling their side of contract I chosen to buy their products on Steam. When I explained why I have chosen Steam instead of Origin on their Hungarian Facebook page, first their team accused me of lieing. When I linked up the statements of both EA and Steam about the issue, and proof about past problems, they removed the post and banned me from the page.

When the issue was seen by higher level EA support staff they promised me to restore my access, gave some compensation. They haven’t managed to do it, but said the whole page will be remade and then it is 100% sure I will have access to it. Their new Facebook page is different. Now if you are Hungarian you are automatically on their Hungarian page. Yet I still can’t access that, so the promises of their senior support is meaningless.

So I wouldn’t blame Microsoft for any FIFA purchase. I wouldn’t blame them, because they are bound by contract, and they cannot refund or compensate for the purchases. They cannot see what happened in game, and if they would refund such purchases that would be exploitable. And they have contractual responsibilities to publishers.

I would fully blame EA for the incident. And I am not surprised about it.

But when someone tells us in his signature that he is someone important at world bank, he is fully responsible for the damage his story does. Microsoft in this case done nothing wrong, but I am sure both media, fans of rival consoles, etc. will pick up the story. And the story does damage to their reputation. And it costs them millions.

If at purchase the system wouldn’t verify your password, etc. (which is complex) and would only ask for a 3 digit key, that would be less secure, and it is optional to use a card this way.

Now that big someone at world bank decides to say he speaks as a private person and a parent, and won’t sue anyone. And won’t take much responsibility for the post he made. After all when he can see the issue is at EA site it would be fair to update the post and explain the problem isn’t at EA side.

And if he is responsible, it would be time to act as well. Why? Because the moment when he attacked one side, if he takes responsibility, he should try to fix the damage done. He probably can’t pay for it. His updates wouldn’t be widely reported. But if he takes legal action against EA? It gets reported and the damage can get reversed.

People say, IMF, World Bank are led by people who often make mistakes, but almost never take responsibility for them. So I am not surprised about how the “big someone” at World bank try to back out from the story without taking responsibility for the damage done by his words.

Ohh, and it isn’t the first time when such “big someones” at IMF, World Bank, etc. decided to support thieves like EA.