What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? South Carolina
After my most recent fiasco dealing with EA, I have extreme trouble believing that some of these acts are not worthy of making it into Small Claims Court.
The most recent incident occurred after a pre-order purchase I made from their online store for a game called "Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning." The checkout process was easy enough, and I was prompted with the choice to either download the game through their online download service, or have a hard copy shipped to me the day the game was released. I took a second to review what the online download consisted of, but quickly backed out after reading that I would only have access to my game for 6 months, and would have to pay extra to have it be readily available to me for 2 years. So I opted to have the hard copy sent to me through the mail.
I made this purchase a week before the game came out, as they listed several benefits for pre-ordering on their website, consisting of the opportunity to play in the closed beta, a 3 day head start on the game, and a few in-game items.
A week goes by. I receive my codes the day of release (nullifying my opportunity to play the beta, or participate in the head start.) However, I was still unable to play the game because the hard copy hadn't arrived, which housed my CD-Key that was required to activate the game.
Yet another week goes by, and I receive an email from EA claiming that my order had been canceled;
> Dear John Doe:
> Thank you for ordering from EA Store (US). At your request or at the
request of the fulfiller and/or manufacturer, the following was cancelled
from your order.
>
> Product Name Qty Ordered Reason for Cancellation
> Warhammer O 1
>
>
> If you have further questions regarding your order, please click on the
link below for assistance:
> support.ea.com
>
> Please note: This e-mail message was sent from a notification-only
address that cannot accept incoming e-mail. Please do not reply to this
message.
>
> Sincerely,
> Customer Service
I was confused, because I had issued no such request, and the email contained no reason as to why my order was canceled, so I followed the email's directions and posted a question concerning the matter.
12 days go by, and my question had still not been responding to, and I had yet to receive an actual refund for this supposed "cancellation." So I began to scourge the internet looking for a number to call, as EA has no form of customer service on their website listed apart from their automated system.
I eventually find a "customer support" number, but found out that it was only yet another automated system, granted me no option to speak with a customer representative about the matter.
Finally, several weeks after the initial release of the game, I find a number for the actual EA headquarters, and decide to give it a try. I am initially "greeted" by a rather rude operator, and I ask to speak to a customer service representative. I am then connected to this seemingly secret society of customer service representatives EA has. I explain my issue to them, and after 10 minutes, I am simply told "It appears there was a glitch with our system, sorry about that." Then I tell them I had not received my refund for the game that I purchased a month ago, that was canceled by a "glitch" in their system. He looks into it, and then notices that I had indeed not received any compensation for this canceled purchase, and reassures me that I will receive my refund within the next 2 - 3 days.
My question is this; Had I not spent the time I did looking for a way to contact EA other than by their unresponsive support website, they would have the money I spent on the game the I didn't receive, and not done a thing about it, and this frustrates me beyond all means. EA is a flawed company, and I wish to do everything I can do get the message across. Are their recent actions suitable for small claims court?
Thank you very much, and sorry for the long post,
Jack
After my most recent fiasco dealing with EA, I have extreme trouble believing that some of these acts are not worthy of making it into Small Claims Court.
The most recent incident occurred after a pre-order purchase I made from their online store for a game called "Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning." The checkout process was easy enough, and I was prompted with the choice to either download the game through their online download service, or have a hard copy shipped to me the day the game was released. I took a second to review what the online download consisted of, but quickly backed out after reading that I would only have access to my game for 6 months, and would have to pay extra to have it be readily available to me for 2 years. So I opted to have the hard copy sent to me through the mail.
I made this purchase a week before the game came out, as they listed several benefits for pre-ordering on their website, consisting of the opportunity to play in the closed beta, a 3 day head start on the game, and a few in-game items.
A week goes by. I receive my codes the day of release (nullifying my opportunity to play the beta, or participate in the head start.) However, I was still unable to play the game because the hard copy hadn't arrived, which housed my CD-Key that was required to activate the game.
Yet another week goes by, and I receive an email from EA claiming that my order had been canceled;
> Dear John Doe:
> Thank you for ordering from EA Store (US). At your request or at the
request of the fulfiller and/or manufacturer, the following was cancelled
from your order.
>
> Product Name Qty Ordered Reason for Cancellation
> Warhammer O 1
>
>
> If you have further questions regarding your order, please click on the
link below for assistance:
> support.ea.com
>
> Please note: This e-mail message was sent from a notification-only
address that cannot accept incoming e-mail. Please do not reply to this
message.
>
> Sincerely,
> Customer Service
I was confused, because I had issued no such request, and the email contained no reason as to why my order was canceled, so I followed the email's directions and posted a question concerning the matter.
12 days go by, and my question had still not been responding to, and I had yet to receive an actual refund for this supposed "cancellation." So I began to scourge the internet looking for a number to call, as EA has no form of customer service on their website listed apart from their automated system.
I eventually find a "customer support" number, but found out that it was only yet another automated system, granted me no option to speak with a customer representative about the matter.
Finally, several weeks after the initial release of the game, I find a number for the actual EA headquarters, and decide to give it a try. I am initially "greeted" by a rather rude operator, and I ask to speak to a customer service representative. I am then connected to this seemingly secret society of customer service representatives EA has. I explain my issue to them, and after 10 minutes, I am simply told "It appears there was a glitch with our system, sorry about that." Then I tell them I had not received my refund for the game that I purchased a month ago, that was canceled by a "glitch" in their system. He looks into it, and then notices that I had indeed not received any compensation for this canceled purchase, and reassures me that I will receive my refund within the next 2 - 3 days.
My question is this; Had I not spent the time I did looking for a way to contact EA other than by their unresponsive support website, they would have the money I spent on the game the I didn't receive, and not done a thing about it, and this frustrates me beyond all means. EA is a flawed company, and I wish to do everything I can do get the message across. Are their recent actions suitable for small claims court?
Thank you very much, and sorry for the long post,
Jack
