Just did the webchat again and I have been told my query had been halted for unknown reasons and has now been put back in the specialist queue. But she did confirm that I can open a new account with name, birthdate, country, the same and with a new email address. I can use this to purchase the game and as long as I contact them on the day of purchase it can be moved onto my existing blocked account. I have been given an approximate timescale of seven working days for the specialist team to get back to me via email. I was also told that if I need to check up on where the query is up too, open a new ticket, don't click on the existing ticket as this bounces it out of the specialist queue and into the webchat people's queue. I hope this information is helpful for other people.
It's been a week now. Spoken with 8 "Advisors" 3 "Specialists" and have just been told that it will be 3-4 weeks due to a high number of people with the same issue. BUT They offered me a brand new (Well 10 years old) version of Sims 2 as compensation! These guys really have zero idea. So much conflicting advice. So little customer service.
Well I cancelled my account, and the new one I made to report this one as hacked as per their protocol. I lost Sims 3 & 4, DA and the full ME series. I probably lost all my Spore creations too, which I still shared with my kids, as it was linked even though that is via Steam. Five days reporting an account hacked without any response, and well over a week with the purchase fully escalated, and still three days waiting with an unknown deadline was enough. Ironically, customer service was prompt, polite and competent in cancelling both accounts!
I am in the US. So theoretically, I could have left the account locked and still used it via cards purchased in person at physical stores. With my CC removed that was secure, but there are two problems. I live in a state that charges internet sales tax and I would be buying wallet denominations well over what I needed. That excess money would be insecure in the wallet between purchases. At least my CC notifies me. Who knows when I would notice if I had been hacked again and it was gone with EA not notifying? Also I have a genetic condition, Ehlers-Danlos Hypermobility that makes driving extremely painful. Driving to get a card to use online is not something I will do.
I can only hope my willingness to cancel an established account over this helps put pressure on them to start properly resolving this for others. Especially those outside the US, who for that reason also have some difficulty acquiring cards to use in an EA wallet. Have fun Simming all, I do have my memories at least.
i ordered it from game stop but im waiting for my emial on how to download. ill let you all know if that works
EDIT:worked. dont bother to buy it right from ea. if you get it from gamestop,its still a download and yes you have to download it to origin but it works
Just thought I'd post an update to say that my account has been unlocked, so hopefully it won't be long now till this is sorted for us all.
I had sent an email and was contacted by Worldwide Customer Relations, I had raised concerns that we were not notified when our accounts were locked and only found out there was a problem when trying to make a purchase. I was assured that the issue was being looked at, at a higher level and changes have been made and are going to continue to be made to the way that this issue is dealt with.
I know this has been very frustrating but hopefully in the future if this happens there will be a clearer policy in place to help us customers get things sorted.
@altad1 I'm very happy to hear you finally got this sorted out. I just don't have the patience to go through all the things you dealt with it's just to frustrating , one phone call to customer accounts was all I could handle. So my account will probably be locked forever.
I got an email this morning as well about my account being unlocked. Hopefully EA looks at their security a little better so things like this don't happen in the future.
Thanks @Frn0731, if I were you I'd call them again and ask if it has been referred to the billing dept, as this appears to be what should happen, hopefully that's all it should take now.
Looks like the block has been lifted from my account as well. I refuse to buy Outdoor Retreat at this stage due to the issue we have all had. Until I get a proper apology from EA/Origin's Chief Executive Officer or Chief Financial Officer, I will wait til this goes on sale. Yes I might be missing out, but they have done the wrong thing by me and their customers who were in a similar situation to me.
Below is the complaint I have included on an email to the person who ensured my account was unlocked by the Payments team.
The following is a complaint on Electronic Arts/Origin and their handling of the issue.
At no stage did Electronic Arts/Origin notify myself, or other customers, that our accounts had been compromised. It was only when we legitimately wished to make a purchase, and then received errors, that we were alerted to the fact. We had to do our own investigating to confirm that our accounts had been compromised. When we advised the game advisors at the EA online help, the advisors kept asking "have you contacted your bank" as they would not accept the issue was on the Electronic Arts/Origin system.
I appreciate that Electronic Arts/Origin blocked the accounts from making purchases, however it is the lack of notification which has a lot of us
upset. There are Sims customers who have now closed their Origin accounts due to this issue and have now lost all download copies of their Sims 3, Sims 4 and other games.
Electronic Arts/Origin need to investigate why the initial hack happened and what they need to change to ensure their customers are not put through the same issue again. It is quite stressful realising that your account has been compromised and that you have not had any contact from the company you have the account with. If this was a bank, we would be withdrawing our money and going to a more secure bank.
In my personal opinion, Electronic Arts/Origin need to make a public apology to all their customers stating what steps they will take to ensure that this does not happen again. The Payments Team need to contact all affected customers immediately to remedy the situation.
This is the only way that Electronic Arts/Origin customers will be able to trust Electronic Arts/Origin in the future.
Well, I did finally get an e-mail today. Though still no call back on the hack report, disconcerting. The e-mail I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. They want me to log back into my now deleted account to discuss the payment problem.
oh my !! I am worried that this is going to be the way EA is now going to distribute all the sim content , so much frustration for so many of us .
I was cut off during my live chat and never bothered to contact them again as it seemed like a dead end. I thing i will suffer because of that with future game packs.
Well, now I have three follow up e-mails. One asking me to log in to the deleted account. One just asking me to get back to them, and another asking me to log in to the ticket system using the ticket id and code. I used reply to respond to the e-mails via e-mail. Nothing. I got the third one today and decided it was possible to log into my ticket and I still had the access code for the ticket. So, I tried that ... and I get told the ticket does not exist! But ... but ... it just auto mailed me.
And while I typed this the third e-mail just gave me an auto reply saying basically "we don't read this mailbox". So one out of three times, it tells you that. I really miss my EA games. But it seems like the only thing EA customer service can do competently is cancel an account still.
Update:
So I after several copy&paste's returned no ticket, I tried a link. It did bring up a ticket. So, I requested a call back. This time, I got one! I explained that I had cancelled the account after waiting a business week for a call back on a "help I've been hacked" ticket. They did not disagree that was an unreasonable step. They were willing to try to find information on the old account, but it seems I had deleted it long enough ago (Jan 23rd by post above when I did!) that it was gone. So they offered to assign me new keys on a new account for things I could prove proof of ownership. My previous online things will be gone. I did not ask for my Sims3 back (so many xpacs to find), but the Mass Effect set, Dragon Age:O, and Sims 4 were put on the new acct. I redownloaded Origin and was able to buy the xpac now. Keith H. was very helpful. So, now more downloading. But I can play again! And on a functional unhacked Origin account.
Just thought I'd post an update to say that my account has been unlocked, so hopefully it won't be long now till this is sorted for us all.
I had sent an email and was contacted by Worldwide Customer Relations, I had raised concerns that we were not notified when our accounts were locked and only found out there was a problem when trying to make a purchase. I was assured that the issue was being looked at, at a higher level and changes have been made and are going to continue to be made to the way that this issue is dealt with.
I know this has been very frustrating but hopefully in the future if this happens there will be a clearer policy in place to help us customers get things sorted.
Mine too was unlocked today. I e-mailed the Chief Exec of EA twice and this got picked up by a member of the Executive team.
Finally, after jumping through several more hoops, she managed to get it sorted, and I could finally add a card again today (although I will only use this as a last resort now).
I did say that there were many others having problems after being hacked, and I asked why it wasn't sorted so quickly when I contacted EA Help. Apparently the reason is that there is a backlog??!!
My advice would be to e-mail the Chief Exec and tell him that you are going to e-mail him every day till your account is fixed. I only e-mailed for two days before I got picked up and dealt with far quicker than going through the 'help' desks.
Hey guys so I finally got around to contacting origin. I got a advisor through the live chat (so much easier for me than talking on the phone because of my Asperger's) and I explained the situation and he definitely knew about the issue and put an expedite on my case to send over to a "specialist". i am hoping it gets fixed within the next couple of days so i can pre-order the new expansion pack! if anyone is still having trouble, contact Origin or EA. they'll give you a case number. SAVE YOUR ENTIRE LIVE CHAT FOR PROOF.
well they replied back to me and said that apparently I have a bank issue so now I have to call my bank and find out why there is a block on Origin through them! Great. Grr...
First of all, is anyone else not surprised that @SimGuruBChick hasn't been back to this thread?
I realized my Origin account and credit card had been used to purchase a FIFA 15 game on 12/31 when I saw the charge through my bank. When I contacted them through live chat, after waiting almost an hour for a rep to be available, I was at first told there was no problem and no charge to my card even though I could see it online at my bank's site. Turned out the chat rep had neglected to click the plus sign beside the first failed attempt to see that the charge went through the second time. After I requested and received an apology for having been called a liar, the chat rep gave me a 15% discount code for my next Origin purchase. He also asked me three times to be sure to let my bank know no charge-back was needed as they were correcting the problem. Three days later, the charge was gone from my account as if it had never existed.
Then, on January 9th, I received an e-mail from Origin including the following:
"We are contacting you to notify you that we have found your FIFA 15 account, to be in violation of our Terms of Service.
You may violate the Terms of Service if, as determined by EA in its sole discretion, you:
Promote, encourage or take part in any activity involving hacking, cracking, phishing, taking advantage of exploits or cheats and/or distribution of counterfeit software and/or virtual currency/items.
Due to the above we have permanently blocked your access to your Origin account."
As I could still access my Origin account and all my games, I wrongly assumed EA/Origin actually had a system in place to correct this problem on accounts they knew to have been phished through their own site. But, when I tried to purchase the Outdoor Retreat pack through Origin, I got the message that my account had been blocked from new purchases. So much for that 15% discount.
My second attempt to be connected to a live chart person resulted in his telling me I had to go through the EA help site to e-mail a request to have the problem corrected, which I did. The chat rep said I should have a response within 24 hours. The help form itself said it could take up to 72 hours. It has now been 16 days with no response.
Today, I bought an online game code for Outdoor Retreat from Amazon and entered the code into my Origin account, where the game promptly downloaded and installed.
Tomorrow, I start using my cell phone's unlimited calling/free long distance to call EA's corporate office. I plan to keep calling up the ladder there until I find someone who understands and cares that:
1) Longtime customers who have been purchasing EA/Maxis games since the original SimCity are being treated by their company as if they are committing the crime with which they were victimized through their site; and
2) Our "punishment" is to force us to buy their games from an outside vendor, rather than directly from EA/Origin, which is surely cutting into their profits and is a classic case of cutting off their noses to spite their faces.
tl;dr Me, too. Buy an online game code from Amazon and enter it into your account at Origin - at least in the US.
Well I can't seem to pay by Paypal or by my registered cards, and I can't get hold of an online code for Outdoor Retreat via Amazon or anywhere else (listed as unavailable, I'm in the UK) so I guess EA don't want my money. I don't know why I continue to buy Sims games. I need to stop supporting a horrifically terrible company.
@SophieElizabethAnn, if your account is locked you can't use paypal either, same thing happened to me. You can use Paysafe, I'm in the UK too. I bought it at a local shop and put the 10 digit code in, after my account being hacked I'm not too keen to use my debit or credit cards again.
@SophieElizabethAnn, if your account is locked you can't use paypal either, same thing happened to me. You can use Paysafe, I'm in the UK too. I bought it at a local shop and put the 10 digit code in, after my account being hacked I'm not too keen to use my debit or credit cards again.
How do I know if my account has been locked? I haven't played the sims in a couple of months and I just logged in to find I can't buy things. Thanks for the info on Paysafe although that is a PITA because of where I live. Do you know if topping up my origin wallet (EA wallet) for it to take funds from there will work?
Comments
"I'm a Psychic, not a Saint."
I am in the US. So theoretically, I could have left the account locked and still used it via cards purchased in person at physical stores. With my CC removed that was secure, but there are two problems. I live in a state that charges internet sales tax and I would be buying wallet denominations well over what I needed. That excess money would be insecure in the wallet between purchases. At least my CC notifies me. Who knows when I would notice if I had been hacked again and it was gone with EA not notifying? Also I have a genetic condition, Ehlers-Danlos Hypermobility that makes driving extremely painful. Driving to get a card to use online is not something I will do.
I can only hope my willingness to cancel an established account over this helps put pressure on them to start properly resolving this for others. Especially those outside the US, who for that reason also have some difficulty acquiring cards to use in an EA wallet. Have fun Simming all, I do have my memories at least.
EDIT:worked. dont bother to buy it right from ea. if you get it from gamestop,its still a download and yes you have to download it to origin but it works
I had sent an email and was contacted by Worldwide Customer Relations, I had raised concerns that we were not notified when our accounts were locked and only found out there was a problem when trying to make a purchase. I was assured that the issue was being looked at, at a higher level and changes have been made and are going to continue to be made to the way that this issue is dealt with.
I know this has been very frustrating but hopefully in the future if this happens there will be a clearer policy in place to help us customers get things sorted.
@kipperfan01 and @usa3766 I'm glad it's sorted for you.
The following is a complaint on Electronic Arts/Origin and their handling of the issue.
At no stage did Electronic Arts/Origin notify myself, or other customers, that our accounts had been compromised. It was only when we legitimately wished to make a purchase, and then received errors, that we were alerted to the fact. We had to do our own investigating to confirm that our accounts had been compromised. When we advised the game advisors at the EA online help, the advisors kept asking "have you contacted your bank" as they would not accept the issue was on the Electronic Arts/Origin system.
I appreciate that Electronic Arts/Origin blocked the accounts from making purchases, however it is the lack of notification which has a lot of us
upset. There are Sims customers who have now closed their Origin accounts due to this issue and have now lost all download copies of their Sims 3, Sims 4 and other games.
Electronic Arts/Origin need to investigate why the initial hack happened and what they need to change to ensure their customers are not put through the same issue again. It is quite stressful realising that your account has been compromised and that you have not had any contact from the company you have the account with. If this was a bank, we would be withdrawing our money and going to a more secure bank.
In my personal opinion, Electronic Arts/Origin need to make a public apology to all their customers stating what steps they will take to ensure that this does not happen again. The Payments Team need to contact all affected customers immediately to remedy the situation.
This is the only way that Electronic Arts/Origin customers will be able to trust Electronic Arts/Origin in the future.
I was cut off during my live chat and never bothered to contact them again as it seemed like a dead end. I thing i will suffer because of that with future game packs.
And while I typed this the third e-mail just gave me an auto reply saying basically "we don't read this mailbox". So one out of three times, it tells you that. I really miss my EA games. But it seems like the only thing EA customer service can do competently is cancel an account still.
Update:
So I after several copy&paste's returned no ticket, I tried a link. It did bring up a ticket. So, I requested a call back. This time, I got one! I explained that I had cancelled the account after waiting a business week for a call back on a "help I've been hacked" ticket. They did not disagree that was an unreasonable step. They were willing to try to find information on the old account, but it seems I had deleted it long enough ago (Jan 23rd by post above when I did!) that it was gone. So they offered to assign me new keys on a new account for things I could prove proof of ownership. My previous online things will be gone. I did not ask for my Sims3 back (so many xpacs to find), but the Mass Effect set, Dragon Age:O, and Sims 4 were put on the new acct. I redownloaded Origin and was able to buy the xpac now. Keith H. was very helpful. So, now more downloading. But I can play again! And on a functional unhacked Origin account.
Mine too was unlocked today. I e-mailed the Chief Exec of EA twice and this got picked up by a member of the Executive team.
Finally, after jumping through several more hoops, she managed to get it sorted, and I could finally add a card again today (although I will only use this as a last resort now).
I did say that there were many others having problems after being hacked, and I asked why it wasn't sorted so quickly when I contacted EA Help. Apparently the reason is that there is a backlog??!!
My advice would be to e-mail the Chief Exec and tell him that you are going to e-mail him every day till your account is fixed. I only e-mailed for two days before I got picked up and dealt with far quicker than going through the 'help' desks.
"I'm a Psychic, not a Saint."
"I'm a Psychic, not a Saint."
I realized my Origin account and credit card had been used to purchase a FIFA 15 game on 12/31 when I saw the charge through my bank. When I contacted them through live chat, after waiting almost an hour for a rep to be available, I was at first told there was no problem and no charge to my card even though I could see it online at my bank's site. Turned out the chat rep had neglected to click the plus sign beside the first failed attempt to see that the charge went through the second time. After I requested and received an apology for having been called a liar, the chat rep gave me a 15% discount code for my next Origin purchase. He also asked me three times to be sure to let my bank know no charge-back was needed as they were correcting the problem. Three days later, the charge was gone from my account as if it had never existed.
Then, on January 9th, I received an e-mail from Origin including the following:
"We are contacting you to notify you that we have found your FIFA 15 account, to be in violation of our Terms of Service.
You may violate the Terms of Service if, as determined by EA in its sole discretion, you:
Promote, encourage or take part in any activity involving hacking, cracking, phishing, taking advantage of exploits or cheats and/or distribution of counterfeit software and/or virtual currency/items.
Due to the above we have permanently blocked your access to your Origin account."
As I could still access my Origin account and all my games, I wrongly assumed EA/Origin actually had a system in place to correct this problem on accounts they knew to have been phished through their own site. But, when I tried to purchase the Outdoor Retreat pack through Origin, I got the message that my account had been blocked from new purchases. So much for that 15% discount.
My second attempt to be connected to a live chart person resulted in his telling me I had to go through the EA help site to e-mail a request to have the problem corrected, which I did. The chat rep said I should have a response within 24 hours. The help form itself said it could take up to 72 hours. It has now been 16 days with no response.
Today, I bought an online game code for Outdoor Retreat from Amazon and entered the code into my Origin account, where the game promptly downloaded and installed.
Tomorrow, I start using my cell phone's unlimited calling/free long distance to call EA's corporate office. I plan to keep calling up the ladder there until I find someone who understands and cares that:
1) Longtime customers who have been purchasing EA/Maxis games since the original SimCity are being treated by their company as if they are committing the crime with which they were victimized through their site; and
2) Our "punishment" is to force us to buy their games from an outside vendor, rather than directly from EA/Origin, which is surely cutting into their profits and is a classic case of cutting off their noses to spite their faces.
tl;dr Me, too. Buy an online game code from Amazon and enter it into your account at Origin - at least in the US.