Appauling EA customer service

Greebo · 15 Mar 2011 at 19:12

I have had an hour's chat with EA about my non working code for a free game and 50% off code from buying Dead Space 2 which I never received the code for.

Apart from them denying that they would ever give 50% off or a free game and myself supplying proof (apparantly screenshots from inside Outlook are not valid and they needed a screenshot of the actual email I received :confused:

) they can only give me a 20% off coupon.

I asked 4 times for the contact details of somebody at EA who could sort replacing coupons of the right value and was just ignored. They can't even give their manager's name or email out as its company policy. You aren't even allowed to know their name (apart from their first name)

When I pointed out that they advertised all over the net about the 50% off voucher with dead space 2 and sent them my recepit from the EA store which listed it (but missing any voucher code) and said if I didn't get it I would report them to Trading Standards for false advertising I was advised that chat would be terminated!

All I want is my vouchers! :mad:

Disgusted with their attitude and will not purchase from them again. :mad:

Kasc · 15 Mar 2011 at 19:40

Did you not ask for a supervisor?

Greebo · 15 Mar 2011 at 20:00

Yes I did. I was told that I couldn't talk to one but if I emailed her then she would pass my email onto to him. After 3 times of asking she admitted her manager's name was Darian.

When she refused to give surname or his email address and I asked what happens if there are 100 Darians working at EA she said that there is only one Darian working today so it wouldn;t be a problem. :rolleyes:

And company policy means that she is only allowed to give me her first name as well.

orderoftheflame · 15 Mar 2011 at 20:03

Sounds like you had an idiot for support.

EA were pretty responsive at replacing one my my non-working Rock Band codes. :S

Tefal · 15 Mar 2011 at 20:07

get on to trading standards like you threatened?

Greebo · 15 Mar 2011 at 20:08

Tefal said:
get on to trading standards like you threatened?

I will. I am just ranting as I shouldn't need to. It was just a simple request for my 50% code I didn't receive. I should have known it wouldn't be easy when they first thing she said was EA would never give 50% codes away as 20% was the maximum they did.

Chaos · 15 Mar 2011 at 20:17

Speak to consumer direct and they can advise what to do next -

http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/about/how-we-help/

Secret_Window · 15 Mar 2011 at 20:20

EA have always have had pretty poor customer service, I have experienced it myself several times so I do empathise, I really do. Sucks.

Amnesia · 15 Mar 2011 at 20:33

EA Chat service is pretty poor from my experience. Give their support a call instead, the last time I called I spoke to a lady in Texas and the problem was sorted pretty swiftly.....she just gave me the serial to another game.

Greebo · 15 Mar 2011 at 20:46

Amnesia said:
EA Chat service is pretty poor from my experience. Give their support a call instead, the last time I called I spoke to a lady in Texas and the problem was sorted pretty swiftly.....she just gave me the serial to another game.

I might try that before any other course of action in case I got a bad one.

This is my email I have just recieved from the woman on chat:

Thank you for contacting EA Support regarding the 50% off voucher for a purchase. I am sorry that I was not able to assist you today. We do not have the ability to generate 50% off coupons to the EA Store. If you would still like once Battlefield 3 has come out we will be able to take 50% off of the order then. Should you require further assistance about this or any Electronic Arts game in the future, please visit our web site and review our extensive Self Help Knowledge base (http://support.ea.com).

I told her during chat I would then miss out on the pre-order extras so that wasn't good enough. Plus she hasn;t mention my free game up to £49.99 coupon which doesn't work.

In the chat she initially said such a thing would never have been sent from Ea. I supplied the proof and then she claimed it was for £49.99 for any purchase over £49.99 from the store to which I replied you don;t sell anything over £49.99 so why supply a code as compensation which you can never use and then she said it was only a 20% code.

She also said that I should have used my £49.99 off and 50% off code on the same item as that invalidates both codes! :eek:

To which i pointed out I would have to be an idiot to input a £49.99 off on a £39.99 game and try and use a 50% off code (which I had never been sent anyway) as well. :rolleyes:

franco_22 · 15 Mar 2011 at 21:23

You've spelt appalling wrong, that's probably why they didn't take you serious.

Edit: Also, why should anyone be obliged to give you their last name? It's obviously not allowed for safety and security reasons, they don't know what kind of nut job you might be. Second of all, have fun not buying anything from EA again considering how big they are...

Stuff · 15 Mar 2011 at 21:31

Its advisable to ask for an employee number or something instead of a surname... Companies will usually give these out. Having someone's first name is no good to anyone.

Greebo · 15 Mar 2011 at 21:36

franco_22 said:
You've spelt appalling wrong, that's probably why they didn't take you serious.

Edit: Also, why should anyone be obliged to give you their last name? It's obviously not allowed for safety and security reasons, they don't know what kind of nut job you might be. Second of all, have fun not buying anything from EA again considering how big they are...

Well I never used that word to them and seriously? You think they didn't give me what I was entitled to because I spelt a word wrong? :rolleyes:

And I will buy EA games, I just meant I am not using EA store digital download anymore. They only reason I did all these years is that you picked up vouchers which made them cheaper than elsewhere. Without vouchers they are always dearer than Steam and other places.

No point if the vouchers they give you don't work so easy decision.

And why not give your name or your email address? I know I could be a nutter but seriously. Would you refuse to give your name to a customer complaining and refuse to give the name of your manager? What about a generic email address of a department which could deal with discounts over 20%? Just saying you can't handle the problem and you can't give me a number, name or email of anybody who can is not good customer service. Neither is refusing to pass me onto your manager. When I first asked to be put in touch with her manager she first claimed she was one.

Safety and security is just an excuse. After all I emailed my complaint to her asking for it to be passed to a manager and all I got was an email back from her.

So I am pretty sure she hasn't passed it on or her manager doesn't care.

Evilsod · 15 Mar 2011 at 21:55

Why would anyone pass on a complaint about them to there manager :confused:

Surely theres an email you can send complaints to directly.

Greebo · 15 Mar 2011 at 22:03

Evilsod said:
Why would anyone pass on a complaint about them to there manager

Surely theres an email you can send complaints to directly.

Exactly but she wouldn;t give me any other email or the name of her manager or any other department. I did say what if I want to complain about you and why would you even pass the email on to your manager but she just ignored me.

If you can find another email adddress, please share. Customer services is all I can find.

deko · 15 Mar 2011 at 22:25

As far as I can know, and from personal experience, the staff aren't allowed to give out their surname, but obviously this isn't an excuse for terrible service.

Matmulder · 15 Mar 2011 at 23:08

IIRC you have to make an official (written?) complaint and give them a chance to respond before Trading Standards will get involved.

Definately make an official complaint though, companies don't like TS getting involved so are usually fairly swift at resolving.

Greebo · 16 Mar 2011 at 15:00

Phoned them up and the best the phone team can manage is a 15% off code :mad:

However, the guy says he has upped my call to tier 3 for somebody to look into my two codes so I will wait and see what they say.

Ampeg · 16 Mar 2011 at 15:07

franco_22 said:
You've spelt appalling wrong, that's probably why they didn't take you serious.

I don't think the OP took you seriously due to your misuse of the term serious

.

My experiences with EA customer service have been surprisingly good in the past, hopefully if you keep at it you'll eventually get hold of someone who can help!

Evilsod · 16 Mar 2011 at 15:13

Ampeg said:
My experiences with EA customer service have been surprisingly good in the past, hopefully if you keep at it you'll eventually get hold of someone who can help!

Call me crazy but that doesn't sound like the definition of good customer service...