Ok, so not extremely awful, but more like terrible according to the rating given by Customer Service Scoreboard. According to the site, EA is “ranked #169 out of the 207 companies that have a CustomerServiceScoreboard.com rating with an overall score of 24.15 out of a possible 200. This score rates Electronic Arts customer service and customer support as Terrible.”
But wait, in the word of the great Billy Mays – “There’s more!” How about EA’s review of the past 3 years from the Better Business Bureau?
879 complaints in the last 36 months
These complaints concerned :77 regarding Advertising Issues
1 – Advertised price not honored
3 – Advertised product not available
5 – Advertised service not available
3 – Advertised terms not honored
1 – Advertisement did not disclose all conditions required to take advantage of an offer
41 – Advertisement misrepresented a product
4 – Advertisement misrepresented a service
2 – Bait & switch advertisement
11 – False or unsubstantiated claims in advertisement
6 – None of the Above – Advertising Complaint Issue73 regarding Billing or Collection Issues
18 – Failure to correct billing errors
1 – Failure to substantiate charges
3 – Improper collection practices
9 – None of the Above – Credit, Billing or Collection Complaint Issue
13 – Unauthorized bank debits
29 – Unauthorized credit card charges12 regarding Contract Issues
3 – Failure to honor a contract or agreement
1 – Invalid or false contract
8 – None of the Above – Contract Complaint Issue99 regarding Customer Service Issues
51 – Failure to provide promised assistance or support for products or services
20 – Failure to respond to phone calls or written requests for assistance or support
2 – Inappropriate behavior by customer service personnel
26 – None of the Above – Customer Service Complaint Issue
38 regarding Delivery Issues
2 – Late delivery of products
31 – Non-delivery of products
3 – Non-delivery of services
2 – None of the Above – Delivery Complaint Issue23 regarding Guarantee or Warranty Issues
3 – Disputed warranty coverage and/or terms
5 – Failure to honor service under the terms of warranties
4 – Failure to provide promised written warranty or guarantee
11 – None of the Above – Guarantee or Warranty Complaint Issue441 regarding Product Issues
200 – Defective, damaged, or incorrect product received
241 – None of the Above – Product Quality Complaint Issue44 regarding Refund or Exchange Issues
8 – Failure to honor promised refunds, exchanges, or credit
13 – Failure to honor refund, exchange or credit policies
23 – None of the Above – Refund or Exchange Complaint Issue9 regarding Repair Issues
3 – Delayed completion of repair
1 – Improper or inferior repair
4 – None of the Above – Repair Complaint Issue
1 – Repairs resulted in additional damage23 regarding Sales Practice Issues
5 – None of the Above – Sales Complaint Issue
1 – Sales presentation did not disclose key conditions of the offer
9 – Sales presentation misrepresented the product
3 – Sales presentation misrepresented the service
1 – Sales presentation not consistent with advertisement
4 – Sales presentation used dishonest sales practices
40 regarding Service Issues
3 – Delayed completion of service
2 – Failure to honor service estimate or agreement
20 – Improper or inferior service
14 – None of the Above – Service Complaint Issue
1 – Unauthorized service
Listen, I don’t know if John Riccitiello reads this site – I highly doubt it but I know employees of EA do. If only this could somehow reach him to let him know how the fans feel – those who really matter in giving him the paycheck. I may not have my wall lined up with various business degrees, but I do have something called ‘common sense’. And my senses tell me that gamers don’t want to get ripped off by over-priced DLC, we don’t want half-assed games with patches that cause more harm then good, and when we do have issues, we actually would like them resolved when we call Tech Support…because that’s WHAT THEY ARE SUPPOSE TO DO!
Hey, don’t listen to us Johnny boy…we don’t know what we’re talking about…You just remember that whenever you get kicked from position as CEO for EA. Hopefully the next person that will be put in place can actually focus in areas that matter the most. Perhaps thats why EA keeps losing money – the gamers have wised up!
Thanks to LittleV and CMFinley94 for providing this information at the official Sims 3 Forum.
I think EA is quite good. Caryl Shaw fixed up my Spore account which was completly broken so I could play again.
Ah yes, but Caryl isn’t a part of EA’s Tech Support – this is mostly chewing them out. There are a number of employees who actually care and try to solve issues, but for the most part the general Tech Support department are the ones not doing their jobs correctly. 😛
ive only had to call EA once, and it was an hour and a half of great anticipation and then a big fat fail….until i got transferred to a nice dude who gave me some advice.
took it, fixed my computer, and got to play. so….the smart ones are the needle in the haystack….
Lies and more lies.
The rest of Better Business Bureau data
690 Resolved
180 Administratively Closed
9 No Response
Still, I think EA’s quite good. They have helped me with my account problems in registering games and have been generally helpful. I’m not just saying that to sound like an EA fanboy, they have helped me a lot!
I can only lend my thoughts to those who have continuing problems.
AMEN, Jud. Good article. As long as people keep kissing EA’s ass, there’s no incentive to change, is there? Customer service is terrible. Period. If it’s worked for you personally, hey, great for you, ConnorJack. But facts are facts to the rest of us.
And you’re damn straight I filled out one of those surveys to reflect my experience ACCURATELY.
VRevis
Seriously?
EA Games don’t have have a phone number for customer support anywhere on their website and they pretty much ignore/avoid email requests for support on their products.
I am very disappointed with the way they handle their customers and I practically ordered a product that didn’t work and there is no one to talk to.
Their customer support is awful!
As a Sim gamer myself, I can say that this article is ridiculously on point. I have spent many times via email and live chat with EA’s technical support, leaving empty-handed and feeling as if my intelligence has been insulted. It seems as if their games have become more buggy by the release, and in submitting a problem, they go all around the world to avoid considering that the game may in fact be the problem. Not only that, they offer generic advice that has to be copied and pasted from somewhere, and it’s always the same, no matter the issue. Coming from a customer service background, I understand the idea of actually TRYING to help someone. It includes asking questions, getting and understanding the details, and finding a way to assist one way or another. I have no idea how much these tech people get paid to just dole out support from nothing, But from my experience, they don’t do jack.
http://warrantyinfo.ea.com/
the numbers there, its also in the manual that comes with the game (very last page right under the LIMITED WARRANTY), so read your manual please.
Also think about what your saying, 5 million people use the game the only problem that is happening is to you specifically now do you think that either 5 million people just got it wrong in the right way to make it work(which sounds kinda rediculous) or do you think the game works and your system/ connection is the problem.
I hate ea technical support, well i have problems with The sims 3 and The sims 3 World adventures keeps freezing all the time, then i call them and the dude said manual unistall the games so i did. They were digital downloads from the ea store so i lost all my games data!!! Try reinstalling them didn’t work so called ea again finally got a better person, now have to redownload them all over again! Thanks alot ea!
To Peter, who actually seems to think that “Resolved” means that Ea fixed the problem:
“Resolved,” in Ea’s mind entails that they replied to the customer saying: “Try turning your console (or computer) off and then back on, if this does not work try re-downloading the game, DLC, etc.” – And how many of us have seen that before?
Ea has, for years, screwed over customers with their products, drawbacks, glitches, and unresolved technical issues.
Not to mention their hoops and bounds one must go through to even submit an issue. You have to have an Ea account just to contact them, and half the time you aren’t able to login with even brand new accounts.
My experience of EA? I buy a game called spore and it wants me to make an online profile. It won’t let me (invalid key) so I go online, find my problem (that’s it!) and the page says ‘contact us’. I click on that and it sends me to a login page I can’t get past, So then i create a profile and try again, still no good. Next I try going to the forum to ask what to do- which sends me to the same damn login page. Absolutely the most unhelpful and frustrating online help i’ve ever had the misfortune to need.
I am well annoyed with them and how they are treating FIFA 11 users for the PC.
There is a glitch in the game that allows any player to freeze the game whenever they want, if you get bored of waiting and quit the game with Alt+F4 then you loose the game.
So the vast majority of players in the Top 100 are clearly cheaters and I have encounter them before and it is clear they cheat but EA do not care.
And if you go on their forums to moan about it they will ban you from their forums, you are not allowed to talk about cheaters or you are banned.
Similar to a communist government or dictatorship really, that is the best way to describe their customer support.
Damn EA….
I remember having to contact them before and was the same generic crap, I just wrote back clearly asking NOT to get generic crap back and for someone to actually read my problem properly….
I got another generic reply back…
Is so bad is kind of funny…
really ea global is again becoming a problem where by you deposit money on account ready to play but they dont credit it to yr account in time. will my be working for me?
The thing with me is that EA states n the back of Battlefield 3 it says you have to be 13 or older to go online, I am 13 almost 14 and EA says I am too young, SO ANNOYING!!!
Tom 13+ is for being online in general, but being younger than 16 which is the games rating means you wont be allowed on until then.