EA refuses to honor its 'Great Game Guarantee' policy for Star Wars: Battlefront

Cal Jeffrey

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SMH: Electronic Arts is probably one of the more favorite whipping posts of the gaming community at large. It has been criticized for everything from its greedy microtransactional business model prevalent in most of its games to its overly grindy progression systems that feed that model.

Over the weekend, EA has once again earned the ire of gamers by not honoring its advertised “Great Game Guarantee” at the Origin store. According to its own webpage, any EA games (and some third-party) purchased on Origin are eligible for a refund as long as they meet a few simple conditions.

"If you don't love it, just return it!"

“You may return EA full game downloads (PC or Mac) and participating third-party titles purchased on Origin for a full refund. Refund requests can be made within 24 hours after you first launch the game, within fourteen days from your date of purchase, or within fourteen days from the game's release date if you pre-ordered, whichever comes first.”

It seems to be a reasonably straightforward policy. However, for one Reddit user, it is an ongoing three-day ordeal now.

Redditor Papamje purchased Star Wars: Battlefront from the Origin store on January 2. After installing and launching the game, he was disappointed to find there was nobody else playing on the server essentially rendering the multiplayer game unplayable.

Papamje opened a refund request ticket well within the 24-hour time limit but was told the purchase could not be refunded. The first customer service rep he spoke with told him that it had been more than 24 hours since he launched the game. When he pointed out that the ticket was created before the time limit was up, the rep told him that the policy means 24 hours from purchase.

Even after quoting what the policy explicitly states on the website, the Redditor was still stonewalled.

“Within 24 hours after you first launch the game,” Papamje said in the customer service chat. “This is black on white on your website.”

“I can understand however we are not able to refund the game,” the EA representative replied.

The user had several other similar conversations with at least five different reps. None were able to grant his refund. They also contradicted each other about whether they could reference the time at which the game was first started. Some said they could, and others said it was impossible to know when he launched it.

When he asked to be put in touch with a supervisor, he was at first denied and had his ticket "forcefully" closed. When he finally was connected to a supervisor, it appeared to be the same rep just signed into a “supervisor” chat account.

“I finally got hold of a ‘supervisor,’ whom I suspect to not only be an ordinary employee but also the same person I talked to whom I asked to hand the conversation to a supervisor in the first place,” said Papamje.

He is now into day three of his battle to get his refund. He reportedly was contacted by someone at EA who will “take personal ownership on the case,” whatever that means.

The game only cost him €15, which he doesn’t even care about. At this point, it has been boiled down to a matter of principle for the angry Redditor.

“Yes I want my money back, but I feel like that's no longer the point why I'm doing this,” he said. “EA has been mistreating and neglecting their most important product: the players. If I let this slide and give up, they will do it again and again because they can get away with it.”

So far his post has received around 8,700 upvotes and hundreds of supportive comments.

Permalink to story.

 
What would have cost EA 15 euros will now cost them 15 euros and a large amount in brand damage. That's assuming they are smart and honor their refund policy. Not doing so could mean they get sued for much more.

But it's not 15Eur. If you really want to avoid these kind of situations, you need to refund every single customer who wanted a refund. How many of those denied a refund actually made a stink? And how many did not even bother trying to get a refund? Especially when you have to jump through so many hoops? I imagine even a false return policy generate quite a lot of revenue.
They lost here, but on the whole? Who knows.
 
But it's not 15Eur. If you really want to avoid these kind of situations, you need to refund every single customer who wanted a refund. How many of those denied a refund actually made a stink? And how many did not even bother trying to get a refund? Especially when you have to jump through so many hoops? I imagine even a false return policy generate quite a lot of revenue.
They lost here, but on the whole? Who knows.

That's true, likely only a small portion of people will complain. The big problem with that is, if EA is habitually violating their end of the terms of service they could have a big class action or even EU fines to contend with. If they want to save money they should change their TOS to reflect the jerks they are.

This kind of breach of contract is called a material breach, which is the most egregious variety. This happens when a company fails to uphold it's end of the contract (under law TOS are considered contracts). In this case EA is not fulfilling it's return policy. A suit against them can include attorney fees, punitive damages, consequential damages, incidental damages, and compensatory damages. So really, EA may continue to fail to fulfill it's return policy at it's own peril. It only takes one person to start a class action and then they will be forced to pay multiple times the cost of the refund per person not including any punitive damages.
 
Document it well. Copies, recordings (get permission - you are making a recording for training purposes, you wouldn't want to misquote sometime in the future, etc). In USA, FTC will actually do something (someday - after shutdown is over). We hope.
 
Everyone knows EA have atrocious customer service, they just don’t care. They know people will buy their products. We all whine and moan whilst giving them money. I guess if we really cared we wouldn’t keep buying their stuff.
 
Would be interesting to see how talented game developers and designers see their hard work butchered like this.
 
Electronic Arts is probably one of the more favorite whipping posts of the gaming community at large. It has been criticized for everything from its greedy microtransactional business model prevalent in most of its games to its overly grindy progression systems that feed that model.
Naah, the dipshits who buy EA products are to blame. That's right, their gamers base.

Is EA greedy with the microtransactional business model? How about giving them a lesson buy not buying every fricking release. It will solve the complaining also and probably teach EA a lesson. Granted, they will look for other ways to shaft you, but that doesn't mean you need to bend over every fricking time and accept whatever from them.
 
EA is a horrible Company...

I have $thousands of dollars of their products from the past, but will not buy another one of their games (nor will any of my calm mates). EA uses their "Community Managers" on-line presence, not to resolve issues, or push them to Developers... but to tell angry customers they should've brought their products.

EA's Braddock, has lied over and over... Something legally should be done to these people, who spew lies after lies for more profit. The ONLY thing that keeps EA afloat is their FIFA games. Otherwise they would implode. DICE should be a Billion dollar Company by now, instead it has been squandered by Electronic Arts.

So sad that they don't have Gamers in their upper Management.
 
Ea went downhill a long time ago, avoid at all costs..had issue took months to resolve...customer service really dont think they can call it that...
 
This stuff drives me crazy. He should not only get a refund but he should be paid for all the time it took him to fight for the refund. This should have been an open and shut case.
He shouldnt have bought EA in the first place. The best games coming out these days are from smaller A studios or indie teams, not AAA publishers. EA games are worth a weekend rental, at best.

His proper solution is as follows: call the credit card company, and contest the charge on the terms of "the company is not honoring their warranty". The credit card company will refund him the money and seek their pound of flesh from EA themselves. CC companies will almost always side with the consumer over the corporation in these matters to keep their business.

Couple of my friends have done it with fallout 76 over that nylon bag fiasco (they contested the charge on "incorrect product was shipped and company refused to refund the purchase). I've used it several times against companies that refused to follow their refund policy over the years. The look the customer service rep gets on their face when you call and get the purchase contested in front of them never gets old.
 
This stuff drives me crazy. He should not only get a refund but he should be paid for all the time it took him to fight for the refund. This should have been an open and shut case.
I'm with you, I hate it when a company problem becomes your problem, that's my starting line whenever I'm opening a case with a company "This is a problem generated by your [insert-product-name-here], so why is it my problem?". I've noticed that things tend to move faster or easier that way.
 
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