EA Games Billing Help

[Flutter]

Has anyone here ever had EA refuse a credit card?
I spent two hours on the phone with them with no resolution.
I can't use it on any EA game site, including UO, Sims 3, Origin etc. I cannot buy anything from the Origin site. I can't purchase game time.
I have spoken with the bank who has told me they aren't even getting a request from them. The guy on the phone(from EA), while polite, said "sometimes this happens". (Second level support person)
The card works everywhere else. There's enough money on it. It doesn't expire until 2016.

Anyone who has any experience with this please contact me if you are willing to help. Thank you.

 

[DevilsOwn]

Flutter, I know what happened, but yer not gonna like it....

Next door to the EA offices there's a large building which houses four or five different corporate offices, one of which is the home office of your card (it's the red one, right? with yellow squiggly lines and pink hearts and blue stars all over it?). That building has a maintenance crew of eight guys, one of which is Sammy, nice lookin' 29 year old guy who really doesn't like it there, but hey, it's a job. He brings his own lunch and sits on the tailgate of his pickup soaking up sun for that hour.

Twice a week Mrs. Mulenowski comes down to EA offices to have lunch with her husband, a mid-level bean counter with moderate computer skills. She parks her car at the end of the parking lot, under the large shade trees which create the border between that parking lot and the one next door.

Sammy would see her, notice how pretty and fit she was for an older woman and then noticed her noticing him. First nodding and smiling, then a few hesitant greetings and one thing led to another.... well, you can take it from there, and yes, it wasn't too long before old Hank Mulenowski found out about this.

His reaction was to become angry at everything in that building, and he deleted the card you hold from the list of approved partners in EA's list.

You need to find Hank.

 

[Zosimus]

Could I suggest instead of finding Hank there could be a possible easier solution.


Buy a EA game card which truly is safer and less aggrovating headache to deal with their billing system. Can be used at EA Origin site


http://www.ea.com/1/game-cards

 

[Tina Small]

It seems like I remember Raptor (Raptor85) having a similar problem after the change to the new account management system. He ended up quitting and letting his castle and other house(s) on Siege fall because it was such an ordeal to get EA to take his money for his subscription fees.

 

[Tina Small]

Could I suggest instead of finding Hank there could be a possible easier solution.


Buy a EA game card which truly is safer and less aggrovating headache to deal with their billing system. Can be used at EA Origin site


http://www.ea.com/1/game-cards

How does she buy one if EA won't take her credit card? Can she use PayPal or some other way to pay for game cards? And can the game cards be used to pay for UO game time? I don't see UO listed on that page. Closest thing is Lords of Ultima.


Edited to add: Never mind on the "how do you pay for it." You buy them at various stores. But the question still stands about whether or not they're accepted for paying for UO game time.

 

[Zosimus]

You go to the EA Origin Store and use the EA card there to buy game time. I am like 99.9% pretty sure some posters have said they done that here on Stratics.

 

[DevilsOwn]

good question, cause when you click to use game card it takes you to this page, and for myself, I don't have an EA account, I've got a Mythic Master account.... I think... I'm confused

and I don't see UO on the list of games this type of payment is used for

 

[Zosimus]

Yeppers. I just did a trial run to the checkout with UO gametime card on my cart. So youcan use the EA game time card to purchase gametime card

Click here to redeem an EA Cash Card

So she can go to any store buy the card. Go to EA Orgin become a member and pick what she needs. Then apply the EA card to her account. Then purchase what she needs.

 

[Flutter]

While that is helpful, I'd like to find a way to use my credit card. I would like to purchase other games (such as the new SimCity) and really resent the need to jump through hoops in order to give EA my money.

 

[Tina Small]

Yeppers. I just did a trial run to the checkout with UO gametime card on my cart. So youcan use the EA game time card to purchase gametime card




So she can go to any store buy the card. Go to EA Orgin become a member and pick what she needs. Then apply the EA card to her account. Then purchase what she needs.

Yeah, I dug around further and it appears that's what you need to do--redeem the EA card so you get an Origin store balance and then use that to pay for your purchase of a UO gametime code. Or you can pay for the gametime code with a PayPal account or ClickandBuy, whatever that is.

 

[Zosimus]

good question, cause when you click to use game card it takes you to this page, and for myself, I don't have an EA account, I've got a Mythic Master account.... I think... I'm confused

and I don't see UO on the list of games this type of payment is used for

When you purchase the gametime card they will send the code to your email. Then you go to your Mythic Master account and apply the code to it.

 

[DevilsOwn]

really, Flutter, it's gonna be easier to find Hank

 

[Zosimus]

While that is helpful, I'd like to find a way to use my credit card. I would like to purchase other games (such as the new SimCity) and really resent the need to jump through hoops in order to give EA my money.

The new sim city is a mess atm. I posted on SOTA TWIMMO video (they do talk about SOTA but they also talk about the huge failure at SIM City5 launch) and posted a topic on stratics central. You can use the EA card to purchase other games though like Sim City 5. Just no refund for the worst launch ever atm for a game. Maybe check it out before buying Flutter


Let it pus this way. I know it may be jumping through hoops but when Warhammer has that epic fail of a billing issue a few years back and was charged about 500 and some odd bones for my subscription for one month for 2 accounts, I quit relying on any billing system they have. Safer way and less headaches trying the EA card way but I was offering you a different avenue that may help.

 

[Zosimus]

really, Flutter, it's gonna be easier to find Hank

Actually Hank is to busy counting monies from CC that do get through the web of their billing system to worry about a few that can't or his wife

Hank has a mistress and its monies from people CC that does get through that web of a billing system they have. lol

 

[Tina Small]

Let it pus this way. I know it may be jumping through hoops but when Warhammer has that epic fail of a billing issue a few years back and was charged about 500 and some odd bones for my subscription for one month for 2 accounts, I quit relying on any billing system they have. Safer way and less headaches trying the EA card way but I was offering you a different avenue that may help.

Ouch. I remember reading about that. Don't blame you for doing it differently, even though it's a hassle.

 

[kongomongo]

Flutter it really depends on WHAT your problem is. For me it was "the payment was not authorized" or something similar. I read up on the web and found out that if you accidently entered your street address just a LITTLE different (like a space) it will set your account to fraud check. It took me 3 months for EA to fix it.

If thats the case for you, then i'd recommend doing this: Submit a case via EA site, and IMMEDIATLY call in after that mentioning your case number. That will at least get things started. After that I would submit a new case and call in about 3-5 days after not hearing back constantly. It was the ONLY way for me to get noted. I know this is not the way things are designed, but after 2 months of replying to a ticket where noone else seems to on the other end you get desperate.

"SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY".

 

[Tazar]

It also seems that I read recently that some credit card companies have stopped allowing charges for on-line games. They claimed that there was too much fraud, etc. Call the card-servicing company and they should be able to tell you the exact reason that the card was rejected.

 

[Aran]

It also seems that I read recently that some credit card companies have stopped allowing charges for on-line games. They claimed that there was too much fraud, etc. Call the card-servicing company and they should be able to tell you the exact reason that the card was rejected.

I have spoken with the bank who has told me they aren't even getting a request from them.

She covered that.

 

[Uriah Heep]

yellow squiggly lines and pink hearts and blue stars all over it

*has a sudden craving for Lucky Charms*

It is a shame that people have to actually beg EA to take their money for UO. It's crap like this that make their other online games epic fails...I have a son-in-law who tried ev erything to get back ingame, after an hour of frustration he decided he wouldn't play anymore even if they brought the server down to the living room and set it up just for him. Sad part is, it isnt an isolated incident either. We are reading about it all the time here, and I bet there are some people who instead of coming here, just say screw it, and move on. Most places want in my pocket...not EA tho.

 

[Merus]

Personally, if I were a producer for a game, I would be jumping up and down to corporate to ensure that people who wanted to pay the company money were able to do so. Guess that's just me though.

 

[KingHen]

IIRC you can pay with Paypal on origin site for game codes? Link your CC to your Paypal account?
Other than hat I have no idea. I certainly don't ; like the idea of sitting on the phone with their customer service.

 

[Tina Small]

I think EA is probably using Digital River to run the Origin store and possibly also handle our subscription payments. [ http://corporate.digitalriver.com/s...Name.industry/subSectionName.games/page.games Notice EA listed on the side as one of their "World-Class Clients" in the games industry. ]

It may be that talking to anyone at EA about problems related to using any one credit card is useless because it is actually Digital River who is doing the credit card processing behind the scenes.

Here is a March 2011 press release from the Digital River site regarding their patented fraud detection technology: http://corporate.digitalriver.com/s...ompany/subSectionName.newsEvents/pr.227354600

Some blog entries from a Digital River blog regarding sales at the Origin store: http://blog.onenetworkdirect.com/category/ea-origin/. Maybe we need to check there periodically to find out about big sales pushes on the Origin store??

 

[Tina Small]

I did a little more digging. There is a Terms of Sale agreement on the Origin site here: http://tos.ea.com/legalapp/termsofsale/US/enl/PC/ . Notice that in section 2 ("Placing an Order with Us"), the agreement says: "To help prevent fraud, cheating and other behaviors that can negatively affect player experience, EA may employ "anti-cheating" or fraud prevention utilities which collect non-personally identifiable information about your device when you place an order with us. For more information about EA’s fraud prevention technology and its fraud prevention partner, iovation, please review EA’s privacy policy at privacy.ea.com which is incorporated here by reference. For more information about iovation, please visit www.iovation.com/privacy.html."

So, between Digital River and Iovation, it looks like EA may employ a number of methods to try to prevent credit card fraud. What this may mean for an EA customer is that talking to an EA customer service representative about problems using a particular card becomes a frustrating and pointless exercise because card processing and fraud detection are outsourced. On the one hand, it can make you feel more secure that there is no one at EA doing dodgy things with your credit card information, but on the other hand it might make customers feel like they're running into a brick wall if they want to resolve a problem.

 

[Dropixel]

Hello Flutter,

It is possible that the card was flagged for fraud prevention. EA does have some pretty strict guidelines that flag cards. Please send an e-mail from the e-mail associated with the account to [email protected] detailing the problem. Be sure to include the following account information:

• Name of the account:
• First and Last name on account:
• Email on account:
• Date of birth on account:
• Any codes activated on the account:
• Any character names found on the account:
• Phone number on the account:
• Any secret words associated with the account:

Though I cant look up you account directly, if you send me a PM with the e-mail address you sent it from, I can chase down someone in billing to see if they can fix it.

 

[Merus]

Hello Flutter,

It is possible that the card was flagged for fraud prevention. EA does have some pretty strict guidelines that flag cards. Please send an e-mail from the e-mail associated with the account to [email protected] detailing the problem. Be sure to include the following account information:

• Name of the account:
• First and Last name on account:
• Email on account:
• Date of birth on account:
• Any codes activated on the account:
• Any character names found on the account:
• Phone number on the account:
• Any secret words associated with the account:

Though I cant look up you account directly, if you send me a PM with the e-mail address you sent it from, I can chase down someone in billing to see if they can fix it.

No offense, but a response like this just illustrates the BS that gets complained about. Would you like the first born child with that list of information?

Credit card fraud is an issue for ALL retailers, and EA is far from the biggest retailer to accept plastic.

 

[Lady Storm]

dropixel is correct.
It was me who had the post about the CC and EA...
IF you charge more then a few accounts or purchases and that includes the EA game store... the card will get a flag which also sends one to your bank.. IT then locks up the card with EA. Now it is easy to clear up the bank side.... but it might take a minute to explain whats up for them to find this. NOW for the hard part... getting a real person at EA to listen to you.... No offence Dropixel but EA has dropped the ball too many times in this to warrent any good will. They steadfastly refute till you insist to have this esclated to the next person in the chain of people in the EA office. The term is having the card "WHITE'ED" sort of stripping off all marks in the system on that card... only thing is... if you again use it for accounts as stated above there is a good chance it will happen again. This was stated by the rep I got ahold of and finally understood what I was having trouble with.
EA has set it so you cant buy ANYTHING on any one card more then a few times use or you will get this situation. It's hard when you have 53 accounts and or you want to buy more then 1 item at the EA store..... So I can imagine for those who have a few accounts and it happens to ... its a nightmare and shouldnt be so hard to fix.... but you know EA... If they can mess it up ..... why not!!!

 

[Flutter]

Hello Flutter,

It is possible that the card was flagged for fraud prevention. EA does have some pretty strict guidelines that flag cards. Please send an e-mail from the e-mail associated with the account to [email protected] detailing the problem. Be sure to include the following account information:

• Name of the account:
• First and Last name on account:
• Email on account:
• Date of birth on account:
• Any codes activated on the account:
• Any character names found on the account:
• Phone number on the account:
• Any secret words associated with the account:

Though I cant look up you account directly, if you send me a PM with the e-mail address you sent it from, I can chase down someone in billing to see if they can fix it.

Thank you for your reply. I will do this tomorrow. Hopefully the card can be cleared as it is brand new to the account.
Do I use my master account information here or all of my UO accounts associated with me and the card I wish to use Dropixel?

 

[DevilsOwn]

hope this clears up at least the UO portion of your troubles, Flutterbug

(and Sammy has found a 23 yr old redhead, Hank got an outstanding yearly review, promotion and raise and Mrs Mulenowski is planning an island getaway.... with a lawyer named Ira)

 

[Petra Fyde]

Dropixel
You would be doing all UO players (and Mythic) an immense favour if you could explain to EA Accounts division and Origin Store in great detail and at length the vast difference between people who have ONE account and buy many stand alone games and people who play online subscription games like UO, having many accounts to play ONE game. The one account/many games scenario seems to be the only one they understand.

We need to buy multiple copies of expansions, boosters, theme packs etc because we want all our characters on all our accounts to have the same access. While you're at it, also point out that the game is Global. People in Russia, South America etc want to buy those same expansions, boosters and theme packs too. The world consists of more than USA, Canada. some bits of Europe and Japan - honest.

It is hurting the players, and it is hurting UO. THEY are responsible for multiple people leaving the game. THEY are costing the company serious money. They really, really need to get their act together and get onto the same page as our Dev team. The team work long and hard to make UO something we all enjoy. They don't need the accounts and sales depts sabotaging their efforts.
*steps off soap box*

 

[Dropixel]

Flutter - The Master Account information is the most important, but all information you can give is good. If you have a secret word set up on the Master account, you can just include that.

Petra - I will certainly do my best, but I am just a community rep here at Mythic. We certainly understand the frustration of our players and the negative impact Origin can have. I know the development team is continuously soliciting for the unique needs of UO accounts with Origin.

 

[Petra Fyde]

Feel free to quote me if it helps. I just hope they get the message before the new booster goes on sale.
We want to be able to buy multiple copies, and we want to be able to buy it wherever we live. From Hawaii to Moscow, from Reykjavik to Sydney.

 

[Tanivar]

Make yourself a BFH (Big Foam Hammer) and walk around and whack the appropriate people upside the head. It can do wonders with any problem people that have a sense of humor and can be quite satisfying <g>

 

[Lady Storm]

**CLAPS FOR PETRA****
Good going there kiddo! I have put many complaints directly to EA about the mess it is at the ORigin store and Billing in reguards to payments and purchases...
Your not kidding when I say its hell to buy for my 53 accounts without messing up my bank card...

 

[kelmo]

We need 10'000 likes on Petra's comment.

 

[Leeda]

Has anyone here ever had EA refuse a credit card?
I spent two hours on the phone with them with no resolution.
I can't use it on any EA game site, including UO, Sims 3, Origin etc. I cannot buy anything from the Origin site. I can't purchase game time.
I have spoken with the bank who has told me they aren't even getting a request from them. The guy on the phone(from EA), while polite, said "sometimes this happens". (Second level support person)
The card works everywhere else. There's enough money on it. It doesn't expire until 2016.

Anyone who has any experience with this please contact me if you are willing to help. Thank you.

 

[Leeda]

Yes I had that problem too about CC also about buying EA/Orgin. At this point I am not sure who gets our money. often problem with CC and to buy off EA/Orgin has often been a nightmare to me. One major problem that EA/Uo/Mythic need to work out When we set up accounts the info was not clear that we needed a separate e-mail account for each of our Mythic account. So say you have nine UO accounts under one Mythic account. Well EA reads it as one account not 9 accounts. The last time I spoke with someone in person I was told that he was afraid to separate the accounts for fear of breaking it. I suggested that EA/Uo/Mythic come up with a solution for UO accounts under one account so we could buy for all accounts. I told him the same thing I never had so much trouble giving money to anyone in my life. I do hope they get a fix on this before anything new comes along to upgrade to. For those of us stuck with more accounts under one will make it difficult to upgrade all our accounts.

 

[Tanivar]

Whoever sold them their billing system is probably still laughing about it.

 

[Alvinho]

had this problem and still do, was able to get someone on the phone after being on hold for 3 hours 1 hour to talk to the first person and 2 hours to talk with "Technical support" once i reached the technical support stage, was notified that they had to wait for others to come in because my account was flagged for some reason, but could not explain, said i had done nothing wrong, even told him as he read off the last purchases i made since december, verifying that it was indeed a good card i used in past purchases.needless to say it happened to be right after hours and the actual tech support that could help remove marks from my account "master account" that is had left for the weekend, this was 2 weeks ago with no promised fix to my account nor return call after getting my cell number to each of the support folks i spoke with incase of disconnection. while all my accounts are due to be resubed the beginning of april, not sure how i will resub due to this ongoing problem

 

[Alvinho]

All my problems started when i changed the e-mail address to my mythic master account, after shutting down a old exchange server i used for many years after it was hacked and e-mail addresses sold off and then started paying for spam,

 

[Lady Storm]

I have noticed of late the Biowear logo is gone off the UO pages and we are not called EA/Mythic.. just Mythic... and a new name added to many pages ..... did we get set adrift ?
My bank card said if they do it one more time they will shut down any dealings with them... ie I wont be able to pay my accounts or buy stuff..... I am NOT a happy camper.

 

[Tazar]

I have noticed of late the Biowear logo is gone off the UO pages and we are not called EA/Mythic.. just Mythic... and a new name added to many pages ..... did we get set adrift ?
My bank card said if they do it one more time they will shut down any dealings with them... ie I wont be able to pay my accounts or buy stuff..... I am NOT a happy camper.

Names change... companies merge, get bought out, and later separate again... it's part of the business world and your bank should know how to deal with it. Honestly - if my bank told me that - I'd have a new bank ASAP. I will not have a bank tell me how I can and can't spend my money.

As for UO - every page that I saw still says "Origin", "Mythic", and "EA" at the bottom of the page. I am curious as to what new name you found?

UO is still a part of Mythic and looks to be for the foreseeable future.

 

[Basara]

IT was announced a few months back that the "Bioware" part ofthe name was being dropped.

 

[Zosimus]

Whoever sold them their billing system is probably still laughing about it.

You know, was pretty calm when Im was over charged on my War accounts a few years back. I know the CS rep was happy to deal with a calm customer even after a $540.00 over charge. I figure those ones that were hot for a 1000 or more were pretty irate. You think after the first phone call and things were taken care of as I thought they would be it be done and over with.

Well I get half back. Had to call again and this time I warned the CS rep first how calm and cool I was on the first time and that I was not going to be like it this time. I got the rest back the next day but after a tirade of how the first CS rep admitted I was over charged 540 bones and only to return half was BS as simply as I can put it with out being banned off the forums. I was pretty livid.

It's not like it hurt me fnancially or anything because it wasn't much to worry about but many stories where other peoples banks accounts were cleaned out and had over draft charges onm top of it. It was just the fact that I thought it was settled in the first phone call they still couldn't get it fixed as they should of. EA cheapness on their billing system has alweays been an issue on any part of their company they own.

 

[Wenchkin]

When the moved over to the new billing system, apparently Maestro cards got skipped off the list of cards I could use to pay a sub on the website. Still haven't seen it on the list.

While you can at least add a Paypal account to your payment info, there isn't an option to use Paypal when choosing a payment method for UO. *scratches head and wonders at that one*

So I have no option but buying gametime on Origin with Paypal. If that goes, I can't play at all.

As we're talking about issues paying EA, I would like to request they add cards like Maestro and finish adding Paypal because some of us have no use for a credit card (or a pretend disposable CC) and would like the option to pay for subscriptions on the account management site with a debit card

Wenchy

 

[Zosimus]

Even using paypal as an option you are actually paying more than just being billed directly through your bank card. You have to pay paypal for their services so add that to your game time.

Buy a EA game time card andyou pay taxes on that.

Some states dont have taxes on the internet so some US players pay extra for online and others dont because of online taxes. Not fair for all that way either.

I think I get taxed for just breathing air.

Only thing I can think of that I dont get taxed on is scratching my back if it had an itch but if the IRS and EA knew that they tax me on it also. Well EA can't since I don't buy EA products anymore but they most likely find a way to tax and charge me on that and I still couldn't pay them because of their messed up billing system.

 

[Wenchkin]

Aye Paypal isn't ideal. I much preferred having auto billing, lost 2 houses because I was so used to it renewing I forgot it had stopped doh! Kinda extreme de-cluttering hehehe. So yeah, I want my debit card to work on account mgmt again because my memory is like a sieve

Wenchy

 

[Petra Fyde]

If it helps anyone, we pay our accounts - and in fact all online purchases, with a pre-paid cash card. The one we use is called 'cashplus' and is MasterCard. It costs us £5 per month but we're happy with that because it means we're not giving out our bank details to all and sundry and if anything does go wrong, they can only clean out as much as we've loaded onto it. Our bank account is safeguarded.

By keeping it loaded you can have your UO accounts on autobilling just as you would with a credit card.

 

[Orgional Farimir]

Flutter - The Master Account information is the most important, but all information you can give is good. If you have a secret word set up on the Master account, you can just include that.

Petra - I will certainly do my best, but I am just a community rep here at Mythic. We certainly understand the frustration of our players and the negative impact Origin can have. I know the development team is continuously soliciting for the unique needs of UO accounts with Origin.

Would you be able to help my buddy who is trying to come back to UO? He purchased UO last week and created a username with 17 characters, but the game only accepts usernames with 16 characters or less. He PMed Messana his account info on Monday and has emailed EA customer support, but he still doesn't have any resolution.

 

[Dropixel]

Would you be able to help my buddy who is trying to come back to UO? He purchased UO last week and created a username with 17 characters, but the game only accepts usernames with 16 characters or less. He PMed Messana his account info on Monday and has emailed EA customer support, but he still doesn't have any resolution.

I can certainly give CS a heads up. Have your friend PM me all his info and his ticket number from the e-mail to support.

 

[MalagAste]

I had this problem when my CC expired and I had to use a new one. What a pain. My CC company then randomly decided that too many charges from Gaming companies were full of Fraud and so they decided that I wouldn't be able to use my CC to make game related purchases..... Well I called them up and said "Listen here! I've played my Game for over 12 years now and have had 8 to 9 accounts for the last 8 years at least! And you will either pay for my game or I'll be getting a new BANK!... End of Story!" Well within a few days the bank manager called me and apologized for the inconvenience of not being able to pay for UO. They said they would fix it and they did. I wasn't actually put out of playing UO because like others suggested I used Paypal to by gametime codes to keep my accounts going in the meanwhile.... though it was a Major pain in the Arse!

Something needs to be done at Origin to get it thru their tiny brains that we need multiple items.... I have 9 accounts myself that are now always active and it's a royal pain.... If we get a new expansion or new package available I'm likely to want 9 of them....