My Experience with Customer Support

Last Friday I purchased for the first time a $40 simpoint bundle, although due to some unforeseen glitch in the system I couldn't get past the PayPal confirmation screen. Thinking the order might've gone through anyway, I checked my PayPal account balance and my simpoint balance a few times, and when seemingly nothing had changed I thought I was in the clear. I went about my business, disappointed that I hadn't been able to get my bundle. I really wanted the Once Upon a Time Cottage and it was only 3 days before my birthday. However, I knew that attempting another transaction would be unwise at this point.

By chance, I decided to take one last peek, I'd estimate 5-10 minutes after the fact...

I was shocked when I discovered that there were not 5000, but 10,000 simpoints to my balance! Shaking, I did the math and realized that I'd somehow purchased not one, but TWO bundles! I cursed myself because I knew I'd heard stories about people who'd hit the button to confirm again, thinking it hadn't worked. It worked alright... I have the receipts to prove it.

Thankfully I had enough in my chequing account to cover the expense (and not incur any fees), but I knew something had to be done quickly. And thus, I sought out the fabled 'customer support'. There are stories about EA's service on the sims site (and most likely beyond), but I remember hearing all kinds of horrible things. I was even on skype with a friend who was basically told to restart his computer to fix the issue, even though he kept insisting he'd tried that before.

It became evident that the advisor was trying to get him to go away, so he closed the chat and went about his business.

I'm not sure how long I waited, but I switched back to the window to find that there was a person waiting to talk to me. I explained the issue as best I could, and I'll admit, the time between replies was more than a little nerve wracking...

Eventually he told me hat he was going to check my account, so I waited...


And waited...


And waited....


A few minutes later he returned, and told me not to worry, that he'd refund my balance.


So I waited...


And Waited...


And waited some more...


Was he coming back?


What if he didn't?


 I hadn't even thought of what I'd do then...


But he did come back, and announced that my money had been refunded, and very kindly offered me a 15% Origin discount code. I'm not sure if I plan to use it but I imagine if a friend wanted a game badly enough I'd be willing to share...


Sure enough,  my paypal balance indicated the refund as promised (although PayPal puts holds on refunds when they happen before your money has physically been allocated). Satisfied, I thanked him (for the umpteenth time) and closed the chat. Then I went back to the sims 3 site to check my simpoint balance.

Still 10,000

But I hadn't refreshed it recently, so I did that.


.......


Still 10,000


Maybe I needed to give it a moment.

.......


Still 10,000

.......


Uh Oh......


I was brave enough to purchase the items I wished for using only the 5000 points I'd intended to pay for that time around (ironically enough I was going to purchase another bundle next month when I had the money). As I write this, there are some 48 points to my intended 5000, and another 5000 to spare.

Naturally I'm afraid to try and spend them on anything because that would be fraud. On the one hand, they may not even be real points, but my account balance is somehow stuck on that number, although theoretically a transaction should've set it straight if that were indeed the case.

I found a couple of threads shortly afterwards, people having the same issue. At least one person also got the points issue to my knowledge, and she plans to try and speak to them again on Friday if the issue hasn't cleared up. I tried to access the chat earlier tonight to see if it was really broken like people had been saying lately (convenient no?) and my first attempt started at 10-15 minutes waiting time, then jumped to 15-20 minutes and finally 20-25 minutes before slowly creeping back down again. Then, it just timed out.

As of right now I can't even select the type of inquiry as the module appears to be hanging.

I only hope there's still hope for this.