J.T.
09-11-2012, 07:40 AM
Just quit working for EA last week. Their tech support is basically the agent putting you on hold to use google to find the fix on a non-EA forum. Real talk. So anyway, a lot of the calls I'd take there were people trying to get a free Online Pass. I don't agree with the practice of selling Online Passes, but I get they're basically doing it to fuck over gamestop. There's one exception though. Within the first 14 days of a game releasing, you can call EA's phone support and they will give you an online pass, no questions asked. The database they use to search CD keys and what not doesn't even hit on the Online Passes, so just take one you already have and if they ask you well what's the defective code, give 'em that and the guy will search it and it's guaranteed to come back as invalid.
So if there's an EA game coming out and you'd rather wait and get it used at a lower price, but don't want to pay the $10 for the OLP, just call 'em up on launch day and be like my code doesn't work. After 14 days, they can still give you one for free, but they'll set up a ticket for you on the support website and you'll have to send in a photo of the receipt. First 14 days, they just give you the code right away over the phone. I don't play any of their games so this isn't of much use to me, only Madden which is only fun for like a month after release so I tend to just let one of my friends buy it now and play it when I hang with them. Figure I'd share this information with people here so you never have to buy a new EA game ever again.
Another thing they do that is massively retarded is tell you that you can't put the customer on hold for longer than two minutes. This would be semi-okay if they didn't give you a machine that is at least ten years old and hasn't even opened the browser after two minutes. So you gotta check in with the customer every two minutes and most check-ins basically go like this, "Thanks for holding, still working on finding out how to fix your problem, please wait a little longer and I'll check in again if I need more time." It makes you look like you don't know what you're doing and is guaranteed to piss off your customer. I would always put people on hold for like five minutes and then come back with all the facts, it got me in trouble with the people who grade the calls every week, but I slept easier at night knowing I wasn't being a patronizing asshole to everyone I talked to.
So if there's an EA game coming out and you'd rather wait and get it used at a lower price, but don't want to pay the $10 for the OLP, just call 'em up on launch day and be like my code doesn't work. After 14 days, they can still give you one for free, but they'll set up a ticket for you on the support website and you'll have to send in a photo of the receipt. First 14 days, they just give you the code right away over the phone. I don't play any of their games so this isn't of much use to me, only Madden which is only fun for like a month after release so I tend to just let one of my friends buy it now and play it when I hang with them. Figure I'd share this information with people here so you never have to buy a new EA game ever again.
Another thing they do that is massively retarded is tell you that you can't put the customer on hold for longer than two minutes. This would be semi-okay if they didn't give you a machine that is at least ten years old and hasn't even opened the browser after two minutes. So you gotta check in with the customer every two minutes and most check-ins basically go like this, "Thanks for holding, still working on finding out how to fix your problem, please wait a little longer and I'll check in again if I need more time." It makes you look like you don't know what you're doing and is guaranteed to piss off your customer. I would always put people on hold for like five minutes and then come back with all the facts, it got me in trouble with the people who grade the calls every week, but I slept easier at night knowing I wasn't being a patronizing asshole to everyone I talked to.