Re: Original PvZ GOTY can't activate

I don't even see a live chat option, but it sounds like that would do no good, either. And yes, same issue here regarding the Steam/PC option. There was no option for the EA Launcher. 

   Not that it would matter because they just keep circling back over the same information over and over, including asking for my user ID and email, sending me a code to verify my account, etc. 

     I just can't figure out how they can legally do this. I bought a game that only worked for a couple days, and then I get told "the game has been sunset so we can't grant you the game" ....but no refund?!? I just bought this game, you tell me that I cannot have it...and that is somehow okay? 

https://help.ea.com/en/help/faq/using-ea-help/

This link sends me right to livechat.

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@Millni6 wrote:

https://help.ea.com/en/help-contact-us/?product=ea-desktop&platform=&topic=link-game-id

This link sends me right to livechat.

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Hmm, that is strange! Even when I follow your link, I still get the same error page that I got before, that says no help solutions available. 

Try finding help for "I want to link my platform to my EA Account"

@Seaandra  don't waste other time in live chat. we are in right. they are wrong... they will give us what we want soon or later

Mine seems to be working now. Still have issues getting offline mode to work, but thanks to whoever in EA did this. 

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@Millni6 wrote:

Mine seems to be working now. Still have issues getting offline mode to work, but thanks to whoever in EA did this. 

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Hmm, well after all that runaround, they lost me. Though it definitely seems like none of us matter to EA. We have since uninstalled it, got a refund through our bank, and bought the disk. As far as I'm concerned after that bologna with "support," EA can take the game and crawl in a hole. 

However..  if it is working for you now, I am truly happy for you! 🙂

For me it still not working, but I am glad that works for you now.

3 august 2023 still not working opened my request almost 2 month ago. my money are gone tho

I also have this issue.  Ticket has been opened:

162bcb99-57e1-484d-ad67-80742d3b6487

I have about 200 hours of playtime in this thing back when I was using Origin and now it's not even letting me start it.  Tried uninstalling and reinstalling, made no difference.

Sort it out, EA!

They don't care. But please do share when you get the same experience as all the rest of us, with the runaround garbage that is the so-called "support." It at least shows that it isn't just one person, it is all of us. I swear it was like messages were random. It was as if each new person who responded just picked a message from a list and said to themselves "eenie-meenie-miny-mo," before sending. Never was there an ACTUAL reply to a single question, just pre-filled text. And often it woild circle back around with a different person and the exact same message, verbatim. Round and round and round. After over 20 emails, I finally called my bank since my purchase was recent. I also opened up a complaint on the BBB, which EA has yet to respond to, although I presume I will get the brush-off there as well. I also posted on fb with screenshots of many of the emails that I recieved, I was hoping it would be shared and maybe eventually something would be done. 

Please do share your experience with "support," here, I am sorry you're dealing with this nonsense too, but you're not alone! 

i followed the link and there is no option to contact at all

no email no chat nothing at all

its weird as no matter what i do and browse there is absolutely no way to contact anyone

the "help" website is only FAQs and self help articles nothing about a way to contact actual support

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@janguar-aj wrote:

i followed the link and there is no option to contact at all

no email no chat nothing at all

its weird as no matter what i do and browse there is absolutely no way to contact anyone

the "help" website is only FAQs and self help articles nothing about a way to contact actual support

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https://help.ea.com/en/help-email/?product=plants-vs-zombies&platform=&topicName=missing-purchased-items

That should take you to the contact link. But so far none of us have had any luck with that whatsoever. 

All I can do is shake my head. One of my many emails is very similar to yours, and after this one is when they pretty much stopped responding to me at all. And some if my emails are verbatim to one another, minus the name changed. 

One of mine that is similar to yours is: 

Hello Player,

Thank you for contacting EA help. My name is Himanshi and I will assist you with your issue today.

I hope you are doing well. Having reviewed your email, I got to know that you are facing issues with Game won't launch. Do not worry, I will try my level best to help you out.

First, I want to apologize for the time taken to get back to you. Your case was stuck due to some technical issues. Undoubtedly, it is not your fault and we're sorry to make you feel neglected. Trust me, I align with you completely because I understand that you pay your hard earned money on the game and spend your valuable time as well and we also feel bad when our genuine players face these issues with the game as I would have also felt the same if I were in your shoes. We also as EA advisors do not have the authority to fix these technical issues otherwise I would have been the happiest to fix it for you.
My intention is not to keep you from something that you can have, had it been possible for me to process the request for you, then I wouldn't have given it a second thought. I hope that you will understand. I won't be able to resolve this for you as this needs to be fixed at a higher level. In the meantime, if you are dissatisfied with the performance of the game, please post the same on the official forum by accessing this link below: https://www.ea.com/forums

I really see that you have some genuine issue with the game I will go ahead and check with the extended resources if there is any possibility for the refund as I really wish to help you.

In case you have any query, you can visit find answers to common questions on our Help Center at http://help.ea.com, or ask our community experts by visiting Answer HQ at http://answers.ea.com. Please do not hesitate to let us know if if you need any further assistance. You can reach us on help.ea.com.

Thank you once again for contacting EA Help!
Have a great day and stay safe!

Kind Regards,
Himanshi

They do absolutely nothing. This has been going on since about June, as far as I can tell. This is now August. When I finally got through to "live  chat" ...all they told me was that they are aware and working on it, and it will be fixed "in some time."  Well...that was in July...obviously this is still an issue. I just don't understand how EA GAMES, being a big company....continues to get away with treating customers this way and basically stealing our money. 

Might as well track my progress here.

I've responded to my case again with the following:

"In your most recent communication to me about this issue you stated the following:
"I know this is upsetting and I really appreciate your feedback on the game. I will make sure to forward the same to our appropriate department."

I assume the above means that you have raised a support ticket with the appropriate Resolver Group in order to get my issue looked at.

- Can you advise which department you have forwarded my error report to?
- Can I please have the ticket/job number that has been assigned to this error by this department?
- Can this department contact me directly and advise:
1. What they are doing to resolve the issue?
2. How long they estimate it will take to resolve the issue?"

I used to run a large IT Service Desk so I know how it's supposed to work.

If they've actually done their job they should be able to produce an active ticket number for me and should be keeping me updated, ongoing, on its progress.

Let's see if that happens.

Well, my BBB complaint was closed as "unanswered," so I suppose that shows just how much they do not care. 

"This message is in regard to your complaint submitted on 7/23/2023 against Electronic Arts, Inc.. Your complaint was assigned ID 20363802.

The Better Business Bureau has made two attempts to contact the business regarding your complaint. We regret to inform you that we have not received a response at this time and this case has now been closed as an UNANSWERED complaint in their file. Because we are not a government agency, we cannot force a business to respond. You may wish to contact your Attorney General or like agency."

I'll provide another update - this one is a bit late but anyway...

After my previous request to be given the ticket number and an ETA for the work that is allegedly being done to fix this issue, I received this reply:

"Hi there. My name is Amit and I will help you today.
I hope you're doing well, upon reviewing your case, I've gathered that your Plants vs Zombies game showing could not activate error.
I'll certainly help you with the best possible information on this.
I checked this issue further and it's looks like an ongoing issue. We are receiving similar reports from other players as well and there seems to be some problem.
Good thing is that our game team is aware of the issue and is diligently working to fix it as soon as possible.
Though I know nobody likes to wait but rest assured the issue is been addressed on priority. You have been a valued player of EA and I assure you that team won't take long to fix this.
Appreciate your kind co operation here.
If you have any further questions regarding this or any other issues, please do not hesitate to let us know.
You can also find answers to common questions on our Help Center at help.ea.com or ask our community experts by visiting Answer HQ at http://answers.ea.com.
Thank you again for contacting EA Help, and have a great day ahead.
Still need help? You can reach us on help.ea.com."

Please note that this was on 11/8.

While I'm glad to hear that there is apparently some acknowledgement that they now know there is 'some problem' that is affecting multiple users, and are working to fix it 'as soon as possible', I am still somewhat concerned by the fact that they are not able to provide me with the ticket/job number for this particular job.

Usually, whenever someone works on something in IT, there's a ticket or job number associated with that work.  It shouldn't be this hard to find out what that number is, if such a job exists.  I'll try asking again.  Here's my email:

"Thank you for your reply.

However, I notice you have not actually answered my prior questions:
- Can you advise which department you have forwarded my error report to?
- Can I please have the ticket/job number that has been assigned to this error by this department?
- Can this department advise:
1. What they are doing to resolve the issue?
2. How long they estimate it will take to resolve the issue (I am not asking for an exact timeframe - just a rough estimate is fine).

Knowing the above things would give me some confidence that the issue is indeed being worked on. While you have stated that it is, I have not seen any evidence of this (based on the fact that I still cannot log in, and others have been unable to log in since June this year). And if it IS being worked on, these questions should not be difficult to answer.

I am sure many of your other affected customers would also welcome some transparency on this."

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@SoulReaver166 wrote:

I'll provide another update - this one is a bit late 

Usually, whenever someone works on something in IT, there's a ticket or job number associated with that work.  It shouldn't be this hard to find out what that number is, if such a job exists.  I'll try asking again.

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If you sent that on Aug 11, I can bet that by now you either received no reply, or you received a reply that had nothing to do with an answer to your question, such as directing you to "live chat" or asking you to verify your account.

That is how all of mine went. Nothing but circles, until finally I replied to the last person who asked me to verify my account for the 3rd time...when I replied to that, I got a reply stating that the email address was not monitored and to go to the website. I was like...what?!?! 

I was told the same thing on several occasions, that they are "aware of the issue and working on it." So they have "been aware of the issue" for SEVERAL MONTHS now...and yet there is no time frame or any other further information whatsoever. I cannot imagine that a company as big as EA can't figure out a solution or provide some kind of automated email to players who have the game...I mean, something!! As best I can tell, this issue has been ongoing for at least 3 months. Their "customer support" does nothing but blow smoke up everyone's backsides. 

You'd be right.  Their next response was:

"Thank you for contacting EA. My name is Abhishek and I would assist you with your issue today.
I have reviewed your email and as I can see you are missing games in your account. Not to worry, I will try and help you with it.
I would request you to please share one of the below details so that we could locate your EA account:-
1. Registered email address on your EA account
2. Do you have access to this email address?
3. Origin ID/EA ID
4. PSN ID/ Gamer tag of Xbox/ Steam ID
5. Invoice number, if any purchase is made through the account
I am looking forward for your reply.
If you have any questions, let us know.
Thanks for reaching out to EA."

I question why they need any of this information to answer my question about an internal ticket number, but I humored them anyway:

"1. Registered email address on your EA account:
[REDACTED]
2. Do you have access to this email address?
Yes
3. Origin ID/EA ID
[REDACTED]
4. PSN ID/ Gamer tag of Xbox/ Steam ID
Irrelevant, I am only trying to play this via the EA App client
5. Invoice number, if any purchase is made through the account
Game was given away free on Origin (via the 'on the house' promotion) years ago, so I do not have the digital receipt for it anymore.

However, none of the above should be required to answer the questions that I have asked two times already (three now):

In a previous email to me from help I was told:
"I checked this issue further and it's looks like an ongoing issue. We are receiving similar reports from other players as well and there seems to be some problem.
Good thing is that our game team is aware of the issue and is diligently working to fix it as soon as possible.
Though I know nobody likes to wait but rest assured the issue is been addressed on priority. You have been a valued player of EA and I assure you that team won't take long to fix this."

My questions were:
- Can you advise which department you have forwarded my error report to?
- Can I please have the ticket/job number that has been assigned to this error by this department?
- Can this department advise:
1. What they are doing to resolve the issue?
2. How long they estimate it will take to resolve the issue (I am not asking for an exact timeframe - just a rough estimate is fine).

If you are unable to answer these questions in your very next email to me I can only assume that your "department" does not actually have a case open for it, and thus is not actually working on the issue.
That would suggest that EA is:
1) Lying to customers by saying the issue is going to be addressed
2) Refusing to offer the services that they are obligated to provide (ie, giving people access to the games that they own).

Escalate this to your manager if you have to in order to get me the necessary answers.

I will continue to share the progress and outcome of this help request with the EA player community."

And there it is: the latest response from EA Help:

"Thanks for contacting EA Help.

My name is Mayank and I'm going to help you with your problem today.

Going forward, we will do our best to respond in time. I reviewed your email and found that you experienced issues in Plants vs Zombies.

I know this is upsetting and I really appreciate your feedback on the game. I will make sure to forward the same to our appropriate department.

As a gamer myself, I certainly understand your concern here and I really appreciate your time and money you spent on the game, but I'm sure you can understand that there's nothing we can do on our side, otherwise I'd love to do it for you. .

As much as I would love to, I won't be able to resolve this for you as this needs to be fixed at a higher level. In the meantime, if you are dissatisfied with the performance of the game, please post the same on the official forum by accessing this link below:

https://www.ea.com/forums

Trust me, the moderation team is collecting data from community and are looking into solutions if they determine enough customers have the issue and the issue is technically resolved with a patch or if a workaround is possible.

As of now for you I have made detailed case notes for this report and forwarded to the concerned department who will look into the matter further and hopefully in the next update they can make the desired changes.

We greatly appreciate your patience and understanding on this matter.

You can also find answers to common questions in our help center at http://help.ea.com or ask our community experts by visiting Answer HQ at http://answers.ea.com .

Thanks again for contacting EA Help."

Except for slotting in a different name, this is word-for-word the exact same response I received earlier - see post #61 in this same thread.

It does not respond to any specific question or acknowledge any of the things I said in my previous messages.

It is clear that nobody actually reads the emails that you send to EA - they are paid to simply send a form letter back and make you go in circles.

Do NOT let this dissuade you from sending (and re-sending) emails to their support however.  If you don't report it you definitely won't get help either.

I have responded, though at this point I don't hold out much hope for an intelligent reply:

"It is abundantly clear from your canned response (this is the 2nd time I've been sent an identically-worded email from you) that you do not bother to read, comprehend or understand the content of my emails to you.

Even so, I will continue to ask the same question I have asked 3 times already in the hope that perhaps one of these emails will reach an analyst who actually has the integrity to try and help someone rather than just copy/paste a canned response:

In a previous email to me from help I was told:
"I checked this issue further and it's looks like an ongoing issue. We are receiving similar reports from other players as well and there seems to be some problem.
Good thing is that our game team is aware of the issue and is diligently working to fix it as soon as possible.
Though I know nobody likes to wait but rest assured the issue is been addressed on priority. You have been a valued player of EA and I assure you that team won't take long to fix this."

My questions were:
- Can you advise which department you have forwarded my error report to?
- Can I please have the ticket/job number that has been assigned to this error by this department?
- Can this department advise:
1. What they are doing to resolve the issue?
2. How long they estimate it will take to resolve the issue (I am not asking for an exact timeframe - just a rough estimate is fine).

(Since you have so far not been able to answer the above questions after my asking three times, I'm currently assuming that this earlier email was a lie, that the mystery "department" does not actually have a case open for it, and thus nobody is actively working on resolving this issue. You can prove me wrong by answering my questions.)

In the interim, I will continue to share my experiences with the EA community."

Thank you so much for tracking your correspondence here. If nothing else, this thread helps other frustrated people see that they aren't alone. 

I don't know how EA gets away with this. Go to the BBB, add your complaint in with the many others. I don't know if I can send the link to my fb post on here, but I will try. You could share that and add your experience as well. I don't know what else there is for us to do except for these 3 avenues. 

If it will go through, here is my fb post. Feel free to add your own experience in the comments and share. 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0mwBQw6sgqGWWpWg4bvx9FQMqWxYyDLxPZnBUNwG3Dw684Jsowo1xqpFWGShg83oal&id=691479535&mibextid=Nif5oz

i just gave up and pirated the game

its obvious they dont give a * at all and wont do anything to fix it so might as well pirate it

i resolved my problems...
i had the game in my native language (Italian) i unistalled the game and reinstalled it in English got the game working.
EA assistance is a big M. they are useless

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@ExLo05 wrote:

i resolved my problems...
i had the game in my native language (Italian) i unistalled the game and reinstalled it in English got the game working.
EA assistance is a big M. they are useless

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I'm glad you got yours working! We tried Uninstalling and re-installing a couple different times, and that didn't work for us.