Re: Banned for requesting a refund and having to resort to a Chargeback.

@0ld_yell0wI happen to work in an area related to financial fraud that ties into these. Now specific EU and Irish consumer rights I am no expert on, but I know enough about them to have a good grounding. And by originally denying the refund they would be in breach of EU regulation at the very least. There is a hierarchy for resolution.

1. Repairing the product within an acceptable timeframe - 4 months and still not fixed does not meet this condition.
2. Replace product - not possible in this case. They can not replace a broken game with another copy of the same broken game.
3. Reduce the price - Again not possible. I do not want to pay anything for or have a broken product.
4. Cancel the contract and reimburse them in full - As the previous 3 options can not be met this is the only option available to EA.

Therefore by denying the original refund request, they are in breach of EU regulation and as such, I am completely entitled to issue a chargeback.

Not only will EA ban the account the chargeback was issued on. They'll also ban any other accounts that have that credit card or paypal account on file.

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@FifthRocketeer wrote:

@0ld_yell0wI happen to work in an area related to financial fraud that ties into these. Now specific EU and Irish consumer rights I am no expert on, but I know enough about them to have a good grounding. And by originally denying the refund they would be in breach of EU regulation at the very least. There is a hierarchy for resolution.

1. Repairing the product within an acceptable timeframe - 4 months and still not fixed does not meet this condition.
2. Replace product - not possible in this case. They can not replace a broken game with another copy of the same broken game.
3. Reduce the price - Again not possible. I do not want to pay anything for or have a broken product.
4. Cancel the contract and reimburse them in full - As the previous 3 options can not be met this is the only option available to EA.

Therefore by denying the original refund request, they are in breach of EU regulation and as such, I am completely entitled to issue a chargeback.

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All correct noted by you both!

However, and this is what EA is gambling on, you would need to bring EA through an expensive lawsuit court case to win your case.  And most/all individual end users/customers will not take that financial burden to go through this also lengthy process for a license dispute just costing 80-120$.  (multiply that with the number of other games that you may have from EA.  But its unfortunately still small pennies versus the cost of taking EA to court for this settlement).

It is just sad to observe that a company as EA is playing such sinister game with their customers.  As such customers will not leave in a happy state and are not to return either any time soon for future purchases.  EA are gravely underestimating the negative fallout and consequences from this.

It takes roughly 40 positive customer experiences to undo the damage of just one single negative one!

And with the ever more connected world of forums and other online social media networks, there is no way EA can control the collateral damage effect that this has across the entire customer segment from where their future revenues are to come from.

Devil's advocate.....

From a legal perspective, the game technically works, that is undeniable. It may have bugs and features you find unsatisfactory but from a legal stand point, you may have difficulty proving the 'broken' claim. 

As to missing/delayed content, read the Terms and Conditions you signed when you first bought the game, it clearly states that EA/DICE reserve the right to 'change*' the software as they see fit essentially. 

*I'll try to find the exact wording later....

https://tos.ea.com/legalapp/WEBTERMS/US/en/PC/#section4

Paragraph 4 in particular.

The 'fraud' in this instance is that you have 'happily' used their product for 4 months but then took your money back.

Charge backs are fraught with danger.

I agree with your point about happily playing the game for 4 months. If this was the case I would not expect a refund.

However in my case I played the game for the first 2 weeks. And have not touched it since. I stoped playing just before EA announced they were going to fix the issues. 

That is a fair point.

Either way though. I only posted here to let off some of my frustration about it. Luckily I do not actually own that many EA games on PC. BF 3 & 4, the rest of them I played on console and linked to a different account.

All I can do is wait to see the response from EA. And argue my case with them, As their policy only relates to chargebacks in relation to fraudulent claims. They have to prove that my action was fraudulent, and if this is the case they have to by law (all financial transactions in the EU have to be compliant with financial regulations)  hand over my information for enforcement. If they are not willing to do that, then they can not claim my chargeback was fraudulent.

But this is just my understanding of it.

Let's wait and see what happens. Worst case scenario I am no longer an EA customer. Best case I get my account back.