ANY MANAGERS HERE? UNLINK Deleted account/no access

Firstly before I discuss my issue, EA customer service has been trash so far and have treated me with such disrespect I am disguised with the company.

Issue: I tried to play a game on my steam account (Apex Legends), however I was greeted with an error message that told me to "reset my password', which I did. But after doing so the app would not let me proceed to enter the game. After talking with a rep, I discovered that the account was not linked to Steam, so I proceeded to try and link the account. However I received an error message saying it was already linked. The rep then discovered that Steam was linked to a very old EA account that was deleted. This account was an old account that my son created (minor), that he then linked to my Steam account. That account was deleted, and the email associated with that account was deleted years ago.

So the issue is that EA is claiming they have no way to unlink the account (which I call bull *!) because they claim that only the account hold can do so, even though the account is deleted. The reason why I call BS is because EA should auto unlink all accounts that are deleted, because they are deleted...common sense. So, I cannot unlink my account without gaining access to an account that has to be restored (which I don't know the ID for), using an email that was deleted years ago (that I don't know the ID for either), however I have all the credentials and log in information for both my EA and Steam account to prove I am the account holder.

But EA doesn't care, there's no exceptions what so ever and no special cases they can make for this issue. They told me I would never again be able to play an EA game on Steam EVER AGAIN until this issue is resolved. W....T........F type of customer service is this!!!? On top of that, I asked like 10 times to two different reps to escalate me to a manager (because I call BS) and they refused to do so.

What should I do?

EA_Aljo
4 years ago
Hi there, @Agitated_Hamster

I definitely get the frustration, but we can't just auto-unlink accounts as this is incredibly damaging to the account. What you need to do is go through the account recovery process so an advisor can verify ownership of the account and update the email to your current one. To do that, you'll need to open a case with an advisor again here.

12 Replies

EA_Aljo
Community Manager
4 years ago
Hi there, @Agitated_Hamster

I definitely get the frustration, but we can't just auto-unlink accounts as this is incredibly damaging to the account. What you need to do is go through the account recovery process so an advisor can verify ownership of the account and update the email to your current one. To do that, you'll need to open a case with an advisor again here.
Agitated_Hamste
4 years ago
It can't be damaging to an account that is deleted, the only account that would matter would be the steam account...but that doesn't make any sense because if the steam account was linked to my existing account, I can easily go into my settings and unlink it. I call BS on that! There's no way it can be damaging if the account user can do it when ever they want to an existing account.
I think the big issue with this is EA is protecting themselves by only allowing the account owner to unlink from the primary account, but not considering the fact that this is a unique situation where the account holder didn't authorize the link in the first place. It was my son whom plays games on my steam that linked the Steam account to his EA account. The whole reason why we deleted that EA account in the first place is because of this problem, and that was 2 years ago.
To answer your questions...the problem is that I don't know the account information, so the reps won't help me recover it unless I can provide them with the email that was used or user name of the account. If I knew what it was, I would have done that already.
EA_Aljo
Community Manager
4 years ago
@Agitated_Hamster

When an account is unlinked, all progress and content is deleted. That's what I mean by the account being damaged. That's years of playing our games all gone because the account was unlinked. If this were to be possible, we'd have people unlinking accounts for other players they had a bad experience with. We really have to verify account ownership before making such drastic changes. I'm very sorry, but there is nothing we can do over Answers HQ to help with this.
Agitated_Hamste
4 years ago
Again, I own the steam account...I can verify that, so it doesn't matter what EA is linked to it.
Agitated_Hamste
4 years ago
As the account owner of my steam account I should be able to decide which accounts are linked to MY account. If I want to remove an EA linked account that's my choice, EA owner should not get a say in the matter because the steam account is the platform that makes the purchases and plays the games, the EA account is just an extension.
EA_Aljo
Community Manager
4 years ago
@Agitated_Hamster

This has to do with your EA account. Not your Steam account. The point of account verification is to prove ownership of the account. So, the owner should know the details being asked to verify they own it.
Agitated_Hamste
4 years ago
Incorrect, because I'm trying to connect my EA account to my steam account and you are wanting me to verify an EA account that's unrelated to both account. I can verify both account, but you are saying that I have to verify an account that's not mine in order to unlink MY OWN steam account. What doesn't make sense here? That makes zero sense
EA_Aljo
Community Manager
4 years ago
@Agitated_Hamster

In order to play our games through Steam, you need an EA account. Your EA and Steam accounts must be linked. To do that, account ownership verification needs to be passed for the EA account. We can't help with this over Answers HQ. You'll need to open a case with an advisor to verify ownership and update the email address on the EA account.
Agitated_Hamste
4 years ago
And thats the problem...this is a very unique situation in which the Steam account holder is not the account holder of the EA account that was deleted. There needs be exceptions for this kind of situation.
b96b0a6783e6dd0
4 years ago
@Agitated_Hamster there doing the exact same thing to me i can never play apex again under my Xbox gamer tag that i spent years building because my son deleted the email he had linked to the ea. account now they expect me to fill tis out
IP address (network where you play on):
Date of birth (provided during account creation):
One purchase on account and purchase date (month/year):
Last 4 digits of credit card:
Billing address:
Phone number:
and remember one wrong letter or number means a no go its ridiculous