Before I get into it, let me say this, EA doesnt care. They are only interested in money. They took your money and now they are kicking you to the curb. What they want you to do is create a NEW profile with a new e-mail address and RE-PURCHASE EVERYthing!!! Its not an accident, its not a "time frame", its a purposeful greed driven tactic that they have now also programmed into their Ai system also.
Now let me explain EA's so called "ban process":
1st ban - It usually starts with a complaint from another player in a server you were playing in who was angry. Doesn't matter WHY they were angry, all they need to do is right-click your name and file a complaint and choose any reason. Ai will ban you for 3 days starting the following morning, usually 8am EST. This is the "dreaded" 72hr ban. You can complain, appeal, post a million complaints everywhere and it does nothing. AFTER the 72hrs are up you will be able to log in again, but your name is converted to a hexadecimal multicharacter string that looks something like GhJ84F9MNto5. You probably wont notice until you are in a server and see your name which brings on a whole new level of confusion to go along with your anxiety of "getting in trouble", like you got called to the principals office. Now you need to go to the EA app, log in, go to your settings, profile and display name. There you will see the gobbltee-**bleep** name they gave you and you will have to change it AGAIN. (and every time this happens, you have to re-certify your e-mail). This gives them another digital acknowledgement that you are who you are AND you said "yeah I was bad. Now I want more."
2nd ban - see above
3rd ban - see 1st ban....
4th ban - same as ban #1 but this time it is 7 days. this ban if you demand a human reviews your file, and you ask for a specific reason with written evidence, they may or may-not answer with a reason like a snippet from a text chat "player gobbltygook said: I like inappropriate things with your parent " or something similar and that's that. Now you usually wont even get any specifics other than some link to the TOS page.
5th ban - same as 4th ban. 7days.
6th ban - THIS ONE IS PERMANENT!!!! At this stage you are completely banned from accessing any software/game you legally purchased from and or through Electronic Arts for the past 44years they have been in business. YES, YOU READ THAT CORRECTLY!!!!!! EVERY EA GAME IN YOUR LIBRARY IS NOW GGOOONNNEEE!!!!!!!!!!! You are also BANNED FROM POSTING IN FORUMS OR ANY OTHER EA CONTROLLED SITE!!! You will NOT be able see ANYTHING but your ban history. Now you are out ALL YOUR GAMES, YOUR GAME SAVES, YOUR PROFILE IS WIPED AND YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IS BANNED FROM REGISTERING ANYTHING THROUGH EA EVER AGAIN.
Now you might say, wait. They cant do that! I bought all these other games and spent all this money and it has ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING TO DO WITH BATTELEFIELD, BF6 OR OTHERWISE!!! HOW CAN THEY DO THIS? Well , let me tell you my friend, remember that stupidly long "agreement" you scrolled past right to the bottom and checked that box "I agree"? When you ticked that box you "agreed" to a lot. You told EA you are subservient to them as your digital masters and you will be a good boy/girl and do what they say and give them your money and not complain about it in a way that makes them uncomfortable, and you will not sue them directly or with a group (no class action). You also agree if push comes to shove and you want to get legal involved, your only recourse is arbitration. This is their long-winded EULA which is written by a team of lawyers. And EA knows that if you download their software or purchase it directly, you HAVE TO AGREE or the software will not install, therefore no-one can say they did NOT agree to the EULA, mostly because they know you wont read it.
At this point, what can a person do? Well, you can start by filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. When you do this, EA WILL respond! Their legal team is notified when any "outside authority" receives a logged formal complaint about their products or business. When the legal team replies they will tell you to use resources "inside of Electronic Arts which is a formal review process. Please re-submit your appeal." This will go back and forth 3-4 times. EA will not un-ban you and they will not give you any money, refund partial refund or any money. BUT this DOES LEAVE A PERMANENT MARK ON EA'S FILE WITH THE BBB and they cannot un-do it either.
After the BBB complaint, you can physically send a letter to EA's legal department with signature requested. In the letter you can state your denial of access to your bought and paid for product(s)/software/games and your desired recourse. Do not be specific like "johnny was mad at me and so and so happend...." be legal sounding and state what you expect, such as access to your account again or a full refund for all games ever, whatever you feel is just for YOU. And, They will deny it, but they have now been legally notified of your intent. At this point you can establish a legal correspondence with the Electronic Arts legal department and ask for arbitration. They will be obligated, by their OWN EULA that they got you to check the box on because a legal contract works both ways, not just for the person who wrote it. Keep records and copies of all documents and receipts. this is suppose to be the final and ONLY PRODUCTIVE WAY to COME to ANY FAIR RESOLUTION after you have been perma-banned.
Sadly, I have not conversed with anyone who has done this as i am suspect that EA makes you sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) after the arbitration is complete.
I am sharing this information because it seems there are so FEW PEOPLE who know what this process is, let alone anyone talking about it openly. It should NOT be a well kept secret designed to create fear and anxiety within the gaming community.
I genuinely hope this helps some of us, especially older gamers who have an extensive library with EA going back several years. I have a "friend" who went through this and lost access to over $1800 worth of games going back 30 years with Electronic Arts and has gotten nothing back from EA except denials and negative comments.
Be safe out there and remember this' WE ARE NOT EACH OTHERS ENEMIES, WE ARE NOT PLAYING GAMES TO ACTUALLY HURT EACH OTHER!!!! Be nice to each other and stand up for your rights as a gamer!!!!
Sincerely, A Battlefield Veteran and now a non-BF6 player.
