Activation limit for a serial number has been exceeded & EA Customer Support Representative failed to respond.
Greetings everyone,
A while ago I purchased Dead Space 2 through Steam and recently I reached my maximum limit of activations with my serial number. Prior to this issue, I didn't know about the serial number de-authorisation tool. My activations have been used up by subsequent reinstallations of Windows due to various hardware upgrades. (I very much like to run a tidy, un-bloated system with no remnants of previous drivers).
Anyway, back on topic; I attempted to initiate a Live Chat with a support representative to see if they could help me with my activation limit. After the approx. 30 minute wait, I was connected to a representative and received what appeared to be a generic "Thank you for contacting EA Customer Support Experience, how may I help you today?" message. I went on to explain my issue and situation. After sending a couple of messages, I hadn't received a reply. I left the window open for approx. an hour, after which I gave up waiting for a response and closed the conversation. There was no sign that the representative had terminated the conversation or that they had received the messages that I sent.
Disappointed, I went to my profile to examine the opened ticket. I wrote a note, including a copy and paste of my message to the Live Chat representative and attempted to include an upload of my Steam receipt for the game for proof of purchase. But for some reason it appeared to not upload correctly. My ticket status is still open, and I have attempted to resume the Live Chat conversation, but to no avail. I have cleared my browser cache, and that has made no difference.
This is a very poor experience with EA customer service, and the ticketing system seems to have flaws. While it is nice to be able to chat live with a representative, it's only functional if the representative is tentative to the customer and/or the system actually works. This isn't intended to be a rant post, just I would hope that a forum admin may come across this and be able to address me with some advice on what to do next to actually get my support request moving forward.
I'd like to add one thing however, being a software dev myself; I understand that EA needs to protect itself from piracy as much as any other publisher or developer of software. However the current activation system really hurts the customer, while it is transparent for 5 activations, it is a nuisance thereafter. Weigh in the not so known EA de-authoriser, and you have a situation that is pretty unacceptable.
It would be a better system if a unique cryptography key was generated from, say, an inconspicuous piece of hardware like a Network Interface Controller or (NIC) on the motherboard. This key would remain the same all the time no matter how many reinstallations of an operating system were performed. As long as NIC remained the same, so would the ID generated for that system by the activation software. This key would in turn be paired with the serial number and stored on EA’s activation system. This would allow for activations on up to say, 5 machines, if 5 was made the designated limit.
Anyway I do hope a support admin can help me with my issue so I can continue to enjoy playing the Dead Space saga.
-nyx
