Why does EA treat its paying customers so poorly?
Electronic Arts, I hate you. You are currently the publisher causing me the most hassle and annoyance when I want to play your games. As a result of this, I am buying fewer of your games than I otherwise would have, and taking others off my wish-list.
It's probably no coincidence that EA has had the least helpful customer support when I've contacted them with issues, or that they've been voted worst company in America two years running now.
Some people will still buy their games - but for me, this does drastically heighten my buying threshold, and if my interest is not overwhelming, I'll just stay away - there are enough other games out there.
It used to be that Ubisoft was the worst for treating their consumers badly, but they've improved somewhat (still have quite a way to go), while EA has gladly embraced every anti-consumer choice it could.
Worst part of it is that Bioware now falls under EA... so even if they make a good Dragon Age 3, I'll be unlikely to play it, unless EA has significantly improved the manner they treat their customers by then.
a) Posting your comments regarding your dissatisfaction with EA customer support here on the AHQ is unlikely to be seen by anyone you intended to read it.
The AHQ is for "player-to-player" technical self-help. We're all just fellow gamers, doin' the best we can.
b) I agree that EA does not make it EASY to reach their customer support team. (Witness that you ended-up here, rather than anywhere useful to you.)
c) I have had every single one of my issues that required assistance from EA over the past four years resolved successfully. This includes some pretty obscure problems, and in one case required a significant amount of investigative work by the EA Game Advisor. I have found the "Live Chat" option the most responsive and I use it first. The "Telephone" option was the most useful for very difficult issues. And the "Email" option was the slowest, (weeks to get the issue resolved) but was also effective.
So while I understand your frustration, if you're goal is really to be able to play the games they produce, I would recommend that you learn how to use their Help Center system, rather than venting about it.
