Wrongful Ban / EA Accountability

Good Morning. I contacted EA Help chat and got an extremely helpful gentleman who assured me that my case was being escalated. I explained the situation to him. I play the game occasionally. My son who is 7 going on 8 is the one who spends hours grinding. He has been reduced to virtual school, his basketball team was suspended, he cannot go to the hitting facility and practice baseball and he hasn't been able to spend time with his grandparents in months due to their risk factors. 

Every morning he would get himself out of bed, dressed, teeth brushed and ready for breakfast in hopes of some Madden time before school started. The day the message popped up he was devastated. I kept faith that EA would do the right thing. @EA_Blueberry had always seemed honest and forthcoming. Granted this isn't his fault, but we teach our children that honesty is important beyond measure. Everyone makes mistakes and admitting when you were wrong, separates the few, from the many. This morning I had to tell him it was over. That EA, the people that produce Madden will not fix it and allow him to play. He now feels terrible and is apologizing to me. He thinks that he cheated. He thinks this because as he says, "Dad, everyone plays Madden. You have to be really smart to make a game like Madden. I must have done something wrong if they say I did. I don't know what I did." The problem is that he didn't. YouTubers promote coin selling, farming, illegal ways to make bank and go on unharmed. But they bring eyeballs and revenue to the corporation. My 7 year old doesn't. It's a harsh reality. 2020 has been a rough one. This is just the icing on the cake. Attached my screenshot below. As I told him, no explanation, no detail. No warning...ever. No where in our world would this be acceptable for action being taken on another. Lesson learned. It is sad, but it looks like the EA era of my life is coming to an end. 

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@Elesser141 wrote:

@EA_Blueberry I have a few questions for you because I am sure many other people in this thread may be thinking similar ones. I know most of us in this thread recently got emails that our bans were reviewed and upheld. When you say it is reviewed does that just mean that it got sent through the same bot or program that mistakenly caught us in the first place or does a human actually go through our account? If it is the program is there any way for an actual human to go through and review all of the people who got mistakenly banned on this thread so they realize the program made a mistake? And also one final question. Will we ever be able to know what action on our account triggered the false bans or eventually will they just realize they made a mistake in the program, fix it and let us play some madden again? These are just some things I am wondering currently about this whole process.

-Thanks

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It's manually reviewed by a human to determine if the action was justified by the actions of the user in game. This is in part of why it takes a bit of time. When you have hundreds to thousands of disputes for all of our games, this staff has to do a deep dive for each account reviewing the logs. 

We aren't going to disclose what players specifically did in game in order to avoid cheaters making changes to their illegal software by learning from our anti-cheating program.

If it’s a human reviewing it then why do they not see all of these youtubers and streamers clearly breaking rules on the TOS and banning them.... literally in the first 30 seconds of every one of their videos they break TOS. Just doesn’t make sense why there are people being falsely banned when there are some who are actually breaking TOS and receive no repercussions at all. Something needs to be changed in this entire banning system and process. Whole thing is quite painful to go through and I’m sure it is the same for both sides

You really think everyone on this post that are stating they are banned and/or have received confirmation they will not be reinstated actually have developed software to cheat???? Lol c'mon man what a joke.

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@jirieck051389 wrote:

You really think everyone on this post that are stating they are banned and/or have received confirmation they will not be reinstated actually have developed software to cheat???? Lol c'mon man what a joke.

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That was in reference to the persons responsible for creating and distributing these programs or apps. This was not directly aimed at individuals in this thread. 

@EA_Blueberry 

It sounds like we shouldn't be expecting any changes to our banned accounts. 

I know a lot of people are just done with Madden if that's the case, but I'd like to get my kid back up and running, as there's not a lot to do in MN winter during a national pandemic lockdown, without youth sports/activities.

That said, am I safe to start a new EA account under the same PSN? We got our son a ps5 for xmas and the original plan before the ban was to do the free upgrade to next gen madden.

If we do go this route, how do I know I'm safe to invest money in Madden Points again? We have over 10,000 madden points unused on the banned account and EA won't give those back in any way, shape, or form, Playstation would only give them back if I'm okay shutting down the account completely and sounds like I'd risk an IP ban.

I'm not sure what got us banned in the first place, so I don't know if it's something we will accidentally do again. Could buying and selling cards in the auction house be considered 'farming'? Out of all the listed infractions, that's the only one I can see being a possibility.

Is there any type of 'safe way' for us to invest money into the game without possibly suffering the same consequences (losing full access, without knowing how or why, without any means to a refund)?

Well, individuals in this thread are not using these programs or apps we are the little guys the casual players you all at EA don’t have a brain cell in your noggin. 

Are you confirming that the reason bans are taking place is due to cheating and coin distribution software? I think everyone would like to know what we are being accused of.

@jirieck051389Or why some of us were accused of one thing,which was supposed to have resulted only in auction house bans, but we were without access to anything but franchise. Then 6 days later we receive cheating bans? Did you send the wrong emails out? Not one word why that occurred. Precedence for leniency has been set up prior due to sending out wrong emails---which actually shows how screwed up their flagging system is.

At this Point I am sure that they don’t care about there Customer.... if they lose some customers it’s not a problem for them....

@EA_Blueberry  I think it is a very fair question to ask why it is that youtubers who are profiting off using coin selling companies, and enticing members to buy coins which gets them banned are not being banned themselves. Shouldn't you put into your policy something to the effect that if your account is in fact linked or tied or connected to coin selling agencies that you too shall be banned or suspended? 

I will make an analogy. We currently have an epidemic in the US now dealing with pain meds. People can get pain meds from doctors who prescribe it to them and this medicine is able to give lots of relief to those with prescriptions. This is legal. This is how it is supposed to be. However, there are limits. The amount of drugs is limited and there is a fixed price for the prescriptions. Also, there is insurance and all that which may limit what you can buy or not.  

However, people who want more of this prescription, they find ways around it. They want this pain medication because it is now a drug they need and want. Since the demand for these drugs is so high, we have illegal doctors and agencies providing illegal pain medication. These doctors, acting in a professional capacity, are abusing there power and access to medicine by giving these pain medications to willing buyers. This then makes them a criminal. It also makes them profitable. People who are associated with these 'drug mills' and enable this abuse to happen and profit from this are also guilty and committing crimes though they may not be prescribing the drugs or handling the drugs, they are sill complicit in the act. 

Now, in this analogy, Madden 21 is the pharmacy and has the doctor  which provides the access to the coins via challenges and games and the AH buying and selling items. People can go to the Madden Pharmacy and make coins, and buy packs.. They can exchange cards and try to make coins within the system.  This is legal. There are limits on certain packs, and there is an element of chance. People buy these packs, but they find that the limits are not worth the money spent  in comparison with what else is out there. The cost of the Madden Pharmacy is expensive. The illegal sites are cheaper and better for the money spent, for the same 'prescription' wanted from the Madden Store. There are also no limits and less chance or risk of not getting the result you want.  There is no element of chance involved. You get what you pay for.  

Now, you tell me. What role in this analogy are the youtubers? Aren't they the the same as  those people who promote the sale of illegal drugs that  also get's a % of the drug's profit? The answer is yes. 

It seems to me that EA is capitalizing on people watching the Youtube videos and then being banned. It seems that EA realizes that there is profit to be made because they draw people to the game and these  people increase the  popularity. However, looks away from the damage they cause and ban people who actually ban people for doing what these youtubers are profiting from and encouraging them  do which is to violate terms of service.  If EA really wanted to stop third party agencies from advertising and enticing  people to buy coins, they would ban them and ban them permanently.  

Lastly, the fact that you don't want to reveal your means of determining how someone cheated as to prevent cheating later is understandable. I think that players should be given a warning if they have accounts which are showing evidence or reason to believe they are violating TOS. I think that most of the people on this thread are not mass computer engineers. Most are not youtubers profiting off the game. Most will be happy to take a warning, and change their habits. But, since no warning was given at all but an immediate permanent ban, it only brings a bigger spotlight on the inconsistent policies which I outlined above that are really at the heart of all the 'bans' and etc. going on. 

Now, it's Christmas. Does EA have a heart at all? Or does it only assume the worse in regards to its customers as irredeemable people?  If I was EA, a new system which involves warnings for violations, and a crackdown on the youtubers promoting coin selling should be done. 

One more thing. your store bundles and etc. need improvement.  The fact that you have to rely on chance to get a top end card, makes it akin to gambling and this really is not what an EA game or any game should be about when it comes to upgrading your team. Figure out a way to sell coins, and if people do buy something, guarantee that they will get what they agree to pay for which is a very top tier item that makes the money spent worth it. Spending 100$ for a bundle which doesn't guarantee a top boss in a set only drives people to the very sites and youtubers which you want ot ban people for. This whole 'topper' with +89 or etc. That's garbage. Complete garbage. 

I think this post deserves some attention. People who read this, please get it to people that matter. Thanks 

@Laserbeam2012I agree with you, but I'm labeled as cheater but have absolutely no idea what I did to cheat? I'm not a botter, I haven't D.C. glitched--my console did die when it was a loading a H2H game---not sure if that resulted in the other person getting the loss. I've sent them a copy of the invoice showing them that it died on Nov. 27th---so if that last game got me flagged then that should be proof that I didn't do anything on purpose since my account wasn't (or at least shouldn't have been) logged into until I got it back. I don't use the auction app. But with them not providing examples, I can't offer an explanation.

I think you deserve a full explanation as to why they banned you including a printout of the data they used to determine your ban. So, they can say look here at exhibit 'A' . You did 'B' and 'B' is illustrated in section 'Y' of our TOS agreement. 

That's what a responsible company would do. They have a complete computer read out of everything that happened on your account. They should be able to give that to you if you request it. I would assume you have to request it. The argument probably is that they don't feel obligated to give it to you. If you are labeled as a cheater and you are  not, and you are clearly vested in the game I think that a clear explanation as to who, what, where, when, why, and how ought to be given to you. Now, this 'should be given' is an opinion of mine. Whether it is a legal right to be given an explanation as to why you are not able to have access to a part of a game which you have paid money for is a different question. 

The DC glitch is something they seriously need to solve because it is ruining the game for everyone who plays it fairly. 

Let's say they CHEATED and not tell them why so we can take there account again next year 🤣 😂 🤣🤣  

@EA_Blueberry Not once have you addressed the multiple comments regarding big name YouTube creators that clearly stream with 7,8,10 or 20 million coins in their accounts. 100,000 training and 150 in points in their account. Yet outside of when they purchase bundles they are opening packs with all these coins they likely got from the coin sites the promote. 

When are you going to answer the people's questions on how these YouTube star's are able to blatantly violate terms of service by promotion coin buying sites with no negative consequence? I think this is a pretty simple answer. If EA is truly banning everyone because of their violations of TOS, it is pretty simple to identify these individuals. 

It may take some intense work from their staff. But my 7 year old would be happy to assist free of charge. He seems to be able to find them all simply by typing madden ultimate team into YouTube...who knows though? I always knew he was a sharp kid. Maybe this research method is cutting edge! He may be on to something that the largest sports game monopoly has yet to figure out. 

But then again, maybe they don't care what streamers do because they bring eyeballs. And they can ban gamers knowing they can double revenue on some because they will start over again from scratch. In many ways profiting off of a global pandemic, by taking advantage of loyal customers. 

Madden 21 Wronful Ban Victims Group Page is Open On Facebook.... Go Join Group if you want REAL HELP !!!