Mass Effect: Andromeda is no longer supported (according to EA Help)
I very rarely preorder games, but I was one of the enthusiastic people who preordered the Super Deluxe Edition ($99.99) on Origin. My line of thinking at the time was essentially, "It's a Mass Effect game, how unpolished could it be?" After being admittedly disappointed with the release quality of the game, I thought I would come back to it later (after it had received updates); basically the same approach I'm taking with Anthem. Mass Effect: Andromeda has been out of sight, out of mind since then. I have a sizable backlog of games to keep me busy.
With COVID-19 impacting the environment around me, I have had some time to work my way through some of that backlog. So I installed Mass Effect: Andromeda today. I noticed that the Turian Soldier Multiplayer Recruit Pack and Asari Adept Multiplayer Recruit Pack included with the Deluxe Edition are missing. I contacted help.ea.com to try to understand why the $29.99 (originally $69.99) Deluxe Edition of the game includes the Turian Soldier and Asari Adept Multiplayer Recruit Packs, but the Super Deluxe Edition, which is supposed to include everything the Deluxe Edition does with the addition of some multiplayer bonuses, does not. Even if the packs were added to the Deluxe Edition after launch, I still expect EA to honor my purchase.
I was informed that this game, which was released March 21 or 23, 2017 (depending on where you live), is no longer supported by EA as of a few months ago (EA Help Agent: "and few months ago the game is under unsupported games"). I knew that EA had said the game wouldn't receive any more single-player updates, but that's not the same thing as technical support from help.ea.com. This caught me completely off guard and I sought confirmation of this twice during the chat, and according to him, EA no longer supports Mass Effect: Andromeda.
I asked him why EA still sells Mass Effect: Andromeda if it isn't supported and asked him how is it that I can add the individual DLC (buy purchasing them) but he doesn't have the system access/authority to add them. He didn't have any concrete answers, other than to say that "to be honest with you no one in EA would be able to add this". What if I had an issue with my purchase of the DLC and I was charged for it but it didn't show up in my account? According to him, there is nothing he could do to add the DLC because the game is unsupported (EA Help Agent: "our team removed the options from here to add the content for it"). I suppose he could refund the purchase, but according to him, he can't add missing content for the game, no one at EA can. He did acknowledge that I was supposed to have received the Turian Soldier and Asari Adept Multiplayer Recruit Packs (EA Help Agent: "The game patch was last updated in which you were supposed to get those contents").
I asked for some other party at EA to contact, which of course I didn't receive. I couldn't even speak with a member of the team he was supposedly consulting with in the background (EA Help Agent: "This is the only platform where you can talk live. Our team are not assigned to handle contacts...").
I told him it was crazy that EA no longer supports a game that is barely three years old, and that it made no sense for the game and DLC to still be sold on Origin (and now Steam) if it can't be supported, but according to him that's the way it is.
I don't know how much of his answer I believe (which is often the case with answers from EA Help over the last several years; quality there seems to have really declined since 2014, and it was hit or miss to start with), but this is exactly the type of thing I was talking about when I told a community manager that being an EA customer is like death by a thousand cuts.
As I understand it, and I could be completely wrong, different EA customers are supported by different global help centers depending on where you live (e.g. someone in Germany or France, and possibly even someone in an English-majority country other than the US, won't be routed to the same center I am), so maybe help.ea.com doesn't provide a universally bad experience for everyone, but the help.ea.com resource I have access to is nearly worthless.
The Super Deluxe Edition was advertised as "Mass Effect Andromeda’s Super Deluxe Edition sets you up with ALL THE INCREDIBLE EXTRA GEAR AND ADDITIONAL BENEFITS OF THE DELUXE EDITION, but piles on even more Multiplayer Booster Packs." It's even in the title of the edition, it's the Super DELUXE Edition. It should have everything the Deluxe Edition has plus some additional multiplayer booster packs; EA advertised it that way after all. An additional benefit of the Deluxe Edition is that it was updated after release to include the Turian Solider and Asari Adept Multiplayer Recruit Packs. If the Super Deluxe Edition truly has the additional benefits of the Deluxe Edition it should have been updated as well, but EA overlooked the Super Deluxe Edition since it was a limited edition that had ceased being sold by the time of the update. Even the Standard Edition was updated with the Turian Soldier Multiplayer Recruit Pack.
I was just seeking parity with the Deluxe Edition; that is reasonable and fair given how the Super Deluxe Edition is named and was advertised and considering the notably higher price tag I paid (lesson learned). Due to the poor release quality of the game, I decided to come back to it sometime after it had been patched, and now that I've had some free time to do just that, I realized EA failed to update the Super Deluxe Edition with the Turian Solider and Asari Adept Multiplayer Recruit Packs, and EA will not honor what was advertised: "ALL THE INCREDIBLE EXTRA GEAR AND ADDITIONAL BENEFITS OF THE DELUXE EDITION".
As a final update to this thread, I have since been informed by another EA Help representative that EA Help no longer has the ability to add content, and "what support we have is even more limited, just basic tech support and refund type issues". I can't fault them in this regard, they apparently have no ability to add content for the game, even after consulting with "specialists".
Requesting another party to speak with who does have the administrative access to remedy this goes nowhere. This is needlessly secretive, almost like EA is controlled by Sith Lords or evil robots behind the scenes and EA Help representatives are their shock-collar-wearing captives. Who is there to turn to when a problem is resolvable by a company but the only point of contact you have with that company doesn't have the ability to resolve it themselves and can't forward it to anyone else? Regardless of the problems encountered, EA customers are almost always directed to EA Help as the sole source of resolution, but EA Help itself has been hamstrung in what it can actually do. It would be like directing someone who needs new brake pads to consult a paralegal. It makes no sense if customer service is the actual goal. The truth is it primarily exists to exhaust customers into giving up without a resolution. Well, mission accomplished.
Like I said, being an EA customer is sometimes like death by a thousand cuts. I enjoy the games (for the most part), but the support experience is woefully deficient. Also, that is not an attack on any community managers, I'm sure you're doing the best you can within the role and limitations you've been given, but the support system you are a part of needs an overhaul.
