13 years ago

PC - Online Pass Required Error

Somewhere between tuesday and friday my account bugged out, and now is insisting that I require an Online Pass to play multiplayer online for the PC Version of Mass Effect 3.

Some people are saying that it's possible that I've been banned, but that is a very small window to have been banned, and as far as I had seen, the bans have been going out in 'waves' every month or so, grabbing large numbers of players who have been exploiting bugs.

Now, I just about never host a game, unless someone disconnects, so it's safe to say that I'm not editing the game files to give myself an advantage, and my friends who I do play with haven't been banned, so they're not hacking, and when I play online, I make it a policy of never repeating a match lobby with any group just to get a wider variety of play experience - so it seems almost impossible that there's any way for me to have been flagged as being banned. With some faith I attempted to contact EA Support yesterday in the morning, and did eventually manage to get in contact with someone who said they were going to 'escalate' my ticket to an 'expert' to look at. Also, yesterday, I sent a mail to the ME3 account mail just to make sure that I wasn't somehow flagged as a cheater and banned in error, but in both cases, it's been about 24 hours and I've not heard back from anyone.

Is there any way I can talk to one of these 'experts' in person, as apparently regular support does not know how to properly deal with this situation? The first support person I talked to made serveral attempts to convince me that I had no idea what I was talking about, and that an Online Pass was needed to play on the PC, and that I was somehow in the wrong in that I had never purchased one for my copy that I've owned since launch. I had hoped that even if it was a full 24-36 hours before someone got back to me, that I'd still have maybe a chance to complete the weekend promotional event, which I usually do my best to do (and have just about never missed), but it's starting to look like that since this occured for me on the start of a weekend, I'm likely just going to not hear back from a single person until way past monday, when the event is ended, which is, to say the least, largely dissatisfying.

29 Replies

Anonymous
13 years ago
I had the same problem as you. What I did was I sent a private message to a Bioware employee on the Bioware social network multiplayer forums. When I did that it was fixed by the next day. So that might be your best bet. Good luck.
Anonymous
13 years ago
If you call EA customer support on this issue, let them know you're experiencing an entitlement issue with the Online Pass for PC and need it regranted.

As for the being flagged as a cheater, no, you have not been flagged at this time.
SeijiTataki
13 years ago
I've actually spoken with Customer Support, albeit over the live chat feature, about three times over the last four days, and all I've gotten is that I've been escalated to a Game Specialist, with no one contacting me back.
1ago
13 years ago
I had the same error, also between Friday and Saturday shortly after I changed my Origin password, but I played afterwards while being logged in with the new password, only the next day did I get the error. I also e-mailed the Account-Admin and was assured my ME3 MP account was in good standing.
After several tries I got an EA advisor to help me issue a new Online Pass, so keep at it - it's sadly based entirely on luck it seems if the advisor helps you or not. My first advisor also said he'd "escalate" it and I'd hear back from the expert team, but I never got an answer from them. The second one took 55min to assess my case (took him 10min in between question like "Are you playing through Steam?" and "Are you playing on PC???") and tried to issue a new pass, but couldn't help me in the end, as Origin was down at that time and he couldn't check my account. When Origin was online again, the last advisor I spoke with finally managed to issue a new Online Pass without much hassle after I told him my story.
The only (small) issue I now have is, that when ME3 checks at each start if the DLCs are registered correctly I get the error "could not authorize the following DLC - Collector's Edition Online Pass Entitlement". It seems the newly issued Online Pass is not associated to my game-code. Why the Online Pass gets checked as a DLC at all and needs authorization is beyond me. But everything else works, I can play MP and all my SP DLCs (Omega, From Ashes, Leviathan etc) are working as well, so I can live with it.
I hope you get your Online Pass fixed! Just keep trying the Online Chat until you find an advisor that helps you.
RogenTAU
13 years ago
Is there any other way to fix this, so far i have no luck in response from EA support as (in Czech republic). I'm not getting any answer, a can't find local phone number, and i have problem to find any other contact method, could anyone help please?
1ago
13 years ago
You can try the English Live Chat - just check "United States" under "country" at the bottom right of the page on help.ea.com. Once you've selected Mass Effect 3 and the appropriate sub-categories you get the choice to speak with an EA Game Advisor through the (English) Live Chat. I got all my problems resolved this way, although it might take several tries. Just insist that you want a new Online Pass issued and be polite and usually they are able to help you.
Good luck!
KoJotP
13 years ago
and how does that work exactly? do You keep your manifest? I've unlocked quite a bit and wouldn't want to lose that
1ago
13 years ago
You keep your entire manifest, as this is attached to your account, not the Online Pass. I kept everything when they issued a new Online Pass, even the Galactic Readiness rating.
Anonymous
13 years ago
What do I have to do to get this resolved?
I've contacted support 4 times through Live Chat and explained that I'm experiencing an entitlement issue with the Online Pass for PC and need it regranted.
I get the same reponse that the issue has been escalated and I'll be contacted by email.
I have yet to receive an email and it's been 3 weeks since the problem started.
I'm really upset that I've missed out on multiple Operation weekends because of this.
treknx01
13 years ago
I have also had this issue, and like one other I had a new online pass added to my account and that got things working again, however i to am getting the unable to autherise the N7 collectors edition pass error message, however today my from Ashes DLC just bugged out and I an having NO joy with Live chat and will see how many days it takes a "Sepcilast" to get in contact with me to fix this or not as I fear the case may be.