Saving game is random at best

No matter what I try my progress is never saved correctly.  I played all day and went from lvl 4 to lvl 15. I thern went to a Command Post, updated my cars with the points I earned. I left the Command Post, and then just returned to the same command post thinking that would force a save. I was wrong.  When I went to play the next day, went from lvl 15 back down to lvl 6.  This makes no sense.  I re-played various mssions I and I even tried changing my car custimizations because it always asks "Apply and save changes: and I click yes thinking that would force a safe. Again I was wrong.  This time I went from lvl 12 to lvl 7. Loosing everyting I just worked for.  What is the point of playing if I have to constantly keep replaying missions I already completed.  Looking at many online forums, it looks like this is problem with the game as many people are having the same issue.  An actual "Save" option needs to be available so I can force a save whenever I go to a command post or hideout.  This is not the first bug similiar to this in otherEA games.  Is it that hard to make a "save" option, this refelcts very badly on your game developers. 

I also clicked on "Live chat" and it said my wait time was 5 minutes,  1.5 hours later, still no one came online to chat. An update/patch for this "save" poblem in Need For Speed Rivals needs to be addressed ASAP.