On Reddit, you hear about this all the time. It seams like EA just picks random players to send to the cheat server whether they deserve it or not. This way EA can claim they control cheating, but they really don’t. It is all smoke and mirrors.
This is interesting. 2 years ago I was informed that they had in place some system but as it was automated, it was highly prone to errors. But my informer might have been wrong.
I promised full transparency so here we go with further correspondence:
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Dear Prakhar,
Thank you for your prompt reply, however I'm afraid this is a misunderstanding.
Yes, your procedures push you to make your customers isolated and by this vulnerable. But the EA policy to establish clubs encourages players to build communities. So I'm not writing from the perspective of my account but as a leader of a community of 70 members in 3 clubs. I'm sure your experts are able to check this fact.
I'm upset of what happened to my long term honest member. The member to whom you wrote that he "may have broken one or more of the rules detailed in section 6 of your terms of service agreement". Then you wrote that his case had been passed to an expert who would be in touch. It was on 4th of February. No expert in touch since then. Not even a hint which one of points listed in section 6 "may have been broken".
So it looks like in this case your "best way possible assistance" is no assistance. I recall you that your only hint so far to a player who has been paying real Canadian dollars for a premium pass was to delete his account.
Now, as I said, I've been successfully leading our clubs for over 2 years. This demands an assurance that the pillars of the clubs wouldn't be suspended for undefined period of time without any tangible cause. As you did in autumn 2019 when you brought back one of my key members after a month of suspension but you never even said sorry.
As refers to the current case member's scores, I will gladly provide them if your expert specifies what period of time would be helpful to them.
Waiting for you finally finish your investigation.
Regards
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Prakhar (SimCity BuildIt)
Mar 12, 2022, 9:48 GMT+2
Hi there,
We always appreciate players who take the time to give us their feedback, so thanks for sharing it!
Being a support, the only assistance I can provide as of now is by sharing what you've said to the team.
I would have to reiterate, that the city details of Player ID: XXXXXXXXX has been sent over to the concerned team already. They will investigate the account and will do the needful.
As soon as my colleague receives an update on this matter, will reach out to the player over his help ticket.
Furthermore, we won't be sharing other players case details or discuss regarding any given issue. If you need any insights, then you can contact the fellow club member.
Your understanding will be highly appreciated on this matter.
Please feel free to contact us again if you need further assistance in-game. Thanks!
I find it highly disappointing that EA cannot even cite the infraction. If someone is to be suspended, they should at least have evidence of exactly the issue. If none can he cited, there is an error. Everyone makes mistakes, but own your error EA and reinstate our member with full apology and appropriate compensation for your mistake.
Imagine this. You and you and you. Anyone. One day you wake up, enter the game and see a message of being offline. Second check and you're not anymore in your club. You browse clubs and see your club doesn't exist. Not only yours but none of clubs you knew. You state your game has been somehow weirdly broken and write to EA support.
You've got an answer and feel you're about to have a heart attack. Flashes of hot and cold throughout your body. It's like a nightmare you're trying to wake up from.
The ridiculous message reads:
"It appears that you may have broken one or more of the rules detailed in section 6 of our terms of service agreement." ... "We would advise (to)... start over using a brand-new social connection".
Now imagine this: this message and all other EA support messages I posted before were chosen by the system out of a closed set carefully cooked by an army of lawyers and psychologists.
Under normal parameters they assumed, you stand no chance.
The reaction timing is perfectly designed to make you resign. It's not an expert carefully investigating your case for a month. It's an assumption that you will give up after all your never answered emails sent to a black hole.
Would you try to complain to someone? Get in touch with your club? Forget it. They perfectly know that a natural human reaction would be "he must have done something, they can't be this wrong".
Well, they can.
This is an always-win case for them. Or they caught a cheat or you delete your account so they can tick out that they caught a cheat. That's why they so maniacally insist you do it.
Update: my next email to EA customer service:
Dear Praktar,
Again I feel this is a misunderstanding.
I'm not asking about any particular details of your investigation. For the purpose of better managing my team I'm trying to get information when my member will be brought back to the regular server. Also please consider two options according to your procedures.
Option 1: he sustains his claims for compensation; option 2: he drops his claims about simcash, items and premium mayor pass he lost in the process.
In other words how much longer will your investigation take and how much shorter will it be if my member drops his requests for compensation.
Your kind answer would let us make an informed decision about our further steps.
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Now imagine: my member, (ok this is ridiculous to call someone like this, so lets's call him Jimmy)(though his name is not Jimmy), so Jimmy, who was waiting for 40 days for any answer from customers service suddenly got one the next day:
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Hey Mayor,
Thank you for your patience and sorry for the delay in response.
I would like to inform you that we have get this account checked with our team and they have confirmed that you have modified the city, so this cannot be moved back to the normal server.
I would suggest to uninstall and reinstall the new game, ensure that you install a version from a legitimate source and start over using a brand-new social connection.
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So, only after 40 days we've got a slight progress. I'd dare to claim any progress was made only because I hit the jackpot with my questions.
We're not talking anymore about breaking the TOS, but about mysterious modification of the city. I wonder what city modification can bring you to cheat server? More twisting roads in limestone valley? Storage upgrade? We'll definitely ask.
Progress? How naive your customers are, EA.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
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Dear Prakhar,
Thank you for your prompt reply.
Fortunately we reached some progress since you stopped accusing my member of breaking the paragraph 6 of the TOS. In this view the options I mentioned are not an issue anymore.
Now we are at the point where your experts claim that they're unable to bring the town back to regular server. I deeply believe that this is only a matter of good will and setting priorities.
My priority is the wellbeing of my members. So I urge you to take all measures to swiftly overcome the technical issues in this area.
Regards
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But Jimmy got the response like this:
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Hey mayor,
thank you for taking the time to send in your feedback regarding this but this have been confirmed that the city was modified and unfortunately once a city is modified cannot be corrected.
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At this point Jimmy and I had a conversation. I told him: look, they want you to pledge you would not claim compensation. This is what worked previous time. But Jimmy said no.
I admire and respect his attitude but it led us to further spinning in vicious circle of zendesk.
Update:
And I've got another empty answer.
Hi there,
I really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts with us.
The player is question will be contacted back from the representative assigned to him. Please be assured, your club member will be assisted with relevant information regarding this case.
Since the case is handled over a different help ticket, I am afraid to inform but it is not possible for me to interfere or come to any conclusions.
I will now tentatively mark this case as resolved, however, if there is anything else you require assistance with, please contact us again and we would be glad to help you further with it.
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Dear Prakhar,
I do not agree that this case is resolved.
If it's true what I've learned from social media, that you have limited control over your scanner and that you avoid to the utmost extend possible taking responsibility for your mistakes, tomorrow it may happen to me and our club is dead. So it is my case too.
When you suspended my member you wrote to him that he "may have broken" paragraph 6 of the TOS.
So basically we have consensus that you punish people not being sure they did anything wrong.
Now you wrote that "he have modified the city, so this cannot be moved back to the normal server".
My question is how? How one can modify his city, being on cheat server that you can't bring him back?
Our club is a non war club focused on the contest of mayors. If my member was a cheat, I'd perfectly see it comparing his scores to the highest scores you accept.
I attach last screens of January 2022 with the top scores in the club, including him, xxxxx. His scores are not impressive.
Please bring him back. He's innocent, I know it and you know it. It's a human living in isolation who's only social relation was this game. It's not another case to be ticked out as resolved. I will not let him be harmed by your soulless procedures and I will not stop alerting social media about this case until it's really resolved.
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This was my last attempt to talk with a bot.
But didn't I say we're 70ish in 3 clubs and we love Jimmy?
The exact thing has happened to me. Although it’s only been a week for me. I’ve gotten all the same responses about I may have broken a rule, experts are investigating and delete and start over.
Follow up emails are non existent.
After reading all your posts I now know there is no hope of getting this issue resolved.
Thank you for your reporting and I hope your friend “Jimmy” was returned to his club.
It’s a shame this goes on but unfortunately for me I will have to call it quits. I have no desire to go through what you and Jimmy have gone through with all these non answer emails responses by EA customer support.
Community ManagerCommunity Manager
