Hey thanks for following up. I got in touch with a game advisor yesterday (after many multiple-hour attempts at waiting in chat, and having my issue set to "resolved" already once, despite never having heard back from support) and I have to say I am immensely disappointed with the way this issue is handled.
For anyone else struggling through this issue, I will explain exactly what has happened below.
I made an EA account many years ago, and linked it to my gamertag. The EA account was registered with an email address that was deleted (my university student email address, which was deleted a few years after I graduated). I have no idea what the password was - and even if I did, I would not be able to change my email address to a new one, since the original email address literally no longer exists.
So, I finally got in touch with a Game Advisor, who told me we could recover the account if I answered a few verification questions. No problem, I thought. I made the account so I am sure I know the answer to these security questions.
Unfortunately, the authentication questions EA has decided to use for this process are A) Not secure information to begin with, and B) Literally impossible for me to know now. First of all, and quite importantly, EA will not tell me the date when I created the account. This is a big issue because the questions were ALL things that would have likely changed over the past few years. Security questions include
A) Billing Address
B) Last 4 digits of Credit Card
C) Phone Number
D) Most infuriatingly - IP ADDRESS
IP Addresses are not secure at all, how could a tech company like EA not understand this. Anyone can see your IP address, and an IP address is not unique to an individual in the first place. Since I have moved through a few apartments over the past few years, those old IP addresses are completely inaccessible to me now. I don't even know where I was living when I made the EA account because EA cannot disclose that information to me.
I tried explaining this to the EA game advisor, to clarify why these security questions are literally impossible for me to answer. He replied with a copy-pasted response over and over again, that there was nothing more he could do to help me. So, this is the end of the road for me. There are no other possible options for me to take.
End of story - my Microsoft account (Gamertag) is forever tied to a locked EA account that simple cannot be recovered, ever, due to an inherently flawed authentication process that EA has chosen despite there being countless other methods of identity verification that are proven to work in the real world. Asking for outdated information, and not disclosing the date that the information was even collected, makes my account forever inaccessible for me despite my every ability to prove my identity through conventional means. This is how EA treats players who have had accounts with them for a long time. By locking them out forever, and eliminating my ability to play any of the multiplayer EA titles I have paid for and enjoyed for years already.
This is why everyone hates EA. This is exactly why people are always upset when EA absorbs another game dev. EA is the absolute worst.
I hope this post is helpful to any other longtime EA customers who have been forever locked out of their services for forgetting login info on an old account. The authentication process is impossible and deeply flawed. RIP
