Code showing up as not valid

Edit:  This was marked for visibility and is not considered solved.

@janz797  I've moved your post to the Sims 3 PC tech section.  This issue has surfaced today, or maybe yesterday, although some of the people reporting it have mentioned buying from unauthorized third-party sites.  Your code should have been fine though; I'm just saying it's not always easy to separate the issues.

Before doing anything else, please make sure that you are in fact entering the code properly, that you're not writing zero instead of the letter o, one instead of the letter i, etc.  It would be annoying for you to have to jump through hoops if this was the issue.

Just in case the code did work despite the error message, please clear Origin's cache:

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/faq/clear-cache-to-fix-problems-with-your-games/

restart your computer, and see whether Generations is present.  Open your Origin game library, choose More > Expansion Packs, scroll down to Generations, and see whether you can download it.  Let me know either way.

If you're still asked to Buy Now, please try registering the code on the Sims 3 Store site, just to see whether the problem happens there too.  Login with your Origin credentials, scroll down to the bottom of the page, click Register a Game, and enter the 20-character code.

https://store.thesims3.com/

Otherwise, you'll need to contact EA customer support and ask about the status of the code.  Support is on reduced hours right now: phone calls are entirely unavailable, and live chat is only open from 9 am to midnight GMT, Monday through Saturday.

https://help.ea.com/en/contact-us/

When you contact support, it would be useful to have a photo showing the disc (if you have one), the box it came in, and the insert with the code printed on the back; as well as a photo of the receipt from Walmart.  You can upload the photos directly to a live chat session.

However this goes, please let me know what happens.  Since this might be a more widespread issue, any info you can provide would be appreciated.  And if this isn't a simple fix, I will ask if someone from EA might be able to take a look.

Thanks for the ideas. I’ll try clearing the cache and see what happens.

sorry if I said something incorrectly but I meant to say that it won’t even let me purchase it! Also the code from Walmart is brand new and should have worked so I assume it’s something from origin wonking out. 

@janz797  There's definitely something weird going on with Origin.  Aside from you, there are several posters who haven't been able to buy Sims 3 or Sims Medieval just in the last few hours, and I posted in their thread too.  (Here if you want to see.)

But I didn't read those until after I moved your post, and anyway, your code should work regardless of whether there's an isolated issue with Origin right now.  Either way, this is definitely worth forwarding to EA people, but it might take a day or two to get a response.

I tried registering my games code on sims 3 and it came up as invalid again. I talked to ea support this morning and they didnt offer any solutions, just confirmed that my code wasn't working and told me to wait.

I have a code for the Generations Expansion Pack and I could not enter the code on origin. It said I had to enter the code on the Sims 3 website. I entered it in all the possible places and it just said that it was an 'invalid code'. I then tried to enter my Sims 3 code but that didn't seem to work either. Sims 3 is working on origin and I have one expansion pack already. What could the problem be?

@janz797  Yup, it's been flagged, and EA people are looking into it.  Thanks for the update.  I'll post back when there's any news.

@pastabowl16  I've merged your post with another thread on this issue.  The problem is on EA's end, and it's being investigated.  I'll post back when there's any news.  Sorry this isn't working right now, but there's nothing players can do except wait for EA to fix it.

ITS WORKING!!!!!

Thanks so much!

@puzzlezaddictHello, I’m sorry to revive this old thread/post, but I’ve been experiencing the same problem for the past few days, and I’m really desperate to find a solution.

Whenever I try to enter any code on my account, it shows an error "product is not valid". While, on other accounts, the codes work as expected, showing the game content and the "code has been redeemed" message.

I would greatly appreciate it if you could take a look at this issue.

For more details, please refer to my reply in another thread:
https://forums.ea.com/discussions/the-sims-4-technical-issues-pc-en/cant-redeem-codes/4938196/replies/5037007

Thank you so much.