Game code purchased from an "unauthorised source"?

@micadiraviolsupe

If the packs you are missing on your game launcher were a purchased code through a online seller (eBay, other online selling sites, etc.) Then you most likely are experiencing the same issue alot of us have been, after a recent Origin patch. If that is the case, there is a thread at the top of the page with approx. 128 posts on it Called "Sims 3 expansion missing" , it has some suggestions from the EA Community Manager - @EA_Mai on how to proceed.

What it looks like happened after researching this, was:  An authorized EA game code distributor that sold the codes to online sellers for resell on their store sites (eBay, other online selling sites, etc) Did a charge back on their credit card and told EA to revoke the codes (going all the way back to as far as 2015). So EA/Origin did a blanket revoke on all the codes with that origin patch. With the Distributor doing this, it put many legitimate online sellers out of business & it is costing them a bunch of money, all the simmers that purchased the codes in good faith are out their game(s) and money, and EA lost a bunch of money because of it also. Some simmers are getting their games back and some are not so far..

If your game still shows up as installed on your origin account but is missing from your launcher, then you first need to try the steps @EA_Mai suggested.

If that does not work, then I suggest that you do the PHONE CALL option for EA customer support during their business hours. People are having problems getting responses back from the email option. They will look into why your packs were disabled. Some people have had their packs restored that way, some have not.

I would wait to get more codes from the same seller (that does not mean your seller has done anything wrong - many have been scammed also from the "Authorized Distributor", so until after you talk to EA and see if they can help you out - I would also ask them 1st

@Catlee2   You need to remove Amazon from your list because EA lists Amazon as an authorized reseller. I believe I have mentioned this before to you before. posting incorrect facts is against the forums rules.

@roberta591,

Thanks for the correction  - I know amazon itself is authorized, so thanks for pointing that out - I made a correction on my post.

But, some of the people (sellers) that list/sell on there got caught up in the same situation, because of the distributor they purchased to resell from (the distributor that did the charge back had been authorized and sold to may different people/re-sellers - that is why it is so wide spread and effected so many people) So far the simmers that I seen post on this forum that had purchased from amazon said they either got a refund from amazon or had their games re-stored. But they still had to deal with the issue of having a revoked code.. But yes, the biggest majority of the charge back codes were off of eBay, with a few from some random other sites.

PS. I am glad to see people like yourself willing to take the time to help out others - Kudos to you!  - I have been playing since the very first sims and I also was in the first group of people to sign up and use this forum back when they started it,  -  that is why I have the "AHQ Founder Badge" , so I know the rules - I just have not used the forum as much over the years and I forget to be very specific on something like what you brought up - thanks for pointing it out

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@roberta591 wrote:

@Catlee2   You need to remove Amazon from your list because EA lists Amazon as an authorized reseller. I believe I have mentioned this before to you before. posting incorrect facts is against the forums rules.

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On Amazon.com, there are hundreds, if not thousands of third party sellers selling game codes, so that's most likely what Catlee2 meant, that people being affected by this issue had purchased these codes at the Amazon Marketplace (which is like the Amazon version of eBay).

Also, if you're not a mod, you have no business talking to someone as if you are one. I don't care what your stats are here or how long you've been posting. The only people who have the right to warn people about rules here are the community mods. If you think someone is breaking the rules, then you click "report" and let the mods handle it.

@Catlee2: Thanks for keeping everyone abreast on this situation. I started seeing this problem break out about a week ago when everyone thought it was just a bug. It's nice to finally get a very clear explanation of what's going on.

Thanks for your reply. I'll try contacting EA. 

Hi all,

@micadiraviolsupe, I am going to lock this thread, as we have a main thread where we are discussing this situation here: http://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-3/Sims-3-expansions-missing/m-p/6097829#M222998 . Please, use that thread, it's better for everyone if all the information is in the same place. 😉

@thesims1depot Answers HQ is a community, creating a good environment is something we can do together. 🙂  I would like to avoid further confusion and an argument started by a misunderstanding - actually, @roberta591 is one of our heroes, which you can consider a moderator with a cooler rank name. You can read more information about the heroes here: http://answers.ea.com/t5/Answer-HQ-Announcements/Hero-Program-FAQ/td-p/1378940

Finally, @Catlee2 thanks for taking @roberta591's feedback in a positive way, it's great to see you posting around and trying to help everyone 🙂

Thanks,

Mai