Unable to spend Sim Points on the Sims 3 Store
So I recently purchased some sim points from the EA store. They appeared on my sims 3 store account and I tried to spend them on the worlds only available on the sims 3 store world. So the worlds I purchased were Aurora Skies (Gold), Sunlit Tides (Gold), Midnight Hollow (Gold), Lucky Palms (Gold) and Lunar Lakes. The first time I tried to purchase them, it came up with a system error and asked me to try again later. I tried again later and the purchase was successful. However when I went to download the worlds, I saw I had two copies of each. I had only got enough sim points to purchase them once leaving just over 7000 sim points to spend on build buy items or cosmetics. I should not have two copies of each world, I didn't have enough sim points to buy them each twice.
Now when I try to buy anything on the Sims 3 Store, it comes up with a message saying "System Error!/A system error has occurred. Please try again at a later time." I also cannot see how many sim points I have leftover to spend. It just says "Buy Sim Points". I don't want to buy any more because I know I should have over 7000 left to spend. Also nearly a month later, I'm still getting this error message and am unable to buy anything. I've tried using Chrome and Microsoft Edge to log in and make purchases with no success.
I think perhaps there is a bug from the first failed purchase of the worlds. Maybe it went through eventually despite the error message but it means my account would technically be in the negative with regards to sim points? Which should not be possible? I shouldn't have been able to spend sim points I don't have if that is what has happened. And I should be able to spend my 7000+ leftover sim points. Paying for in-game currency and then not being able to spend it because of a system error seems highly unethical.
I have chatted with EA support who said they would report the issue to the Research team to investigate and hopefully solve. They said they were unable to refund the items and the purchase of the sim points because I did spend some of them. I'm wondering if anyone else has had a similar issue and if EA were able to resolve it for you? I get the impression they need more data from other affected players to investigate the issue properly.