A screenshot of what you're seeing on your account would be helpful as it'll help to provide a visual. Could you pop up one when you get a moment please?
That was odd, the posts just shifted around. It looks like I owe you my gratitude regarding that second paragraph, @EA_Lanna . Sometimes I get snappy, I apologize.
This is what happens as soon as I select the Build Your Bundle option in the Origin Client (& Chrome). Keep in mind I own every other EP, so the only unowned EP is Snowy Escape. My guess is most TS4 players own every pack, especially the EP's, so this will be common.
The rest of the client is now disabled until I click on OK. If I do, I get redirected to the home page.
I never get to see the Build Your Bundle page, so I never get to see the December 1st date.
However, it appears there's an exceptionally long time out if I don't do anything, I will edit the post once I get it (and try it in Chrome while we wait).
EDIT:
So, after 5-10 minutes, this happens in the background:
As you can see, it shows the Build Your Bundle page in the background without any packs (so only the header and footer) in a perpetual loading state. You can see the December 1st date here, but even if we found the individual that waited long enough without clicking OK, without being able to read the rest of the sentence that date alone makes no sense. And the popup can not be moved. And once you click OK... redirected to Home.
Now I recall from past EP's that the page was available but the ineligible pack was hidden, leading to more reports. I also know that not many people will read the fine print. So my suggestion is to do away with the popup and instead make the ineligible pack greyed out. As soon as the user hovers the mouse over or clicks on it, display a popup stating the pack is ineligible until the specific date. Or just put it in red letters on top of the box art.
Alternatively, make the popup more specific. It's kind to have such a friendly message, but perhaps a more factual message stating that the user does not meet the requirement of 1EP, 1GP and 1SP with a note that the most recently released pack isn't eligible for x weeks (or until x date) would provide some needed clarity, even though it means more updating work for the content-editors.
Personally, I was completely stumped by this, since I never saw that date anywhere. Could I have guessed? Certainly, I can see how it makes business sense not to discount the pack right away. But without seeing it written anywhere and being able to bundle previous EP's on release day, I kept thinking it must be a bug. I reported it twice to EA and then found this thread, where by chance you posted.
Thank you for getting back and including that information. Can I double check with you if you are on Pc or Mac and if you are using the Origin Client or the Origin website to Build Your Bundle when you get that pop-up?
When testing on both the client and website, the text with this information displayed straight away without any pop-up needed. That it hasn't for you would suggest it's a technical issue which would benefit from some troubleshooting.
As my previous post indicated, I've used both the Origin client and a Chrome browser and they behave exactly the same (Origin client uses an embedded browser after all, probably even Chromium based). It should not matter in this case, but it is on PC. I would test it on a Mac, but I don't have a working one handy. I fully expect identical results.
Also important is that the reason we are getting the popup and you are not is because you have eligible Expansion Packs besides Snowy. To test this, you would have to use an account that has/owns all Expansion Packs except Snowy.
I can only deduce that the popup is the result of a validation check that is performed upon loading the page, checking if the user actually has 1 eligible pack of each type (Stuff, Game & Expansion) available in order to assemble a bundle before displaying the page. Since I own every pack except Snowy and Snowy is ineligible, I fail the validation check and the popup shows.
You have already indicated in a previous post you were able to select a different Expansion pack for your test (your example shows City Living selected), so that means the account you use for testing has eligible packs. As such, it passes validation and the page is displayed. I don't pass, so for me the page is not displayed, only the popup.
This makes it a design flaw, not so much a bug. Somebody wanted to make it more intuitive and ended up doing the opposite. Probably a classic case of communication failure between departments, I've seen it happen (and fixed it) often enough at work.
I know this is a bit technical, but I'm sure your web-developers should know what I mean. Or any IT guy with scripting/programming experience. We love our validation checks.
So, does all my investigative work make me eligible for a free Snowy game key yet? 😉
I understand now, thanks once more for your thorough response. Apologies, I didn't seem to register the fact that you already owned all the expansion packs.
This doesn't seem like a design flaw.
The Build Your Bundle allows Simmers to create a bundle that's a combination of one of each Pack type; an Expansion pack with a Game pack and a Stuff Pack. If you have all the expansions packs already purchased, there's not going to be an expansion pack available to enter into the Expansion pack slot in the Build Your Bundle page to complete the criteria needed to build your own bundle. It means you won't meet the criteria to build your own bundle and is why you would encounter that pop-up message. This is working as intended.
I know this isn't what you were hoping for however. I'll pass on feedback around this.
Nope, I was hoping for that free game key so I could take my Sims to Japan in November. 🙂
The design flaw is in one party creating a popup that prevents the bundle-page from displaying, while another party places a notification on said invisible web page stating that Snowy isn't eligible until December 1st, thus preventing the user from ever seeing that very important notification.
As a result, the user doesn't know why the page won't show since they are blissfully unaware that Snowy is ineligible and thus fully convinced they have 1 EP (Snowy), 1 GP & 1 SP available for purchase.
Enter confusion followed by support requests. Which I feel safe to assume is not the intended outcome for EA.
The December 1st notification is blocked by the popup, but is necessary to understand why the popup shows in the first place. Chicken, meet egg.
To make the users with popups aware of the December 1st requirement would require either making the date visible on the popup, or removing the popup so the bundle page showing the date can load properly. Hence, design choices.
I believe so but for the sake of being 100%; your posting not because you weren't sure why you were encountering the pop-up, or where to find the information on the pack release but rather to share feedback that the pop-up for users who own all past expansion packs, blocks out the information that would let them know the newest expansion pack won't be available in Build Your Bundle until December 1st?
You have given me enough information to know what my issue was (Snowy is ineligible), but I am reporting that people like me won't be able to see the information they require on the website/client and so are forced to resort to searching for support because the popup confuses them.
Community Manager
