Okay so I know that lots of you are in the same boat as me with a 8 year old game attached to a now defunct email.I had managed to avoid the dreaded verification email debacle until today when I went to login and got the "confirm age" page followed by login with email verification.So I finally bit the bullet and went to EA help to try to get my email changed, this is a summary of the dance they expect you to do just to play TSTO.They will ask you to provide the following information: Mayhem number Origin I.D Original email address I.P address where you usually play Last 4 digits of credit card registered on the account Date of birth Full Billing address on the account Telephone number History of at least 2 purchases including items, price and date against the account. On my 1st attempt I was able to give them all of the information except the purchase history, although I don't believe that I have ever registered a credit card with them directly (all my TSTO purchases have been made through the Play Store), nor do I believe that I ever gave them my phone number. I offered to give them specific details about my town to help them identify me but that wasn't an available option, so that attempt ended in failure and a load of old guff about protecting the security of my account. Second attempt, I chose the live chat option again, and again I provide them with all the personal information required and this time I offer them the Pony Slaystation I.D that is also linked to my EA Account and I was able to supply them with the names & dates of 2 EA games that I had purchased through the PS Store in lieu of purchase history. He submitted the request but again the computer said No! When I enquired what more information I could provide to achieve the switch, I was presented with even more guff about account security along the lines of they can't even tell you what information you failed the test on. At this point I'm lost as to how to proceed, the "live chat" option is mysteriously no longer available to me, but they seem to require more information than I even know about myself & certainly more than I've ever provided them in the past. I'd be interested to hear if anyone in this situation has managed to successfully get their email changed, cos it feels to me like deliberate obstruction to weed out the old accounts that haven't paid in to the pot for a while. Any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated, if not this is looking like the end of the line for me.

I don’t have most of the information you tried to use. All they would have to do is undo the authentication for one day to give us an opportunity to get those towns up to snuff. The big boys always give you a warning that they are changing their policies, because they know not everyone is completely in compliance. And they really hate the negative comments they know they will get.

Sorry to hear about that @TheRealTiminator . It's craziness.

Perhaps given the number of affected players EA should consider a temporary simplified account recovery option on your account log-in.I'd suggest it asks you to provide your dead email and password like the regular log in along with your Origin ID ( it's your game / screen name - I know one player wasn't sure ) and the game level.Once that's confirmed you can add a new email and that gets sent a verification code, but to prevent abuse it can only be used once per game, it takes 24 hours to implement the change and it sends an email alert to the original registered email giving the opportunity to block it if it was a hack attempt.I think that should be easy enough to implement and secure enough, especially if that email alert will reset the account and roll back any game changes even if it isn't seen straight away.Go on EA, let people play the game !!

*UPDATE *I've just got off the phone with EA help (that's an oxymoron if ever I heard one), since they had removed the option of live chat from my account I was forced to use their premium rate (in the UK at least) phone line in a last desperate attempt to change my email address.I went through the same personal details as before, gave them dates of game purchases on PSN, I tried to offer dates of in-game purchases for TSTO which the operator said weren't sufficient, they had to be actual game purchases. And the final result was that "the information you have provided is either insufficient or inaccurate to verify your account".I explained to him that this was now my 4th attempt and that I'd given him more information about myself than they had ever known, so if this was insufficient there was no way to recover the account and could he therefore close the account. This he refused on the grounds that he could not verify my identity, I suggested that he close the account on security grounds then as I was currently logged in to it on my account.ea.com and therefore if I was not the account owner then it must have been hacked.This was predictably met with the same intransigence as before, so I thanked him for his assistance and hung up before I said something I'd regret. The upshot of all this is that it seems my time as an active TSTO player are now at an end, it's been a good run & I have no regrets, the money I've paid into the game over the years have given me 8 1/2 years of fun & frustration. Along the way I've acquired 50+ friends in-game and enjoyed some laughs & banter on here and Tapped Out Topix previously. I can't get into my game at all, so if anyone out there is in my friends list, then thanks for your support, and any & every body who I've ever interacted with on here, to quote the great Douglas Adams......."So long, and thanks for all the fish".??

TheRealTiminato

4 years ago

Out of date email address?

Okay so I know that lots of you are in the same boat as me with a 8 year old game attached to a now defunct email.

I had managed to avoid the dreaded verification email debacle until today when I went to login and got the "confirm age" page followed by login with email verification.

So I finally bit the bullet and went to EA help to try to get my email changed, this is a summary of the dance they expect you to do just to play TSTO.

They will ask you to provide the following information:

Mayhem number
Origin I.D
Original email address
I.P address where you usually play
Last 4 digits of credit card registered on the account
Date of birth
Full Billing address on the account
Telephone number
History of at least 2 purchases including items, price and date against the account.

On my 1st attempt I was able to give them all of the information except the purchase history, although I don't believe that I have ever registered a credit card with them directly (all my TSTO purchases have been made through the Play Store), nor do I believe that I ever gave them my phone number.
I offered to give them specific details about my town to help them identify me but that wasn't an available option, so that attempt ended in failure and a load of old guff about protecting the security of my account.

Second attempt, I chose the live chat option again, and again I provide them with all the personal information required and this time I offer them the Pony Slaystation I.D that is also linked to my EA Account and I was able to supply them with the names & dates of 2 EA games that I had purchased through the PS Store in lieu of purchase history. He submitted the request but again the computer said No!

When I enquired what more information I could provide to achieve the switch, I was presented with even more guff about account security along the lines of they can't even tell you what information you failed the test on.
At this point I'm lost as to how to proceed, the "live chat" option is mysteriously no longer available to me, but they seem to require more information than I even know about myself & certainly more than I've ever provided them in the past.
I'd be interested to hear if anyone in this situation has managed to successfully get their email changed, cos it feels to me like deliberate obstruction to weed out the old accounts that haven't paid in to the pot for a while.
Any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated, if not this is looking like the end of the line for me.

tlinkala131
Rising Newcomer
2 months ago
Do you have a second account? I have and when I logged in on that I noticed something peculiar. The birth year of mine was one off. When I checked I found out what EA had done. Don't know how it works now but when I registered way back when I was asked my age not my birthdate and EA just calculated my birthday as the one I registered on the year that would make me that age at that day.
For example if you've born October in 1970 and register in June 1991 because you've 20 at that day they give you birthday in 1969.
walterrocket440
Newcomer
3 months ago
I am in the same boat After 3 attempts I just don't care at this point the account can sit happy but I still won't forgive EA for wasting my time.
nhr115
4 years ago
A new update & still not been rectified
mjc0117
4 years ago
"joe444;c-2197663" wrote:
Hopefully the latest update that will be released today resolves the issue.

The latest update hasn’t done a damn thing to address this. Screw EA.
1-Graham-S
Hero+
4 years ago
I gather the update has hit the files, but not the app stores yet.
Probably a couple of hours from now it will be available for download.
asudevi1
4 years ago
Had two phone calls this morning with EA, failed the questions again. Even tried answering no to everything that wasn't on the account (cc, purchase, phone number etc.) I can pull up all that info on my EA account when I log in, but somehow still failed the questions...
muckypuppy79
4 years ago
"1-Graham-S;c-2197587" wrote:
Another idea I've seen mentioned for dead email addresses -
If they're not an old work, college or ISP address where you have to be an employee, student or customer then try signing up as a new email account but using the old email address and see if it is available to register.
You never know, if it has been dead for a while you might be able to use it again !?!

Tried that, it was an AOL one I had used, once it's been deactivated there is no way it can be reused/reissued
1-Graham-S
Hero+
4 years ago
Another idea I've seen mentioned for dead email addresses -
If they're not an old work, college or ISP address where you have to be an employee, student or customer then try signing up as a new email account but using the old email address and see if it is available to register.
You never know, if it has been dead for a while you might be able to use it again !?!
1-Graham-S
Hero+
4 years ago
@TheRealTiminator and anyone else affected . . .
Just read a post elsewhere from someone who was being asked for card and purchase details etc.
They were quietly advised to log into their EA account and see exactly what was on file there.
Go through purchases, subscriptions, payment methods, everything, and answer according to those records.
That meant answering None for purchases, Card details and the like was the right response !!
I hope that's useful info and still works for anyone else who needs to get their email changed.
.
EDIT - an example, as I understand it : -
.
They ask what's your billing address
You tell them it's not on file
They ask what's the last four digits of your bank card
You tell them it's not on file
They ask what two games did you buy last
You say not bought any
They go yes, that's right - but without actually telling you
.
Meaning giving them an address or a credit card number they don't have even if it is a fact will be considered a wrong answer - and cause them to deny you help !!
1-Graham-S
Hero+
4 years ago
@asudevi1 - can you back it up with a detailed history of buying donuts and scratchrs ??
Perhaps if that is a comprehensive set of info they'd be a little more lenient on the IGC count.
Maybe you just need to find the right help tech and keep trying, and I wish you luck.