Purchased "Dark Side Starter Pack" but never received items
I'm rather irritated about an issue and after over a week of lies and unproductive phone calls with EA Customer Support, I was told to come to the Forums to get this resolved. I apologize that this is quite long and detailed, but I'm not really sure what else to do. The situation is as follows:
11/27/15
11/27/15
- My son started playing Galaxy of Heroes, and purchased the "Dark Side Starter Pack" in his account
- The Dooku character never awarded, nor did the crystals or other items that were a part of the pack
- We tried to click to purchase the item again, figuring that it didn't register, and it gave us a message that the item was already purchased so that we could not purchase it again. As it was later in the evening, we shut down the game for the night, figuring that it would work itself out
- Opened the game and still no Dooku or other items
- Tried to purchase the "Dark Side Starter Pack" again, but this time it told us that the transaction was pending
- Went to iTunes to verify that everything was good with my account - which it was. iTunes showed the purchase and there was plenty of money in my connected PayPal account
- Again, assuming it would work out he simply played the game as normal
- Still no items received from the "Dark Side Starter Pack"
- Tried to repurchase, but again said it was already purchased
- Still no items received
- Dark Side pack expired, so no longer able to try purchasing
- Still no items received
- Went through the Customer Support link and submitted a support email
- No items
- No reply from Support
- Overall, my son was really enjoying the game and wanted me to play with him, so I started an account on my iPad
- No items, no reply
- No items or reply
- "Dark Side" pack was about to expire on my account
- Was leary of purchasing due to the issues my son had, but was confident that it would work out - and didn't want to lose the option to get Dooku since it makes such a huge difference, so purchased the "Dark Side Starter Pack" on my account
- Pack went away as an option, but no items were awarded in my account after the purchase
- Since it was the middle of the night I shut down the app and planned to try again to contact customer service the next day
- No items in either my son's or my account - and still no reply
- Sent another Customer Service email
- No items or reply
- No items or reply
- Found the EA Customer Support website and put in my case #
- There was no update or information on my case on the website, the only option was to "Resume" my case, which I clicked on
- It gave me an option to either email additional information, or request a call back from a support representative - which I did
- After a few minutes, the support representative called and I explained the situation
- He said that he needed the email that I had registered with EA so that he could lookup my case
- I let him know that I hadn't registered anything with EA, to which he said that I would need to create an EA / Origin account so that my case could be tracked
- I created an account, but he was still unable to find my case so he had me create a new case
- After I created a new case he told me that I would have to call back in under that case number and that he would need to hang up with me and have me request a callback again under the new case
- Although this was a bit irritating, he said that was the only way he could help me, so I did it
- After requesting another callback, a new representative called me
- I again explained the whole situation
- He apologized and asked me for my Player ID so that he could lookup my account
- After looking up my account he said that he could see where I purchased the pack, but wasn't sure why it didn't give me the items - and that he'd have to put me on hold while he checked into it
- 5 minutes later he came back and again apologized. He said that it should have given me the items and asked me to click "Restore Purchase"
- I let him know that I had done this multiple times since the initial purchase, but that I would do it again
- No items were still received
- He apologized and told me that since it was a mobile app, they had no control over the purchases not working and that I needed to call iTunes to get them to add it to my account
- Although I was confused by this I told him I'd contact iTunes to get it figured out
- I called iTunes, who looked up my purchase
- They verified that the purchase did go through and that there were no problems with it on their end
- I explained the situation to the lady and she simply told me that they have no control over how an app works - that I would need to talk to the app developer to get it fixed
- She said that her only option would be to refund the purchase if I wanted, which I told her I didn't - I simply wanted the items added to our accounts
- She apologized and said that they couldn't fix it - I would have to talk to the developer
- I went on the EA support website and requested another call back
- When the representative called I explained the situation, including what the iTunes Support representative said
- He apologized and asked me to upload screenshots of my iTunes receipts to the case so that they could get it fixed.
- After I attached screenshots he put me on hold again
- 5 minutes later he came back and said that in order to help me, I would need to submit a Customer Service request directly from my son's account as well so that he could lookup his account
- I asked him if I could simply give him the Player ID since my son wasn't with me at the moment, and he said no - I would have to send it from his account and that until I did so he couldn't help me
- I told him that I would be able to do it from my son's account later that day, and he said to call back in once it was done
- Later that afternoon I sent a new case from my son's account and then requested a call back
- Another representative called me back and I again explained the situation
- He apologized and assured me they would get the items credited to both our accounts
- He told me that I needed to upload the screenshots again, this time to the new case, so that he could pull them up
- I uploaded the screenshots again, after which he put me on hold
- Almost 10 minutes later he came back and said that although he could also see that we purchased the items, and that he could verify them with the iTunes receipts, that he himself couldn't fix it and that he would need to escalate it to a specialist
- I asked him how long that would take and he said that he had no timeframe, but that they would definitely get it fixed now that they had the receipts and that I should call back in 24 hours
- Still no items awarded
- I requested another call back, and again explained everything to a new representative
- The representative looked up the case and put me on hold to check with the specialist
- After several minutes he came back and said that the specialist was looking into it and that they would email me back once they had it fixed
- I explained to him that I had already been told that the previous day and that they had told me I should call back in 24 hours
- He put me on hold again
- 10 minutes later he came back and said that the specialist didn't have any other update for me, but that they would definitely get it fixed and credited to our account
- I asked him if he had even a rough idea how long it would take and he said no, but that they would email me with an update
- No items, no reply
- I was working all day so was unable to play phone-tag again for an update on the case
- Still no items or reply
- Went on EA's website again and requested a callback
- 10 minutes later a representative called me back
- I explained the situation again
- He apologized for the issue and put me on hold to check with the specialist
- 5 minutes later he came back and said that he was sorry, but that the specialist said that the purchase didn't correctly register on their end, so that they would be unable to credit the items to my account
- I told him this didn't make any sense considering the fact that I had sent them the iTunes receipts showing the purchase
- He said that he didn't know what to tell me, but that they never received the money on their end
- I checked my PayPal account and verified that both payments to iTunes came out of my account - I even attached the screenshots of it to my case
- He said that he could see that I did purchase the item, but that it didn't correctly register on their end so that he couldn't help me - but that I could contact iTunes to request a refund
- I explained to him that I didn't want a refund, that I wanted to character / items we were supposed to receive
- He put me on hold
- After nearly 10 minutes he came back on the line and again said he was sorry, but that there was nothing he could do for me, but that they could give me some crystals for the inconvenience
- I explained to him that some crystals wouldn't help since it wouldn't allow me to get the character
- I asked him if there was any way that they could reset the offer so that I could simply purchase it again and get a refund from iTunes on the first purchase
- He put me on hold to check with the specialist
- After a few minutes he came back and said that he was sorry, but that they could not reset the offer since it was a time-limited item
- I explained to him that we had purchased it within the time limit, as he could see
- He said that he could see we purchased it, but that they didn't receive the money from iTunes so that he couldn't do anything for me
- I asked him if I could send them the payment directly so that they could mark the item "paid" on their end and credit the items to our account
- He put me on hold again
- After a couple minutes he came back and said that they couldn't do that - that there was no way for them to update their system to show it paid
- I said that this didn't really make any sense - there had to be someone who could fix the record so that we could receive the items
- He said that if they couldn't fix it since they had no way to update the record - and no way to add a character to our account
- He mentioned again that they had sent us some crystals as compensation
- I checked my account, and they sent me 122 crystals for the 'inconvenience', which I informed him wasn't even half of enough to buy one data card in the game to even try to get one character
- He said that's all he could do
- I asked if there was someone else I could talk to who would be able to correct the purchase record, marking the item paid so that we could simply do "Restore Purchase" and receive the item
- He said that no one was able to do that
- I let him know that wasn't an acceptable answer considering that I'd been told day after day that they could and would fix it, and that we had paid for the item on time as shown by the receipts
- He said there was nothing else he could do for me and told me to come here, to the forum, to try to get it resolved
- Posted this same post on the link he gave me
- No responses on the post in the Support Forum
- EA marked my case "Resolved" on their Customer Support page, so I clicked "Resume" and indicated that it was not resolved
- No responses on the Support Forum, or on the Customer Support site
- Browsed through several of the posts on the Forum I'd been given and saw that there was almost no activity on any of them - other than irritated customers
- Found a post in the "General" section, indicating that the Forum had actually moved to this page
- Came here and posted the situation
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Replies
Thank you Jesse for your attention to this!
Guild: Fear The Boot
I appreciate the support Keaven!
So far it's basically a lot of the same run-around.
First, the representative said:
"Thank you for contacting us again.
I am sorry that you are missing the dark side starter pack for $4.99. I apologize for the inconvenience caused to you.
Coming to your issue, I have gone through your case details. I would like you to thank for providing proof of purchase. To help you further I also need your player. Please reply us with the player ID so that we can go further and do best to resolve your issue.
Looking forward to hear from you."
Even though I had provided my, and my son's, Player IDs numerous times I responded back with the IDs. Then I received a response:
"Thank you for contacting us back.
I am sorry that you have been facing issues with the Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes. I apologize for the inconvenience caused to you.
Coming to your issue, I have gone through your case details. First I would like to thank you for your reply. I see that you have mention 2 player ID, one of your and one of your son's. I would like you to specifically mention on which account you have the item missing.
Looking forward to hear from you."
Not sure if the representative didn't read the notes or what...but I explained again that my son and I both purchased the item, which is why I sent them 2 IDs. Their next response was:
"Thank you for contacting Electronics Arts again.
I am sorry that your issue is not resolved yet. I apologize for the inconvenience caused to you.
Coming to your issue, I have discussed your issue with our specialist and it seems that we need some more details to investigate your issue and to resolve it. To help you in providing Proof of purchase please go through the following points.
1. A screenshot of the Purchase History on the iTunes Client. Players can obtain this purchase information using this Apple support guide (https://support.apple.com/en-ie/HT204088)
2. A screenshot of the confirmation email that they received for their purchase from iTunes.
The above files required to have following data.
1.Game Code (if applicable).
2. Transaction/Order Number provided.
3. Email Address provided.
4. The name/description of the product purchased must be visible.
5. The Date/Time of the product purchased must be visible.
Please check for the all the data is mention on the file that your will sending us and reply back to us along with the attachment.
Looking forward to hear from you."
I'm guessing it's a template message they just send out, considering the representative already acknowledged my upload of the order & payment - but I took additional screenshots of the Purchase History screen in iTunes as they were requesting, showing both purchases. Now I just got this response:
"Thank you for contacting Electronics Arts again.
I am sorry for the inconvenience caused to you. I understand how frustrating this is.
Coming to your issue, I have gone through your case details. I am sorry to inform you that the attachment you have provided seems to be inappropriate. I have discuss this with our specialist and seems that we are not able to add the pack to your both account as the attachment was not appropriate. I found another way is that to contact iTunes support for refund and try to repurchase the same pack. I hope this will help you.
Have a question about a game? Running into a tech issue? Check out Answer HQ at http://answers.ea.com/ to get answers from our community of gamers and experts. As always, please feel free to reach out to us at help.ea.com if you have any further questions."
What would be "inappropriate" about the attachments?? They were the exact screenshots they asked for. I sent back just asking what they meant by the attachments were not "appropriate"....
"Thank you for contacting Electronics Arts.
I am sorry that you have facing issue with the Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes. I apologize for the inconvenience caused to you.
Coming to your issue, I am really sorry for the inconvenience. I am really sorry for the tool limitation we have here to grant you this. I wish I could help you in this. I appreciate your patience. The best I can suggest you is to contact iTunes support so that you get your refund and repurchase the pack again. I am really sorry for the inconvenience caused to you.
Have a question about a game? Running into a tech issue? Check out Answer HQ at http://answers.ea.com/ to get answers from our community of gamers and experts. As always, please feel free to reach out to us at help.ea.com if you have any further questions."
So - basically right back where I started...
It seems to me that what they are avoiding saying is that they have not included in the design of the game a way to modify accounts because they have not planned for any level of customer service.
The more feeback I see on the lack of customer service the more I question how long could this game possibly survive without it, no matter how much value the Star Wars brand brings to the table.
You're meticulous efforts to rectify such an obvious error on the part of the game developers is quite simply gold for a company to rectify customer service processes.
Most people would not bother with the effort you have made, especially with the youth of the app. I would say the motivation stems from the value of the franchise EA are tying to capitalise on.
I sincerely hope that EA takes advantage of your experience to get their service up to scratch. If they can make you happy after all this sidestepping it would demonstrate they are actually proud of their product.
Guild: Fear The Boot
Guild: Fear The Boot
Guild: Fear The Boot
I believe my issue is caused by a similar issue. My son's account is under my iTunes account as part of our Family Sharing account.
Not really sure what to do with this situation overall. I have provided to Customer Support multiple times both my iTunes receipt, my iTunes purchase records and a copy of my PayPal statement showing that the money was taken out of my account. There really isn't any question if we bought it and paid for it - the issue is between iTunes and EA - somewhere in the accounting between them the purchase didn't show up correctly. Although being a programmer and developer myself I can sympathize with that, it should not be my issue to spend weeks trying to get resolved with Customer Service - especially to have it end with "sorry there's nothing we will do to fix it"
@Keaven - I will see if I can find some Customer Service contacts for Disney that would be helpful. I know that there were similar situation with another Star Wars app - Star Wars Card Trader, which is run by Topps. Purchases weren't crediting correctly and cards weren't being received by players as they were supposed to be. In the end, several players were complaining to both Topps corporate, as well as to Disney and after a few months the exec who was in charge of the app was replaced by someone else. Can't say everything's gone perfect with the app since, but they did clean up quite a few of the issues. Maybe that's what needs to happen with this one as well...
Guild: Fear The Boot
Guild: Fear The Boot
We don't have an easy way to do that, unfortunately.
After seeing your meticulous notes, I was actually curious about what you do for a living. Programmer - that explains it!
So based on my understanding, here's what has happened:
* You initially did not have a positive experience with EA customer service - without getting into any internal details, we are aware of this and are working on it.
* Apple never sent EA the receipt, so EA doesn't have any record of your purchase
* The receipt that you submitted to us wasn't what we need in order to request that Apple give you a refund. I'm not actually sure that even if we had what we need that we could even do anything about it without the part of the transaction that comes to EA
* You WERE compensated with crystals for your trouble. I know that's not equal to one Dooku, but it's not nothing either.
* You posted or paraphrased the contents of a private conversation with a moderator/admin on the forums, which is a no-no - please don't do that.
I'd really like to help you here, and there may still be a way to get you a refund WITHOUT you having to go through Apple. If you can send me your full Apple receipt, I can check to see if we can ask Apple to issue a refund even without our own record of the transaction.
Please understand, though, that if for some reason we can't issue you a refund at this point, you will need to go through Apple to get your refund.
Based on what I know about how we store our player data (and being a former programmer myself as well), it would be a LOT of work to 'reactivate' the Dark Side Starter Bundle for an individual account. We didn't build a system that would automatically or easily reactivate one-time packs, so we'd either have to build one or do a lot of manual poking around in your player data... and that's not a good idea.
In closing - please send me your Apple receipt information and I'll try to get you a refund. (Note that I'm out on Monday so I wouldn't be able to get to this until Tuesday.)
-Aaron
He has been offered a refund several times acording to his notes.
You continue to be evasive because of the difficulty in providong what he is requesting and talk like he is asking for a refund.
On the plus side however, you did at least give a reason as to why he may not be able to get what he wants, because the system was not designed for this kind of customer service.
Thank you for that. Bad news is much better than no news.
Considering there have been others posting about the same issue, and for every one that takes the effort to find these forums and raise the subject after getting such poor feeback from customer service, I'm sure there are countless others you will never hear from about there experience, why do you not have a system that can reactivate purchases a customer has made? And why is CG not making this now?
Guild: Fear The Boot
@Keaven is correct - I had already talked to iTunes in the beginning, when the Customer Support person told me that they were the ones who could add the purchase correctly to my account, and they had offered then to do the refund. A refund isn't what we are looking for, however. We are looking for some way to get our accounts credited with the items that we paid for. I do understand that the system may not have been designed to reset the offer, but is there not some way that I can submit the payment to EA directly and then be credited the items? I don't mind taking care of the refund myself for the initial purchase we paid for through iTunes - it just wouldn't fix the actual issue.
As @Keaven also mentioned, unfortunately it seems that my son and I aren't the only ones who have dealt with this same issue, so it would seem that it might warrant some further digging - and might justify building a way to reset offers that are affected by issues like this?
Unfortunately there isn't a way to pay EA directly for an issue like this - all of our systems are set up to automate the payment process via either iTunes or Google Play.
Please DM me your ally code. I may have a novel idea for a solution to your core problem.
-Aaron
Guild: Fear The Boot