The War: Me vs EA Customer Support (DA2, DS2)

Gideon Zhi

I'm coming here in hopes that *someone* can help me. Maybe someone knows someone on the inside, and can get my issue looked at properly by someone with enough brains not to keep reading off of a support script.

I buy games. I buy lots of games. I occasionally play games online, but I have been unable to play Dead Space 2 online. Ever. This is because I own the XBox 360 version, and while I have a Live Gold subscription, any time I try to connect to Dead Space 2's multiplayer I get a message saying "Cannot connect to EA Servers. Please try again." The message appears pretty much instantly after each connection attempt. But I'd heard that Dead Space 2's multiplayer was kind of bad anyway, so I wasn't too worried.

One month later, Dragon Age 2's demo hits Live, and I'm still having the Dead Space 2 issue. So I download Dragon Age 2, thinking nothing of it, but uh oh, whenever I try to connect I get a very similar error message - "Cannot connect to Dragon Age servers. Please try again." It should be noted at this point that I have no problems playing any *other* games online - just Dead Space 2 and, currently, the Dragon Age 2 demo.

So I open a support ticket with EA on February 25th. They walk me through the usual connection-diagnosis stuff, and of course, nothing works. They escalate the ticket to Tier 2, then walk me through the *same* connection-diagnosis stuff. Again, nothing works. Up to Tier 3. They look into it, and eventually come to the conclusion that "it's a problem with [my] gamertag, talk to Microsoft." Then they close the ticket. Which is dumb, because my gamertag is fine - I can connect to any other game without issue. So I call, talk to someone live, get the ticket reopened, and recommence what has now been a six-week-long exercise in frustration.

Some diagnosis on my end, most notably with a demo version of Dragon Age 2 on a PlayStation 3, shows me that I can connect to their servers fine... but my gamertag cannot. At one point, an EA customer service representative recovers my GT to an XBox in their offices - and reproduces my problem. I don't hear from them for another week - I have to call in order to get a response, and I'm shelved for three days while Tier 3 deals with other people whose issues were raised before me. Um, there are other people who've been waiting for more than a month for resoultion? At this point I almost feel I'm owed a two-night stay at a hotel local to EA's offices, travel and expenses included, so I can actually talk to someone face-to-face who can offer help beyond what the support script says. And when someone finally DOES get back to me?

"Thank you for contacting EA Support regarding your connection issues with these titles. I can understand your frustration and apologize for any inconvenience this issue has caused you thus far. This case has been escalated to me and I will be happy to do everything in my power to resolve this issue for you. I am sending you information on how to do a UO trace so we can see what can see what kind of a connection we are dealing with and maybe diagnose anything with your network connecting to our servers."

Did the previous rep not just show that it wasn't a problem local to my network? Are you even reading the rest of the ticket? I can sort of understand if you're not - pretty soon this thing is going to be longer than War and Peace!

It's now been six weeks, and a full week since I last heard from anyone at EA. I own the Signature Edition of Dragon Age 2, and do not have access to any of the "unlockables" because my gamertag cannot connect to their servers to authorize them. I have not started playing the game, because I am owed these items - I earned them in some form or other, and they should be part of my experience. But EA's completely incompetent customer support is preventing me from accessing them. Oh, and the visibly-advertised multiplayer aspect of Dead Space 2 that the devs were so proud of? I don't have access to that, either.

Can anyone help me? Or at least point me to someone who can help me? This is one of the most highly-trafficked game forums I know, and I'm kind of at my wits' end.

Xenogears of Bore

Change your gamertag.

Vinter

Wait... Have you even TRIED talking to Microsoft? Because it seems like the problem is in fact on EA's end. The problem is replicated by EA on a xbox in their office, it doesnt exist when you play it on the PS3, so why are you insisting that its their problem? They appear to have been very patient with you, and tried their best to help you.

My question would be if you have tried asking Microsoft for help yet, because it seems obvious its on their end. If you havent that should be your next step.

urahonky

Microsoft will just tell him to talk to EA. I can promise you that.

Gideon Zhi

Yeah, I've tried talking to Microsoft - they've told me to talk to EA. And then there's the thing that this is only an issue with EA's games - these two in particular. That tells me it's an EA issue, not a Microsoft issue.

Changing my gamertag isn't really in the cards, either - I've several hundred dollars worth of non-migratable XBLA purchases associated with it, including the unlock codes for all of EA's DA2 junk and the DS2 online pass. If it's just a problem with the name (unlikely) then I'm out at least $10 for changing the name on a hunch that may not even pay out.

thefrostedwinds

Ok for Dead Space 2 you need a Dead Space 2 Online Pass in order to play multiplayer. This can be gotten in one of two ways: 1.) use the 25 one use code that comes with new copies of the game, 2.) purchase one for 800MS points; Both methods involve connecting the code to an EA account online. For the Dragon Age 2 Demo you are required to access the Dragon Age 2 Servers, to do this you must have a BIOWARE social account attached to your gamer tag. That should solve the problems.

Hahnsoo1

I don't really know how the gamertag thing works (I don't own a Microsoft console), but can't you use someone else's gamertag or create an alt temporarily just to troubleshoot that? I mean, you can't rule out that it's NOT your gamertag in particular until you've done that. If it's easy to do (which it may not be), then it would be worth trying. You don't have to go balls out and completely convert, just test on an alternate name. It could be something as dumb as your gamertag name is too long or too short or has an unsupported character.