Are EA a joke?

stevejcraven

I'm having problems with my nephews online gameplay with EA games. The below is what has been going back and forth from me and EA.

My Nephew has a child account on xbox live and can't play any EA games online. He's 13 and should be able to play Tiger Woods 09, NBA Live 09 and Fifa 09 as they're well within his age group. I am the guardian of his account and when he tries to play Tiger online it asks for my e-mail address and tells him they've sent me an e-mail to verify that he has permission to play these games online. On the numerous occasions he's done this I've yet to receive one e-mail from EA to give my consent.

Can someone please fix this or at least let me know what wrong and why this is happening.

EA Response:

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts.

In order to play EA Games online, you must be atleast 13 years old. If the date of birth mentioned by you in your Gamertag profile shows you to be below the age of 13, then you will not be able to play our games online.

We are sorry but this information is not stored with us and to get your correct date of birth listed on your account you will need to contact Xbox Live support, You can contact them at at 1-800-469-9269 or by visiting http://www.microsoft.com/xbox/

If there isanything else we may do to assist you please let us know.

Thank you,

John
EA OnlineSupport

My Response:

He's definitely down as 13 on xbox live. He's 14 in February.

The game asks for him to give the guardians e-mail address for verification that he has permission to play but I never get the e-mail?????

EA Response:

Hi,

Thank you for writing back to Electronic Arts Customer Support.

I do apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. It seems that the date of birth listed on your gamertag account shows you under 13 years of age. Please note that we have changed our policy and no longer allow players under the age of 13 to register on our site.
The minimum age requirements for registration to which EA has chosen to adhere to are based on a myriad of business and regulatory considerations. Unfortunately, the parental controls provided by game consoles and PC equipment are not sufficient for EA to overcome them. Parents and guardians are not prohibited from allowing their kids to use the parent or guardians own account for online game play under their supervision, however. Keep in mind that any violation of EA terms & conditions by anyone using your account may cause an irreversible revocation of the account. Parents or guardians have a responsibility to educate kids regarding online safety and may find many helpful resources such as www.webwisekids.org and www.wiredsafety.org.

Please let us know if there is anything else needed.

Thank you.

John
EA Online Support.

My Response:

John,

I appreciate the quick responses from you but I can confirm that he is entered as 13 on his gamertag as I entered it in myself. I'm not sure what age you have him as but surely it's an error at the EA end and not Microsoft end.

Would it be possible for you to tell me the date of birth you have down for him as at least I can let him know what the problem is. I wouldn't worry about the putting the date of birth you have for him down here, as we haven't mentioned his e-mail address or Gamertag so there's no way to track him from it.

Regards.

EA Response:

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts.

We are sorry but this information is not stored with us and to get your correct date of birth listed on your account you will need to contact Xbox Live support, You can contact them at at 1-800-469-9269 or by visiting http://www.microsoft.com/xbox/

If there isanything else we may do to assist you please let usknow.

Thank you,

John
EA OnlineSupport

My Response:

John,

I have received the information from both microsoft (xbox) and passport.net that he is indeed registered with his correct age. He's 14 next month and I'd like to be able to tell him that EA are working on their error, yes I did say EA's error, and that hopefully come his 14 birthday he'll be able to play EA games online.

I have no problem with EA's policy on protecting children online and EA should be commended for it but he is of the age required by EA to play games online (13) with the permission of the parent/guardian. I'm aware that EA and Microsoft use different servers for online play but maybe you both need to work together a little more to stop these problems happening in the future.
I can honestly say that EA sports games are some of my favourite games but I'll have severe reservations about buying EA games in the future if these problems are not rectified.

I await a response from EA.

Lab_Mouse

Do you have more than 1 email account?perhaps the mail from EA is being sent to a different one than you think-slim chance I know(I have a private email and another 1 I use for registering on websites etc)

A work around would be to redo a gamer profile for your son with a diffferent age i.e that he's older.But the downside would be that you'd have no control over the games he plays and he would lose all his in game achievements.

My 2 cents hope you get it sorted(and your son off your back and you of EA's:D)
regards Labmouse

DeVore

Junk Mail folder?

DeV.

Rainyface

Had the same problem to be honest a while back. Trying to create an account for a 10 year old. No joy with it. Never got any emails or response from EA either. Very frustrating

stevejcraven

DeVore wrote: »

Junk Mail folder?

DeV.

Checked there. None sent.

stevejcraven

Rainyface wrote: »

Had the same problem to be honest a while back. Trying to create an account for a 10 year old. No joy with it. Never got any emails or response from EA either. Very frustrating

I don't think they allow under 13's to play online anymore...EA that is.

They should have to advertise that fact better when selling a game in future though.

ironictoaster

I had this exact issue with EA. Basically, I had an account with EA's site but, I forgot my password, I wanted to view my FIFA 09 goals. So I requested an email to reset the password at least 10 times but, no joy. It took a good few emails until they personally resetted my password. Here's my story.

Me

Hi EA,

In FIFA 09, I am having problems uploading videos to www.eafootballworld.com

I have attempted to link my xbox 360 gamertag to my EA account but, the web page says that someone else has claimed my gamertag. This have may being me but, I forget as it was a long time since I visited EA's site. Can you tell me what gamertag that I'm linked to at the moment?

My gamertag is: duffy ftw

EA

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for writing EA.com account services.

In order for us to assist with the issue or request at hand, please reply to this e-mail with the following information:

- Your Gamer Tag:
- E-mail address listed on gamer tag
- Your EA account: (E-mail address account)
- Your Date of Birth:
- Postal Code:

With this information, we should be able to assist with the request or issue.

Best Regards,

Shakti
EA Support Centre, UK and Ireland

I tell them my info...

EA

Hello,

Thank you for providing the information.

Your gamertag "duffy ftw" is already linked to your account "xxxxxxxx". Please login using your account name and its password, you should be able to access your gamertag.

If there is anything else we can help you with please let us know.

Best Regards,

Geeta
EA Support Centre, UK and Ireland

Me

Thanks for the help. I forget my password for xxxxxxxx and I try to reset my password but, I get no email on details on how to reset it. I just looked in my spam folder and isn't there either.

Can you help me with this issue

Regards,

Craig

EA - Idiot

Hello Craig,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts.

I apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. If you have forgotten the password, you can always retrieve it via this link: https://profile.ea.com/forgotpassword.do.

The password will be sent to the email address you used to create the account. In order to receive email from our company you will need to disengage the Spam filter, or add "ea.com" to the list of senders that is allowed through the filter.

If there is anything else we can help you with please let me know. Should you require further assistance about this or any Electronic Arts games in the future please visit our website and review our extensive Self Help knowledgebase (http://electronicarts.co.uk/support). We appreciate the opportunity to assist you and look forward to getting you back in the game!

Best Regards,

Prashant
EA Support Centre, UK and Ireland

Me

I I have checked my email inbox and and spam folder and there's no emails from EA, I have requested for an email reset five times. I have also let hotmail to accept emails from EA.com yet, nothing has changed. Could you change my password for me to xxxxxx? I really want to see my FIFA 09 goals.

After at least another 5 emails I get what I wanted

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts. Your issue has been escalated. I understand you are trying to access your account online. I have manually reset your account. Please log in with the following information:

Email Address: xxxxxxx

Password: xxxxx

If you encounter any further questions please visit us at http://support.ea.com.

Regards,

GM Joe
Player Relations
Electronic Arts

You will get your answer if you keep badgering them.

Samurai

Ah the OP needs GI JOE!

ironictoaster

Samurai wrote: »

Ah the OP needs GI JOE!

Yes they he/she does! It annoyed me because they orginally told me that nobody in EA could reset my password and all of sudden, Joe comes to the rescue.

I shall always lie about my age from now on...

stevejcraven

creggy wrote: »

Yes they he/she does! It annoyed me because they orginally told me that nobody in EA could reset my password and all of sudden, Joe comes to the rescue.

I shall always lie about my age from now on...

Quick update:

GM Joe (G.I. Joe) came to the rescue for me too. Sorted it so my nephew can now play online.

Gomez012

I have the same problem, I am over the age limit sine I turned 14 in March.
Please tell me if you find a solution, I've got like 2 or 3 EA Games which I can't play online on.

spooky donkey

Mad. SO i should make sure to lie about my kids ages when I set up their Xbox profiles then.

Clareman

A friend of mines child had the same problem, turns out they don't allow for European date formatting in the ages, so (for example), if his birthday was the 12th of Jan, it would show up as the first of December 01/12 or 12/01

Ayrtonf7

Clareman wrote: »

A friend of mines child had the same problem, turns out they don't allow for European date formatting in the ages, so (for example), if his birthday was the 12th of Jan, it would show up as the first of December 01/12 or 12/01

Thats insane...and pretty stupid

ironictoaster

Always lie about you're age online - common interweb law.

witnessmenow

Maybe the EA age system is set up to read like the Americans read it

As in if your son was born on the 12/02/97 (or whatever year it was) that reads to us as the 12th of Feb, reads to yanks as the 2nd of Dec, meaning to them he still appears 12