Downright pissed off with EA

Started by JudgeDredd, January 12, 2019, 04:39:29 AM

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JudgeDredd

So my daughter went to play Battlefront II online and it came up with a message which basically said she was cheating an banned her for a week...I don't have the specifics.

I wrote to EA and explained it's my daughter who plays online who wouldn't have a clue how to cheat or install any software to help her. Her scores online are abysmal...she just likes playing online. I told them to remove the ban.

They replied today...here it is...
Quote
Hello,

Thanks for contacting us about your account action.

We got your note and did a full investigation of your account. After reviewing your case, we determined that we took the correct action in accordance with EA policies and procedures.

What this means

We have confirmed that your account was involved in cheating. Because of this, we will not remove the sanction on your account.

You break our rules(https://www.ea.com/terms-of-service#section6) if you:
• use software that interferes with or disrupts an EA Service or another user's account.
• use undocumented features, exploits or cheats in-game that disrupts an EA Service or another user's account.
• use software or cheats that disconnects other users from the EA servers.

Any questions?
• Read up on how to play by the rules at https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/faq/play-by-the-ea-rules/
• Review our full user agreement. This is what you agree to when you make an EA Account or use EA services: http://www.ea.com/terms-of-service

Thank you,
EA Terms of Service

What's pissed me off most about this is they have not identified to me what has happened. Their response is very vague - you've been cheating OR using software OR using something to prevent other users from staying online. I can categorically tell everyone here, there is NOTHING on my system that has been installed by me which would do any of this. She doesn't even use any mods. She wouldn't know how to.

So they've banned my account and not identified to me what it was that was causing the problem and so I have absolutely NO recourse. They have made an arbitrary decision, not provided me with the information to counter their accusation and so I'm stuck.

I am livid. I don't play online as many of you know. It doesn't really affect me - but two things - they've accused my daughter of cheating - which is complete and utter bullshit - and second they just said "That's that"...no way for me to know what it is on my system that has caused this so I could remove it.
Alba gu' brath

Destraex

Wow. I guess the silver lining is that it is only s week. But because you don't know what you allegedly did wrong Inwonder how many times it takes before a complete ban.
That note sounds like they did not investigate at all.

Is your internet ok? One thing I can think of is drop hacking. Where people pull their net cables for a second to lag across the map thus not getting hit by enemy fire.
Another thing may be that she got reported by a lot of trolls
Were there any people hassling her just before this happened?

The worst kind of cheating and the one I most hear about is a program called cheat engine. But you don't have that. It's only loaded up while in use as I understand it.

I am pissed off for you as well btw. Not looking forward to this happening to my son who also likes battlefront.
"They only asked the Light Brigade to do it once"

Ian C

Maybe it could be a Firewall or Anti-Virus that is preventing an EA process from working/calling home?

I'd escalate the issue with EA but approach it from the point of view where you are asking them to identify the specific issue that is preventing your daughter from playing so you can correct it.



Tuna

I though the EU had laws protecting gaming consumers.. Like WoWs can't nerf premium ships and such.

Jarhead0331

Is it possible for a hacker to cheat and somehow do so by spoofing someone else's account? Or worse, maybe you're account has been hacked???
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
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Tuna

Kind of tough to figure out, when they give no real information on what he was accused of doing!  :pullhair:

Tpek

Yeah, I really hate the sort of customer support you tend to get from video game companies.

As for the cheating thing, it could be some software running in the background that, despite being harmless, was mistakenly identified by the game's anti-cheat crap as being a hack.
This could be software that monitors the computer's vitals, graphics control, anti-virus, even parental control software.

As for account getting hacked (as suggested by JH), you could try changing the password, and make sure the password is something hard to crack, and make sure your system doesn't have key-loggers installed.

@Dest, the fact they did not specify what JD's account supposedly did wrong, means that even after the limited-time ban passes, there's quite a chance it will be banned yet again.
Without knowing exactly what the problem was, there's no way for JD to fix it.

jamus34

Wasn't msi's Overclock software (forget the name) causing issues at one point?

All in all it's crap. Guilty until proven innocent and we don't even have to tell you what you did wrong. I've come to really loathe the big software publishers.

Even Bethesda is starting to piss me off given the state they released Fallout 76. That game should never have been released.
Insert witty comment here.

Toonces

Without more details it's hard to offer any meaningful advice.  I do know from my son's experience that if enough people "report" you, you can get banned.  This has happened to him before.

Worse, he's had people do a DNS attack on him, where our entire internet will drop out for about 2 minutes.  That makes me very uncomfortable...on many levels.

Anyway, EA is the devil, no surprises to be read here.
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Sir Slash

"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

Gusington

As JH and Toonces alluded to, maybe your account was hacked, JD.


слава Україна!

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demjansk1942

I probably have over 4000-5000 hours with ea.  One thing, lousy customer service.  Something like this is stupidity on there end.  Now, EA will lose a customer for a $ 10 game or so.

How many people do they really have investigating this stuff?  Anyone know?  Just curious about how many people work in this area

Staggerwing

At a company the size of EA these kinds of bans (and the response to inquiries about them) are probably all handled by bot algorithm, similar to the way Youtube flags and then demonetizes peoples videos for possible offensive or copyrighted content without any company human actually taking a look.
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Destraex

These kind of instances are where I wish that their was an office that would let you walk in and talk to people. Not to abuse them. But to show you are not a threat. Not some clever dweeb pretending to be a girl on the internet. Knowing what to say to EA to beg for an account to be let through once again.

Cheating is something that ruins gaming. Stopping it is a real challenge. Innocent people are always caught up in this kind of thing.
Real people talking to real people in person may be the answer. Game companies could cross check records with other game companies to see how many times a person has been accused. Word would get around quickly for the real troublemakers.
I guess thats why starcraft went with full real names.
"They only asked the Light Brigade to do it once"

Boggit

@JD

What a bloody cheek for EA to have treated you in such an arbitrary way! :knuppel2:

If you want to find out what they base their decision on (if anything) you might want to make a Data Protection Act 1998 information request, which will hopefully reveal the grounds for the ban. They should have a Data Protection controller, whose details should be publicly available to whom you direct your request. You make your application as the data subject, under your statutory right, to see whatever data they hold on you.

IIRC, the annoying thing is that there is a standard administration statutory charge of £10 for such applications.

Were I in your shoes, if your search shows you did nothing wrong, then I'd at least ask for a reimbursement along with an apology so that you are not out of pocket.

Anyhoo, just an idea to hold them to account... :-"
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