(My apologies this rant is long and should probably be called “The EA Nightmare“)

As many of you are aware, yesterday was the launch of one of the more anticipated games this year: The Sims 3. So, being a typical gamer, I had to pick it up (and the fact that my girlfriend is nuts about Sims 2). I decided that I would be best served, by going straight to the source. Typically I purchased digital downloads through Steam or Direct2Drive, but since EA has its own digital service it just made sense to purchase from ea.com. Oh boy, was that a bad decision.

To begin our story, lets take the setting back to about 3pm PST on June 2nd, launch day. I quickly pop into Steam to see that The Sims 3 is not available (not a surprise, really), so I head to ea.com to purchase it. I didn’t actually realize I would be unable to download the game for another 4 hours, but that wasn’t too much of a concern. I had no problems preordering the game, and EA had no problems charging me $50.

After digging around, I came to the realization that I would not even be able to start my download until 7PM PST. Ok, that’s a little weird, Steam let’s you download the game ahead of time and it will just activate when the game is available. A bit annoying, but again, not a huge deal. So, I get back to work, and time passes.

We’re now rolling up on 7PM, and I’m getting excited. It’s always amazing to see what they do with the new Sims games, and this one should be no different. The clock hits five after seven, and I am running around the EA.com store to find out how I download my pre-order. Nothing shows up in my download manager, so I assume that I must have to activate it in there somehow first. Fifteen minutes are wasted and I’m still unable to find a download link.

Then, being the typical crazy smart computer person that I am, I go to Google and type “WHERE THE HELL IS MY SIMS 3 DOWNLOAD”. Ok, so that didn’t turn out too wel, let’s try again: “how to downloads sims 3 preorder ea store”. I end up at a thread on GameSpot. Well, that was no help. In fact, not a single result showed any problems. So I’m out of luck on that matter.

After a bit more searching, I find out that there should be an unlock code, and a download button. So I head to my view orders (which is difficult to find, really), and attempt to login. Wait, password invalid? How can my password be invalid I just logged in 5 minutes ago with the same time. So I try another 5 times to get my password to work. Nothing. I then proceed to reset my password, still confused, and it works.

Now I’m in my order, and I see the title for “Unlock Code” but it’s empty below it, and I see no download link. Oh, there’s a “View Invoice” button, that must be where I go to download it! But wait, an internal server error, grrr. I sit confused, and decide that maybe EA is another amazing company who’s site only works in IE. A quick browser swap confirms they at least can write proper CSS.

Being the persistent person that I am, I had yet another idea, to try it on Firefox on my Mac. I click through to Customer Support, and click View orders, time to login again. Invalid password, again!? It turns out there are a half dozen different login mechanisms on this site. One says my password is invalid, one logs me in, but redirects to a page which doesn’t load, and the other works, but I have no idea where it’s at. After another 15 minutes of hell, I manage to login and view my orders. Wooo, the page has an “Add extended download service” button.

I proceed to purchase extended download service in the hopes that this may correct their amazing ordering system. After letting EA nickel and dime me some more, I still end up with no download link. I decide to give it time, since it’s launch day and might just be a bit behind. I go back to work for another hour and an email pops up, “Order confirmation ….”. I’m thinking, “Yes! It really was just taking a bit of time”. I hop over to my inbox and it tells me all about how I’m supposed to download the game and where to find it.

So now that I’m assured there’s a way to download my game, I go through the 15 minute process of finding a way to login to the order history again. I finally manage to login, and my orders look exactly the same. Both charges have successfully been made on my PayPal account (paid through a CC, so there’s no delay), but I still see nothing new. I decide “hey, maybe EA just sucks, and the download link really does exist”. View Source quickly finds me a download header, but nothing in it, darn.

It is now the next day, and I’m getting extremely frustrated with my lack of Sims. I decide it will be much easier to just call them and take out my anger on the unlucky support worker. Easy enough, right? Of course not! It takes me another 30 minutes of digging around their site, and eventually using Google just to find a page which actually has a REAL phone number I can call. Someone picks up the phone after a 30 minute wait, yes 30 minutes on a number which is not toll free (so its long distance). I hear what almost sounds like an Arabic accent, but wait, it’s not your typical hard to understand technical support person, they just have such amazing Mics that it muffles everything in the background!

I proceed to give them my order number, and any other information they ask for. This takes me another 10 minutes or so. I’m getting excited simply due to the fact that it’s a real person, and they MUST have a solution for me. Well, that was another bad call. I’m told that “electronic orders take time to process”. Oh, do they? Maybe they did in 1980 before they were invented. I can wire enough money to fund development on The Sims 3 before they can process my $50 transaction.

So it is now 24 hours after the fact, I still have no Sims 3, and I will never purchase another product through EA again. I’m hoping that my rant of frustration will also convince others to do the same. I’ll stick with Direct2Drive and Steam in the future.

Let’s throw in some Google love for EA here:

- Electronic Arts is terrible
- Ordering online from Electronic Arts
- EA Store