Origin sucks.

[YankeesPwnMets]

A few weeks ago, I went to my friends house and hung out at his place on my day off. I played BF3 on his computer, and for the first time on PC I played BF3 (I'm not a big FPS fan). I sat down to play one mission and that was enough to convince me that to go out and buy the game.

 

Ok, I have $20 on my EA Account balance. I have a 50% off promo code from an EA Newsletter. After discounts, the game would be 19.99, perfect, right? Not so fast. EA actually charged me tax on the game, something I wasn't accustomed to since I used Steam for pretty much all of my digital downloads and Steam never had charged me tax. I was charged 1.77, and the total went up to 21.76. Annoying, yes, but whatever. Just get out my Visa card and pay the remainder, and I'll be done? Correct? Wrong again. My Chase Visa card refused to go through the first time. I tried again in half an hour and this time it went through. However, the game did not show up on the "My Games" tab of Origin, and I never got any receipt indicating that I had purchase the game. Odd. I go onto Chase online and see that not only has EA charged my card, I find out that it charged the full 21.67 instead, completely bypassing my account balance. EA specifically states on their FAQ that you must use any remaining balance to pay for games. Well, why the hell do I still have 20 dollars on my EA account? Why is my card being charged the full 21.67? And most importantly, WHY IS MY GAME STILL NOT THERE?

 

I live chat with EA and they said to just wait 24 hours and they don't have any additional information other than the fact that its just processing. Smh. I'm never getting anything off EA Origin instead. If its not on Steam, then I'll just get it off Amazon. Amazon FTW!

[Finn 7 five 11]

I myself never understood why EA had to be difficult and make their own stupid games client, all it does is inconvenience everyone else just because they don't like Valve.

EA already sucks with their games and DLC, then they just go f*ck over PC players.

Edited September 16, 2012 by finn4life

[MIKON8ERISBACK]

EA is said to have the worst customer service in the business. I would suggest going to your credit card company, presenting your case, and disputing the charges.

[kudoboi]

don't buy from the client.. buy it from their origin website via chrome or some other browser but not their client. their client is always very glitchy

[Wolf68k]

Why EA charges tax? EA's answer is basically that either they charge you the sales tax to make you pay it now or you pay it later. There are some states that can find out if you made a purchase while being in that state to see if you paid sales tax on a purchase. Another possibility is that they have some sort of presence in every state the same way that Amazon does and most likely Sony does, thus they have to charge sales tax. Sony Online Entertainment charges sales tax as well.

Steam can and does charge for sales tax and VAT: http://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/

 

If your use of Steam is subject to any type of use or sales tax, then Valve may also charge you for those taxes, in addition to the Subscription or other fees published in the Rules of Use. The European Union VAT (“VAT”) tax amounts collected by Valve reflect VAT due on the value of any Software or Subscription.

 

As for their customer support being bad, I've actually found it to be pretty good. When I pre-ordered BF3 Limited Edition I thought I was suppose to get all of the extras; Back To Karkand, the extra dog tags, the SPECACT Kit and so on. But all I got was B2K and that stupid gun and bright ass yellow beret for Battlefield Free 2 Play, which is a very crappy stripped down version of BF2 played via a web browsers. So I called and talked to a guy at EA. He told me that I should have gotten it all. Puts me on hold for a couple minutes and comes back to say, 'oops you're not suppose to get that stuff they are select retailers' but he then tells me that since he originally did say I was to get them he would give codes for them anyway which you have to admit is pretty cool.

 

Now I did say they were pretty good, that was the good. The bad for me is that EA original you were just and email address and nothing more. Later you had to create Personas for your game, ok no problem, but then later you had to create a Master ID and the problem here is that you can't (or couldn't) use the same name on your Master ID as your other Personas. Hence the reason my BF3 name is MetalWolf68k yet all of my other Personas are just Wolf68k. No matter how many times I try and look it up EA shows that Wolf68k is not being used as a Master ID by anyway it wouldn't let me change to Wolf68k it says it's already being used....YEAH BY ME!!!! I did contact EA about this. I don't remember the details to this but I remember ending up in an email convo with some higher ups basically and I got down to asking if they can simply check to see if Wolf68k was in fact the Master ID being used by someone else compared to just a Persona and that I don't expect them to tell me anything about who it is. If memory serves they told me that it was not a Master ID being used by anyway. So why can't I change it? Because it's being used by a Persona....yeah again BY ME!!!!

Now when you create a new account and pick a name that's not being used that of course becomes your master Persona and then you can use that same name to create your sub/other Personas.

Edited September 16, 2012 by Wolf68k

[Luna Fortuna]

 

I myself never understood why EA had to be difficult and make their own stupid games client, all it does is inconvenience everyone else just because they don't like Valve.

EA already sucks with their games and DLC, then they just go f*ck over PC players.

I actually think it's a good thing that EA brought out Origin. I think he we gives them some time to smooth things out it will become a great service; we need competition it drives down prices and will stop steam from gaining a monopoly on PC.

[YankeesPwnMets]

Steam? High prices? lol. They only sell at the manufacturers recommended retail price. Also, Steam sales have saved me so much that usually I can give multiple games to my little cousins as gifts during the holidays...

[Finn 7 five 11]

I myself never understood why EA had to be difficult and make their own stupid games client, all it does is inconvenience everyone else just because they don't like Valve.

EA already sucks with their games and DLC, then they just go f*ck over PC players.

I actually think it's a good thing that EA brought out Origin. I think he we gives them some time to smooth things out it will become a great service; we need competition it drives down prices and will stop steam from gaining a monopoly on PC.

I am sure EA's buggy ass client that supports only a few games is going to compete with steam.

Steam doesn't sell any of the games Origin does, therefore there is no competition whatsoever.

[Luna Fortuna]

 

I myself never understood why EA had to be difficult and make their own stupid games client, all it does is inconvenience everyone else just because they don't like Valve.

EA already sucks with their games and DLC, then they just go f*ck over PC players.

I actually think it's a good thing that EA brought out Origin. I think he we gives them some time to smooth things out it will become a great service; we need competition it drives down prices and will stop steam from gaining a monopoly on PC.

I am sure EA's buggy ass client that supports only a few games is going to compete with steam.

Steam doesn't sell any of the games Origin does, therefore there is no competition whatsoever.

Yes it does. Have you even looked on origin? I have just took two minutes to look and they both sell dead space 2 and shogun 2 fall of the samurai and there are probably plenty more.

[ccrogers15]

There game client is pointless and SUCKS bad. It took away some money i had when i was inactive.

 

 

I hate origin. EA store.com was WAYYYY better when it offered direct download from the site and not through some sh*tty program. Origins just there excuse to spy into your computer, and another excuse to use that piece of s*it always on DRM sh*t. I f*cking hate always on DRM. Mass effect 3 had it, a few others had it, NOW simcity 2013 is getting it. You MUST be connected to the internet with origin launched at all times to play simcity 2013. Gay as gayness can get.

 

 

And why the h*ll is everything on origin about 50% higher priced then at retail? Really? And with the sims 3, its sad to see EA selling "Worlds" for $20 when in the sims 2, you can make them for FREE. Its pretty pathetic. A dam* world for $20... lol.

Edited September 16, 2012 by ccrogers15

[YankeesPwnMets]

Well, I went back to support today and they told me to call a number. Which was closed. Then they said all they could do was "escalate it" and it would take up to 7 business days to resolve. I guess I'll be waiting to see what happens...

[Finn 7 five 11]

I myself never understood why EA had to be difficult and make their own stupid games client, all it does is inconvenience everyone else just because they don't like Valve.

EA already sucks with their games and DLC, then they just go f*ck over PC players.

I actually think it's a good thing that EA brought out Origin. I think he we gives them some time to smooth things out it will become a great service; we need competition it drives down prices and will stop steam from gaining a monopoly on PC.

I am sure EA's buggy ass client that supports only a few games is going to compete with steam.

Steam doesn't sell any of the games Origin does, therefore there is no competition whatsoever.

Yes it does. Have you even looked on origin? I have just took two minutes to look and they both sell dead space 2 and shogun 2 fall of the samurai and there are probably plenty more.

Because those are EA GAMES, Origin only sells EA games and the only EA games on steam are old games that were around before origin, so any new games that are on origin will NOT be on steam therefore they are not competing with each other at all.

Origin is a piece of crap which isn't competing with steam, it just makes things difficult.

[Luna Fortuna]

 

I myself never understood why EA had to be difficult and make their own stupid games client, all it does is inconvenience everyone else just because they don't like Valve.

EA already sucks with their games and DLC, then they just go f*ck over PC players.

I actually think it's a good thing that EA brought out Origin. I think he we gives them some time to smooth things out it will become a great service; we need competition it drives down prices and will stop steam from gaining a monopoly on PC.

I am sure EA's buggy ass client that supports only a few games is going to compete with steam.

Steam doesn't sell any of the games Origin does, therefore there is no competition whatsoever.

Yes it does. Have you even looked on origin? I have just took two minutes to look and they both sell dead space 2 and shogun 2 fall of the samurai and there are probably plenty more.

Because those are EA GAMES, Origin only sells EA games and the only EA games on steam are old games that were around before origin, so any new games that are on origin will NOT be on steam therefore they are not competing with each other at all.

Origin is a piece of crap which isn't competing with steam, it just makes things difficult.

Nice try, but crusader kings and shogun 2 are not published by EA. So they do sell non EA and they are in competition. EA are not being difficult; in case you haven't noticed Digital Distribution is growing exponentially EA want a piece of the action.

[Finn 7 five 11]

 

I myself never understood why EA had to be difficult and make their own stupid games client, all it does is inconvenience everyone else just because they don't like Valve.

EA already sucks with their games and DLC, then they just go f*ck over PC players.

I actually think it's a good thing that EA brought out Origin. I think he we gives them some time to smooth things out it will become a great service; we need competition it drives down prices and will stop steam from gaining a monopoly on PC.

I am sure EA's buggy ass client that supports only a few games is going to compete with steam.

Steam doesn't sell any of the games Origin does, therefore there is no competition whatsoever.

Yes it does. Have you even looked on origin? I have just took two minutes to look and they both sell dead space 2 and shogun 2 fall of the samurai and there are probably plenty more.

Because those are EA GAMES, Origin only sells EA games and the only EA games on steam are old games that were around before origin, so any new games that are on origin will NOT be on steam therefore they are not competing with each other at all.

Origin is a piece of crap which isn't competing with steam, it just makes things difficult.

Nice try, but crusader kings and shogun 2 are not published by EA. So they do sell non EA and they are in competition. EA are not being difficult; in case you haven't noticed Digital Distribution is growing exponentially EA want a piece of the action.

Alright you win, Steam has to compete with EA for price on two games which i have never heard of, besides which Steam charges a fair price and chances are they won't be undercutting each other even if Origin grows because EA is greedy so they are not going to attempt to lower prices, the companies that provide the games are still going to expect both clients to pay them just as much as they are paying now for games, the RRP is not going to change.

 

Also they are being difficult, not intentionally but downloading a separate client which doesn't even function properly is just another hassle that i only have to deal with when dealing with EA, they are making things difficult.

[Wolf68k]

There game client is pointless and SUCKS bad. It took away some money i had when i was inactive.

 

 

I hate origin. EA store.com was WAYYYY better when it offered direct download from the site and not through some sh*tty program. Origins just there excuse to spy into your computer, and another excuse to use that piece of s*it always on DRM sh*t. I f*cking hate always on DRM. Mass effect 3 had it, a few others had it, NOW simcity 2013 is getting it. You MUST be connected to the internet with origin launched at all times to play simcity 2013. Gay as gayness can get.

 

 

And why the h*ll is everything on origin about 50% higher priced then at retail? Really? And with the sims 3, its sad to see EA selling "Worlds" for $20 when in the sims 2, you can make them for FREE. Its pretty pathetic. A dam* world for $20... lol.

Just to clear a few things up. EA Store and Origin are the exact same thing, the only difference is the name. Yes when it was the EA Store they used direct download, however they did also require that you use their download client not at the very start of when they started offering downloads but later on they did.

 

Origin does not spy on your computer at the very most it might send system spec information back to EA, but then so does Steam, UPlay, Firefox, Chrome, Adobe, Microsoft, even Apple's OSX does it.

 

DRM to play the game, well yes there is DRM they have to try to protect their property. Before there was DRM it was more or less easy for 1 person to buy a game and give a copy to a friend. Then came CDkeys that made it a bit harder then came things like SafeDisc and other forms of copy protection systems that all could be easily circumvented. Now it's DRM's turn. But even that alone was not perfect and could be defeated. Online DRM is the only mostly sure way to make sure that what you are playing you paid for and no pirated. Again it's not perfect and can still be beaten but it's much harder to do.

 

Mass Effect 3 requires Adobe AIR to play and Adobe AIR requires a connection to the internet. That is the reason you need to be connected to the internet to play MF3.

Now for something like BF3, you can be disconnected from the internet and still play the single player. Yes you still have to go through Origin to get it to play at all. Anything you buy on Steam you have to play through Steam. I've only seen 1 game that I was able to play without Steam even running and that was Assassin's Creed 1, however that is 1 game in the 100s that Steam sells. Even a crappy little game like Trials 2 you try to run it without Steam running you'll get an error.

Yes you have to login to Origin first, but do not have to be connected to the internet for your login to work. Same is true for Steam, when you try to connect to Steam with no internet connection it warns you of this and gives you the choice to try the internet login again or go to offline mode. That's about the only thing Origin is missing to make it easier to run in offline mode.

 

Since Simcity 2013 isn't even out yet you're making claims about it's DRM that can't yet be backed up. The only thing I've found is that in order to play the multiplayer you have to be connected to the internet and go through Origin. Well no kidding, it's multiplayer, of course you have to have a network connection.

 

You want to raise a stink about something try Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood. You buy it on Steam you have to run it through Steam and with Steam running but you also have to have Ubisoft's Uplay running and connected to the internet in order to play the single player, never mind the obviousness of the multiplayer.

But then in BF3 was available on Steam, like so many hoped but were sadly disappointed never came to be, you'd still need Origin as well, but again at least then you wouldn't need to be online just to play the single player.

 

The prices on Origin are not 50% higher than at retail. They are the same for the most part. Yes when BF3 first came out there were some places like Newegg and Amazon that were selling it for less, but then they had many other things going for them that they could afford to sell it for less.

But now answer me this. BF3 Premium Edition is $60 on Origin. Amazon has the PC download for $60 as well but they sell the physical copy for $45.44. The answer is really simple actually. Never go through the manufacturer to buy a product. Go to Canon and look for a printer, notice the price and that you can buy it directly through Canon's website. Now go look at it at BestBuy, Amazon, OfficeMax and so on, the exact same printer for less...now how much less will vary but that's not the point. With digital downloads it's more or less the same story.

 

As for this thing about Sims 3 Worlds compared to Sims 2 Worlds. It's simply too different products. I will be honest and say I have no idea what it is, but it is 2 completely different things. It's not like even if it was free you'd be able to take your Sims 2 Worlds and use it in Sims 3 Worlds. I'm sure whatever it is, that for Sims 3 it'll be completely new and more expansive compared to the Sims 2 version. I did take the time to look it up though and the only thing I really found was this http://www.thesims3.com/game/tools/world which says that while it is a Beta it is free, so I'm confused on your claim that it's $20. Even this site says that it was released in Dec 2009 and for free.

 

About your lost funds, have you at all contacted EA about this to see what they had to say? I know that at one time there was a report that EA would be closing inactive accounts but that was 1-2 years of zero activity. I also question the way you word it, that being so vague. Was this money where you or someone you know had transferred funds from a personal account into your EA/Origin account so you can buy something or was this like a gift type of thing in which case I could see in some cases that the funds can removed if you don't use it after a set amount of time.

[kudoboi]

 

I myself never understood why EA had to be difficult and make their own stupid games client, all it does is inconvenience everyone else just because they don't like Valve.

EA already sucks with their games and DLC, then they just go f*ck over PC players.

I actually think it's a good thing that EA brought out Origin. I think he we gives them some time to smooth things out it will become a great service; we need competition it drives down prices and will stop steam from gaining a monopoly on PC.

I am sure EA's buggy ass client that supports only a few games is going to compete with steam.

Steam doesn't sell any of the games Origin does, therefore there is no competition whatsoever.

Yes it does. Have you even looked on origin? I have just took two minutes to look and they both sell dead space 2 and shogun 2 fall of the samurai and there are probably plenty more.

Because those are EA GAMES, Origin only sells EA games and the only EA games on steam are old games that were around before origin, so any new games that are on origin will NOT be on steam therefore they are not competing with each other at all.

Origin is a piece of crap which isn't competing with steam, it just makes things difficult.

Nice try, but crusader kings and shogun 2 are not published by EA. So they do sell non EA and they are in competition. EA are not being difficult; in case you haven't noticed Digital Distribution is growing exponentially EA want a piece of the action.

Alright you win, Steam has to compete with EA for price on two games which i have never heard of, besides which Steam charges a fair price and chances are they won't be undercutting each other even if Origin grows because EA is greedy so they are not going to attempt to lower prices, the companies that provide the games are still going to expect both clients to pay them just as much as they are paying now for games, the RRP is not going to change.

 

Also they are being difficult, not intentionally but downloading a separate client which doesn't even function properly is just another hassle that i only have to deal with when dealing with EA, they are making things difficult.

do not attempt to lower the prices? what? they have 75% sales every month. also their game prices are actually cheaper than steam. go to origin and compare its prices with steam. origin is actually cheaper. about that client thing, steam does it too( skyrim etc) so all your arguments are pretty much invalid. yes EA can be major douchebags sometimes but whatever you said was just complete lies. almost every thread about origin always turns out to be a bashing fest simply because everybody is one sided. i use desura, origin and steam and i can say that origin is not even as bad as what everyone says. its pretty much just a reskin of steam. valve even sells their games on origin and there are monthly sales, prices are comparable or sometimes even cheaper than steam and everything else functions just like steam so i do not see the issue about why everybody complains about it

Edited September 19, 2012 by kudoboi

[Finn 7 five 11]

 

do not attempt to lower the prices? what? they have 75% sales every month. also their game prices are actually cheaper than steam. go to origin and compare its prices with steam. origin is actually cheaper. 

I don't see how prices on Origin are cheaper when the only games to compare are EA games, obviously the EA games are going to be cheaper because they don't have to pay steam (the middle man) to sell their games for them. But there are almost no games that Steam and Origin share that are not EA games.

Even if Origin does expand and offer a games collection similar to steam Origon can't really compete for price with steam because the profit margins for games are pretty slim.

 

 

about that client thing, steam does it too( skyrim etc) so all your arguments are pretty much invalid.

No not all my arguments are invalid, and i don't even understand what you were trying to say that preceded that.

 

yes EA can be major douchebags sometimes but whatever you said was just complete lies.

No they weren't.

 

 

almost every thread about origin always turns out to be a bashing fest simply because everybody is one sided. i use desura, origin and steam and i can say that origin is not even as bad as what everyone says.

I don't see how we are one sided since we have all used Origin and it does have a lot of issues, far more than steam that's for sure, the Original Post of this topic is my case in point.

 

 

its pretty much just a reskin of steam. valve even sells their games on origin and there are monthly sales, prices are comparable or sometimes even cheaper than steam and everything else functions just like steam so i do not see the issue about why everybody complains about it

There are Valve games on Origin? Okay, i have never seen a Valve game on Origin, almost all the games on Origin are EA games, and why would Valve let Origin sell their games but Origin won't let valve sell EA games, that doesn't make sense.

 

Yeah it is a reskin of steam, and a very poor one at that, it has - like i have already outlined - many issues making it a pain in the ass whenever you want any new release games from EA.

Edited September 19, 2012 by finn4life

[Wolf68k]

Ignoring the games it's not fair to compare how good Origin is to Steam or anything else. When Steam first started it was crap compared to what it is now. Steam has had years to improve itself. How long has Origin had? Less than a year for sure but it's 1-year birthday is coming up in 1-2months.

When the Apple and even the Android stores first started they were crap and now they are both the benchmark. Blackberry and Palm both have/had app stores and were both crap. Palm is gone so that doesn't count. Blackberry on the other hand is still crap. Now it's M$ mobile turn and again at the start it's crap and from what I hear it starting to get better.

Nothing starts off great, it just starts. It takes time, effort and support for it to get better.

 

I'm also sure EA/Origin has to be careful of what they do so they don't get into some kind of copyright/patent war with Steam or anyone else for their feature, function and design. It seems 2000+ is the century of the patent wars.

[kudoboi]

 

do not attempt to lower the prices? what? they have 75% sales every month. also their game prices are actually cheaper than steam. go to origin and compare its prices with steam. origin is actually cheaper. 

I don't see how prices on Origin are cheaper when the only games to compare are EA games, obviously the EA games are going to be cheaper because they don't have to pay steam (the middle man) to sell their games for them. But there are almost no games that Steam and Origin share that are not EA games.

Even if Origin does expand and offer a games collection similar to steam Origon can't really compete for price with steam because the profit margins for games are pretty slim.

 

 

i guess its based on region then. and speaking of sales battlefield 3 is 75% off origin here right now

 

also about valve games not on steam

 

origin also sells darksiders 2, the walking dead, saints row 3, dead rising 2, LOTR, devil may cry, resident evil, tera, sniper elite v2, fear 3, the witcher 2 and a bunch more.

Edited September 20, 2012 by kudoboi

[Finn 7 five 11]

Well that's weird i have never seen them there, i just searched before i posted to make sure and i couldn't find any.

I guess the Australian store doesn't have them, the only games i have available are EA games.

 

Well perhaps i will retract some of what i said, Wolf makes a valid point in that Origin is relatively new and steam has had a long time to fix things.

Also you have shown that perhaps they do provide some competition for steam (It's still not a lot though since profit margins are slim), sorry for making false points, but according to my research Origin only does sell EA games because i am on the Australian version.

Edited September 21, 2012 by finn4life

[Wolf68k]

@kudoboi and everyone that wants to use this to "prove" EA sells games for more than Steam

Something to keep in mind is that those are for physical not digital download, hence the "Availability". Now taking Portal 2 as an example, the Xbox and PS3 price is the same you'll currently find on Amazon while the PC/Mac version is the original MSRP but you can get at Amazon for around $20.

[YankeesPwnMets]

EA Support is truly pathetic. I'm going to be on hold for the next 40 minutes. I want a refund since the game is $10 today but who knows if I'll even get an agent before midnight -_-