De cluster fuck van Sim City houd maar niet op want, EA aka Echte Assholes bannen nu gebruikers die contact hebben opgenomen met het bedrijf Amazon. Want niet alleen veel mensen vragen hun geld (terecht) terug, maar ook een hoop mensen hebben problemen met hun activatie key en vragen dan een nieuwe aan. Maar tot hun verbazing worden ze getrakteerd op een ban, want EA wil niet dat gamers contact opnemen met deze webshop. Dus je snapt wel dat er grote nerd rage gaande is op de bekende forums.

Amazon was more than happy to provide me with a new product key. I put the key in, SimCity re-appeared in my Origin game library. All is good, right?

Wrong.

After yet another forced update, the game once again told me that the key is no good, that it had already been used. At this point, Amazon offered to refund me, which I declined because I want the game, I enjoy playing it, and I was one of the few that was patient enough to sit through the server issues, AND I'm one of the few that realize life is too short to worry about the always-on feature (although, I could totally live without it, but that's an argument for another day).

So now, I contacted EA Origin through chat, and they said I need to call them. The problem is - I'm deaf, and a phone call is the only way to do this. EA Origin chat guy suggested I find someone to call on my behalf. What a jerk.

I used the relay (a service for the deaf where the middle-man relays the message in typed format). After an hour on hold, I was hung up on before I could answer. So here I am, sitting, waiting for someone to respond while being on hold for a second time. I realize that EA is backed up in the CR department due to the various gaming issues people might have. But this is ridiculous.

So I looked into the issue, and guess what? It's happening across the board. Anyone who even remotely contacted Amazon about the game got their accounts cancelled - by EA. EA blames Amazon. EA claims that I (along with possibly thousands other users according to a thread) have been issued a chargeback. Except the thing is - I never asked for a refund, nor was I given one either. I had this confirmed by Amazon, which is why they were more than happy to provide me a new product key.