u/zouli2004

EA’s account recovery system failed a paying customer — and this is how you treat legitimate customers?

I want other EA customers to know what happened before they continue spending money with this company.

I am a long-term paying EA customer. I own 55 pieces of The Sims 4 DLC and have spent a significant amount of money on EA products over the years. I have always chosen to purchase games and content legitimately, and I was fully prepared to continue buying EA products in the future.

I recently purchased a $2,451 gaming PC specifically so I could continue playing my games on Windows.

Then I discovered that I could not access my EA Account on my new PC because the email address attached to my account is an old email address that I no longer have access to.

Here is what makes this situation ridiculous:

I know my EA Account password.

I still had access to the SAME EA Account on my old Mac.

My games were still working normally on that computer.

My current phone number is linked to my EA Account.

EA itself displayed my current phone number as a verification option.

My account showed trusted devices.

I was not asking to recover some random account. I was trying to log into my own account on a new computer.

I tried to update my email address from inside my already authenticated account, and EA’s own verification system repeatedly returned:

“Something went wrong. Try again later.”

I contacted EA Support and provided genuine purchase information and screenshots. These were real purchases made by me.

I was told that the information was not sufficient/matching enough and that I should contact support again with a new case.

So I did.

My husband independently contacted EA Support and went through the same process, providing the same legitimate information. He received essentially the same result.

At one point, EA’s own system showed my current phone number as a verification method, but the SMS verification process also failed.

So let me understand this:

I know my password.

I have access to the account on my existing device.

I have access to the current phone number linked to the account.

I own the games and content on that account.

I provided proof of genuine purchases.

And yet EA’s solution is essentially: prove that you are the owner again, using information you may no longer have access to, and if our verification system doesn’t accept what you provide, start the process over.

I understand the need to protect accounts from hackers. I understand why EA needs security measures.

But security should not mean making it practically impossible for a legitimate paying customer to recover their own account.

EA spends enormous amounts of money fighting piracy and encouraging customers to purchase games legitimately.

I did exactly that.

I paid for my games.
I paid for my content.
I kept buying from EA.
I was prepared to keep buying from EA.

And when I encountered a genuine account-access problem, instead of helping me retain a paying customer, EA’s recovery system effectively pushed me away.

You didn’t lose a customer because I couldn’t afford your products. You lost a customer because your account recovery process made me regret paying for them.

I am not asking EA for free content.

I am not asking for someone else’s account.

I am asking for access to an account and content that I already paid for.

If this is how EA treats legitimate customers who have invested significant amounts of money into its ecosystem, people deserve to know about it before they make the same investment.

Your anti-piracy system should not make legitimate customers feel like they would have been better off never paying in the first place.