“Ready to play Apex Legends Season 10? More like, get banned, Rami.” That’s what my recent encounter was like with EA. I hadn’t played Apex Legends in over a year, but when I finally redownloaded it to play with my fiancée, I discovered that I had been banned for cheating.
First off, I wouldn’t know how to cheat even if I wanted to. Secondly, I am a Dark Souls nut. I live and breathe for the challenge of dying and trying again to get good enough to persevere. Cheating is not fun, and my name will not be slandered, damn it! The only explanation I can think of is that I was hacked. Of course, when I asked for proof, EA would not provide any.
I have reached out to EA through multiple avenues, and I have yet to receive any help whatsoever with my ban. Here are all of my cataloged experiences with EA’s unhelpful customer support.
I would rather die than cheat
After spending a ridiculous amount of time getting an Xbox controller to work on my PC, I was finally ready to play Apex Legends. However, when I launched a match, I was booted out with the error: “The client’s game account has been banned: Banned.” I thought it was a mistake at first, so I tried again, and again, but I had no luck.
So, I reached out to EA via its customer support portal and inquired about my ban on Apex Legends. I received an email afterwards, stating: “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. We have confirmed that your account was involved in cheating. Because of this, we will not remove the sanction on your account.”
Me? Cheating? Ridiculous. I then responded to that same email, stating that, “I wouldn’t even know how to cheat if I tried. Can you please explain to me how exactly I cheated when I’ve only played the game a handful of times?” Needless to say, I was pretty upset at this point, but their response sent me to the moon with rage.
The next email from EA stated: “We have received your most recent correspondence expressing concerns about the action that was taken on your account. After thoroughly investigating your account and concern, we again found that we actioned your account correctly after it was found to have violated our User Agreement. We will also be unable to provide any details regarding our internal procedures. Due to this violation, we will not remove the sanction that was applied to your account. After completing two full investigations into your complaint, we consider this matter closed.”
What else am I supposed to say to people that won’t listen? EA can’t even tell me how I cheated. I wonder how many times the company has banned an account and not given any cause to the poor unsuspecting user. Regardless of what that statement said, I wasn’t giving up on reinstating my account.
So, I reached out to EA Help on Twitter to see if I could get any more headway. I spoke to a lovely agent named Todd, who explained to me that, “It sounds like someone else may have accessed your account and this may have led to the ban.” And so Todd guided me through EA Portal to file a case for a hacked account as opposed to a banned account. Through here, I was actually able to get on the phone with someone.
However, when I called the EA helpline, they weren’t very helpful. They could only create a case for me and send it to the EA Terms of Service team -- the same team that “considered this matter closed.” I expressed my concerns to Todd, the lovely Twitter agent, but Todd said that even they would have to direct them to the EA Terms of Service team. Therefore, I am stuck between a rock and a banned place.
Shortly after my phone call, I was emailed by an agent named Deepak, stating that, “We can help you in raising the dispute against the sanction. Remember this will not guarantee the suspension will be removed but a proper investigation will be performed by our Terms and Services team.”
It’s been over a week since I had that conversation with Todd and Deepak, and I have yet to receive a response from EA, apart from a customer satisfaction survey. Spoiler alert: I am not satisfied. I can’t imagine that it would be that difficult to check if my account was logged into anywhere other than where I live (or could have visited). I just downloaded the Apex Legends Season 10 update, and guess what? I am still banned.
I reached out to EA (on the press side) with a series of questions concerning the EA Terms of Service team’s methods and why it doesn’t disclose any information to the user. It’s been a few weeks and I have yet to receive a response, but you can bet that I’ll update this article with the answers if I ever get them.
Take back your false claims, EA!
I am not a cheater. Never have been and never will be. My account was either hacked or EA’s investigation process is bogus, especially since the Terms and Service team didn’t bother to tell me how I was cheating.
This isn’t the first time EA has falsely banned people before. The update that was released on May 4 saw a bunch of players banned without cause. It’s entirely possible that my account was caught up in this update as well, but it looks like I will never know because EA appears to be leaving me on read.
I would like my account back, EA. Please and thank you.
