EA Games Knows Customer Service
June 3, 2008 – 5:34 pm | by Daryl TayCustomer service is a big pet peeve of mine. So I’m always grateful (and sometimes surprised) when I’m on the receiving end of good customer service.
I had a problem with Mass Effect and dropped an email to EA Games Support in Singapore. I got an email reply in three hours (still acceptable) saying:
Greetings Mr Tay,
Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts Singapore.
I’m sorry for the difficulty that you are having with the game.
If you are running on Windows Vista,
1. Click on the Windows button on the taskbar below your desktop.
2. Type in “dxdiag” in the search box just above the windows button and press “ENTER” on your keyboard.
3. On the DirectX Diagnostic Tool window, click on the “Save All Information” button. This will save a text file on your desktop.
4. Send the text file back in your email reply as an attachment.
We will then be able to advise you further on what additional steps you need to take to get the game running.
What they did right:
- a nice greeting, neither too formal nor informal
- expressing an apology that I had problems with their product
- a step by step guide on what actions to take and what to do next
How often does customer service do this for you? I’m betting not often.
What’s the big deal, I hear you say, it’s just a game right?
No.
Games are expensive. I paid S$64.90 for this game to get the proper validation code to play this game with no problems. If EA Games doesn’t convince me of the value I get from buying the original, they encourage me not to buy their games.
However, now I know the opposite and it pays to buy EA Games, it makes it much easier to make the decision to buy a game, knowing that you wouldn’t be wasting money or getting frustrated.
Now, if only every company took care of their customers and gave them a reason to remain paying customers.
Tags: customer service, ea games, ea sports, great customer support, mass effect, retaining existing customers
7 Responses to “EA Games Knows Customer Service”
By Daphne Maia on Jun 4, 2008 | Reply
hey, u know, last time i emailed microsoft abt my problems in signing into msn, and they replied with a very personalized email, with step by step instructions to solve the problem. n looking at the email, u could tell that its not one of those emails that they copied n pasted from manuals or whatever. i was super impressed and very happy. n i didnt even buy anything
im very particular about customer service too. to me, singapore only has talent (ok, debatable, haha, but i mean talent in the human resource way) and if they’re not going to have people skills, then singapore is basically… useless?
so.. definitely, customers service in singapore needs to be improved upon. this gd experience u had definitely gives it a +1.
By Daryl Tay on Jun 9, 2008 | Reply
@Daphne: Yes I think personalisation and all that will be the key in the future. Customers want to feel welcome and treated well by the company, not some random faceless customer! Singaporean service generally, especially in the retail stores isn’t great, but once in awhile a nice surprise comes along that gives us some hope!!
By Minnie on May 4, 2009 | Reply
WHAT IS EA’S EMAIL ADDRESS???? YOU DIDN’T MENTION IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
By john simpson on Oct 9, 2009 | Reply
I’m so sick of these companies that sacrafice quality and service over the mighty dollar. I remember back when you could make a fairly expensive purchase and never have to worry about if it was a cheaply made piece of crap. Also even if you did happen to have a problem then customer service would easily fix it. But these days its a total different story. It seems like everything i buy these days turns out being junk. Almost all of it was made in some 3rd world country (probably made by some 8 yr old sweatshop worker) and then when you call customer service you have to talk to robot before they connect you with some Asian rep. who doesnt speak hardly any English. I’m just so fed up with it that I’m very careful when buying things. Then if i have any problems with it i just return it to the store rather than going through the agony of customer service. These days I just don’t spend as much money as I used to back in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Not beacause of the shape of the economy but beecause i don’t trust the companies that sell these products. Here is a short list of the companies that i used to buy all of the time but because i’ve been burnt so many times i don’t buy from them anymore.
SONY – went down the crapper BIG TIME!
Electronic Arts – games/equipment cheaply made
Hewlett packard
Any supposed “American-made” car ie;Ford,GM
Cannon – printers, cameras
just about anything i buy seems to turn out to be piece of crap but these companies used to be the best but now all they care about is money even if it means ripping off their faithful customers!
By john simpson on Oct 9, 2009 | Reply
Forgot to add, just about ANY mobile phone company. I have never spent so much time with customer service to fix a problem on their end, and never got the problem fixed.
Net-10
Cincinnati Bell
Tracfone
T-mobile
*they were the worst. i spoke to a customer service rep at their store and he bold faced lied to me to avoid giving me a refund. I was very upset and will never buy from them again!