James Saunders Lifestream

So, you know when all of us clever web developers and UX people decided that people look in the footer for 'About, Contact' etc.

And then lazy loading/infinite scroll became hip and trendy.

A few weeks ago, I downloaded FIFA14 on my tablet.

All was going well. I'd done alright but found myself in a situation where i had run out of money/contracts in the Ultimate Team section. To remedy this, and get a better team I spent a few £ on a couple of 'gold packs' - in game purchases that give you better players, contracts and alike.

It was only a few quid so I didn't mind.

Then, a day later, I came to play and my team had been wiped. My shiny gold players and contracts had been lost and my team had been reset to the starting level (losing any players I had bought/earned/acquired throughout the many hours of normal gameplay). That kind of sucked.

Assuming that my original team still existed somewhere within EA's servers, I contacted them, expecting an apology and a quick relink of my team/account. Maybe another gold pack thrown in by way of an apology.

Fair enough.

I waited.

And waited.

I didn't play the game again in case me continuing with my wiped team meant I'd never get the one I'd spent money on back.

I gave them a prod, 6 days later.

And then, low and behold I got a reply.

TWELVE DAYS. I waited TWELVE days for that... They obviously didn't even read the issue as their advice would have had no effect whatsoever. TWELVE days for a generic, auto-response. They might as well have sent me that after 3 minutes.

Why even offer the service?

And in terms of finding a 'live chat' - good luck. head over to https://help.ea.com/ and have a look for yourselves. No? Same issue when trying to find a phone number.

Useless.

Bloody.