Origin Store's lack of Honesty and lack of Customer Service- http://store.origin.com
This episode happened with Electronic Arts - Origin Brazil or whatever branch of Origin Store that does business in Brazilian territory.
But I believe that if one branch of a company is blatantly dishonest that behaviour should and does in fact reflect on the company's worldwide image.
So no matter where you are, this could happen to you if you ever choose to do business with Origin. And I am posting this story publicly as a warning to prospective customers of theirs everywhere. If you search through their forums you will find dissatisfied customers of every nationality.
On the 19th on November I bought 3 new expansion packs for The Sims 3.
After finding that every online store had exactly the same price for them (when available), I opted for Origin because it would be delivered through download (faster than by post) and without a delivery fee.
I still felt that the prices were a little steep and that paying the same price for a digital download as I would on actual physical disks wasn't nice. But I went along with it because I wanted my collection complete.
All along I looked at prices in Brazil's currency: Real (R$, also commonly abbreviated as BRL on financial sites). That's what Origin showed me all the way, including in the confirmation email for the purchase, and including right now if I check my purchase history. I was to pay R$149.70.
This monday (28th) I got my credit card statement and it made me really angry! It contained these two items:
DescriptionForeign CurrencyValue (R$)
EA*Origin.com 149.70 BRLUS$ 84.04156.31
IOF 9.97
IOF is a brazilian tax on purchases made in foreign currency. So the statement made me angry for two reasons: (1) I did not agree to a purchase in a foreign currency, so I did not owe IOF! (2) where did US$84.04 come from?
Those values (including IOF) make that purchase 11% more expensive!
I even went to American online stores and in the most expensive one, this purchase amounted to about US$80. On Amazon those 3 games would go for about US$73! And I really felt it was mean of them to place the actual fair price in the description (149.70 BRL), to make it obvious they knew they were not charging me the proper price!
Since getting this statement I have tried contacting customer support. Here is all that I've done:
First I clicked on the promising link on their page that translates to "Contact Us", but it's broken and presents the 404 error: Page Not Found.
Clicking around the site got me a FAQ page where the search box doesn't work and after spending hours manually going through the topics I found that it doesn't answer my question of how to contact Origin (I would imagine this was a frequent question).
After more clicking around I landed on the US customer support page where the chat button is disabled saying no one is available and the "we'll call you later" button let's me know that feature is only available for people in US territory.
I did some more clicking and found myself on a page with European flags. Don't even ask me how I got there! I just started out at http://store.origin.com (in Brazilian portuguese and currency, it automatically detects where you are) and clicking in anything "customer service" related I travel the world!
Finally I decide to click the Portuguese flag in hopes of asking someone there for a contact in Brazil. And to my surprise I land on the same unhelpful FAQ page I've already checked!
I read their Term of Service looking for anything relating to the difference of currency or pricing and there was nothing.
I tried answering the confirmation email I got for the purchase but that address doesn't receive messages. I have posted on Origin's US forum, I have posted on EA Customer Support's Facebook page and sent them a message on twitter. Finally I posted on an independent Brazilian Customer Complaint site, where companies are allowed to answer the complaints and customers can search through other people's complaints for any company and get a measure of satisfaction. (I even found a fellow complaining of exactly my same problem) But EA/Origin has not answered any complaint there since 2010.
The Origin site has a "Return" button for the purchase, but I really have no faith that it will reimburse me in Real and include the IOF value. Furthermore, I don't want to return the games, I just want to pay the price that is stated on the site and no more.
No one can say I didn't try to talk to them! But I was still annoyed and while venting with my husband he asked me why I didn't call the credit card company and explain that I didn't recognize the value charged. It really hadn't occurred to me yet.
So last night I called and explained the whole situation. The nice woman I talked to asked that I send in any sort of proof that my purchase was supposed to be in Real and not Dollars and that the item would be cancelled. I told her that I still wanted to pay the fair price, but she said the only way was for the company to cancel the previous charge and send in the proper value and that for now I should deduct that charge (and IOF) and pay the remainder of the statement. I sent them the Confirmation email I got from Origin and a copy of the Purchase History screen right away (those obviously back my story up) and I'm still waiting for an answer.
But I believe that if one branch of a company is blatantly dishonest that behaviour should and does in fact reflect on the company's worldwide image.
So no matter where you are, this could happen to you if you ever choose to do business with Origin. And I am posting this story publicly as a warning to prospective customers of theirs everywhere. If you search through their forums you will find dissatisfied customers of every nationality.
On the 19th on November I bought 3 new expansion packs for The Sims 3.
After finding that every online store had exactly the same price for them (when available), I opted for Origin because it would be delivered through download (faster than by post) and without a delivery fee.
I still felt that the prices were a little steep and that paying the same price for a digital download as I would on actual physical disks wasn't nice. But I went along with it because I wanted my collection complete.
All along I looked at prices in Brazil's currency: Real (R$, also commonly abbreviated as BRL on financial sites). That's what Origin showed me all the way, including in the confirmation email for the purchase, and including right now if I check my purchase history. I was to pay R$149.70.
This monday (28th) I got my credit card statement and it made me really angry! It contained these two items:
DescriptionForeign CurrencyValue (R$)
EA*Origin.com 149.70 BRLUS$ 84.04156.31
IOF 9.97
IOF is a brazilian tax on purchases made in foreign currency. So the statement made me angry for two reasons: (1) I did not agree to a purchase in a foreign currency, so I did not owe IOF! (2) where did US$84.04 come from?
Those values (including IOF) make that purchase 11% more expensive!
I even went to American online stores and in the most expensive one, this purchase amounted to about US$80. On Amazon those 3 games would go for about US$73! And I really felt it was mean of them to place the actual fair price in the description (149.70 BRL), to make it obvious they knew they were not charging me the proper price!
Since getting this statement I have tried contacting customer support. Here is all that I've done:
First I clicked on the promising link on their page that translates to "Contact Us", but it's broken and presents the 404 error: Page Not Found.
Clicking around the site got me a FAQ page where the search box doesn't work and after spending hours manually going through the topics I found that it doesn't answer my question of how to contact Origin (I would imagine this was a frequent question).
After more clicking around I landed on the US customer support page where the chat button is disabled saying no one is available and the "we'll call you later" button let's me know that feature is only available for people in US territory.
I did some more clicking and found myself on a page with European flags. Don't even ask me how I got there! I just started out at http://store.origin.com (in Brazilian portuguese and currency, it automatically detects where you are) and clicking in anything "customer service" related I travel the world!
Finally I decide to click the Portuguese flag in hopes of asking someone there for a contact in Brazil. And to my surprise I land on the same unhelpful FAQ page I've already checked!
I read their Term of Service looking for anything relating to the difference of currency or pricing and there was nothing.
I tried answering the confirmation email I got for the purchase but that address doesn't receive messages. I have posted on Origin's US forum, I have posted on EA Customer Support's Facebook page and sent them a message on twitter. Finally I posted on an independent Brazilian Customer Complaint site, where companies are allowed to answer the complaints and customers can search through other people's complaints for any company and get a measure of satisfaction. (I even found a fellow complaining of exactly my same problem) But EA/Origin has not answered any complaint there since 2010.
The Origin site has a "Return" button for the purchase, but I really have no faith that it will reimburse me in Real and include the IOF value. Furthermore, I don't want to return the games, I just want to pay the price that is stated on the site and no more.
No one can say I didn't try to talk to them! But I was still annoyed and while venting with my husband he asked me why I didn't call the credit card company and explain that I didn't recognize the value charged. It really hadn't occurred to me yet.
So last night I called and explained the whole situation. The nice woman I talked to asked that I send in any sort of proof that my purchase was supposed to be in Real and not Dollars and that the item would be cancelled. I told her that I still wanted to pay the fair price, but she said the only way was for the company to cancel the previous charge and send in the proper value and that for now I should deduct that charge (and IOF) and pay the remainder of the statement. I sent them the Confirmation email I got from Origin and a copy of the Purchase History screen right away (those obviously back my story up) and I'm still waiting for an answer.