Electronic Arts immediately forwards all pre-orders to a secretive processing facility, so if you happy to change your address after ordering a game eight months in advance, well, tough. At least that’s what Electronic Arts told Micah when he asked to update his pre-order for the now sold-out limited-run collector’s edition of Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. When Micah pointed out that it might not be the best idea to sell games eight months in advance without a way to update addresses, Electronic Arts canceled his order altogether and told him to find another copy somewhere else.

Micah’s correspondence with Electronic Arts appears below:

I preordered Warhammer: Age of Reckoning in March, but I have moved. I updated my shipping and billing address, but the invoice still reflects my old address. Will this automatically update when the game ships, or will that have to be done seperately?

Hi Micah,

Thanks for providing information. Here is the Codes for “Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Collector’s Edition” you want to have:
Beta Code: xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Bonus Code: xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Head Start Code: xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Please let us know if there is anything else needed.

Thanks,
Razia

So just to confirm, the collector’s edition, when shipped, will be mailed to my new address, correct?

Thanks for your time.

Hi Micah,
Thank you for contacting back.

I have searched your Order Id # xxxxxxxxxx and found that the Shipping address that is listed on your order is “xxxx xxxxxxx Avenue, RALEIGH NC, 27607 US ” . Hence your order will be shipped on the same address as listed on your Order Invoice.

Please let us know if there is anything else needed.
Thank you,
Razia

That is the reason I started this in the first place. I no longer live at xxxx xxxxxxx Avenue. I now live at xxxx-x xxxxx Street. I need the invoice updated to ship to my current address. What do I need to do to make this happen? Thanks.

Hi Micah,

Thank you for writing back.

Unfortunately, you can not change your shipping address after your order has been submitted. The order is immediately sent to the fulfillment agency and can no longer be changed by our system.However as this game is being sold as preorder now and it is no longer available on the site so you can not place a new order on your desired address.

Please let us know if there is anything else needed.

Thank you,
Razia

So it’s either cancel my order and don’t receive the now sold-out collector’s edition, or just let it ship to a place I don’t live, hope the people living there hold onto it for me, and then reverse charges on my credit card when I never receive the item? It seems there should be some way of contacting the fulfillment agency if you’re going to release a presell of a collector’s edition 8 months before the game even comes out.

Hi,
Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts accounts services. In order to assist you with this issue, we will need some information. Please provide us the following information:
– Order number:
– Full name used to place the order:
– Email address used to place the order:
– Last 4 digits of the Credit card used to place the order:
– Date of birth as listed on the account:
– Zip Code as listed on the account:
Once we have this information we will be able to look into your
situation further.
Thank you,
Rudra

Um… that information was provided further down in the email.

Hi Micah,

Thank you for providing the information.

We have now issued refund for the same, we request you to please wait for 3 to 5 business days and the money will be credited back to your account. If your refund issue remains, please reply to this mail with your refund request number “Refund # 80981409”. Let us know if there is anything else needed.

Thank you,
Rudra

I’ve tried being nice, but I’ve had about as much of this runaround as I can take. I don’t want a refund. I want my !#$%ing game. If you can cancel the order, you can update the address. If you don’t want to do it, give me the phone number of someone who will. You say the fulfillment agency has the information already and you can’t change it, fine. Give me their number. If you’ve cancelled my order, then apparently there’s now one for sale. I don’t care how you do it. I want my bloody game. If you can’t do it, give me the number of someone higher who can.

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts Customer Support. This is the highest level of support.

Your order has been cancelled per your request. We cannot re-create your order. Please attempt to purchase your game from some other online source as we are sold out.

If you need additional assistance or have further questions please reply to this email or visit our self help knowledge base at http://support.ea.com

Thank you,
Samuel
Senior Representative
Electronic Arts Customer Support

Electronic Arts boasts that “only 60,000 units of the Collector’s Edition will be available,” but adds: “(We’re making a couple extra, but those are for us!)” Why not send Micah one of your extra copies free of charge, Electronic Arts, as a way of saying “sorry we didn’t use a half-competent processor!”

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