Sims 3 Expansions not showing up in sims launcher

[GMGamerGirl]

Just to clear up what I've done/haven't done....I've done all the suggestions posted and inevitably had to go through the CS team.

At that point, they flat out told me that those expansions were flagged on the account and there's literally no file deleting, cache clearing, reinstalling, etc. that I can do to change that until the TOS people finally get around to changing that on my account, which...by the way...is in no way connected to the CS Team, and is why most Help Chats and callbacks end up escalated, because the CS Tech Advisor told me that they're not allowed to change that unless it's cleared from the TOS Team.

I did receive one response from the TOS Team, in which they referenced "your FIFA account", which I don't even have, and another that laughingly said (and I quote) "a third-party retailer who has requested that the code should be disabled" and those were purchased TWO YEARS ago.  Neither CS or TOS can seriously suggest to me that someone who sold me something TWO YEARS AGO, and just out of the blue called EA up and said "yeah, you should disable those!"  That led to yet another case being opened to follow up on just who's account they were referencing, because it clearly wasn't mine, especially regarding the "FIFA" nonsense. The CS Team asked that I forward two different screen shots of emails that I'd received because when I read the response to the CS Advisor, it was so ridiculous that they had to see it for themselves.

Annnnnd...I'm still waiting.

[Monstress247]

In extra content it offers me the option to BUY a Sims 3 expansion pack which I have already installed and should have access to, yet it seems to have vanished. I've been waiting to get put through to thr kive chat for half an hour now and I'm very confused and annoyed

[roberta591]

@Monstress247  Let's begin by posting where you bought the expansion pack.

[EA_Mai]

Hi all,

Thanks for letting me know clearing your Origin cache was not helping with the repurchasing issue. Please, in case you are having issues to repurchase a pack, contact one of our advisers through EA Help.

Also, you can find a list of our trusted retailers here: https://help.ea.com/en-au/help/faq/where-to-buy-ea-games-v2/

@Monstress247 I have merged your post here as you are describing the same situation. Please, read this and this posts for more information.

@GMGamerGirl, please, take a look to the private message I have just sent you (you can read it from here).

-Mai

[Kyle4141]

So I phoned up EA's Origin department and went through many questions to rule out the possibility that my in-access is due to client-based errors. After that, I was told that a case/repeal would be put in with EA's TOS department.

Now, after 3 days, I have received this email:

Thank you for contacting us regarding your inability to access Sims 3 expansions .

After reviewing your case, we found that your game was disabled due to a chargeback against your account.

A chargeback may occur if a game code has been purchased from an unauthorised source and/or if you have initiated a chargeback. You can resolve this issue by contacting the retailer.

You can review the full Terms of Service at [LINK HIDDEN]

Thank you,

EA Terms of Service

Is that it? Even if I contact the retailer and they issue me a new code, how am I meant to use that code if I apparently already own the expansion on Origin (despite it being a disabled version)? EA hasn't resolved anything for me and this was a waste of time.

[lewisclark123G]

It's very clear that EA simply want us to buy The Sims 4 and don't care about The Sims 3 fanbase any longer as it can no longer make them money. It's like when apple release new IOS updates that break older iphone models to force you to buy the latest ones. Simply huge corporations with so much money that they can get away with whatever they want.

[thesims1depot]

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@lewisclark123G wrote:

It's very clear that EA simply want us to buy The Sims 4 and don't care about The Sims 3 fanbase any longer as it can no longer make them money. It's like when apple release new IOS updates that break older iphone models to force you to buy the latest ones. Simply huge corporations with so much money that they can get away with whatever they want.

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This situation has absolutely nothing to do with EA!

What looks happened is that a scam artist (or bunch of scam artists) bought tons of keys for the Sims 3 off of Origin using either stolen credit cards or fake information. They then turned around and resold them to other people, and you and everyone else wind up buying these stolen keys at eBay, Amazon Marketplace and other third market seller places. Later, the scammers did a fraudulent charge back to get all this money back, perhaps as part of a money laundering scheme. 

(Money laundering, as in, "I just scored $10000 in drug deals. I need to make the money look legit. So I'll buy a bunch of stuff with it, pretend to be a seller online, sell the merchandise to people, then charge back some of the sales so I can get this money back. Except now the money I am getting back will look nice and innocent because it'll all be in the form of credit card charge backs, like a business normally would do.")

If that's what happened, EA does not owe anything to you. The third party sellers screwed you over. Not EA. EA is just trying to get its stolen merchandise back. You're not entitled to now get these stolen packs back just because "you paid money for it."

It's no different than if you wanted to buy a brand new Gucci bag. But instead of going to a Gucci store or a reputable department store, you went to buy them at some seedy flea market. If it turned out that the flea market vendors had stolen those bags to sell to you, Gucci doesn't owe it to you to let you keep the stolen bags. You're out money, yes, but it was the vendors that took your money. Not Gucci.

Instead of raging at EA, you should be taking a very valuable lesson from all this--never buy digital goods (video games, music, etc.) from anyone except reputable sources (Amazon, Target, Origin, Steam, etc.). When you buy this stuff from "third party sellers" you're always assuming the risk of being scammed by them because there's no way of verifying who those people are and where they got their codes and keys from.

[thesims1depot]

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@GMGamerGirl wrote:

Neither CS or TOS can seriously suggest to me that someone who sold me something TWO YEARS AGO, and just out of the blue called EA up and said "yeah, you should disable those!"  

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@GMGamerGirl: I understand you're upset but if you do a little research into this situation, it will be clear what happened.

Someone (or a bunch of people) bought a bunch of keys off of Origin with stolen credit card information, then sold those keys at third party sites like eBay, Amazon Marketplace, etc. Then they charged everything back.

From what I understand, it's part of some kind of a scheme to make "dirty money" look clean. In other words, it's a money laundering scheme. 

As for the "two years" thing, maybe the scammers didn't charge back the stuff you bought two years ago. But he (or they) might have charged back a ton of stuff recently, which raised a red flag. When EA looked into it, their investigators probably figured out that this was all part of an elaborate scam. They then probably tried tracing all the other keys these scammers had purchased and were able to trace the ones you bought years ago back to them.

Incidentally (and this can't be a coincidence), two years ago the exact same thing happened to another developer, Ubisoft, which also had a bunch of keys stolen off of Origin: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/01/28/ubisoft-key-resellers-stolen-cards/. So your keys from "two years ago" might be connected to that incident from 2015. 

I know this all sucks, but your rage is misplaced. You're acting as if this is all EA's fault or that it's acting shady, but it's not. You got hit by third party sellers who sold you stolen content. EA has the obligation to explain to you why it deactivated these keys you bought two years ago, but beyond that, any problem that you have is between you and the third party sellers you bought this content from, not EA. 

[GMGamerGirl]

@thesims1depot  I'm pretty certain you're taking my dripping sarcasm as angst, rage, my posting history is pretty much filled with it.

I have done the research, I am aware of the circumstances, and I am following up.  Let's not derail the thread with your condescending *.

[6fc42b42a0d9db78]

Hi, Sims 3 Supernatural is installed on origin but it does not show up on launcher, what can i do? If anyone can help me?