UPDATE: FINALLY FIXED AFTER DAYS OF BEING UNPLAYABLE [ Edited ]

[GrammaWine]

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
What is your current game version number? newest
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? all expansions, game packs, and stuff packs
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? i don't know play the game maybe? don't you people even test stuff before you sell it?
What happens when the bug occurs? game crashes, characters instantly die, or gardens that have been cultivated to perfect levels disappear
What do you expect to see? my game to save instead of crash, my characters to not burst into flames and my gardens to remain where they are at the quality i left them in.
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Not now. I've removed them.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Yes
Please describe the patch or change you made. i bought your expansion, ecoliving and now my game is broken.

i have played the sims franchise since i was in my 20s and simcity came out.

i bought the sims 4 ecoliving expansion for myself and for my daughter. my daughter does not live with me as she is an adult. as soon as she installed her game, her character stole items from its own home and she ran out of money trying to replace those items. so she quit playing because she neither cheats, nor uses mods, nor uses cc. she reported to me a few weeks later that her sims 4 game is now completely unplayable since she installed the expansion.
my own game has had numerous bugs and i am furious. 
first my character burst into flames and died instantly upon using the toilet. and i mean instantly: there was no option to extinguish herself or to even stand up. she burst into flames and before she even stood there was a pop up saying she was dead. i had to quit without saving to reset her. i have played that character since 2014 and was really upset.
so i played other characters instead to avoid her possibly bursting into flames and instantly dying again.
then my gardens which i had sunk hundreds of hours of gameplay into just suddenly disappeared when my characters were harvesting them!
not wanting to erase hundreds of hours of gameplay, i decided to only use build mode.
but now when i build, as soon as i try to save the build, the game crashes. the screen flickers twice and the game crashes.

i have tried numerous different recommendations to fix the issue but it is always the same!

UPDATE: AFTER DAYS OF THE GAME BEING UNPLAYABLE, AND DAYS OF REPAIRING THE GAME REPEATEDLY ALONG WITH VARIOUS OTHER FIXES RECOMMENDED BY EA'S SITE, THE GAME IS WORKING AS EXPECTED.

[EA_Barry · Accepted solution]

@GrammaWine 

You can check if your game qualifies for a refund using the information here: http://help.ea.com/en/article/returns-and-cancellations/

Thanks.

[GrammaWine]

GAME FIXED AFTER DAYS OF BEING UNPLAYABLE. REPAIRED MULTIPLE TIMES.

[GrammaWine]

ea has finally issued an update which seems to have resolved the issue. i repaired the game multiple times and this morning when i logged in, the repair finally worked. i was able to log in and test the game without cc added, of course, then when everything worked, i added my cc back in small increments of 50-100 cc files at a time. then i would log in, test it, log out and add the next batch. once i had all 4800 cc files added and working on a test character, i finally loaded the saved game which i have played since 2016 with the character i have played since 2014. everything ran fine. so i tested my fps killer lot, the post-apocalyptic sim mart, and tested it in both game mode and build mode. it was laggy, but it always laggy, because it is a six story lot chick full of items on the shelves. it didn't crash and everything ran as expected.

so things seemed to have returned to normal and i am glad i can finally play again.

i have a new character i want to build tomorrow and i am excited to finally begin building him.

i also saw a new challenge that looks veyr interesting so i will start a new save with the Animal Crossing Challenge tomorrow night.

[IIvoryy]

Sorry to see that you have so many problems with the new expansion pack.

However, the people on this forum are mostly just other players who don't work for EA. Asking for a refund here is not the right place, because customer support most likely won't see it.

I have had some problems with logging into Origin in the past, and when I called the customer support they were always super helpful and nice. So maybe you could try calling them, and seeing what they can do for you.

With regard to the updates: there are patches every month. Most likely there will be a new patch in two weeks or so.

If you had mods installed in the past but you have removed them, and you are playing on a very old save where you previously used mods, that could also be causing problems.

Sometimes it can help to back up your saves and do a fresh install of the game. Try starting a new save file and see if the problems persist. If they don't, you can put your save files back and see if they still have the problems you experienced.

I hope you will be able to enjoy your game again soon

[LaurenVillone]

@GrammaWine Hey Unfortunately game-breaking bugs are a pretty regular thing with a game this complex. It really helps to report/"Me To" individual threads for each issue that you're having, so the devs can triage. 

These threads may relate to the issues you're having:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-Seeing-flames-in-the-toilet-when-it-is-being-used/m-p/917...

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-Plants-shrink-after-harvesting-Turns-into-harvestable/m-p...

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/Game-crashes-in-build-mode-patch-1-63/m-p/9179853/high...

If these aren't relevant, (I could be wrong, of course), it may help to make your own threads about your issues so other people with similar problems can chime in. 

[EA_Barry · Accepted solution]

@GrammaWine 

You can check if your game qualifies for a refund using the information here: http://help.ea.com/en/article/returns-and-cancellations/

Thanks.

[EvrKS]

Same here