I pre-ordered the CE for Star Wars: The Old Republic from Amazon in July.

I participated in the beta last month. It’s a good game. I looked forward to the promised Early Access for pre-orders, and the launch of the game.

However, SWTOR Support has completely botched the launch already - and the launch isn’t until tomorrow.

“Code already used”

First fail - the Early Access code Amazon sent me was “Already used”. I contacted SWTOR Support about this, and received a response from “M0-T0” (they are using silly droid-flavored handles, apparently) saying not to worry, that my account was indeed flagged for Early Access (even though I could see no evidence of this on the website under My Account), and that I should wait for an invite.

The week passes with nothing. My friends and my wife all get their invites.

My CE arrives Friday from Amazon. I enter my retail code without problems, and activate a subscription. The website says I’m “ready to play” (although there’s still no mention of Early Access or the color crystal anywhere).

“No active subscription”

Attempting to log into the game, I’m met with a “This account does not have an active subscription” message. The link tells me to go to the My Account page and start a subscription. I’ve already done that, and the website says I’m “ready to play”.

I contact Support again on Friday, asking what’s up. I’m told (once again, by “M0-T0”) that my account is not only flagged for Early Access, but that I should be able to log into the game.

I try, but there’s no change. Same message, same lack of Early Access listed.

I compile the list of ticket numbers, the exact error messages I’m receiving, and send another email to Support, telling them that nothing has changed, and it appears that nothing has been done. By this point, I’m extremely frustrated and more than a little confused.

Lying to your customers tends to frustrate them

Saturday morning, I have another identical response from “M0-T0”, indicating that I should be fine to login. I’m not. No change.

Over the course of the day, this repeats several times.

I get the distinct impression that I’m being lied to. Repeatedly. My emails are not being read, just discarded with a “everything is fine” response, without any action taken at all.

Phone support? We’re too busy.

By mid-afternoon, I’m extremely upset. My wife decides that even though folks on the forums are reporting 3-4 hour wait times, that we should try calling phone support anyway.

The line plays a recorded message saying they’re too busy to take my call (which is “very important to them”), then HANGS UP.

This is not how you tell your customers they’re important. In fact, this is how you tell your customers the exact opposite.

Twitter? No response.

I also sent a couple queries to the @swtor Twitter account, who seemed to be helping other customers. No response.

Sixth time’s the charm? Nope.

Around 10pm, after sending a particularly terse and upset message to Support (my sixth message of the day), I receive a slightly different message. This time it’s from “N0-O6”, referred to later in the email as “Jes”.

“Jes” addresses the main issue - that my Early Access code doesn’t seem to have been taken, and asks me to send a bunch of information back, including the code and a screenshot of the email the code came in, so they can issue me a new, working code.

Great - this is what I’ve been trying to get them to do the entire time.

Within ten minutes of receiving this mail, I’d responded with everything they asked for.

That was 10:10 on Saturday night. It’s now 10am Monday morning, and I still have no response, no Early Access, and my account is in the same state it was in Friday night.

Forums? Not for you.

I originally tried to post this to the SWTOR Customer Support forum, but I’m told there that I don’t have access to post. To the Customer Service forum - where folks with problems are supposed to post.

Too late

This entire process has been extremely frustrating, and is still unresolved.

Since I have to work during the day, even if they figure things out and finally get me fixed up, it’s too little, too late. I won’t be able to do anything in the game. It’s just too late now.

Bottom line: I never received the Early Access that I paid for as part of my pre-order.

If I could return my CE to Amazon, Bioware, or EA for a refund, I would. How convenient for them that once a one-time-use code is used, you can’t return it.

What should have happened

Barring that my code would actually work (that fail is on Amazon’s part), at the very least, it should have immediately granted me access upon registering my CE code.

Why? Because the only way to receive a CE was to pre-order. If you hadn’t pre-ordered, you simply wouldn’t have it at all, let alone on the Friday before launch. Having a valid CE product registration should have been immediate proof that the pre-order was valid.

The error message in the launcher should reflect reality, not give an answer that’s demonstrably false. “No active subscription” when the website lists one is quite simply incorrect. The launcher can obviously check the Early Access flag - why couldn’t it say “You don’t have Early Access”?

Support should have had their act together, and staffed appropriately. They knew exactly how many people they needed to support, since they limited pre-orders, and did entry into Early Access in waves. There’s no excuse for them not having adequate staffing to deal with a known number of customers.

The phone support line should never simply hang up on a customer. That’s a slap in the face to customers who have problems that aren’t being solved. For those who did get in before they shut the phone lines down, 3-4 hour waits, followed by either being hung up on, or told to email Support is wrong

Under no circumstances should Support outright lie to a customer about something having been done. It’s OK if they make a mistake once - but to repeatedly tell me everything’s OK when it’s not is wrong.

If “M0-T0” is not an auto responder, whomever holds that handle should be fired for incompetency. Immediately.

If it is an auto responder, they need to seriously look at what it’s telling customers who come with legitimate problems. Telling them that everything is OK is not acceptable when nothing has been done.

The impression this experience leaves on a customer is that SWTOR Support, EA, Bioware, and Lucasarts don’t care about their customers.

And that’s a shame, because what I played of the beta looked like a pretty good game.