EA Bordering on Consumer Fraud?

[StiffEdub]

Want to hear comments....

[SirTony]

How could it be? They are replacing defective equipment free of charge.

[StiffEdub]

Not Free of charge....They put a charge on your CC or DC ($125)...Some I know are having problems having the charges reversed. And they return shipped their G or DK's.

[FultonPub]

Not Free of charge....They put a charge on your CC or DC ($125)...Some I know are having problems having the charges reversed. And they return shipped their G or DK's.

They don't charge your card. They put through what is basically a hold for the amount. I'm sure with the volume of replacement items they are backed up with processing all the returns however they are not charging your card. They are basically doing what a hotel or car rental company does, put through a temporary authorization for the amount to make sure they can get paid should you not return your broken items.

[espher]

I love clueless people.

[MJDoja]

you want a extra guitar? 125 bucks!

[J-Rock]

Want to hear comments....
That's kind of vague isn't it? You don't even give a clue about what you could be referring to. If you're talking about defective controllers, the answer is no since they're replacing them free of charge. If you're talking about the PS3 and the GHIII guitar compatibility I'd say yes to my knowledge of "unfair and deceptive trade" laws but I'm no lawyer so who's to say.

[HMXJohnlok]

If people are truly having issues having the charges returned after returning the guitar, then I would like to hear those cases. I haven't heard of any persistent issues along those lines; EA has been tremendous, even in the few special cases I have seen they have done a good job making amends and getting the orders processed correctly.

[pipisongo]

Yes. Fraud. Follow this thread if you are skeptical. I live in Puerto Rico and purchased the game here at a local GameStop. The game was released here on Nov 20th, as PR is a US territory. My guitar strum stopped working, and now EA will not replace it because they do not offer a warranty service to Puerto Rico. That certainly qualifies as consumer fraud. I cannot take it back to the store either because it’s been more than a week since I bought it.

http://community.rockband.com/vbforum/showthread.php?t=13957

[StiffEdub]

Simple....If enough people get together...

A "class action" is a civil suit brought by one or more people on behalf of themselves and others who are similarly situated. In other words, the others are in a substantially similar circumstance where the common issues are the most critical to the lawsuit. For example, if a large number of consumers is injured as a result of an allegedly defective product, the principal issue will be whether the product caused the injury. Some examples of class actions are those brought against the manufacturers of allegedly defective or hazardous products, such as asbestos, certain vaccines, Agent Orange, tobacco, and breast implants. Only then will the question of how badly each party was injured be heard.

Class actions may also be brought on contracts. Another frequent field for class actions is securities claims.
Typical class actions involve hundreds, thousands or millions of people who have comparable claims. Class action "certification" permits all claims to be heard in a single trial.

How many have already returned gear for the second or third time?

This is primarily not about defective gear causing injury.....But HMX and EA knowingly distributing and selling defective gear.

EXAMPLE.....Apple iPOD CA Battery and defective screen lawsuits...Many were filled...They settled eventually....

Or XBOX CA Lawsuits per RROD and SCRATCHED disk problems with the Hitachi drives.

HMX and EA....Burn those EMAILS and Memo's and get some early reviewers to remove postings from the internet commenting on inaccurate or broken instruments.

It's further proven by some posts that the guitar strum mechanism is being replaced with different switch. And I highly doubt that by "consumer" standards all "reasonable" measures are being taken to remedy this issue....Proven by the fact that multiple people are having to return instruments more than "ONCE"

The rest of you keep kissing HMX/EA @55...

And rather than be a ^ick&ole and try to ebay the defective instruments to some sucker (As I know some have), I will have a big pile of melted plastic and then ship it directly to HMX.

Jam on that.....

[jq715861]

Your class action suit would get thrown out of court so fast it would make your head spin.

You have no proof that they "knowingly" had defective equipment and approved it for mass production. End of case.

The guitars cause no bodily harm and there is a plan set up to return them if they are faulty.




On a side note, I'm getting sick of these "let's form a class action suit" or "let's digg this to spread the awareness". God, I hate the internet.

Rant over. :D

[StiffEdub]

Simple....If enough people get together...

A "class action" is a civil suit brought by one or more people on behalf of themselves and others who are similarly situated. In other words, the others are in a substantially similar circumstance where the common issues are the most critical to the lawsuit. For example, if a large number of consumers is injured as a result of an allegedly defective product, the principal issue will be whether the product caused the injury. But can also include "knowingly" releasing a defective product to the consumer, that does not induce injury.

And seeing as many at HMX are supposed to be "Musicians", I would think they would have caught this in pre-production QA.

Class actions may also be brought on contracts. Another frequent field for class actions is securities claims.

Typical class actions involve hundreds, thousands or millions of people who have comparable claims. Class action "certification" permits all claims to be heard in a single trial.

How many have already returned gear for the second or third time?

This is primarily not about defective gear causing injury.....But HMX and EA knowingly distributing and selling defective gear.

EXAMPLE.....Apple iPOD CA Battery and defective screen lawsuits...Many were filled...They settled eventually....

Or XBOX CA Lawsuits per RROD and SCRATCHED disk problems with the Hitachi drives.

HMX and EA....Burn those EMAILS and Memo's and get some early reviewers to remove postings from the internet commenting on inaccurate or broken instruments.

It's further proven by some posts that the guitar strum mechanism is being replaced with different switch. And I highly doubt that by "consumer" standards all "reasonable" measures are being taken to remedy this issue....Proven by the fact that multiple people are having to return instruments more than "ONCE"

The rest of you keep kissing HMX/EA @55...

And rather than be a ^ick&ole and try to ebay the defective instruments to some sucker that is desperate for a drum kit or the RB strat, I will have a big pile of melted plastic and then ship it directly to HMX.

It's all about the principal of this now.



Jam on that.....

[StiffEdub]

Your class action suit would get thrown out of court so fast it would make your head spin.

You have no proof that they "knowingly" had defective equipment and approved it for mass production. End of case.

The guitars cause no bodily harm and there is a plan set up to return them if they are faulty.


On a side note, I'm getting sick of these "let's form a class action suit" or "let's digg this to spread the awareness". God, I hate the internet.

Rant over. :D

It's called a Subpoena.....

A subpoena (/səˈpinə/) is "a command to appear at a certain time and place to give testimony upon a certain matter"

[admanimal]

And what exactly would the benefit of this class action suit be for people? Free guitar replacements? Oh wait...

All I got from the iPod battery settlement was a new battery for my 3 year old iPod with a broken HDD that didnt work anyway.

Class action suits are a good way for lawyers to make money, but if EA is already replacing things for free, what is the point for consumers? And no, a hold for $125 doesn't count as not being free. Name one electronics manufacturer who sends new equipment first without this type of thing...

[Bakkster]

HMX and EA....Burn those EMAILS and Memo's and get some early reviewers to remove postings from the internet commenting on inaccurate or broken instruments.

When did they remove ANY posts about the strum bars? This forum is full of them!


Class action suits are a good way for lawyers to make money, but if EA is already replacing things for free, what is the point? And no, a hold for $125 doesn't count as not being free. Name one electronics manufacturer who sends new equipment first without this type of thing...

They only put the hold on the account if you ask for it. Definitely free, and if you get charged you only have yourself to blame.

[admanimal]

They only put the hold on the account if you ask for it. Definitely free, and if you get charged you only have yourself to blame.

Right, but if you don't get the express replacement service you could be unable to play a video game for a week or two, which probably causes some people enough pain and suffering to warrant a lawsuit...:rolleyes:

[Bakkster]

Right, but if you don't get the express replacement service you could be unable to play a video game for a week or two, which probably causes some people enough pain and suffering to warrant a lawsuit...:rolleyes:

Yes, heaven forbid you have to deal with industry standard practices as an early adopter...

[Visceralguy]

It's called a Subpoena.....

A subpoena (/səˈpinə/) is "a command to appear at a certain time and place to give testimony upon a certain matter"

I don't see how that's a reply to what he or anyone has said. Looks to me like you're just pasting random terms out of a dictionary.

In other words, a subpoena =/= a case. Just because you can bring a proceeding to the point of getting subpoenas issued doesn't mean it won't get thrown right the hell out of court.

My guess is that they skipped a lot of quality control to get this product rushed for the Holidays, and now they are gonna have to eat it by forking out for massive replacements and shipping. I don't think there is a court case to be held, unless they abandon trying to get the instruments up to par without offering a refund/recall. Right now it seems like they're doing everything they can do, given the unfavorable situation.

[albinousrex]

Yes. Fraud. Follow this thread if you are skeptical. I live in Puerto Rico and purchased the game here at a local GameStop. The game was released here on Nov 20th, as PR is a US territory. My guitar strum stopped working, and now EA will not replace it because they do not offer a warranty service to Puerto Rico. That certainly qualifies as consumer fraud. I cannot take it back to the store either because it’s been more than a week since I bought it.

http://community.rockband.com/vbforum/showthread.php?t=13957

You now have a right to complain. I hate people who complain that they will not replace it in canada when the game isnt even out. If its out in PR they should replace it for you. I would call and complain to someone

[turnthree]

How could it be? They are replacing defective equipment free of charge.

So as long as "they" keep giving me replacements I should be cool with the fact I got 6 hrs out of first waited over two weeks on my replacement that DID NOT WORK?

Oh yeah, my mic was faulty out of the box, order a replacement on the 21st 2nd day............................................... ................................................st ill waiting.

If you're interested I've got a bridge I'll sell ya.

[webduelist]

your a bunch of idiots,

1. those of you who say they should have made the guitars better, they are fine its less then a freaking mm of rubber pad thats the problem, make the pad a bit bigger and boom feaking flawless guitar. what im trying to say is EA or who ever made the guitars is not at fault its who ever made the rubber pads and thats proably china.

2. those of you who want to sue or what ever, where the hell is that going to get you, oh im going to sue HMX and EA because my stuffs broken and im going to take there money and time so they cant fix the issue.

3. People that are in places that the game has been released and they wont replace it I do side with you that they should replace it but stop complaining here and complain to them.

[AgamousChild]

I don't think that it really matters either way to any lawyers involved in bringing a class action if there is already clear intent of fraud available as evidence on the internet, they don't need it to bring a class action suit.

All they need is for enough people to sign on to their initial action to file a claim, then it is up to the defendant (EA, Harmonix, etc) to prove that the claim is spurious.

If I were in EA's or Harmonix's top management shoes, I would worry more about how this is going to affect their sustained reputation for creating peripherals.

I haven't purchased the game yet, and I am contemplating waiting until I see the PS2 version before buying, and even then waiting to buy all of the peripherals in the special edition version, to just go with the game only, and using my existing guitars, and buying some third party drums next year.

I would worry about consumers doing this instead of buying the special edition.

[steelcurtain187]

At least they are trying to fix the problem. I'm sure they are as upset about it as you are (probably because of the amount of calls they are getting per day - ha!) ;)

[webduelist]

wow no one listens at all stop even talking about bringing anything into court its not worth it and is a waist of time, if you are unhappy and want you money back take the dam thing back to where every you bought it from court is a big waist of money and time. also about the pink papers its not talking about full returns but just taking back like a broken drum set and asking for a new one.

[Maggot_Brain]

I don't really care WHY the hardware is messed up. I just want it fixed. They should have used parts at least as durable as old PS2 SG's.

Whoever made the decision to use the cheapest possible parts deserves to be fired because they're costing HMX/EA/whoever a hell of alot of money.

[Visceralguy]

I don't really care WHY the hardware is messed up. I just want it fixed. They should have used parts at least as durable as old PS2 SG's.

Whoever made the decision to use the cheapest possible parts deserves to be fired because they're costing HMX/EA/whoever a hell of alot of money.

I really wonder how much of the situation now was predicted by somebody in charge. I don't want to loop all the parties together, because I know most at Harmonix put a lot of love and creative passion into this game, and really care about their players.

But somewhere up the corporate ladder, I wonder if this was a very cold, calculated decision. Knowing the equipment is faulty, they could either have chosen to wait until proper testing and redesign could be done, or ship this in time for the Holidays. For a lot of people, a 170 dollar game bundle is something that would only be justified as a Christmas gift. Maybe somebody weighed the cost of replacing parts, with the cost of missing the critical selling frenzy, and thought it would work out best just to give it to us now.

Now I don't believe that, but I am a somewhat cynical person and it does occur to me. I also realize that nobody in EA/HMX would want their reputations damaged, which is the other cost of this.

Personally, I don't really mind that the equipment is faulty since its getting replaced without hassle. I don't complain about that. My only concern is that there seem to be a lot of reports from people getting faulty replacements, or replacements that trade one critical fault for another. It causes me to lose faith, and worry that I'm going to be trapped in this cycle for a long time before I get the final product.

[Bakkster]

I don't think that it really matters either way to any lawyers involved in bringing a class action if there is already clear intent of fraud available as evidence on the internet, they don't need it to bring a class action suit.

All they need is for enough people to sign on to their initial action to file a claim, then it is up to the defendant (EA, Harmonix, etc) to prove that the claim is spurious.

I don't think there's a "clear intent of fraud" as evidenced by the free replacements using 2-day air.

Also, most court decisions put the burden of evidence on the plantiff. Sure, you could subpoena for information, but you still need a viable enough case to even ask for that.

If anyone really wants to sue, I'm sure they could try, but I honestly don't think it will go anywhere. Even if you did miraculously manage to win, after lawyers fees you might get $5. Big whoop.

[B18C5 Tom]

My guitar lost it's down strum, and my bass pedal has cracked, and I'm a bit upset about the vocals and drum fills lagging ( http://community.rockband.com/vbforum/showthread.php?t=10861 ) and still I don't believe it's "fraud" on EA/Harmonix's part.

Do you people honestly expect a game maker to send you out a new guitar for free, without any sort of secirity deposit, JUST because you SAY it's broken/doesn't work?

There are abuses to every system known to man in the US, and if EA/Harmonix started giving away free guitars with no security deposit to one's credit card then a ton of people would be getting extra guitars for free - can you guys not see that scenario?

I'm not happy about having to place a $125.00 held charge on my credit card, but oh well if that's how it works so be it. Fraudulent companies wouldn't even offer a replacement in this manner.

It does stink for those people who don't have a credit card, and if you have a debit card it's bad too because the $125.00 is instantly debited and then returned as opposed to it being held and charged after 28 days.

Anyways what's the bottom line here?

If we are able to get replacements for FREE then I see an inconvenience here, not mental distress. This isn't life saving medicine we're talking about - it's a VIDEO GAME, albeit an expensive one.