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Original Poster
#1 Old 24th May 2017 at 9:42 PM Last edited by AmandieLove : 24th May 2017 at 10:55 PM.
Keys Revoked?
Hi, y'all. I made the bad decision of buying TS3 keys from a reseller on ebay. Like many, I assumed that they bought the keys in bulk and they would work. My keys worked for at least a year, if not more. However, after origin's latest update, the only expansion working is the one I bought directly from EA.

If the keys were revoked, I plan to either repurchase them on Steam instead of origin, or learn to live without them. However, is there a way for me to explicitly tell if a key was revoked or if this is a glitch?

Also, I am NOT posting this to encourage piracy, although if you lock this thread and force me to live with the consequences of my stupidity, it would be fair. If anything, this post should be taken as a warning NOT to buy from code resellers, no matter how good of a deal it seems. Even if it works at the time, you could have unforseeable problems down the road like I am now.

EDIT: Got over my fear of incriminating myself and contacted EA support. They said my games appeared to be disabled. At least I have closure. Let this be an advisory to all to only buy straight from steam and origin, as overpriced as heck as they are. Don't make the same mistake I did.

Given that it will cost $220 to replace everything I had, this is goodbye to TS3 for the unforeseeable future. Thanks for the memories, ts3.

~Someday my prince will come... And he better not bring all his hood's character files with him.~
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Field Researcher
#2 Old 24th May 2017 at 11:10 PM
Are you trying to download the packs or register them?
Mad Poster
#4 Old 25th May 2017 at 12:08 AM
No, the keys were sold by unauthorized resellers and are not valid. This does not mean the customer is a pirate and deserves to be treated as such, but purchases like that always carried an element of risk with them. Why this is being enforced now and so selectively, we have no idea. Only EA can explain that.

By the way, purchases from other authorized resellers like Amazon Direct (not third parties in the marketplace), Walmart, GamersGate back when they sold the game, etc. I am sure there are others in other parts of the world, are still just as good as from Origin or Steam. But when Steam has those 80% off everything sales, it's really difficult to resist grabbing all of it that way.
Mad Poster
#6 Old 25th May 2017 at 1:43 PM
If not pirated, how would you have the games to install if you have no keys? What am I missing? If you buy hard copies or buy legit downloads they come with the keys. If folks are buying just keys they must be trying to use them with non-legit games. ??? You have admitted you are trying to use these keys on pirated games from what I am reading.
Site Helper
#7 Old 25th May 2017 at 2:49 PM
No, it's not necessarily piracy.
A shady seller sells what seems to be a legit download, and includes the key.
Innocent buyer purchases it.
Shady seller still has the original copy of the game and sells the same game with the same key to a second innocent purchaser. And a third, fourth, fifth, etc.

I am Ghost. My husband is sidneydoj. I post, he downloads, and I wanted to keep my post count.
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Instructor
#9 Old 25th May 2017 at 4:14 PM
Quote: Originally posted by daisylee
If not pirated, how would you have the games to install if you have no keys? What am I missing? If you buy hard copies or buy legit downloads they come with the keys. If folks are buying just keys they must be trying to use them with non-legit games. ??? You have admitted you are trying to use these keys on pirated games from what I am reading.


If I understand it correctly about the TS3 keys (up to 1.67 version).. I think it is like the Windows OS keys, first it can only be apply for one machine only, and secondly anyone can install TS3 or install any of Windows OS version (even with pirated copy) but once the valid/legit keys were entered and registered in their server, the installed copy in the user machine are considered valid/legit (regardless the installer copy is original copy or pirate copy).

I don't know about the 1.69 though, but since my TS3 is 1.67, and let's say for example I'm selling my TS3 keys to the OP, it will be only valid/legit for the OP to use when there's no data of me using the same keys for my TS3 or Windows OS in their server. Therefore anyone can move their TS3 or Windows OS to another machine like newer or upgraded machine and it's considered legal if there's no one else or other machine using the same keys.

So in my opinion, the one that make it expensive to buy is not the copy or the hard copy itself, but the keys, because the keys are the certificate of authenticity a.k.a COA, and we can found this COA for Windows OS up for sale on ebay or anywhere else online, the same thing with TS3 keys or COA. So I don't think in the OP's case is a piracy case, but it will be considered piracy if the server found there's more that one machine using the same keys or COA, and that's why I think one of the reasons why EA changed TS3 in 1.69, one of the reasons is to closed the loophole and reduced piracy, so if the user bought a new computer then buy a new copy of TS3, no more COA for 1.69 like in 1.67 versions and below.

So let's say in another example, a friend of your come to your place and wants to borrow your TS3 BG disc copy or Windows OS disc copy because his/hers copy were damaged, then go ahead lend him/her the copy as long as you don't give them your TS3 keys or Windows OS COA it won't harm your registered copy, but if you gave them your TS3 keys or Windows COA, then they won't need your disc, they can get it or download it from anywhere and make their copy valid with your keys or COA. So I think in OP's case.. the seller is still using or still registered as the owner of the keys and that's why it was rejected or considered not valid/legit copy. And as to why the OP managed to install TS3 without the keys, that can't be done with TS 1.67 or lower, but if I remember it correctly, the OP has the TS3 BG 1.69, you don't need any keys for 1.69 because you can get it as you go or as you buy it online, and 1.69 version can be mixed with any EPs/SPs coming from hard copy or disc copy, that's why if anyone has TS3 1.67 and updated it with 1.69.. more likely.. they're going to get screwed
Instructor
#10 Old 25th May 2017 at 4:48 PM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
I suspect EA will ............... Then again, they're known to be assholes, so they might just not do anything and screwed all the people who bought online.



Yup!! And they still owed me 10 bucks for opening Need For Speed World level 11 and above to be free to play, now NFSW is dead and just a history, but they still owed me the 10 bucks I paid them to get to level 50!!!
Mad Poster
#12 Old 25th May 2017 at 6:36 PM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
Wow, it started already? Are you filing with BBB? It is like AT&T, we cancelled our landline in this digital age but they only canceled the local number and they didn't disconnect the long distance. They said "Oh that's a different department." I'm like wtf? How the hell am I suppose to use the long distance if there's no dial tone to my local landline that I've disconnected? So after filing with BBB they agreed to refund the $60 they stole from us. 5 years later, we finally received a check.

Off topic now, but I had an ISP/phone company do something like that to us when we went through all the proper documented steps to cancel our service at the end of its contract, months in advance of its contract renewal date or any deadlines. They hated us so much that they came in the day after the contract ran out and yanked all of their equipment out (probably useless though it would have been to any other customer by then). Somehow "pull the plug on this service and send us the final bill" and "we donna wanna be yur customur no mur for anyting, just go away" are two totally different forms of conversation that need to be had with different parties as we continued to get billed for thousands of dollars for months, they sent collections agents after us, threatened our board members (we're a nonprofit), we had to take cease and desist legal actions against them, etc. How the heck were we supposed to continue to use their broken service with none of the required equipment onsite and the local phone numbers ported away to a different carrier even if there was a "dial tone" lurking behind all of it someplace unreachable? Good stuff.
Mad Poster
#13 Old 25th May 2017 at 8:51 PM
Good discussion. The comments the first poster made about not advocating piracy and not wanting to incriminate herself suggested to me she was trying to use codes on pirated items. And if she was using legit games probably she probably would not fear that the thread would be locked? I totally agree though that folks can be scammed in purchases. Sadly it happens all the time.
Field Researcher
#15 Old 26th May 2017 at 4:17 AM
Quote: Originally posted by daisylee
Good discussion. The comments the first poster made about not advocating piracy and not wanting to incriminate herself suggested to me she was trying to use codes on pirated items. And if she was using legit games probably she probably would not fear that the thread would be locked? I totally agree though that folks can be scammed in purchases. Sadly it happens all the time.


I don't think she tried to pirate anything. I am a victim of this same scam. What has happened is many (of not all) of the Origin download keys sold via eBay were not authorized, or the seller might have issued a charge back on their keys bought from other retailers. After this Origin has removed them. I bought my codes via eBay because I didn't want the clutter of all the game discs, and I found a seller who sold just the registration key. It seemed like the perfect solution, plus the prices there were pretty fair.

This also isn't an issue of one seller selling the key multiple times. Origin download keys can only be registered one time.

To the opening poster. Don't give up yet. People are saying to wait for steam summer sale, where Sims 3 will be 75% off. I'm going to try and get together enough money to replace my content.
I failed my first case against having my expansions removed, and was told to dispute it with more information. Get together as much information as you can, like your registration keys (they should've been sent to your e-mail), the seller you bought it from, if they stated they were official or not, your listing ID and anything else you ca pull together to help defend yourself.

I just submitted my case, I'll let you know how it goes. Hopefully EA will protect the customers who were victimized by this, since like you, most of my content is way outside of the buyer protection range.
Test Subject
#16 Old 26th May 2017 at 5:07 AM
same happened to me i bought on ebay, I never had done the digital codes before so thought it was ok. bought my codes put them in on origin and on sims3.com and they worked fine even got sim points for registering them everything was fine now almost a year later they take all my sims 3 games i didn't know i had done any thing wrong until i read on message boards and others had the same problem the seller had all positive feedback and had been selling since 2008 but now they are no longer there. I didn't know that what i did was wrong but EA is a big company and it should have not took them a year to figure that out. and they should be trying to stop people on ebay from doing it to other consumers
dodgy builder
#17 Old 26th May 2017 at 10:38 AM
EA has probably changed their practices. I don't know, but according to my native country's constitution, new lawes only applies to new situation. A new law cannot be used on situations happening before the law was implemented.

EA will probably just say it was the law at the time, it was just not implimented.
Scholar
#18 Old 26th May 2017 at 4:14 PM
When I bought used games I bought disks: I have not had any problems (knock on wood). To be fair, it may be harder to assure that a digital key is not in use by multiple accounts.
Mad Poster
#19 Old 26th May 2017 at 5:34 PM
From what we are slowly coming to understand, although it's been mentioned a few times prior, a large scale chargeback scheme was apparently involved here. Not duplicate keys in use or distributed to multiple accounts. Let's say someone obtains thousands of keys from EA, with the intent of re-selling them (to players or to other re-sellers). At some point the original transaction has proven to be bogus or a chargeback to EA is processed for whatever reason. In the end, EA has not really received anything for the "sale" of those keys.

In the meantime, the keys have been sold and re-sold. The player who ended up with them, and even the entity they bought the keys from, would have no idea that such things were taking place but they are the ones who suffer when EA finally takes action on the essentially stolen keys. This kind of thing can't really happen with authorized re-sellers, but even if it does the customer should expect to be provided with replacement keys. There is far less recourse, if any, when dealing with unauthorized re-sellers.
Inventor
#20 Old 28th May 2017 at 2:23 PM
Two guys from the FreeSO Discord have been talking about this subject. Apparently Origin removed some TS3 EPs and SPs from their account too and they claim they purchased from Origin.
Field Researcher
#21 Old 28th May 2017 at 10:44 PM
Quote: Originally posted by douglasveiga
Two guys from the FreeSO Discord have been talking about this subject. Apparently Origin removed some TS3 EPs and SPs from their account too and they claim they purchased from Origin.

That's really interesting, because today I have seen an influx of people saying they purchased from Amazon on the answer HQ board.
Mad Poster
#22 Old 28th May 2017 at 11:18 PM
Quote: Originally posted by LemonyLin
That's really interesting, because today I have seen an influx of people saying they purchased from Amazon on the answer HQ board.

Amazon Direct is an authorized re-seller. But then there's the Amazon Marketplace, the independent vendors of which are not. Without yet knowing the details of these players' purchasing habits, it's possible that many of them don't really know whom they were purchasing from at the time. It can all look the same at first glance unless one insists on doing business with Amazon Direct only. And, as long as the purchased products are being delivered, honestly often the customer has no need to care very much when making the purchase.
dodgy builder
#23 Old 29th May 2017 at 12:27 AM
Theres been a lot of hacking around, systems down on airports etc. If EA was hacked they would probably never admit to it.
Field Researcher
#24 Old 29th May 2017 at 12:57 AM
Quote: Originally posted by igazor
Amazon Direct is an authorized re-seller. But then there's the Amazon Marketplace, the independent vendors of which are not. Without yet knowing the details of these players' purchasing habits, it's possible that many of them don't really know whom they were purchasing from at the time. It can all look the same at first glance unless one insists on doing business with Amazon Direct only. And, as long as the purchased products are being delivered, honestly often the customer has no need to care very much when making the purchase.


Thank you for that clarification! Hopefully we can figure that part out next and see if that's the case. You've been really helpful during all this and I just have to say thank you .
Top Secret Researcher
#25 Old 29th May 2017 at 4:17 AM
Huh. I must be stupid.

I went to check my Amazon orders to see what I bought. I bought the download version of Sims 3. And Sims 3 disk. And Sims 3 Starter pack....

I know why I bought the second disk - it was my plot to put it on another computer (it failed).

I have no idea which of the three I used for my current install.

Yeah, a couple of years ago I had a lot more money than brains. Now my brains and my money are just about the same.
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