Hello, everone,
so I decided to pay EA Germany headquarters at Cologne a visit. It's the next town to where I live so why not ? Plus I really wanted to know where they have their headquarters now - in 2005 or 2006 or so I applied there for a job as a beta tester, and they had their offices in a different part of the town, within the top of a hotel structure. Huge building.
Google maps still shows (at this very moment at least) the fresh ground upon hich the offices were built on much later : http://maps.google.de/maps?client=o...ocal_result&ct=image&resnum=2&ved=0CCsQnwIwAQ
I don't know how to activate Street View there, so this is open for imagination.
They have their offices within a black building - so black as if it was built of monoliths like the one from Stanley Cubrick's "Oddyssey 2001" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monolith_(Space_Odyssey)
The whole building is black and shiny, so to say, "shiny" in the sense that the surface looks like polished black stone … I don't know how to describe it better.
Within the whole building there are a few more much smaller companies, and at one end of the building there's the "EA Sports Bar", a real br, but I don't know whether it is accessible for mere mortals - or for the average Joe (or Joe Public, however you might call him).
Ehich leads me to my short-lived adventure there :
I had a couple of question, but the ONLY way to interact with EA DIRECTLY is - via the telephone.
And I don't want it.
So I went to that building, asking there.
I was looking for the entrance - and there are two of them.
One rather for the smaller companies (but for EA as well),
and one for Ea only.
I was ringing at the door bell.
A thing was in the wall looking like a today's version of the "entrance eye" of Jabba' Palace in "Return Of The Jedi". No joke, it actually strongly reminded me of that …
A female voice asked me what I wanted.
I said that I had some questions but didn't want to use the telephone to contact the customer service, so I walked the way to here - to ask personally.
The female voice said something I couldn't acoustically understand.
Therefore I asked if she could reply what she just said.
She replied that this entrance was only for business customers.
Instantly I felt insulted by the fact that I was not regrded worthy enough for face-to-face nterview with someone of the customer ervice. I felt insulted by EA's apparent policy to let ONLY business men in and talk to the staff personally,
but NOT average humans, who - I had thought so - should be treated as normal people by any company interested in them as customers …
… These average humans are being treated - that's how I felt at this very moment - like rats, like a plague, like a disease, which should be left outside the building by all means and NOT be allowed to let in at all costs !
Businessmen are allowed to talk personally at thm.
Customers are not allowed to do so.
High social status = personal talk
Low social status = no personal talk
Some people are more equal than others.
B2B is more equal than B2C.
And that's how I felt at this moment, intuitively, instantly, although I could put it into words only much later.
And therefore I decided to let my enragement flow.
I replied : "But this is just … shit !" *
Then I heard the sound of a telephone snapping in.
End of story.
Lesson learned : EA isn't actually interested in customers.
They are interested in business people, however.
I left the building instantly. There was nothing to do for me anymore. And their reputation had dropped on a scvale of 1-100 by at least 50, if not more.
I spent the rest of the day in Cologne, doing a bit reseach, retrieved shops I only knew from maps, and talking to several very polite bookshop employees.
In the end, I had found enough for myself to let this bad experience become outweighed by good ones.
But I'll never forget,
an I'll never forgive.
Alrik
P.S. : I might put this story on my blog tomorrow, too.
I want people to learn from my tiny "adventure".
* I should have rather said . "But this is impolite towards honest private customers who merely want to get a few questions answered personally and who do not want to use a rather impersonal telephone for that.
I feel treated like a second-class citizen by your company's policy of not allowing private customers to talk to employees odf Electronic Arts Germany.
If you are allowing business customers to talk to you personally, so why not private customers, too ?"
But - in these moments my brain just shortcircuits, and I therefore tend to use the fastest answer possible for my brain …
so I decided to pay EA Germany headquarters at Cologne a visit. It's the next town to where I live so why not ? Plus I really wanted to know where they have their headquarters now - in 2005 or 2006 or so I applied there for a job as a beta tester, and they had their offices in a different part of the town, within the top of a hotel structure. Huge building.
Google maps still shows (at this very moment at least) the fresh ground upon hich the offices were built on much later : http://maps.google.de/maps?client=o...ocal_result&ct=image&resnum=2&ved=0CCsQnwIwAQ
I don't know how to activate Street View there, so this is open for imagination.
They have their offices within a black building - so black as if it was built of monoliths like the one from Stanley Cubrick's "Oddyssey 2001" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monolith_(Space_Odyssey)
The whole building is black and shiny, so to say, "shiny" in the sense that the surface looks like polished black stone … I don't know how to describe it better.
Within the whole building there are a few more much smaller companies, and at one end of the building there's the "EA Sports Bar", a real br, but I don't know whether it is accessible for mere mortals - or for the average Joe (or Joe Public, however you might call him).
Ehich leads me to my short-lived adventure there :
I had a couple of question, but the ONLY way to interact with EA DIRECTLY is - via the telephone.
And I don't want it.
So I went to that building, asking there.
I was looking for the entrance - and there are two of them.
One rather for the smaller companies (but for EA as well),
and one for Ea only.
I was ringing at the door bell.
A thing was in the wall looking like a today's version of the "entrance eye" of Jabba' Palace in "Return Of The Jedi". No joke, it actually strongly reminded me of that …
A female voice asked me what I wanted.
I said that I had some questions but didn't want to use the telephone to contact the customer service, so I walked the way to here - to ask personally.
The female voice said something I couldn't acoustically understand.
Therefore I asked if she could reply what she just said.
She replied that this entrance was only for business customers.
Instantly I felt insulted by the fact that I was not regrded worthy enough for face-to-face nterview with someone of the customer ervice. I felt insulted by EA's apparent policy to let ONLY business men in and talk to the staff personally,
but NOT average humans, who - I had thought so - should be treated as normal people by any company interested in them as customers …
… These average humans are being treated - that's how I felt at this very moment - like rats, like a plague, like a disease, which should be left outside the building by all means and NOT be allowed to let in at all costs !
Businessmen are allowed to talk personally at thm.
Customers are not allowed to do so.
High social status = personal talk
Low social status = no personal talk
Some people are more equal than others.
B2B is more equal than B2C.
And that's how I felt at this moment, intuitively, instantly, although I could put it into words only much later.
And therefore I decided to let my enragement flow.
I replied : "But this is just … shit !" *
Then I heard the sound of a telephone snapping in.
End of story.
Lesson learned : EA isn't actually interested in customers.
They are interested in business people, however.
I left the building instantly. There was nothing to do for me anymore. And their reputation had dropped on a scvale of 1-100 by at least 50, if not more.
I spent the rest of the day in Cologne, doing a bit reseach, retrieved shops I only knew from maps, and talking to several very polite bookshop employees.
In the end, I had found enough for myself to let this bad experience become outweighed by good ones.
But I'll never forget,
an I'll never forgive.
Alrik
P.S. : I might put this story on my blog tomorrow, too.
I want people to learn from my tiny "adventure".
* I should have rather said . "But this is impolite towards honest private customers who merely want to get a few questions answered personally and who do not want to use a rather impersonal telephone for that.
I feel treated like a second-class citizen by your company's policy of not allowing private customers to talk to employees odf Electronic Arts Germany.
If you are allowing business customers to talk to you personally, so why not private customers, too ?"
But - in these moments my brain just shortcircuits, and I therefore tend to use the fastest answer possible for my brain …
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