I recently bought a Origin Gaming Gift Card for my young nephew who is new to PC gaming.

I bought it on the assumption that he (only being 8 years old) could activate Origins / EA games subscription service "Origin Access" which allows him to access a selection of EA games for a monthly fee of £3.99

I bought the card from a local Asda and thought it a great gift considering it stated clearly on the front of the card:

" use this card for digital purchases

- including full games, dlc & origin access subscription

- no credit card required "

(the key points of purchase being no credit card required and it can be used for Origin Access subscription)

you cannot use these cards to buy Origin Access,

even though the wording on the front clearly states you can.

Upon speaking to Origin via webchat they stated that the card could not possibly have that wording on the cards as you cannot (nor have you ever been able to) use the gift cards for Origin access as its a subscription based service.

However Asda (my local store) is selling a pile of them with them

, all indicating you can use the cards for Origin Access

- and this is in bold print on the actual cards themselves

(not a Asda label, but actually printed clearly on the cards)

Just a word of warning to anyone who buys these cards thinking like I did to use with Origin Access subscription, please do not buy them!

As once you scratch the panel and enter the code on your Origin account, bang goes your refund, which is pretty annoying.

Obviously you can use the gift card amount to buy a game etc but once again be careful with this one, as if the game exceeds the amount of the "gift" the extra you need to pay becomes a real headache as you dont get an option to pay the rest with a credit card etc..

well not without jumping through hoops & errors.

I am in contact with both Asda and Origin at the moment,

even sending photos of the card with the wording on it (as Origin need proof of the wording on the cards)

To be fair, the card I purchased wasn't for a great deal of money and I wont be losing any sleep over it, although the principle of the matter is I bought the gift card on the assumption it could be used for Origin Access - when clearly it cannot be used for that !!

Origin's attitude is pretty unapologetic and all they seem to be saying is you can still use the card to buy a game from us

. Im pretty shocked a company the size of Electronic Arts (or Origin their kinda PC gaming subsidiary) are selling these cards with false information clearly printed on the front

. I've contacted Asda regarding this too as in effect as the retailer they have some responsibility here

be warned, dont buy Origin Gift Cards for Origin Access for use in the UK as your in for a big disappointment.

You can return anything within 14 days

What about charge back too?

Hi

can we first confirm. Argos or Asda. The thread title is confusing!

Can you take a picture of the card and post it up along with any terms and conditions attached.

might of been me

i'll retitle and move it to high street retailers sorry

DX

Item is not as described.

Return it. If they say "no refunds on gift cards" : point out that that the item not being as described trumps their gift cards T&C's as they can't affect statutory rights.

Feel free to post on social media an accurate summary:

1) Card sold as "works on Origin Access"

2) Origin blames retailer

3) Retailer blames Origin

4) Neither fixed the problem and expected you to sort it out

5) Refund from retailer (+/- if they try to decline the refund or not)

6) Xmas disappointment for an 8 year old ........

Thanks for the replies guys.

Ben from EA / Origin called me today and apologized that the card wording is incorrect and that they are contacting the card issuer FastCard to change the wording. Within the UK you cannot use these for Origin Access. I received the call as I escalated a complaint that the webchat support were not very helpful in resolving this.

As goodwill Ben activated 3 months Origin Access free and the card amount untouched allowing my nephew to use this on something else within the store. Origin are aware of the issue from what i gather (im probably not the only one who has complained) but to be fair on them they were very quick in resolving this and Ben from EA apologized for all inconvenienced caused.

Obviously should anyone else have issues with these cards, my advice is to contact Origin Customer Care as its clear they know about the issue.

Just to further update this post, Asda (as there name appears in the subject line) - have contacted me after being contacted by Origin.

They are sending me a £30 gift card to cover the inconvenience caused and are removing all the cards with that wording on them to be removed from shelves in there stores immediately.

Should anyone else have bought one of these gift cards over Xmas period, as I said in last post contact Origin complaints department and they will sort it out. If bought from Asda, don't bother going in Store as Customer Care have no idea how to refund you - as much as you can get refunded under the Sale By description - consumer rights act (as stated by BazzaS earlier in thread)

Great result