Publisher expanding Galway, Ireland, customer support center to provide multilingual assistance for unspecified "major titles."
Electronic Arts is expanding its customer support center in Galway, Ireland. The publisher announced today that it will add 300 new jobs to the facility, which was unveiled in 2010, and opened last September. Currently, the center employs around 400 individuals.
The facility--officially called the European Customer Experience Centre of Excellence--was established with the sole purpose of providing customer support for BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic. That has now changed, with the facility providing multilingual support (16 languages in total) and services for "major titles." These were not named.
"In today’s fast-moving digital environment, we need to engage with our worldwide customer base on a 24/7 basis, across all of EA's games and services and in multiple languages," EA COO Peter Moore said in a statement.
Moore further explained that Galway remains a hotspot for EA because it has an attractive fusion of technology infrastructure and talent availability, as well as a "pro-business" environment.
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
I live in Galway, why then is it necessary for me to contact the US to get help for my account??? EA help center is so awful. I tried their chat in an attempt to solve my problem. They directed me to their specialized team, who put me on hold for over an hour (probably costing a fortune) and then directed me back to the chat! 6 months and the issue still isn't resovled. Good job EA, really good work.
"Friendly Customer Service"
Somehow I don't think "irish" when those three words are uttered...
Irish Rep: "ello, you called EA...wut da fook ya want boy-o?!...i aint got all day er'!
@Gravity_Slave Im from Galway and we certainly dont talk like that. You've never been across the pond have you? Dont worry we have the Irish wooly jumper stalls set up for you when ya get here :)
A. It was just a joke.
B. I find it ironic that you're offended by my assumptions, yet YOU assume I'm from "across the pond" like some poor simple uncultured Canadian or American.
C. Fact is, your country (if you can even call it that) is nothing more than a partially British owned tourist trap, where alcoholism and a midget with gold fever as its sole legacy. erin go bleh!
@Gravity_Slave Oh no im not offended by the slightest bit, I was joking hence the smiley. Regardless of our lust for alcohol the "midget thing" has gone a bit over the top ill agree :P
i don't care if i was running out of money or even dying. i'd get a job at EA just so i could bring it down from the inside
4 Like Leave it to EA to create jobs overseas instead of in it's own country (USA)... But then again, that's the new trend right? Hand the jobs over to people that will work for 5 cents an hour and sacrifice quality. Typical...
1 Like Multinationals base their EU HQs in Ireland because of the wealth of talent and highly educated workforce (Microsoft, Google, Paypal, Facebook, Dell, Aviva, Intel; the list goes on).
Don't be so goddamn ignorant of anything outside 'Murica.
5 Like @gplayer5 Get a map dude. Ireland is not China. The cost of employing someone in Ireland is comparable to the US.
I don't mean to be rude, but considering how heavy the accents on some irish can get, isn't opening customer support over there abit counter-intuitive?.
@division_9 How can they make abysmal support worse ?
Those 300 more people will be happy that they can ride on the sinking ship for a while, then move on.
Perhaps these irish people will at least try to help you with your support requests instead of trying to get rid of you, but I think they're required to read EA's "how to extort our customers" manual first, then follow these rules.
@IanNottinghamX Though people in the USA would appreciate those jobs especially due to their economic status, they have to employ x amount of people in their overseas firms as well.
1 Like @E-i-N-e They perpetuate a bad cycle of killing the local economy when they do this though...but who expects them to care about such things...I mean pfft its only people...
Hopefully I can one day get these guys on the line! I woke up today and was wondering where I would got my Support Center news, good going Gamespot. :P
8 Like EA... ADDING jobs?!
What kind of wacked out alternate dimension did I wake up in today?
This comment has been deleted
4 Like @Suikogaiden Learn to read. These will be customer support staff, they'll have no involvement in the development of any games.
well now, maybe they can get a TOLL FREE support number next ? which does not seem hard for a company like that ffs.
@MW2ismygame ...and maybe we won't have to stay on hold for ages as well. Snowballs chance inhell if you ask me.
@johnners2981 I know, right? I thought EA's idea of customer support was "Hey customers! Send us pictures of you holding every expansion pack you own of The Sims to support us!"
All I can think about is Americans calling customer support and insisting that their game is an ARE PEE GEE, not an OAR PEE GEE!
@WCK619 Im sure if we call America we'd get, ehh like ya like awesome like totally. Oh my great great great great grandparents were Irish :P
@balfe1990 @WCK619 As someone who's not natively Irish but live in Ireland. yes "ye" kinda do.
3 Like I'm sure you'll also be surprised to hear we don't have whiskey with our cornflakes and break into spontaneous bouts of Riverdance at any given opportunity
Battlefield publisher believed to have laid off around 20 staffers from Galway, Ireland, center.
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