Account management and customer service in need of tremendous improvement...

I'll start with the situation I'm currently in...

I logged into my POE account on the website, then purchased EA to POE 2. After installing the launcher and logging in, only then did I run into the first hurdle that I would need to access my account's associated email address to proceed. Turns out the email address was an old one (in my case an old college account that had since been deleted) that I no longer had access to. I went back to the website to change the email account, only to be required to access my old email (in addition to password) to complete the switch. This caused a dead end, left with no further options to work around that email address, refund the game, or reach a service rep for help.

I fortunately did not buy an expensive package or have a lot of money spent on this account, but this kind of thing being able to happen without any of the above solutions in place will lead to lots of players getting screwed out of purchases. With the mass influx of players coming to the game, this is not going to be sustainable without improvements in such areas:

1. There should not be a single point of failure to access an account. There should be backup options, such as security questions, 2FA, or even a phone number, that can be taken if for whatever reason an email account is no longer accessible.

2. Refund options should be available, with restrictions, in the case that a purchase is either accidentally made, or in case a situation such as this one arises soon after. See Steam for example, who will refund purchases within a week of purchase and under 2 hours time played. I see no formal refund process in place at all beyond sending an email into the GGG support email void (more on this next).

3. Current Customer support options are below expectations. Sending a support request to a generic email/inbox, only to be responded to asynchronously a week or two later without resolving the situation, is no longer acceptable for a game asking players to spend up to $500 for a support package. Community reps should be active on the forums, or even in an official Discord channel, ready and available to address player problems such as these in real time to resolve problems quickly.

I apologize for the bluntness, but so far I am fairly disappointed in my experience with how GGG has handled a lot of these issues outside of the game. It's a great game and I want to play it, but feels like I have to fight every step of the way to do what should have been relatively seamless.