So as some of you may know, Star Wars: The Old Republic went free-to-play just the other day! Great news for those of you who have waiting for a chance to dive into one of the biggest story-driven MMOs to have ever hit the mark. And equally good news for people like me, who were just waiting for a new reason to hop on again and now have a bunch of people (who didn’t want to play before) just dying to hop on and give it a try with you.

Unfortunately for me though, I’ve been unable to access my account for a few months now due to a bug with my physical authenticators (one of those things that gives you a code so your account doesn’t get hacked). You see, despite the fact that the authenticator “works” just fine, it isn’t giving me the correct key; which prevents me from logging in entirely. I already attempted to deal with the problem via their website customer support, but was informed that the only way such a sensitive matter could be fixed was by calling their customer support line. Sounds easy enough, right?

WRONG.

DEAD WRONG.

I spent 2 hours on hold yesterday, and have tried again for about 30 or so minutes apiece on three other separate occasions.

There comes a point where these kinds of things get ridiculous. And I’m pretty sure I’ve gone and passed that point. I mean, I’d like to think I’m a pretty patient guy, but even I grow tired of the listening to the same stale music while a message repeats over and over about how my call is important and they thank me for my patience.

Look, I get it; you went free to play and all the $h!t hit the fan. But here I was, a wonderful, paying customer who bought the collectors edition of the game and decided to use the physical authenticator that came with it. Only to now be punished for my support as they force me to wait for hours on hold. It’s almost like you don’t even have anyone in the office on weekends! Which, if that’s true, is just stupid as all hell!

I can understand that certain things need to be done online for “my” security. But at the same time, if you’re only going to require me to answer a few questions to verify my identity over the phone, why can’t those same questions be posed to me via a computer screen? It just doesn’t really make all that much sense. Don’t get me wrong, I like it when companies go the extra mile to provide me a better service. I’d just really like it if I didn’t have to trek through those extra miles barefoot in fields of glass. You know what I mean?

Any of you out there suffered through such long wait times? I’m sure some of you have. Sound off in the comments and tell me your tales of woe so I don’t feel so alone!