EA Games - It's in the game manual, which you can't have

I recently picked up Dante's Inferno for my 360.  I'd played the demo when it first came out, enjoyed it, but held off on buying the game in hopes of a GOTY version.  Since it didn't appear that was happening, I figured that buying it on clearance at Target this past week would be fine.

Now, one thing that I love to do with a new game is sit down with the game manual.  I like to read about the story that precedes the game and leads up to what happens when you first push start.  I like to see what the controls are, get the details of various power-ups, just really get into the nitty gritty of the game itself.  And with a game like Dante's Inferno, there was a lot of that.  Where I thought I was going to be able to read about this and get a good idea about what was necessary, instead I found a 4 page pamphlet inside the game case.  Each page was in a different language, stating the equivalent of the following:

"Electronic Arts has chosen to go green, and in order to do so, we've decided that we won't be printing game manuals for any of our product.  If you would like to view the manual for this game, please go to http://support.ea.com/app/manuals and view the manual there."

I'd like to give you a few minutes to go ahead and click on that link.  Go ahead.  I'll wait.  And I want you to find the manual for Dante's Inferno.

Can't find it, can you?

That's because it's not there.  That's a bit frustrating, isn't it?

As a frustrated and confused customer, I chose to go ahead and contact their support.  Since it was after 9PM CST, phone options were no longer available, but they did have chat.  I made use of that.  After a 14 minute wait, here's what I got (which is edited since their chat system doesn't like apostrophes or other random characters):

you: Good evening.
Atin: Thanks for contacting EA Help! My name is Atin how may I help you?
Atin: Good Morning
you: Just purchased Dante's Inferno for the Xbox *****.
you: Opened it up, no manual.
you: Says inside that I can download the manual from the EA site
you: There is no manual for Dante's Inferno on EA's site.
Atin: I'll do my best to address your concern.&#*****;
you: Soooooo, how are we going to fix this? :)
Atin: May I know where did you purchased the game from?
you: Target, brand new.
Atin: Ned, please contact the retailer in this case.
you: No, I don't think that's an option.
you: The slip inside the case is from EA
Atin: Ned,
Atin: I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience but the tool through which we could pull up your Account details is presently not functioning.
Atin: We are expecting this tool to be functional again with in an hour or two. I would appreciate if you could please get back to us after an
Atin: hour or two in order to get better assistance in this matter.
you: If this four- page sheet tells me to access the manual online at http://support.ea.com/app/manuals and it is not available, there is an issue.
you: I'm curious as to how and why my account details are necessary?
you: When I'm just trying to get a link for a manual as advertised within your product.
Atin: I would be able to generate the code once the tool starts working, so it would not be possible to provide you the code as the tool is down.
Atin: I apologize for the inconvenience caused.&#*****;

At this point, I sent myself the above copy of the chat and exited the chat session as it was painfully obvious that I wasn't going to get anywhere.  It was also quite apparent that the technician wasn't even understanding the issue for which I'd contacted them.  I fumed a little, took EA's name in vain, then decided that I'd resume my pursuits the next day.

Since there wasn't a lot going on the next morning at work, I decided to try again.  This time, the phone options were available and I elected to have a representative call me.  The call came through a few minutes after submitting the request.  Thankfully, it was someone that was within the US, preventing me from worrying that I was working against a language barrier.  I explained to this rep the situation, stated that I'd looked on their help site only to find that the manual wasn't available, and had searched elsewhere to see if I could find another copy.  Unfortunately, this call was full of quite a bit of fail, for the following reasons:

1. She asked me if I'd checked their website after I'd already stated I'd checked there.
2. She referred me to get the walkthrough of the game from a third-party site that she'd found by Googling "Dante's Inferno manual."  It's the one from the Supercheats site, if you're curious.
3. The one smart thing she'd suggested was checking on the Xbox Marketplace to see if I could get it there, but the link was dead the last time I'd checked.

Ultimately, EA couldn't help me.  The service that they've provided for their clients has failed.  My issue got closed as "resolved" but I was told that I could respond to a survey that they'd send out.  I've held off on responding to said survey because I don't think calling EA a bunch of cum-guzzling donkey fuckers would get me anywhere nor resolve my issue.

 And if you just want the tl;dr version of this experience, I think it can be summed up as this: If you're going to offer a service, make sure you're fully supporting it.