They didn’t say it like that, but it’s basically what they’re trying to say. Some copies of Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 shipped with a serial number which was missing a character (19 instead of the 20 required) due to a printing error. EA’s response (and I’m not making this up):

There is currently a work around that may allow you to bypass this issue. Since you have the first 19 characters of the code already, you can basically try “guessing” the last character. To do this, simply enter your existing code, and then for the last character, try the letters A-Z, and then the numbers 0-9. You should eventually get the right combination, and be able to play the game. If this does not work, you can follow the instructions below.

Wow great work around. Click here for the official explanation at one of EA’s site, or see below for a screen shot (to preserve it forever):