Fuck XBox Live. No more money for you!

The BBQ Pit
1

I’ll try to be detailed, yet concise. I’ve been throwing money at Live service for years.

The latest incarnation has me indebted about $300 or so, between subscription fees, downloads, points, accessories, etc in the last 6 months. The card on the account has been in good standing with the bank for over a decade, never a problem with it, never a reason to think anything would be a problem.

Until 2 weeks ago. I tried to re-up for Gold service and was denied. :confused: About $60 spent on points before that, then WHAM!, denied the re-up of $50. With about $600 sitting in the account and the card working everwhere else. An e-mail to them was replied with a request to call Cust Serv. OK, I have an hour to spare dealing with phone support, why not?

So, after being put on hold 5 times, I was told that the account was cancelled due to “Suspicion of Fraud.” WTF?! Who the fuck is using my card?!? As I was worrying about this, the rep told me it was something with my bank. OK. I can handle that, maybe they’ve seen something else I haven’t yet that will protect me from something unseen. No problem, I’ll just call the bank tomorrow and get this straightened out.

Nope. Doesn’t matter. The bank cancelled the account so I can’t ever ever ever get it reinstated. Wait, what?

I started working on this aspect of database management within the service’s structure, and was finally able to get the guy to admit that they, in fact, closed the account based on whatever they heard from the bank.

Of course, they couldn’t tell me anything, ever, about the specifics of the problem, nor could they ever tell the bank the specifics, since it was suspicious of fraud. Good to know there may be a problem, they just can’t tell anyone what it might be. The conviction is in it seems.

So after all the money spent, all the time invested, I’m out everything as regards to this account. Forever. No refunds, don’t pass Go, but give us the $200 anyway.

The PS3 is out tomorrow. I’ll need some scratch to get one, and it kills me to even entertain the idea of making such a major change. But in 20 years of dealing with Sony, I’ve never had this much hassle.

And before anyone gets on a Microsoft tangent, I’m not giving up on the company overall. I’m giving up on the XBox department and the lack of common sense in outsourcing to countries that aren’t filled with employees that are so robotic they’re more concerned with the paycheck rather than, you know, serving customers.

And to wrap it all up, I’ve recently moved to a cust serv position for a company that I would be shocked to learn you’ve never used. There are no end to callers that express releif for getting an American on the phone when they call. I’ve gotten the feeling that it’s not because of any accent or such, it’s a cultural thing where not everything is handled based on what the script says.

Fuck XBox Live, fuck the customer “service”, and fuck me for all the money invested into this account that is forever lost due to nothing I’ve done.

So, is Guitar Hero 2 going to be available online?

2

Guitar Hero 2 can not be played on the PS3, thanks to the lack of a button on the guitar controller.
Joy.

3

As far as I’ve heard, downloadable content (songs) for GH2 will only be available through Xbox live marketplace. So even if you have it on the PS2 you will only be getting the songs that come out of the box.

4

True, but Live Marketplace does little good if it just up and cancels on me. Why risk the cash? At this point I have more faith in Sony eventually upgrading to an MP format for downloads than the faith and trust I have at throwing more money at the Live service.

5

I’m confused. Did Xbox Live deny your charge and cancel your account, or did the bank?

6

That’s part of the beef. I don’t know.

According to the “Customer Service” rep, it was the bank. Then when I pressed the issue asking how my bank could cancel an MS Live account, he admitted that “they” (Live) cancelled the account based on whatever the bank said.

I use “they” in quotes as the rep pretty much said that while they did it, there is no “they”. There was nobody to contact, no department to contact about the issue, nobody was responsible for cancelling the account. Though somebody cancelled the account within their system, there was nobody in the system that would have cancelled the account. Again, when I asked who the bank president would need to contact, I was told there wasn’t anyone to contact as it was the bank’s issue. (Further down the damn rabbit hole.)

Can you get a feeling for the frustration I’m feeling?

As a follow up, I fired off a rather civil (considering my pissed-off-ness) e-mail to lodge complaint about the shit service I had gotten. That, of course, was responded to with a request to contact cust serv via phone. The same phone number that will lead me to someone that just doesn’t give a shit and tells me I’m fucked.

Considering this whole issue is “fraud” related :rolleyes: , I’m half-tempted to call the FBI since it’s international at this point. No, not really. I’m not going to, but dammit I’m still pissed enough to play that scenario out.

BTW, to all the M$ haters, I am at my weakest. Now is the time to sell me. :wink:

7

How many times have you called Customer Service? If it was only once, try again. Let me tell you, those [strike]cattle pens[/strike] call centres can have hundreds of people in them, and some of them know the computer system better than others. Some are better-trained than others. Some know the inner workings better than others.
When you get a CSR with little knowledge and/or experience, if they encounter an unfamiliar or volatile situation, some will bullshit in order to get you off the phone so they can get back to discussing this week’s episode of the O.C. with their cubicle mate.
If the CSR could not walk you through the exact steps that led to your account being cancelled, I smell bullshit.

If you’ve called two times or fewer, call back. I bet you five dollars that if you get a different CSR, you’ll get a different answer.
Ask them to explain their policy on this subject and to walk you through the procedure of cancelling an account on suspicion of fraud. This will give you an idea of who you need to speak to, to get this resolved.
If they will not explain to you the steps they took, one by one, ask for a supervisor or office manager.

8

Wait, have you called the bank?

My company accepts credit cards online, and occasionally a card will be declined without me knowing the reason. I have the client call their card issuing bank and usually the bank can straighten it out, or at least tell the client what the problem is. The bank never tells me what it is - they don’t have to.

I have 2 clients that are regularly billed $19.95 every month and have been for a couple of years. Every so often I have to tack on an extra $10 to their bill, and the $29.95 charge is ALWAYS declined even though they get regular monthly charges from my company that are always accepted, and the extra charge is only $10. I have to run 2 transactions at those times ($19.95 and $10) so they’ll go through.

I’m not sure if my clients ever called their banks and asked why this happens - I’ve asked them to, but they’d rather yell at me then call their bank.

Anyway - call the bank. And if the bank can’t help tell them you want to dispute the last few charges from Live.

9

I just re-read your OP, and ZipperJJ’s advice is way better than mine. It sounds like you already spoke to several people at XboX CS and they dicked you around but good.

10

LOL. I was just re-reading the hitchiker’s guide after seeing the movie and this statement sounds alot like the bureaucracy of the Vogons. Watch out for the demolition fleet.

11

As an MSFT stockholder, I invite you to try linux in your current state of mind. :wink: