Microsoft & Xbox Live: When Customer Service Goes Drastically Wrong
Written by Russ on March 14, 2008 – 10:43 amAlternately titled: How Microsoft is Stealing $50 from Me. You Could Be Next.
Here’s the simple breakdown of the story:
October 20: Xbox Live emails me, account will auto-renew next month
November 20: Xbox Live emails me, account renewal a success!
November 21: Xbox Live emails me, prepaid card for 12+1 months has been successfully applied!
November 21: Xbox Live emails me, again confirming prepaid card successfully applied!
March 3: Xbox Live emails me, prepaid card being canceled tomorrow!
So, in internet-speak, I said, “WTF!?”
The story seems pretty clear, but after some grueling time on the phone with Microsoft, first in India and then in the United States, Microsoft has made it pretty clear to me that I’ve done something wrong, I’m borderline a criminal and they absolutely WILL NOT be giving me a credit for a prepaid card, nor will they refund it, supply a code for re-use, etc.
The longer, more detailed story, as it has been explained to me, via “Jason” and “Christine” at Microsoft, in regards to Case Reference #1061488919
The details in all of this are still murky to me–Microsoft apparently has a policy, but I’m not sure how they see it as either logical, customer-friendly or even helpful.
At the time of authoring this, I see it as stealing from me.
When I first signed-up for my Xbox Live account, I apparently used a credit card that was eventually replaced due to some fraudulent usage. Since I want to remain upfront and honest about this–as I have since the beginning with Microsoft (even when I was irate after asking 6 different times to please speak to someone else)–I was unsure which card I had used, but in the event that it was the card in question, I wanted to cover my bases.
Almost a month before my account was set to expire–or rather, drop back down to “Silver” Status, my pals at Microsoft sent me this:
From: “MICROSOFT *XBOX LIVE”
Subject: Automatic Renewal Notification for Xbox Live 12 mo. Gold Membership
Date: Sun, October 21, 2007 1:11 am
To: russDear Russell,
Your subscription to Xbox Live 12 mo. Gold Membership is scheduled to be automatically renewed on Tuesday, November 20, 2007. Here is a description of the service:
Welcome to the future of gaming and online entertainment. As a new Xbox Live® Gold member, you will enjoy access to demos, trailers, downloads, tournaments, friends, and your gamertag, your unique digital identity. For only $49.95 plus applicable taxes per year, your 12-month Xbox Live Gold Membership gives you all the rewards, privileges, and possibilities that come with being a Gold member. Your membership will automatically renew to an annual membership at the then current price, unless you change your renewal or cancel before your membership ends. Pricing details can be viewed in the Account Management area of your gamer profile. For information about changing or canceling your membership and your membership refund policy, go to www.xbox.com/live/accounts.
Please confirm that your account and payment information is up to date.
To update your credit card information:
1. Select your gamer card.
2. Select Account Management.
3. Select Memberships.
4. Select the membership you want to update.
For more info, go to www.xbox.com/support or call Xbox Customer Support at 1 (800) 4MY-XBOX.Thank you for using Microsoft Online Services.
The Xbox Live team.
Note: Please do not respond to this message.
To receive notifications at a different e-mail address:
1. Select your gamer card.
2. Select Account Management.
3. Select Contact Information.
4. Sign in with your Passport Network credentials.
5. Update your e-mail address.
Form: 12
Cool! Thanks, Microsoft. I’m glad we’re friends and you reminded me about this. I wonder what card I used…
See, I thought for certain that a declined card from Microsoft would have an email generated saying “Russ, your card is bad, click here to fix this and we’ll be friends again.” But that didn’t happen. Instead, what happened was this:
In fact, Microsoft was kind enough to confirm that this was groovy, too, and that we’re still BFFs:
From: “MICROSOFT *XBOX LIVE”
Subject: Confirmation of renewal of Xbox Live 12 mo. Gold Membership
Date: Tue, November 20, 2007 12:51 am
To: russDear Russell,
This mail is confirmation that you have successfully renewed your subscription to Xbox Live 12 mo. Gold Membership. This renewal goes into effect on Tuesday, November 20, 2007. Here is a description of the service:
Welcome to the future of gaming and online entertainment. As a new Xbox Live® Gold member, you will enjoy access to demos, trailers, downloads, tournaments, friends, and your gamertag, your unique digital identity. For only $49.95 plus applicable taxes per year, your 12-month Xbox Live Gold Membership gives you all the rewards, privileges, and possibilities that come with being a Gold member. Your membership will automatically renew to an annual membership at the then current price, unless you change your renewal or cancel before your membership ends. Pricing details can be viewed in the Account Management area of your gamer profile. For information about changing or canceling your membership and your membership refund policy, go to www.xbox.com/live/accounts.
If you have any questions, please go to www.xbox.com/support or call Xbox Customer Support at 1 (800) 4MY-XBOX.
Thank you for using Microsoft Online Services.
The Xbox Live team.
Note: Please do not respond to this message.
To receive notifications at a different e-mail address:
1. Select your gamer card.
2. Select Account Management.
3. Select Contact Information.
4. Sign in with your Passport Network credentials.
5. Update your e-mail address.
Form: 24
Okay, so my immediate thoughts are this: Awesome! I must have used some other credit card instead! Cool!
Reality: According to Microsoft, a successful renewal is not the same as the SETTLING of the account.
Customer Reality: Uhhhh, what’s the difference? Why would you give me a receipt of “success” when I’ve not paid for something? They don’t give me a receipt at the grocery store until I actually pay for my groceries and the cash, check or credit card is deemed to be “good” tender.
However, I soldiered on, probably playing some Halo 3 in my spare time. My Xbox Live 12+1 Month PrePaid card arrived from Amazon (thank you, Amazon Prime!). I went ahead and applied the card to my account–knowing me, I’d misplace it within the next year, anyway.
From: “MICROSOFT *XBOX LIVE”
Subject: Renewal Confirmation for Xbox Live Prepaid 12 + 1 Month Gold Membership Card.
Date: Wed, November 21, 2007 6:51 pm
To: russDear Russell,
This mail is confirmation that you have successfully renewed Xbox Live Prepaid 12 + 1 Month Gold Membership Card.. The subscription will expire on Sunday, December 20, 2009. Here is a description of the service:
Welcome to the future of gaming and online entertainment. As a new Xbox Live® Gold member, you will enjoy access to demos, trailers, downloads, tournaments, friends, and your gamertag, your unique digital identity. Your 13-month Xbox Live Gold Membership gives you all the rewards, privileges, and possibilities that come with being a Gold member. At the end of 13 months, your membership will automatically change to a Silver Membership, unless you use another prepaid card or change your membership renewal options. Pricing details can be viewed in the Account Management area of your gamer profile. For information about changing or canceling your membership and your membership refund policy, go to www.xbox.com/live/accounts.
If you have any questions, please go to www.xbox.com/support or call Xbox Customer Support at 1 (800) 4MY-XBOX.
Thank you for using Microsoft Online Services.The Xbox Live team.
Note: Please do not respond to this message.
To receive notifications at a different e-mail address:
1. Select your gamer card.
2. Select Account Management.
3. Select Contact Information.
4. Sign in with your Passport Network credentials.
5. Update your e-mail address.
Form: 42
Why, you’re welcome, Microsoft! Thanks for acknowledging that. Wait–what’s this? Oh, thank you for acknowledging it TWICE:
From: “MICROSOFT *XBOX LIVE”
Subject: Renewal Confirmation for Xbox Live Prepaid 12 + 1 Month Gold Membership Card.
Date: Wed, November 21, 2007 6:51 pm
To: russDear Russell,
This mail is confirmation that you have successfully renewed Xbox Live Prepaid 12 + 1 Month Gold Membership Card.. The subscription will expire on Sunday, December 20, 2009. Here is a description of the service:
Welcome to the future of gaming and online entertainment. As a new Xbox Live® Gold member, you will enjoy access to demos, trailers, downloads, tournaments, friends, and your gamertag, your unique digital identity. Your 13-month Xbox Live Gold Membership gives you all the rewards, privileges, and possibilities that come with being a Gold member. At the end of 13 months, your membership will automatically change to a Silver Membership, unless you use another prepaid card or change your membership renewal options. Pricing details can be viewed in the Account Management area of your gamer profile. For information about changing or canceling your membership and your membership refund policy, go to www.xbox.com/live/accounts.
If you have any questions, please go to www.xbox.com/support or call Xbox Customer Support at 1 (800) 4MY-XBOX.
Thank you for using Microsoft Online Services.The Xbox Live team.
Note: Please do not respond to this message.
To receive notifications at a different e-mail address:
1. Select your gamer card.
2. Select Account Management.
3. Select Contact Information.
4. Sign in with your Passport Network credentials.
5. Update your e-mail address.
Form: 42
And this, folks, was apparently my biggest, most evil and malicious mistake. THIS is where Microsoft decided that it is appropriate to steal from me, you, and any other customer in the world.
See, when I applied this prepaid card–which, by the way, could have been a nice gift from a parent, a nerd-supporting spouse, a nerdy boss, whatever–I did what is called “stacking” by Microsoft.
I’m still not sure how this is wrong. But apparently, when you “stack” AND you have an invalid credit card on file that they continue to attempt to charge, this is where you begin to earn your criminal status.
Allegedly, Microsoft sent me 2 follow-up emails to let me know that my card had been declined. I do not have those, but I have every email I’ve received that isn’t SPAM since 1997. Including all 5 emails referring to my Xbox Live account.
Microsoft has proof that those emails were sent–none that they were received mind you–and if I did not receive them, that’s an issue with my server and none of their concern. They do not, will not, pick up the phone to call you.
No, instead they send you an email that says this:
From: “MICROSOFT *XBOX LIVE”
Subject: Confirmation of cancellation of Xbox Live Prepaid 12 + 1 Month Gold Membership Card.
Date: Thu, March 13, 2008 7:37 pm
To: russDear Russell,
This mail is confirmation that your subscription to Xbox Live Prepaid 12 + 1 Month Gold Membership Card. has been cancelled on Friday, March 14, 2008.
If you have questions about this cancellation, or if you want to reactivate your subscription, please go to www.xbox.com/support or call Xbox Customer Support at 1 (800) 4MY-XBOX.
Thank you for using Microsoft Online Services.
The Xbox Live team.
Note: Please do not respond to this message.
To receive notifications at a different e-mail address:
1. Select your gamer card.
2. Select Account Management.
3. Select Contact Information.
4. Sign in with your Passport Network credentials.
5. Update your e-mail address.
Form: 22
I received this on March 13th. I immediately picked up the phone and called my buddies at Microsoft. We’re BFFs, after all, and I wanted to know what I could have done to upset my pals. We should be able to hang out until December 2009, man!
After asking 6 different times to speak to someone else because the CSR from India was only repeating herself from a script and causing me phone rage, I finally spoke to “Jason” the supervisor who made a lot of wild claims.
He actually asked me if I read the Terms of Service. That’s the equivalent of “I’m not going to help you, you have the fine print to contend with”. Customer Service 101, I suppose.
Even so, as of November 2007, I had 25 months that I was paying for. If the credit card was declined, the appropriate response would be to simply subtract 12 of those months–the prepaid card was just that PRE PAID. PAID IN ADVANCE.
Microsoft: Your account is in billing violation and is in collections with Microsoft. If you would have called in before it was sent to them, we could have helped you. We WILL NOT be refunding, replacing or anything else to compensate for the prepaid card we’ve just canceled. We won’t even subtract the months you’ve used it. We would have, however, waived the $15 in fees and reinstate your account, at which point in time you can pay for service how you like or you can provide a new credit card.
Me: Okay, I’d like to fix the situations. We were tight before. Good friends, even. Look, how about I go ahead and give you a new credit card and I pay for a whole year–and we’ll just call the time that you’ve suspended my account as a wash since I’ve been busy with work, school, blogging about NotchUp, having a new baby, playing that new Mario game on the Wii and everything else. We’ll be buds again, we can hang out and I’ll let you play drums in Rock Band.
Oh, and just give me back that 12+1 month card, because, after all, it was PRE PAID.
Microsoft: Nope. We’re not friends. You’re a criminal. You were sent to collections and we canceled your PRE PAID card that you STACKED (gasp!) on your account that had a bad credit card on it. You, sir, do not get to keep your 12+1 months. It is gone. The code was “consumed” and we added it to your account. We’re canceling it.
Me: Wait, what?
Okay, so that’s poking a little fun at a situation that has gotten tense and terse. Microsoft will not budge.
The Resolution?
For starters, I’m blogging about this. I’m contacting the local “Fixer” people at the Big City Newspaper (Chicago Sun Times) to see if they can help. Google will be my friend and raise this up the flag pole.
What Do I Want to Happen?
I only want what is fair, and that’s all I’ve asked for since the beginning. I didn’t start out being the ticked-off, phone-rage guy who wanted free service for life and all the cheat codes for every game and whatnot.
I want my PRE PAID card back–I PRE PAID for service that was taken away from me by a billing snafu–not anything that was behavioral or deceptive, but a pretty simple–and easy to rectify–mistake.
This should be no problem. I should, at the very least, have the remaining balance of my PRE PAID card available to me–I should NOT be canceled. That’s simply unfair, and it is the equivalent of stealing.
Microsoft, make this right. I promise I’ll be BFFs again and I promise I’ll tell everyone that you did.
Posted in Rant, User Experience | 4 Comments »
So, Whatever Happened to that Presentation, Anyway?
Written by Russ on March 13, 2008 – 2:25 pmGood question.
Fortunately, I’ve got a pretty good answer, too.
I finished the presentation–well, the first portion of the presentation. The more I reviewed my presentation about User Experience Design: An Overview, the more I realized that it’s a pretty “okay” presentation. It’s almost a “corporate” presentation. It has too much information on it–and not enough message.
That presentation is now the Handout for the real presentation, which I’m currently working on, more or less in my spare time–which has dwindled as I’m trying to wrap up a first semester in Business Administration by Monday. You can get this handout (presentation) at from my SlideShare account here:
What is User Experience Design: An Overview
Keep in mind that I target the Advertising industry with my handout (presentation), but I think it can pretty easily apply to a lot of different areas. The choice is obviously not mine, but yours, if you choose to borrow. Please just let me know, eh?
All of that stated, the next steps are fairly simple for me. I’m going to make the presentation a lot more visually appealing to a broader audience–I want the core of the message to stick with the most people. I want the depth of the presentation–the handout–to resonate with the people who are invested enough to require a deeper understanding. I want them to talk to engage me in a deeper conversation that possibly leads to action.
That next version of the presentation is coming from Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds. I urge you to take a look. I’d also recommend checking out the work of Stephen Collins at acidlabs.
I’ll post an update when I can make progress on the much more visual version of this presentation.
For next time: How do we display our “portfolio” as UX Designers?
Posted in Information Architecture, Presentations, User Experience Design | No Comments »
