With all of the new games for my Xbox 360 and some time off for the holidays, I thought it would be a perfect time for me to upgrade my Xbox Live subscription back to Gold from Silver. So at the beginning of December, I used my already registered with Live credit card to get "back in the game." I went online with Gears of War, fired away with Lost Planet and got back into fighting with the cast of Dead or Alive 4. Things were fine, until I got that mail on Saturday morning.
According to Microsoft, my account had been canceled. I thought for a moment that this could be fraud, some one's attempt to seize my credit card information. After all, I never ordered the cancellation. I decided that the best course of action would be to call Xbox Live customer support.
The first time I called, I was connected to what appeared to be an outsource company. It was a little difficult to get my point across but after some time, the agent notified me that there may have been some credit card discrepancies due to my card being stolen a few weeks ago. I thought this odd since the payment had already been processed a month prior, but went with his explanation. He has all the data right on his computer screen. He is a qualified agent. He should know what he is talking about. Right?
The agent told me to just reapply for Gold membership. I got off the phone and did exactly that.
"Xbox Live cannot process the information at this time." That's the message I kept receiving. "Well, I'll just have to call again," I mumbled to myself.
Call number two: This time the agent told me that there was a problem with the Live service a few hours before and that I should try to upgrade in two hours. When I asked if this was an attempt to get away from the issue because she couldn't solve the problem, she laughed. I stopped smiling.
Call number three: I was now introduced to a new problem. The agent explained that in the area designated for the name regarding credit card information, there were asterisks. In other words, my name did not appear. Someone at the corporate office found this suspicious and thus canceled my subscription. I asked to speak to a manager.
The manager reiterated what the previous agent had explained and also added that my gamertag would never be recovered. He claimed that I had received a warning (via email) regarding what he called, a "violation." So why did I feel like the one who was being violated? I never received a warning, at least not to my email account. Besides, if it was that crucial a violation that it pended gamertag cancellation, why wasn't I notified via my Xbox, the place where I actually play these games? I have been an Xbox member since 2005, why was I being deleted now? Let's just say that the manager I spoke with that day, had no intention of helping me remedy this situation and also provided misinformation regarding what I needed to do to proceed with setting up a new gamertag.
Angry but determined, I went upstairs to my console and created a new gamertag and Xbox Live Gold account. What the manager failed to explain to me was that I would not be able to access ANY of my saved games on the 360 hard drive. I almost canceled my original gamertag. That would have meant the end of all of my hard work! Now I have a Gold membership for a gamertag that can't access any saved data. It's like I just bought every game I already own all over again. I wasn't going to stand for this.
Call number four: I spoke to an agent that seemed to want to help. I was semi-relieved. I learned that apparently, the asterisks were a borderline issue of national security and that gamertag recovery could only be accomplished by Microsoft corporate. While the agent was as dumbfounded as I was as to why my gamertag would have been canceled, she couldn't provide me with a number for corporate. Apparently, Xbox Live customer service has no way of contacting them. So she gave me a mail address to contact them with. Yes, you read that right, a MAIL address. At least she had been the most helpful so far.
Call number five: Determined to fix this problem, I called what I believed to be a Microsoft corporate number. I got in touch with the MSN division, another outsourced department. After a grueling few minutes of trying to explain my situation and being told that my gamertag never existed, I was transferred back to Xbox Live. Even though I pleaded that they couldn't help me and that I needed to speak to someone in corporate, it all came full circle. I was put on hold while the MSN agent tried to explain the situation to the Xbox Live agent. Once the silence was lifted, I was greeted with a new voice. "Sorry, I couldn't understand him so I asked to speak to you directly." Isn't it great when companies have internal communication problems? It really puts you at ease knowing they should therefore have no problems communicating with customers.
Luckily, the new agent was helpful and logged everything that had happened to me up until this point. He then put me in touch with a manager. This time I was assured that things would be OK. He "escalated" (need to make sure to keep call center terminology straight) my call and sent a message to corporate, notifying them that my account should be reactivated. Of course, since no one has direct access to corporate phone numbers, I would have to wait ten business days before I received any notification. Let's hope this is not a "to be continued" story but one that gets resolved with this. Microsoft is not winning any points this week.
Link
According to Microsoft, my account had been canceled. I thought for a moment that this could be fraud, some one's attempt to seize my credit card information. After all, I never ordered the cancellation. I decided that the best course of action would be to call Xbox Live customer support.
The first time I called, I was connected to what appeared to be an outsource company. It was a little difficult to get my point across but after some time, the agent notified me that there may have been some credit card discrepancies due to my card being stolen a few weeks ago. I thought this odd since the payment had already been processed a month prior, but went with his explanation. He has all the data right on his computer screen. He is a qualified agent. He should know what he is talking about. Right?
The agent told me to just reapply for Gold membership. I got off the phone and did exactly that.
"Xbox Live cannot process the information at this time." That's the message I kept receiving. "Well, I'll just have to call again," I mumbled to myself.
Call number two: This time the agent told me that there was a problem with the Live service a few hours before and that I should try to upgrade in two hours. When I asked if this was an attempt to get away from the issue because she couldn't solve the problem, she laughed. I stopped smiling.
Call number three: I was now introduced to a new problem. The agent explained that in the area designated for the name regarding credit card information, there were asterisks. In other words, my name did not appear. Someone at the corporate office found this suspicious and thus canceled my subscription. I asked to speak to a manager.
The manager reiterated what the previous agent had explained and also added that my gamertag would never be recovered. He claimed that I had received a warning (via email) regarding what he called, a "violation." So why did I feel like the one who was being violated? I never received a warning, at least not to my email account. Besides, if it was that crucial a violation that it pended gamertag cancellation, why wasn't I notified via my Xbox, the place where I actually play these games? I have been an Xbox member since 2005, why was I being deleted now? Let's just say that the manager I spoke with that day, had no intention of helping me remedy this situation and also provided misinformation regarding what I needed to do to proceed with setting up a new gamertag.
Angry but determined, I went upstairs to my console and created a new gamertag and Xbox Live Gold account. What the manager failed to explain to me was that I would not be able to access ANY of my saved games on the 360 hard drive. I almost canceled my original gamertag. That would have meant the end of all of my hard work! Now I have a Gold membership for a gamertag that can't access any saved data. It's like I just bought every game I already own all over again. I wasn't going to stand for this.
Call number four: I spoke to an agent that seemed to want to help. I was semi-relieved. I learned that apparently, the asterisks were a borderline issue of national security and that gamertag recovery could only be accomplished by Microsoft corporate. While the agent was as dumbfounded as I was as to why my gamertag would have been canceled, she couldn't provide me with a number for corporate. Apparently, Xbox Live customer service has no way of contacting them. So she gave me a mail address to contact them with. Yes, you read that right, a MAIL address. At least she had been the most helpful so far.
Call number five: Determined to fix this problem, I called what I believed to be a Microsoft corporate number. I got in touch with the MSN division, another outsourced department. After a grueling few minutes of trying to explain my situation and being told that my gamertag never existed, I was transferred back to Xbox Live. Even though I pleaded that they couldn't help me and that I needed to speak to someone in corporate, it all came full circle. I was put on hold while the MSN agent tried to explain the situation to the Xbox Live agent. Once the silence was lifted, I was greeted with a new voice. "Sorry, I couldn't understand him so I asked to speak to you directly." Isn't it great when companies have internal communication problems? It really puts you at ease knowing they should therefore have no problems communicating with customers.
Luckily, the new agent was helpful and logged everything that had happened to me up until this point. He then put me in touch with a manager. This time I was assured that things would be OK. He "escalated" (need to make sure to keep call center terminology straight) my call and sent a message to corporate, notifying them that my account should be reactivated. Of course, since no one has direct access to corporate phone numbers, I would have to wait ten business days before I received any notification. Let's hope this is not a "to be continued" story but one that gets resolved with this. Microsoft is not winning any points this week.
Link
3 comments:
When does Microsoft ever earn points? Teh terminated the support for an online game they produced, Mechwarrior 4. The got rid of the zone for players to connect to each other. Luckily hackers made a new network so ppl can keep playing. God bless the dorks out there.
Also, I am confused. So you have saved games on your HD but you cant access them without this name thing? Can you explain that in layman terms please?
You got to love the support you get from these companies, especially with all the outsourcing. I hope they burn in hell. Hope it works out for you.
damn should have checked my spelling before i posted. sorry hehe
The wonderful world of customer support. I can only imagine that Xbox's customer support is still light years ahead of Sony's inchoate online gaming support. I hope this gets resolved quickly, but if not, you can always write the definitive guide to handling Xbox Live's cutomer support.
Post a Comment