I have the "Silver" (free) membership. They have some promotional offers right now for 24 months of Xbox live at 15% off for a total of $84. I absolutely, 100%, didn't even consider this. Didn't click it. Didn't even dream about it. Never ever went anywhere near anything that even resembled billing, or even finding out more info. I was simply not interested.
Today I got an e-mail from my bank saying my account was overdrawn (yeah, so I'm poor), and my credit card overdraft kicked in to cover it. I thought "I don't have any bills due yet!" and still have time to send money to the U.S. before my bills come due. "What on earth could this be?" and I see there, a charge for $84 to Xbox live for the "Gold" membership. WTF? So now, I'm ****still**** on the phone trying to cancel the stupid thing I didn't sign up for, and get a refund on the money. How infuriating. Has anyone had a similar thing happen recently, or heard of it? It's Microsoft, what has (in some peoples' minds) been a pretty reputable company thus far. I wonder if this is their billing error, or what. If it were a smaller company, I would just think they were a bunch of cheats and swindlers.
Xbox Live
Moderator: Officers
I don't either, and didn't. The problem is, I *have* payed for Xbox live gold before, but not for at least two years. They keep my CC details on hand, linked to the account.
I'm still on hold with their billing department trying to cancel. If they won't go along nicely, I'll just go ahead with reporting it as fraudulent activity. Take that, Bill Gates, you rich bastard!
I'm still on hold with their billing department trying to cancel. If they won't go along nicely, I'll just go ahead with reporting it as fraudulent activity. Take that, Bill Gates, you rich bastard!
Update: I tried to canceling the recurring subscription on the website. There is nothing but a circle of websites all pointing back to each other, and never any real option for canceling. I tried to cancel and get a refund on the phones, and was on hold for over 30 minutes. Screw them. I tried to do it through their channels. I contacted my bank and told them it's a fraudulent charge and they said "All right then." Nothing else I have to do. Big giant middle finger to Microsoft. I can't believe such a huge successful company would give me the run around that like. And, I have no idea where their phone technicians are located, but they are very difficult to understand. Mumbling doesn't hide your accent and make you sound like a native English speaker....
Another update: Apparently this is not unprecedented. A google search of "Xbox Live fraud" pulled up a bunch of different articles similiar to this one. I'm going to go ahead and say, since I don't play online games with people, and can't, without gold membership, I didn't give away any information that people could use to hack it. /shrug I'm not much of a sucker for phising schemes either.
For all the frustrations I have had with my bank in the past, it seems they finally realize that I'm not in the U.S., so they don't block me using my cards in Korea anymore which is just awesome. (or should be expected, after having told them probably hundreds of times?)
Anyway, I gave up on Xbox's incredibly horrible customer service people, and hung up after hanging on hold for at least 40 minutes just simply trying to tell them to cancel my subscription and refund my money. I called the bank and just told them it was a fraudulent charge. They put "provisional credit" in my account for the amount that was taken out. A few days later, the charges were gone, and they automatically removed my overdraft charge without me having to call and ask. Thank you, Wells Fargo.
Anyway, I gave up on Xbox's incredibly horrible customer service people, and hung up after hanging on hold for at least 40 minutes just simply trying to tell them to cancel my subscription and refund my money. I called the bank and just told them it was a fraudulent charge. They put "provisional credit" in my account for the amount that was taken out. A few days later, the charges were gone, and they automatically removed my overdraft charge without me having to call and ask. Thank you, Wells Fargo.
Links
Wreckers Hosting Donations