And now finally everyone can stop bitching. Jesus Christopher Christ.

ArmyofJuan

I recently had a NIGHTMARE with M$ about points and a refund. I live in Canada, and bought Points in the US, not knowing that the points are locked by country. So I was told to make a US live account to use them, and the stuff would be useable on my Canadian account. I did, and it was. Problem solved. Then, surprise surprise my 360 breaks. So send it in, get a new one back, and everything I bought on the alternate account isn't useable. No good. I was told that purchases wouldn't be affected. Call for a refund and they apparently can't do anything. Despite it's their fault that I can't use the stuff anymore, they lied to me about purchases not being affected with sending my X-Box in, and I followed what they said to do the whole time. So, now I'm out $20+ dollars, and MS doesn't seem to think they owe me anything... maybe I should send this to Consumerist?

weggles90

I have to say, having dealt with XBL and 360 support on 7 different occasions (3 for Live account stuff dating back to XB1, and 4 for RROD return info/problems), their support is usually pretty helpful. The only problem I've had with them was the second RROD console return, the guy I spoke to had a tenuous grasp on english (sounded Indian/Pakistani), but he was still trying to help me regardless.

I never did get satisfaction on the Halo 2 map pack issue (got it with my 2nd 360, and the third wouldn't load the maps because they're console-locked), but to be fair it does say a few different places on their site and Bungie's that the maps work that way. I just wish they didn't do it like that, its not a ton of money (like 4 bucks IIRC) but its the principle. By contrast, Apple has bent over backwards the two times I had a problem downloading a file from iTunes, the second time they game me a free video and 2 free songs for my trouble. MS should definitely take note, even the most minor freebies go a long way towards easing customer anger in most situations, hopefully they'll do this again in the future and on a per customer basis if necessary.

DaiMacculate

Damnit, the title got my hopes up. Too bad I'm gonna have to stick with Undertow since I didn't and never planned to purchase the game.

chillblain

last time i had to deal with Xbox CSR was when i had problem with one of the theme....

i haven't used one of the theme i purchased while back so i decided to change the background....for some reason, the theme wouldn't apply whenever i tried to select it...i deleted and redownloaded but still theme did not work....i called Xbox CSR for help...it was a female with pretty cute voice if i remember right....

anywho....she told to try few things including redownloading and clearing cache but still the theme didn't work....she went away for couple of minutes and told me she can refund the purchase of the theme back to my account....pretty easy and painless....only thing spent was several minutes on the phone....

icepick314

@dowingba: it'll be free starting Wednesday I believe.

Five Element Ninja

refund confirmed.

Edge of Blade

How are we supposed to actually get the free game? I look it up in the marketplace and it still says 800 points. They're not expecting me to buy the game and then get a refund, are they? Because taht would be seriously underhanded.

dowingba

@Capt_Birdseye: lol, I was more in shock then anything, but I did tell her off, in a good manner and asked to talk to her supervisor, something she obliged :)

The supervisor was very friendly, and most of the support I spoken to before and after has been too. Even the woman that spoke russian or something.

Irenicus-the one and only

@gstaff:
[smg.photobucket.com]

Got mine.

Scazza

@ IRENICUS-THE ONE AND ONLY haha she told u to piss off, id be like go f**k yaself.

Capt_Birdseye

when I called Microsoft about my RRoD, the girl on the phone was very nice. the process went smoothly. I guess it just depends on the person you get.

on a side note, I'm kinda tempted to call and ask if I can just get the points instead of Undertow. I highly doubt they would, but I really want to change my gamertag and don't want to pay $10 to do so.

Five Element Ninja

@Moonshadow101: @invictus: @Fahey: I doubt they do it, I just thought I'd start the conspiracy theory... since they are always so much fun...

All joking aside, having worked in tech supoort myself too, I find that it's one part who you get, and 2 parts how you treat them. I know that I always try to be pleasant and cordial with the tech people cuz it was always so much easier for me to be that way when I was in their shoes... you get more flies with honey than vinegar ;)

darkthanatos

Now I really wish i had bought this game so I could have spent my 800 on anything.

blackjack1353

Its taken me an hour of holding and having to speak to 2 people but I got my 800 points! Thanks for the info guys.

SeannyFunco

@Capt_Birdseye: I remember one call to the UK service once, It was funny. I wasking about a game on old xbox and lady told me the wrong information so I corrected her with what I knew, she told me to piss off so I had it escalated and talked to the supervisor, she apologised and was very friendly :)

I liked the UK support, the swedish one was also great until they fired the swedish people and then closed it alltogether. Last call I had with the UK support was to cansel my Live subscription, she asked why and I said I refuse to pay for it, she agreed lol

Irenicus-the one and only

@coolpengwn: Did you ever consider that maybe there could be more than one person working for customer service, and those people might not be as well informed as the woman you dealt with?

Geez, blaming it on other people is ridiculous. Microsoft has had serious issues with customer service -- this is what happened to me: [blog.myspace.com]

I've also had good experiences with them, but it's definitely not the people that are calling.

jayntampa

It just gose to show that microsoft support is poo, Speacily if you live in the UK.

Capt_Birdseye

Why can't they just automatically credit those of us that purchased this game? I assume this is their gambit on most people being ignorant of this offer and/or being too lazy/busy to pick up the phone for 800 points?

I guess you've really got to WANT IT. Sorry for the 'coachspeak'.

jollydwarf

Somewhat related, whatever happened with the email folks were supposed to get about 500 free points if they were a Live member since 2002 (that's me!). Once when I was on the phone with Microsoft, I mentioned it and they had no idea what I was talking about.

Did anyone ever get this?

gstaff

@ckranger11: 1-800-mysexbox.

Luis

I just called the number and talked to a woman that sounded like she was in India, and she was very polite and knew exactly what I was talking about and credited my 800 points back to me with no problems at all.

I think some people must be calling the wrong number or something to get these rude people.

coolpengwn

Last time I called MS support I spent 2 hours trying to explain to someone that my ethernet port on my 360 didn't work. I got transferred twice and then as he was reading off my RMA number we got disconnected. I then called back and spent another 30 minutes with someone else making ANOTHER ticket. I don't think its even worth 800 points to waste your time putting up with MS support.

ExarKun

Same thing happened to me but not on purchasing Undertow. It was a purchase of the Street Fighter gamer picture pack that they can't find any record of and is not available anymore in the marketplace.

What happened is I bought a new picture pack. When I wanted to return to the original SF, I couldn't find it anymore so I called xbox support.

The specialist even hinted that I never bought them in the first place. The nerve!!!

ARPRINCE

@invictus: Well if that was the case, they'd be silly to give preferential treatment for someone who was going to turn around and write a story like this one. Mark was extremely nice even before he had my personal information, and my cell phone account is not in my name...so yeah.

Fahey

Mark? Last person I spoke with was a woman called Svetlana from eastern europe and she did not understand Swedish or English so I had to contact them by Email :P

It was a few months ago. They use to have a Swedish staff with Swedish people for the longest time but they all got fired :(

Irenicus-the one and only

Do you think they might have various media personnel's accounts flagged as such and the treatment you might receive might just be different then the average joe?

I know if I ran a company I would flag persons whose opinions were much more vocal. Assuming you at some point used a credit card of your own.

Just a thought and no snobbery included.

invictus

Was Mark like this guy?

[www.youtube.com]

njhardcoreguy

The only "bad" 1-800-4MY-XBOX experience I have had was recently when I called in to cancel by Phantasy Star Universe subscription. At first the guy claimed he couldn't find my gamertag (my guess is he couldn't understand the proper english us canuks speak... Its ZED, not ZEE!) but then didn't have a clue what PSU was, and finally after some explaining, told me that I would probaly have to contact Sega. After informing him that if he could find, and check my account, he would see it on there, and that I have canceled it and reactivated it a number of times already...

At which point he apologized and canceled it (after finding my account via phone number)...

Every other time (1 RRoD, 1 busted 360 and a bunch of other times) that I called them, they are usually stellar, even their Indian support seem decent at times... (this guy was from texas)

Scazza

They have always been good when I call. I have gotten both a Middle Eastern Fellow and I believe a Canadian gentleman, and they have always been very nice. I think that some of the time it might just be the customer's fault for being inconsiderate.

I have seen friends yell at the customer service like it was the guy on the other end of the phone who broke his Xbox.

cmonty06

What is the support number to reach the girl in the picture?

ckranger11

@darkthanatos: Aye, they've got a V.I.P. tech support line that important people are automatically rerouted to in order to fudge the media's tech support impressions.

It was a joke when I typed it, but if I owned a tech company, I would totally do this.

Moonshadow101

They already have your number on their list, Fahey, they know who you are, and they are watching :O

darkthanatos

What I want to know is how will they handle the "international" customers who were also affected by the XBL fubar holidays.

Witzbold

I think you might have just gotten lucky with Mark. Every person I've spoken to has either been rude or retarded.

chaos242

I just called and spoke with a rep named Tiffany who seemed knowledgeable of the issue in general, but completely oblivious as to what the deal would be for those who had already purchased Undertow. I made a point to mention that crediting 800 points to my account seemed like the logical thing to do. She was very courteous the entire time, put me on hold for about 2-3 minutes) presumably to go ask a supervisor wtf she should do, then came back and credited my account. Sweeeeet.

mkernan

Wait, i didn't read any of the comments. Even when given free shit, people can STILL bitch that it's not the RIGHT free shit. Holy fuck.

I mean a 10 dollar game or just 10 dollars of MS money for something that 3/4 of the people here didnt even experience? What the hell do you people want? For Bill Gates to come to your house and rub your balls?

Even if you DID happen to experience some sort of outage, are you really that concerned about it? I mean seriously, you didn't get to play Halo 3 for how many days so you were FORCED to go outside or do something more productive? If anything you should be thanking Microsoft for this happening because maybe you finally got to see a shooting star or see what a real flower looks like.

Add to the fact that a monthly XBL charge is like 4-5 dollars? So basically you are getting free money.

So everyone from now on, stfu on this subject and if you have any whining to do, keep it on Halo 3 like you normally do

ArmyofJuan

Considering how rude and despicably racist some Xbox Live users are, I foresee a life of torment and anguish for our overseas customer service reps, so whenever I call I am usually courteous to them and they go out of their way to lend some extra special help. Be nice and treat those who try to help like a human being irregardless of their nationality and quit being an ingrate, American ignorant prick.

Leobebes

I'm currently on hold with them right now, and they're trying to tell me that "unfortunately, they won't be able to provide compensation for this issue." We'll see what the supervisor says.

sedaris

@jollydwarf: That's simple. They don't want to hand out US$10 to everybody. Not everybody noticed the network downtime, after all. Joe Occasional Gamer who hasn't turned his console on since October has no idea that there was downtime, but he's still eligible for the free game. Note that MS hasn't sent emails to the email addresses associated with Passport accounts that are attached to Xbox Live accounts, telling everybody to get their free game. No, only people who pay attention, who read the blogs, are informed of it.

It's the same reason why the Undertow download will only be free for a few days. This minimizes the chance of people just finding out accidentally that they can unlock the full game for free. Crediting 800 MS points to every account that has purchased Undertow would be just the same as unlocking the full game for every Xbox Live account that hasn't purchased it. Both of these would amount to MS volunteering free stuff, and that's clearly against their policy. MS wants to give their customers as little free stuff as they possibly can.

Andy S.

I called yesterday and was nicely told to wait until Wednesday when they would refund my points. He also made a note on my account so said call could be handled more quickly.

thejoe

hmm... I WANT the refund... however two hours of my time is worth more than $10... what to do... what to do.

ExistentialEgg

I just got off the phone with support. After explaining the situation, I was transferred to a supervisor who told me that they would automatically detect that I had already purchased the game, and credit my account with the 800 points tomorrow... Sounds fishy considering the experiences of every one else here thus far.

Mooseferatu

Why didn't they let us get a refund for Carcassonne way back when? I guess in that case it was a "freebie" (for those that didn't already buy it) for XBL 5y anniversary and this is "compensation" for the poor holiday service, but still... BOO! =)

BigWeather

Anybody have tips on tricking them so I can get free points instead of some retarded XBL arcade game?

Grumpy_Eggs

@ArmyofJuan: Look, anyway you turn it, MS charges for XBL gold, and, while I can't speak for everyone, I didn't get what I paid for. Maybe you didn't experience any problems, and that's great - I mean it. I'm genuinely happy to know that not everyone was affected. However, I was. Every time I tried to get a game in the past month and a half (with the exception of the past week or so), matchmaking delays, and dropped connections to game lobbies made the service unusable for me. Now, I don't play on Live every day. I have a job, and a girlfriend, and a variety of other obligations that keep me from gaming on a daily basis. However, I'm paying a premium price for XBL which is supposed to be a premium service. When it comes right down to it, if I'm paying for a premium service, I expect it to be up and running when I want it. What if your cell phone didn't work for the last three days of the month? You'd be pissed. You'd be pissed, and you'd want credit for your three days.

Maybe it only equals out to four or five bucks - but it's my four or five bucks. If you genuinely feel like five bucks has no value, go flush a five dollar bill down the toilet right now. You don't really want to do that, do you? Because it's silly to just throw money away isn't it? I didn't get what I paid for, and to me, that feels like a waste of money.

At the end of the day, MS is giving out Undertow because it's cost effective to do so. Not because they care about the community. They needed to do something to ease the PR burden the Live outages have put on them, and this was the cheapest solution they could come up with. At the end of the day, I'd rather have a free month of live, or five dollars - not Undertow.

What The Geek

I just called and got an issue number, and told that they don't have a resolution for this just yet, but to keep checking the website or call back another time.

I guess it all matters on what call center you get. My operator had an eastern european accent. Seems some of the call centers in india are more informed from the comments above.

Spiral

I would d/l Undertow if I could connect to the Marketplace.

phalanges

@What The Geek:

This isnt like a million people bought undertow and the last half of the game didnt work. This is something that, again 3/4 of subscribers didn't even experience. So the most of us are getting something for nothing. And even if you do pay for XBL a year at a time, for the few hiccups you recieved in a month it probably equals out to a whole dollar and some change.

ArmyofJuan

@What The Geek:
I completely agree. I don't see why MS couldn't just give us the 800 points and be done with it.

Xagest

Now, see, this is part of what I see wrong with MS's "apology".

I haven't bought undertow, and I'm kinda iffy about it based on the demo - don't love it don't hate it. Had I been one of the enthusiastic early adopters of this game, I'd be getting 800pts ($10) now for my live troubles - which would be great.... ten bucks would more than cover what I lost in XBL time. Instead, I'm getting a game I didn't especially want in the first place.

Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not calling for anyone's head on a platter or anything like that, but I pay into XBL on a yearly basis, and I didn't get what I paid for this year. As of today, I still get the occasional matchmaking "hiccup". Instead of a free month of live, or 800pts to spend as I see fit, I'm getting a game I didn't really want in the first place.

Before you flame me for not being satisfied w/ this freebie, look at it like this:

Let's say you go out to your local game store, and buy God of War 2. You put your $50 down and take it home only to find that the last two levels are missing from the game. Enraged by the defective product, you call Sony. Sony wants to apologize - so they offer up a sandwich as their way of saying "We're sorry". While the sandwich may be tasty it's not really what you paid for in the first place now is it? You'd most likely prefer a refund, or a replacement disc, wouldn't you?

What MS is essentially doing here is handing out the "sandwich", and when someone says "but I'm allergic to mayo" they're compensating that person, and only that person properly... what gives? That's silly.

What The Geek

That's sorta why every single XBLA game has a trial version...

mkernan

so it is possible to refund MSFT points to an account how interesting.
not that MSFT would ever do this but wouldn't it be great if you downloaded a crap arcade title, and had the ability to call MSFT and say "I do not like this purchase, please refund my funbucks".
That will never happen but i like to dream.

Gadgetron

Wow they must have media members caller ID'ed because the times I called xbox support it was always someone working in the basement of an Indian (as in, India) sweatshop who was just going through his book of "English as Your Fifth Language". Good for you!

DrunkRaba

Just got of the fone empty handed.
It seems the woman I talked to was pretty friendly although she had no Idea what the hell I was talking about. She had no information and had a somewhat heavy accent. She put me on hold and when she came back, I swear I heard this, "Sorry I'm going to have to put you on hold for a little longer my assistant is bleeding, is that ok?"

Accents are awesome.

scotty

I guess I should be happy for Silver members, who just got a free game for nothing since they don't pay.

For those of us who do pay and could not care less for Undertow, basically we got nothing. I'm not even going to download the game since I have no interest in it whatsoever.

But believe it or not, I'm not that upset... Let's just be done with this and move on.

AceSpeed

@dowingba: @dowingba:

Not really speaking for everyone in my comments - just me. I was heavily affected by the outages, and I don't really care for undertow. From my point of view, I had a bad experience, and I don't really feel taken care of by the compensation. That's the fundamental problem w/ the free game - it's not a blanket "everyone's happy" solution - some are happy, some aren't. I don't think ANYONE would have had a problem with a free month of live.

What The Geek

I looked earlier today and didn't see it listed for free. How do I get it?

CyberSkull

Also, I'm assuming Silver members will also be able to download the game, (and/or get a refund), which is all profit for them because they never paid for Live in teh first place.

dowingba

The game is compensation enough. It's worth $10 and is compensation for a month ($5) of occassionally slower service. Even if Live was actually down, which it wasn't, for a month, $10 would more than cover it. (In fact, it would cover 2 months of complete downtime.)

dowingba

On hold right now...

FamousLastX

@What The Geek: well i suppose you're right. not that im admitting defeat, just that you are one of the exceptions as opposed to all the others on here bitching when nothing happened to them.

I bow down and humbly kiss your feet and apologize

ArmyofJuan

I wonder if they will give me 800 points because my Xbox is in the shop for the next week or two?
(all signs point to no)

el_rezzo

@Xagest:

Here's why:

Because it costs them WAY more money to give us all 800 points. I assume anytime a person buys a game, or theme, or rents a movie or buys pretty much anything on XBL (other than paying 800 to change your gamertag) MS has to pony up a portion of that to the producer of the theme, game, movie, etc.

Therefore, if MS gives me 800 points, and say I buy Switchball (because it is awesome), they can't expect Sierra to not want to get paid.

So instead they approach the developer of a game that maybe has already seen its sales plateau. A game that perhaps will be offering additional maps and vehicles. A game that would benefit to an influx of new players due to its multiplayer aspect. And they pay that developer a lump sum to allow them to give their game to a few million people.

Chair gets their game out there, and now has lots of people to sell maps and stuff to, and MS doesn't just lose out on 8,000,000,000 points.

Also as mentioned earlier, there is no mechanism in Live to claim free points. So they'd have to give all 10,000,000 subscribers 800 points. This way, they put Undertow up for free for one week and the few million that actually cared enough about these hiccups to follow it, will download it. Others will not.

It is also a better business practice. If a restaurant makes a mistake on someone's dinner, it shouldn't take off the cost of the salad, the smart practice is to buy them dessert. That improves the meal rather than just making the same meal cheaper. Possibly that customer will be impressed with the dessert and order it in the future. Buying us a free month of Live doesn't make it better, only cheaper.

This is a way for MS to give what they think is a good game to lots of people.

Ess

hey did anyone here call in without owning the game and get the points. i am thinking about calling them and trying to get the free points.

smiley286

I hope they can track when Undertow was purchased as I only have the time to ring them tomorrow when the offer starts and they may not believe me.

Bubble_Lord

@ckranger11: LOL hey seriously i want my damn points for free...if the game is free awesome game too.

MedelliaObscured

7 years in tech support? You poor bastard.

juicehandy

Just want to tell everyone that I just got off the phone with Brent at Xbox Live support. When I told him I'd already purchased Undertow and how I read online that they could refund 800 points to my account, he immediately knew exactly what I was talking about. He was very friendly, spoke perfect English, and in less then 10 minutes (includes the 2 minute wait to get a live person on the phone) I had my 800 points. It probably would have been even faster but he said the system was a little slow tonight. Anyway, I'm completely satisfied and the process couldn't have been easier. I'm sorry to hear some of you are getting rude and unhelpful support rep's, all I can say is try again and you'll probably have better luck.

lestat730

I used to work tech and billing support for a company that will remain unnamed (rhymes with SBC/Yahoo! Internet Services) and can tell you that atleast they have a database of numbers of people linked to media and such that would automaticly connect to super agents who where sickenly polite and devoted as much time as possible to your problem and even had better computers, programs, and higher level powers over accounts to make everything run super smooth.

We had one of them in our call center. I noticed him because he never seemed to have any phone calls (I did 100s a day, he did maybe one a month) and there where rumors he might be some kind of undercover goverment agent. Not as far fetched as you'd think. Those NSA routers and Navy listening posts have to be hidden somewhere. Then one day I'm wasting time talking to him, his phone rings, and he litterly shoos me away and gives me a "Talk to the Hand". He explained the whole scam to later when I called him on being an asshole.

We got alot of complaints filed against us. If we got a call from a number we knew to be a reviewer (god knows how we got those numbers to log) it would be routed to agents with atleast two years of experince on the phone and one year experince as an actual manager (Anyone who works callcenters knows the "manager" you talk to on the phone is just Help Desk) and basicly be inhumanly ontop of their shit. Then they got payed double to pretty much sit around all day and memorise the KB.

So yeah. Did it happen? Not a clue. Does it happen? Everyday.

/rant

TheLichLord

@What The Geek: I am right with you man. For 2 weeks I could not get into an online match on any of my games (halo and cod4 included). When i get home from work at night i like to unwind with a little gameplay before my girl gets home. Now with have playing undertow, i feel that it does not compensate for 2 weeks of no service. while that game may be enough for some gamers, i would rather have a couple of bucks credited to my account than a game i have no interest in.

TimTheEnchanter