The power of PR: Overcharged XBL member gets refunded

A few days back we posted a story about an Xbox Live user who found himself charged a year's Gold service for the two months that he hadn't paid for, effectively being forced to hand $50 over simply to use the Silver service. The overcharged gamer, known by his gamertag of ForceTrainer, has updated The Consumerist with news that Microsoft has fixed the issue.

ForceTrainer spoke with a man called James who wasn't the stereotypical smug support staff that was portrayed in his last story. James explained that because his situation was unique, ForceTrainer fell victim to an honest mistake:

I absolutely believe that James was sincere in his evaluation of the situation, and his point that decline states don't occur often with annual accounts means that the CSR I talked to may have never had that exact situation before. While that doesn't mean that what the CSR did was right, mistakes happen and MS worked quickly to fix the mistake. James said that they will make sure to address this in training with their CSRs. Whether that happens or not I don't know, but the fact that they called me directly speaks volumes.

Certainly a huge turnaround from the last time we met ForceTrainer, but from my experience, I wouldn't find it indicative of Microsoft's notorious Xbox support staff. Was it a sincere gesture, or more the power of publicity?