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The power of PR: Overcharged XBL member gets refunded photo

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?








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Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize. Likes PS2, iPod Touch, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid, Dynasty Warriors 3 Meet the rest of the team



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17 comments | showing # 1 to 17
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UglyDuck's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/20/2008 04:54
UglyDuck
DUCK
Lewis Bell's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/20/2008 04:57
Lewis Bell
MALLARD
jediyoshi's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/20/2008 05:49
jediyoshi
fastest combo breaker ever.
RJG's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/20/2008 05:57
RJG
What the difference between you and a mallard with a cold?
flabzilla's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/20/2008 05:58
flabzilla
How do you actually remove credit card details from your xbox account.
I wanted to start using those pre pay cards instead but when I went to remove the details I couldn't find the option
Jon2309's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/20/2008 06:21
Jon2309
@flabzilla
Provided you're signed in at xbox.com, cookies should log you in.

https://billing.microsoft.com/home.aspx

Also, ducks.
CALkulon's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/20/2008 06:55
CALkulon
I lol'ed IRL @ Jedi's comment. Nice one.

Typical story really, company pisses off individual, individual makes news about it, company suddenly sorts everything out to save face. We all know M$ are still are a bunch of arseholes, and that this will happen to other people.

It's purely an exercise in PR, unfortunately.
-PL-'s Avatar - Comment posted on 08/20/2008 07:16
-PL-
Man... somebody should raise a stink about Square Enix's customer support in Final Fantasy XI. Two hour hold times, and they delete your characters after you cancel for 3 months. Or at least they deleted mine, and refused to recover him until the next "Return to Vana'diel" campaign, which you probably have to pay extra for. Note that I never deleted my character, THEY deleted him. :(. Worst customer service experience I've ever encountered.

Well it's probably for the better anyway, I don't need to get back into that game. I've had a chip on my shoulder with those fuckers ever since this happened though.
Miguelcar808's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/20/2008 07:17
Miguelcar808
I find it funny that James droped it all on CSR's back and not MS.
CountingConflict's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/20/2008 08:19
CountingConflict
Microsoft doesn't give a shit about anyone. They are more than willing to rip off their consumers until someone complains publicly about it. Then they fix the one public problem, and try to look golden. All the while, thousands of Microsoft consumers (including me) are on their sixth xbox360, and are being ignored by MS.

I should start a MS hate blog. Maybe they might take me a bit more seriously.
Brilliam's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/20/2008 09:16
Brilliam
Who cares if it's the publicity or good CSR? Either way, the guy got something fixed. Even if it was PR, I give MS's people credit for doing right on bad publicity, and so quickly. Talk all the siht you want about MS but they have been doing a pretty good job of fixin their mistakes this generation.
Syn's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/20/2008 09:36
Syn
Of course, they've had a lot of practice over the past decade. All they fuckin' do is mess up and then after people bitch at them only then do they set things the way they should have been to begin with.
necrozen's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/20/2008 09:38
necrozen
Lets hope they fixed the ENTIRE problem, and not just this one person. But I doubt it.
taterchimp's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/20/2008 10:12
taterchimp
RJG- Ones a sick duck. I forget how it ends, but your mother is a whore.
GunSlap's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/20/2008 10:25
GunSlap
I agree with Brilliam, at least they cleaned it up. I would concider going on a videogame induced murderous rampage if that happened to me!
Radie's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/20/2008 13:13
Radie
Good Stuff. I had doubted that we would see an update on this story (if one ever came to exist, that is).
TrailerParkJesus's Avatar - Comment posted on 08/20/2008 13:13
TrailerParkJesus
Stamped out that fire pretty quick.
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