Xbox Live recurring charges

freshmasterfresh

I recently purchased and redeemed a 1 year subscription card to Xbox Live Gold. Previously I had temporarily purchased a 1 month Gold subscription using my Visa Check Card. Before redeeming my 1 year subscription, I looked through every option in the account management menus for a way to cancel the recurring charges to my checking account. I found no way to cancel the charges, but it appeared they would cease for at least until my prepaid year concluded. I was not prepared for the $7.99 charge I found tonight, and I only have $6 and change in my checking account. I still cannot find a way to prevent any further unauthorized charges.

I called 1-800-4MY-XBOX only to be told to call back during business hours. Has this happened to any of you? Is there a solution to my problem other than removing my card information completely and inputting it again next time I want to buy an arcade game?

FyreWulff

Just call it back during business hours, and have them refund the money. I'd also talk to your bank.

Hullabaloo

Oh man, this thread has good timing - uh my post'l be kinda unrelated to the orginal topic rather then the thing being about xbox live - so hopefully I don't derail this or anything.

Anyways, Me and my brother share the one X-Box, he's made a profile "Mr X" (fake tag there (duuuh)) and linked it to xbox live. I've made another profile "Mr Y" and would like to use that on xbox live, without having to buy another subscription. Is that possible?

I've been looking around the internet and have been getting conflicting views on the matter, but I sure as hell can't work out how to link the two profiles up. Any help would be greatly appreciated

FyreWulff

Each tag has to pay it's own subscription.

Some games however, like Halo 2, let a tag sign on up to 3 guests for free. But if you want seperate names, you need to pay for both of them (except for the 360, in which case you would need to pay if you wanted multiplayer for both of them)

Hullabaloo

FyreWulff wrote:

Each tag has to pay it's own subscription.

Some games however, like Halo 2, let a tag sign on up to 3 guests for free. But if you want seperate names, you need to pay for both of them (except for the 360, in which case you would need to pay if you wanted multiplayer for both of them)

Well that blows. Looks like i'm stuck using a shitty name then. Thanks for the help.

Neva

I don't remember all the details, but basically xbox live {non-360} is about the hardest subscription to cancel, ever. You have to talk to them over the phone, and hope you have every bit of data they need.

Gripper

I'd heard some horror stories about cancelling xbox live, but it wasn't so bad for me. You do have to phone up though, and they ask you a few questions like why you want to cancel etc. Took me about 10 minutes, including being on hold for 5. Keep your bank details nearby and don't be a dick. Call centre guys are a lot more likely to fuck you around if you're rude.

Neva

Exactly. Their methods of getting xbox live canceled are based on pure douchery, the phone support people have little control over it. My grandma used to tear apart the people in customer support just because talking calmly is too easy.

xboxxer

Xbox live, while awesome, very much needs to fix their broken customer service/credit card cancellation system.

I had an Xbox Gold membership that was about to expire in 1/07. At the time, I wasn't using my Xbox 1, and didn't have an Xbox 360, so I called to make sure that they would allow the account to expire at the end of 12/06.

As it turns out, I got an Xbox 360 for Xmas, and wanted to continue my Live account. However, there were better deals out there (last month) for buying an Xbox Live prepaid card than just 50/year. I ended up getting Xbox Live Vision (with the camera, Uno, Robotron 2084, and 200 points) for 54 bucks.

So I called MS AGAIN to make sure that they would allow the account to expire and NOT recharge my credit card, because I wanted to (obviously) use the prepaid card, and since it was an online order, I likely wouldn't get it in time.

...So, on the phone, the rep tells me no problem, here's your confirmation, etc.. etc..

Until a week later, when I hadn't used my prepaid card yet (thank god), and I notice that my live subscription is still Gold, and they went ahead and charged my credit card $50 for another year!

...I called, and complained, and they fixed it ... but wtf MS? What does it take, huh? 2 phone calls, confirmation numbers, even an e-mail confirming that my account was about to expire. I believe that their records even had an expired credit card number. And still they pull this??? I was half tempted to contact the attorney general, or the bbb, as I'm pretty sure that charging my credit card when I've specifically revoked their authorization for doing so is illegal.

My suggestion to the OP would be to just flat out cancel the account when the prepaid thing expires. They will downgrade you to Silver, and allow you to keep your name. But I think that this will purge their system of your credit card number. Then go prepaid from now on, and never let them look at your credit card info again. At least, that's my plan. (it used to be that you had to input your credit card info EVEN IF YOU WERE USING A PREPAID CARD, but no longer).

TL;DR. Even though Microsoft makes a cool console, they're still Micro$oft, and will screw you at every opportunity.

fragglefart

Hullabaloo wrote:

FyreWulff wrote:

Each tag has to pay it's own subscription.

Some games however, like Halo 2, let a tag sign on up to 3 guests for free. But if you want seperate names, you need to pay for both of them (except for the 360, in which case you would need to pay if you wanted multiplayer for both of them)

Well that blows. Looks like i'm stuck using a shitty name then. Thanks for the help.

You can change your gamertag via some option in the dashboard somewhere. But it costs MS funbucks.

Kewop Decam

MS once gave me back my money after having LIVE for like 3 weeks. I logged on like once and didn't want Live anymore cause I didn't use it and the gave me my money back. They're pretty cool when it comes to giving you your money back.

Now, banks... those guys can be asses

djklay

fragglefart wrote:

Hullabaloo wrote:

FyreWulff wrote:

Each tag has to pay it's own subscription.

Some games however, like Halo 2, let a tag sign on up to 3 guests for free. But if you want seperate names, you need to pay for both of them (except for the 360, in which case you would need to pay if you wanted multiplayer for both of them)

Well that blows. Looks like i'm stuck using a shitty name then. Thanks for the help.

You can change your gamertag via some option in the dashboard somewhere. But it costs MS funbucks.

If your subscription is near it's end you can call and tell them you want to cancel because you don't like your tag and they may let you change your tag for free. Worked for me. However I think in this case the tag belongs to his brother so he might not like it too much if the tag was changed.

Alec

If you link your Gamertag with a .NET Passport, you can take care of all of your billing stuff over the internet and Xbox.com.

CarolinaBBQ

I had the exact same problem....even with the overdraft charges.
I called and canceled last month and found that another 7.99 was charged to my account on the 16th (even though I added a 3-month card on the 14th).
So I got kind of pissed and gave them a call.

Turns out your 1st month bill is automatically withdrawn from your account and the next one may take longer. Approximately 30 days to long.
October's bill posted in october, yet november's bill did not post until december and apparently december's until january.

I think this is a very convenient way to over charge folks who do not realize that it is a reoccurring charge.

Anyone else have a problem like this or see what I'm talking about?

revolve

Go to https://billing.microsoft.com and see what you can do from there.(You'll need to log in with your passport.net name thing)

freshmasterfresh

I guess it was my mistake. The charge I got this morning seems to be last month's fee clearing... really late. I'll just drive to the bank and deposit some money, I guess.


Their customer support system is pretty horrible. I hate that guy you have to "talk to" before you actually get to speak with a person. Reminds me of this, only without the squeaky adolescent voice and not quite as bad.

littwentythree

Has anyone really had trouble cancelling (non 360) xbox live? I just went into the dashboard and hit the "stop fucking billing me" button, I've cancelled on a few occasions and that's all I had to do.

Elessar Elfstone

When I canned my original sub it was pretty simple, I just called and told them I was moving to an area with no broadband. They can't really argue with that since its a req. for XBL heh.

Although slow, the XBL customer service has been pretty good for me. I remember way back in 2004 I signed up for a demo or beta copy of MechAssualt 2. I totally forgot about it and a few months later I get an email from MS apologizing, saying they had unforseen problems with the game and were unable to let us try it. As compensation they sent me a free year of XBL. Its to bad I didn't use it very often, in fact I think the last 6 months not at all.

corcorigan

It was the little 8 year olds who would kill everyone within seconds on Halo 2 that put me off it.

Subscription eventually cancelled or lapsed or something.

Handkor

revolve wrote:

Go to https://billing.microsoft.com and see what you can do from there.(You'll need to log in with your passport.net name thing)

Thank you, this will be useful in a couple of months when I get bored of chromehounds and move on to my single player only games, no need for Gold during those months.