NOTHING THEY ARE DOING IS BASED ON HIM. IT IS BASED ON HIS ACCOUNT STATUS. THEY DO NOT CARE WHERE HE CURRENTLY LIVES OR WHERE HE LIVED BEFORE.
If that's how you want to look at it, fine. It doesn't matter if MS is doing this out of malice, laziness, or just a simple mistake, they're still not treating him the same way that they treat (most of) the rest of the people in America, but they would be treating him the same if he wasn't an immigrant. That makes it discrimination. I don't see why it's so bad to acknowledge that.
If I move from the United States to England, would I be able to change my American XBox account to a UK one?
No?
Then we are receiving the same treatment.
It's shitty treatment, but it is a policy that is uniformly applied.
NOTHING THEY ARE DOING IS BASED ON HIM. IT IS BASED ON HIS ACCOUNT STATUS. THEY DO NOT CARE WHERE HE CURRENTLY LIVES OR WHERE HE LIVED BEFORE.
If that's how you want to look at it, fine. It doesn't matter if MS is doing this out of malice, laziness, or just a simple mistake, they're still not treating him the same way that they treat (most of) the rest of the people in America, but they would be treating him the same if he wasn't an immigrant. That makes it discrimination. I don't see why it's so bad to acknowledge that.
they are treating him exactly like the would treat any other american! If you wan't xbox live in america create an account. If I (who live in america) happened to have an xbox live account in the UK, or Japan, or any other region in the world and I called them to get that account migrated to America I would have the same issues that he is having.
If that's how you want to look at it, fine. It doesn't matter if MS is doing this out of malice, laziness, or just a simple mistake, they're still not treating him the same way that they treat (most of) the rest of the people in America, but they would be treating him the same if he wasn't an immigrant. That makes it discrimination. I don't see why it's so bad to acknowledge that.
they're treating him like they would treat anyone in any country that moved to america .... so no, it isn't discrimination.
If that's how you want to look at it, fine. It doesn't matter if MS is doing this out of malice, laziness, or just a simple mistake, they're still not treating him the same way that they treat (most of) the rest of the people in America, but they would be treating him the same if he wasn't an immigrant. That makes it discrimination. I don't see why it's so bad to acknowledge that.
they're treating him like they would treat anyone in any country that moved to america .... so no, it isn't discrimination.
Or anyone in America that moved to a different country, for that matter.
they're still not treating him the same way that they treat (most of) the rest of the people in America
In what way, exactly?
Hey guys, before we get all crazy, we should realize something. I, as a native (not Native) American, would have this exact same problem if I were to move to the UK. Or Canada, or Japan, or wherever. Hell, we don't know that the service droid wouldn't have said the exact same thing to somebody moving in that direction.
There really isn't any discrimination here to speak of.
This is another case of trying to apply fun and emotional buzzwords to an already ludicrous and unacceptable situation in order to try and make it sound worse. Which, as always, is silly.
If that's how you want to look at it, fine. It doesn't matter if MS is doing this out of malice, laziness, or just a simple mistake, they're still not treating him the same way that they treat (most of) the rest of the people in America, but they would be treating him the same if he wasn't an immigrant. That makes it discrimination. I don't see why it's so bad to acknowledge that.
they're treating him like they would treat anyone in any country that moved to america .... so no, it isn't discrimination.
Or anyone in America that moved to a different country, for that matter.
NOTHING THEY ARE DOING IS BASED ON HIM. IT IS BASED ON HIS ACCOUNT STATUS. THEY DO NOT CARE WHERE HE CURRENTLY LIVES OR WHERE HE LIVED BEFORE.
If that's how you want to look at it, fine. It doesn't matter if MS is doing this out of malice, laziness, or just a simple mistake, they're still not treating him the same way that they treat (most of) the rest of the people in America, but they would be treating him the same if he wasn't an immigrant. That makes it discrimination. I don't see why it's so bad to acknowledge that.
The policy doesn't care that he's an immigrant. You could, in theory, duplicate this situation without ever leaving your couch. You just need to have a gamertag registered in one region, and want to switch it to another. Immigration status has nothing to do with it.
Look, I don't care if you can try and swing it like he has the same rights as anyone else. Microsoft is being stupidly inflexible. Apple, their competitor in some areas, handled their situation for him in like five minutes. This type of behavior makes me less likely to want to get a Live Gold account in the future, because I know that if the slightest thing out of the ordinary happens to me and my account, Microsoft is probably going to use the opportunity to fuck me in the ass.
Let's set the discrimination argument aside and just say that Microsoft is not acting like a company that any sane person would want to do business with in this case.
Look, I don't care if you can try and swing it like he has the same rights as anyone else.
He does.
Microsoft is being stupidly inflexible. Apple, their competitor in some areas, handled their situation for him in like five minutes. This type of behavior makes me less likely to want to get a Live Gold account in the future, because I know that if the slightest thing out of the ordinary happens to me and my account, Microsoft is probably going to use the opportunity to fuck me in the ass.
Let's set the discrimination argument aside and just say that Microsoft is not acting like a company that any sane person would want to do business with in this case.
NOTHING THEY ARE DOING IS BASED ON HIM. IT IS BASED ON HIS ACCOUNT STATUS. THEY DO NOT CARE WHERE HE CURRENTLY LIVES OR WHERE HE LIVED BEFORE.
If that's how you want to look at it, fine. It doesn't matter if MS is doing this out of malice, laziness, or just a simple mistake, they're still not treating him the same way that they treat (most of) the rest of the people in America, but they would be treating him the same if he wasn't an immigrant. That makes it discrimination. I don't see why it's so bad to acknowledge that.
They're treating him exactly the same as they would treat anybody else in America who wanted to do the same thing.
Here's another metaphor for you: It's bad to acknowledge the discrimination in this situation just like it would be bad to acknowledge the existence of the Easter Bunny.
Look, I don't care if you can try and swing it like he has the same rights as anyone else. Microsoft is being stupidly inflexible. Apple, their competitor in some areas, handled their situation for him in like five minutes. This type of behavior makes me less likely to want to get a Live Gold account in the future, because I know that if the slightest thing out of the ordinary happens to me and my account, Microsoft is probably going to use the opportunity to fuck me in the ass.
Let's set the discrimination argument aside and just say that Microsoft is not acting like a company that any sane person would want to do business with in this case.
I don't think anybody saying "it's not discrimination" is against anything you've said here.
I've seen plenty of complaints about M$ that I've agreed with, but this one just seems silly.
they probably can't switch the country of the account precisely because of the exchange rate. otherwise, people could make money, say, buying Live games in the US and selling the account in the UK where the prices are, like, double, and making a great profit that way.
is it really necessary to cause such a stink over, like an extra $40 a year for importing a card? that's like the cost of one dinner at Applebee's.
Look, I don't care if you can try and swing it like he has the same rights as anyone else. Microsoft is being stupidly inflexible. Apple, their competitor in some areas, handled their situation for him in like five minutes. This type of behavior makes me less likely to want to get a Live Gold account in the future, because I know that if the slightest thing out of the ordinary happens to me and my account, Microsoft is probably going to use the opportunity to fuck me in the ass.
Let's set the discrimination argument aside and just say that Microsoft is not acting like a company that any sane person would want to do business with in this case.
I don't think anybody saying "it's not discrimination" is against anything you've said here.
I personally have no problem with Microsoft's policy. It's exactly what I would expect if I were trying to transfer my live account to a new region. is it a pain in the ass? sure, but if you're going to be moving halfway around the world you can expect some annoyances.
Look, I don't care if you can try and swing it like he has the same rights as anyone else. Microsoft is being stupidly inflexible. Apple, their competitor in some areas, handled their situation for him in like five minutes. This type of behavior makes me less likely to want to get a Live Gold account in the future, because I know that if the slightest thing out of the ordinary happens to me and my account, Microsoft is probably going to use the opportunity to fuck me in the ass.
Let's set the discrimination argument aside and just say that Microsoft is not acting like a company that any sane person would want to do business with in this case.
I don't think anybody saying "it's not discrimination" is against anything you've said here.
I personally have no problem with Microsoft's policy. It's exactly what I would expect if I were trying to transfer my live account to a new region. is it a pain in the ass? sure, but if you're going to be moving halfway around the world you can expect some annoyances.
That's my opinion anywho.
I think it's a bad policy, but I suspect there are some solid legal and business reasons (it can be exploited, it only impacts a small minority of our users, costs to support this would be high) to not allow it. Companies are many things, but they're not typically arbitrary. The decision to support/not support this was probably made for a variety of reasons a long time ago.
I personally have no problem with Microsoft's policy. It's exactly what I would expect if I were trying to transfer my live account to a new region. is it a pain in the ass? sure, but if you're going to be moving halfway around the world you can expect some annoyances.
That's my opinion anywho.
See, and the problem is that you're wrong. It's not a "pain in the ass." See my previous post (you can look for the limed version) saying that I'd understand if it were a pain in the ass. If the difference in price were required to be paid on purchased content, for instance (to address Dagrabbit's post), along with other various PITA issues.
The problem here is that it simply isn't possible.
wow squirm, you and your boss are both a complete disgrace to professional writers for dragging this through digg and other gaming sites. I hope your site got some traffic from your twisted half truths, and now I hope it gets shut down from lack of sponsorship.
I personally have no problem with Microsoft's policy. It's exactly what I would expect if I were trying to transfer my live account to a new region. is it a pain in the ass? sure, but if you're going to be moving halfway around the world you can expect some annoyances.
That's my opinion anywho.
See, and the problem is that you're wrong. It's not a "pain in the ass." See my previous post (you can look for the limed version) saying that I'd understand if it were a pain in the ass. If the difference in price were required to be paid on purchased content, for instance (to address Dagrabbit's post), along with other various PITA issues.
The problem here is that it simply isn't possible.
is it a pain in the ass to have to purchase international account cards? yes. Is it a pain in the ass to have to pay for a subscription using an account from your country of origin? yes. is it a pain in the ass to cancel your original subscription and start a brand new one? yes. These are all solutions to the problem, and as far as i'm concerened they are reasonable and to be expected that this may be all you can do in this situation. If I were in this situation and these were the options available to me I would say "wow that is a pain in the ass". What i wouldn't do is get all huffy under the expectation that Microsoft should offer me a better solution.
As i said before, my opinion is it is reasonable to expect that this would be the policy.
I don't have a 360 right now, and I plan on gettign one at some point in the future.
Let's say I wanted to get live, is there any disadvantage, other that hassel, for me to get a friend in the USA to buy pre-paid cards, and send the number to me, so I can pay USA prices instead of UK prices for everything?
I personally have no problem with Microsoft's policy. It's exactly what I would expect if I were trying to transfer my live account to a new region. is it a pain in the ass? sure, but if you're going to be moving halfway around the world you can expect some annoyances.
That's my opinion anywho.
See, and the problem is that you're wrong. It's not a "pain in the ass." See my previous post (you can look for the limed version) saying that I'd understand if it were a pain in the ass. If the difference in price were required to be paid on purchased content, for instance (to address Dagrabbit's post), along with other various PITA issues.
The problem here is that it simply isn't possible.
is it a pain in the ass to have to purchase international account cards? yes. Is it a pain in the ass to have to pay for a subscription using an account from your country of origin? yes. is it a pain in the ass to cancel your original subscription and start a brand new one? yes. These are all solutions to the problem, and as far as i'm concerened they are reasonable and to be expected that this may be all you can do in this situation. If I were in this situation and these were the options available to me I would say "wow that is a pain in the ass". What i wouldn't do is get all huffy under the expectation that Microsoft should offer me a better solution.
As i said before, my opinion is it is reasonable to expect that this would be the policy.
In my opinion you have incredibly low standards. Other companies, like Apple, would seem to agree. Perhaps if less customers were like you, the world would suck less.
I don't have a 360 right now, and I plan on gettign one at some point in the future.
Let's say I wanted to get live, is there any disadvantage, other that hassel, for me to get a friend in the USA to buy pre-paid cards, and send the number to me, so I can pay USA prices instead of UK prices for everything?
As far as I can tell as long as you start a US live account with US information and have your friend send you the prepaid cards and gamer point cards from the US you could do that just dandy.
I don't have a 360 right now, and I plan on gettign one at some point in the future.
Let's say I wanted to get live, is there any disadvantage, other that hassel, for me to get a friend in the USA to buy pre-paid cards, and send the number to me, so I can pay USA prices instead of UK prices for everything?
As far as I can tell as long as you start a US live account with US information and have your friend send you the prepaid cards and gamer point cards from the US you could do that just dandy.
But without a US credit/debit card, you'd be relying on your friend to do everything to get you points to buy stuff.
I personally have no problem with Microsoft's policy. It's exactly what I would expect if I were trying to transfer my live account to a new region. is it a pain in the ass? sure, but if you're going to be moving halfway around the world you can expect some annoyances.
That's my opinion anywho.
See, and the problem is that you're wrong. It's not a "pain in the ass." See my previous post (you can look for the limed version) saying that I'd understand if it were a pain in the ass. If the difference in price were required to be paid on purchased content, for instance (to address Dagrabbit's post), along with other various PITA issues.
The problem here is that it simply isn't possible.
is it a pain in the ass to have to purchase international account cards? yes. Is it a pain in the ass to have to pay for a subscription using an account from your country of origin? yes. is it a pain in the ass to cancel your original subscription and start a brand new one? yes. These are all solutions to the problem, and as far as i'm concerened they are reasonable and to be expected that this may be all you can do in this situation. If I were in this situation and these were the options available to me I would say "wow that is a pain in the ass". What i wouldn't do is get all huffy under the expectation that Microsoft should offer me a better solution.
As i said before, my opinion is it is reasonable to expect that this would be the policy.
In my opinion you have incredibly low standards. Other companies, like Apple, would seem to agree. Perhaps if less customers were like you, the world would suck less.
Have you ever personally delt with apple CS? Everytime i deal with them they send a guy to my house to stomp by balls repeatedly until they feel i'm properly prepped to call them.
I'm not saying that this is the optimal solution for the customer. But i can see how it would be difficult and extremely inefficient for microsoft to enable such a feature. Because i understand that fact, I place my expectations in the realm of reality. And when i have the opportunity to give feed back to either Apple or Microsoft i express that I would be much happier if their service was more conducive to the customer.
I don't have a 360 right now, and I plan on gettign one at some point in the future.
Let's say I wanted to get live, is there any disadvantage, other that hassel, for me to get a friend in the USA to buy pre-paid cards, and send the number to me, so I can pay USA prices instead of UK prices for everything?
As far as I can tell as long as you start a US live account with US information and have your friend send you the prepaid cards and gamer point cards from the US you could do that just dandy.
But without a US credit/debit card, you'd be relying on your friend to do everything to get you points to buy stuff.
In the situation you describe if you're in the UK you wouldn't be able to download anything off the US marketplace because of the IP filtering. This will be a problem if you want premium content (new GIII songs, Rock Band Songs, new maps, etc)
I don't have a 360 right now, and I plan on gettign one at some point in the future.
Let's say I wanted to get live, is there any disadvantage, other that hassel, for me to get a friend in the USA to buy pre-paid cards, and send the number to me, so I can pay USA prices instead of UK prices for everything?
As far as I can tell as long as you start a US live account with US information and have your friend send you the prepaid cards and gamer point cards from the US you could do that just dandy.
But without a US credit/debit card, you'd be relying on your friend to do everything to get you points to buy stuff.
In the situation you describe if you're in the UK you wouldn't be able to download anything off the US marketplace because of the IP filtering. This will be a problem if you want premium content (new GIII songs, Rock Band Songs, new maps, etc)
Err, I download US content with my US account without issue.
In the situation you describe if you're in the UK you wouldn't be able to download anything off the US marketplace because of the IP filtering. This will be a problem if you want premium content (new GIII songs, Rock Band Songs, new maps, etc)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you'd be excluded from any US-exclusive content due to IP filtering, but then also excluded from any UK-exclusive content for having a US account. Yay worst of both worlds! [EDIT: So it appears I might be wrong on that one.]
But yeah, it'd be cheaper. And for just playing online I guess that would be cool...Xbox Live does still let you play against anybody worldwide, right?
Have you ever personally delt with apple CS? Everytime i deal with them they send a guy to my house to stomp by balls repeatedly until they feel i'm properly prepped to call them.
I mentioned Apple because they seem to have little issue moving accounts between countries. And it's not like music licensing isn't a pain in the ass internationally.
And my two or three experiences with their service were quite pleasant. Whose anecdote wins?
I'm not saying that this is the optimal solution for the customer. But i can see how it would be difficult and extremely inefficient for microsoft to enable such a feature. Because i understand that fact, I place my expectations in the realm of reality. And when i have the opportunity to give feed back to either Apple or Microsoft i express that I would be much happier if their service was more conducive to the customer.
It shouldn't be difficult or inefficient to enable, though. That's the point. For a software company to not be able to implement such a simple feature is laughable. Yes, there would be some region-related complications. But overall it should be automated; check a box, it flags it as a US account, either customer's card is charged X amount for the difference in cost of content purchased or content is disabled. Done.
There is really no reason this should ever have been difficult if they had taken into account from the beginning the idea that people might (gasp) move between countries. It would just have been a matter of decent software design.
I've been offered money from a couple of people and I've politely declined. It would solve my problem as an individual but not the overall problem, that being Microsoft's poor treatment of immigrants and the manner in which they've communicated with me. It's beyond a joke.
Does this mean that if I showed up at the Jump Leads table at Thing 08 with a year of Live it would go unappreciated? :P
If you did this, I'd feel obliged to give you your money's worth in return. I'd much prefer it if you held on to your money, though.
I'd like to remind people of how Microsoft found out I work at GP: Until this issue arose, Microsoft was GP's second-biggest supporter. While DeViney has been contacting Microsoft's PR/marketing team, at some point - I think in late November/early December - he points out I'm having trouble, and asks if you rep can help.
That's how they found out. That's how they new. GP has now decided to back me over cowtowing to Microsoft's request and by doing so have lost their second-biggest supporter, and made an enemy out of one of the biggest developers in the industry.
There you go K_A, in CLEAR TERMS he's said he'd rather you held onto your own money. Again, read the thread.
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The_SpaniardIt's never lupinesIrvine, CaliforniaRegistered Userregular
There is really no reason this should ever have been difficult if they had taken into account from the beginning the idea that people might (gasp) move between countries. It would just have been a matter of decent software design.
Yeah but you can just get a friend in the United States to use his CC to pay for your US account! It's so easy, so why are you complaining? Jeeze, what do you want everything on a golden platter!?
Or you could buy a prepaid card on ebay at just around retail (in the US, that is. I see lots of UK cards on there that finished with a price of ~$50 and free shipping to the US). It's a bit of a pain, but it's better than trying to deal with MS customer service, apparently.
Y'know, all of this could have been solved if someone at Microsoft's CS department had a true sense of customer service. Christ. I've worked at a company who would bend over backwards to keep a paying customer happy- even undercutting pricing to do so- just to ensure that customer remains loyal and the money keeps coming in.
Y'know, all of this could have been solved if someone at Microsoft's CS department had a true sense of customer service. Christ. I've worked at a company who would bend over backwards to keep a paying customer happy- even undercutting pricing to do so- just to ensure that customer remains loyal and the money keeps coming in.
What the hell really happened to that mentality?
What are the customers going to do, buy that other XBox 360 multiplayer service?
Welcome to the world of lock-in. It's the same reason that they get away with charging $180 for a 120 gig hard drive when you can get off-the-shelf external drives with more than 4 times the capacity for less.
Posts
If I move from the United States to England, would I be able to change my American XBox account to a UK one?
No?
Then we are receiving the same treatment.
It's shitty treatment, but it is a policy that is uniformly applied.
they are treating him exactly like the would treat any other american! If you wan't xbox live in america create an account. If I (who live in america) happened to have an xbox live account in the UK, or Japan, or any other region in the world and I called them to get that account migrated to America I would have the same issues that he is having.
Willie Tanner Livestream
they're treating him like they would treat anyone in any country that moved to america .... so no, it isn't discrimination.
Or anyone in America that moved to a different country, for that matter.
Hey guys, before we get all crazy, we should realize something. I, as a native (not Native) American, would have this exact same problem if I were to move to the UK. Or Canada, or Japan, or wherever. Hell, we don't know that the service droid wouldn't have said the exact same thing to somebody moving in that direction.
There really isn't any discrimination here to speak of.
This is another case of trying to apply fun and emotional buzzwords to an already ludicrous and unacceptable situation in order to try and make it sound worse. Which, as always, is silly.
EDIT: C-C-C-C-COMBO POST!
good point
The policy doesn't care that he's an immigrant. You could, in theory, duplicate this situation without ever leaving your couch. You just need to have a gamertag registered in one region, and want to switch it to another. Immigration status has nothing to do with it.
Let's set the discrimination argument aside and just say that Microsoft is not acting like a company that any sane person would want to do business with in this case.
He does.
Nobody has disagreed with that, I think.
They're treating him exactly the same as they would treat anybody else in America who wanted to do the same thing.
Here's another metaphor for you: It's bad to acknowledge the discrimination in this situation just like it would be bad to acknowledge the existence of the Easter Bunny.
I don't think anybody saying "it's not discrimination" is against anything you've said here.
they probably can't switch the country of the account precisely because of the exchange rate. otherwise, people could make money, say, buying Live games in the US and selling the account in the UK where the prices are, like, double, and making a great profit that way.
is it really necessary to cause such a stink over, like an extra $40 a year for importing a card? that's like the cost of one dinner at Applebee's.
I personally have no problem with Microsoft's policy. It's exactly what I would expect if I were trying to transfer my live account to a new region. is it a pain in the ass? sure, but if you're going to be moving halfway around the world you can expect some annoyances.
That's my opinion anywho.
Willie Tanner Livestream
I think it's a bad policy, but I suspect there are some solid legal and business reasons (it can be exploited, it only impacts a small minority of our users, costs to support this would be high) to not allow it. Companies are many things, but they're not typically arbitrary. The decision to support/not support this was probably made for a variety of reasons a long time ago.
See, and the problem is that you're wrong. It's not a "pain in the ass." See my previous post (you can look for the limed version) saying that I'd understand if it were a pain in the ass. If the difference in price were required to be paid on purchased content, for instance (to address Dagrabbit's post), along with other various PITA issues.
The problem here is that it simply isn't possible.
This post makes me sad to be a Penny Arcadian.
is it a pain in the ass to have to purchase international account cards? yes. Is it a pain in the ass to have to pay for a subscription using an account from your country of origin? yes. is it a pain in the ass to cancel your original subscription and start a brand new one? yes. These are all solutions to the problem, and as far as i'm concerened they are reasonable and to be expected that this may be all you can do in this situation. If I were in this situation and these were the options available to me I would say "wow that is a pain in the ass". What i wouldn't do is get all huffy under the expectation that Microsoft should offer me a better solution.
As i said before, my opinion is it is reasonable to expect that this would be the policy.
Willie Tanner Livestream
I don't have a 360 right now, and I plan on gettign one at some point in the future.
Let's say I wanted to get live, is there any disadvantage, other that hassel, for me to get a friend in the USA to buy pre-paid cards, and send the number to me, so I can pay USA prices instead of UK prices for everything?
In my opinion you have incredibly low standards. Other companies, like Apple, would seem to agree. Perhaps if less customers were like you, the world would suck less.
As far as I can tell as long as you start a US live account with US information and have your friend send you the prepaid cards and gamer point cards from the US you could do that just dandy.
Willie Tanner Livestream
Have you ever personally delt with apple CS? Everytime i deal with them they send a guy to my house to stomp by balls repeatedly until they feel i'm properly prepped to call them.
I'm not saying that this is the optimal solution for the customer. But i can see how it would be difficult and extremely inefficient for microsoft to enable such a feature. Because i understand that fact, I place my expectations in the realm of reality. And when i have the opportunity to give feed back to either Apple or Microsoft i express that I would be much happier if their service was more conducive to the customer.
Willie Tanner Livestream
In the situation you describe if you're in the UK you wouldn't be able to download anything off the US marketplace because of the IP filtering. This will be a problem if you want premium content (new GIII songs, Rock Band Songs, new maps, etc)
Hey squirmy any update with the address to send funds to you to either buy the stuff you need or for your legal battle (if occuring)?
lewiep @ gmail.com
For the love of God K_A, read the thread. He doesn't want any cash.
I didn't see this anywhere. Source?
Although I haven't tried in about a month or so.
You're cute. I think we should keep you.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you'd be excluded from any US-exclusive content due to IP filtering, but then also excluded from any UK-exclusive content for having a US account. Yay worst of both worlds! [EDIT: So it appears I might be wrong on that one.]
But yeah, it'd be cheaper. And for just playing online I guess that would be cool...Xbox Live does still let you play against anybody worldwide, right?
I mentioned Apple because they seem to have little issue moving accounts between countries. And it's not like music licensing isn't a pain in the ass internationally.
And my two or three experiences with their service were quite pleasant. Whose anecdote wins?
It shouldn't be difficult or inefficient to enable, though. That's the point. For a software company to not be able to implement such a simple feature is laughable. Yes, there would be some region-related complications. But overall it should be automated; check a box, it flags it as a US account, either customer's card is charged X amount for the difference in cost of content purchased or content is disabled. Done.
There is really no reason this should ever have been difficult if they had taken into account from the beginning the idea that people might (gasp) move between countries. It would just have been a matter of decent software design.
Oh wait.
Nevermind.
There you go K_A, in CLEAR TERMS he's said he'd rather you held onto your own money. Again, read the thread.
Oh-no, it's like a thread, and then too much arguing, and then something bad happens!
Also do you realize you're standing at a weird angle?
Yeah but you can just get a friend in the United States to use his CC to pay for your US account! It's so easy, so why are you complaining? Jeeze, what do you want everything on a golden platter!?
What the hell really happened to that mentality?
What are the customers going to do, buy that other XBox 360 multiplayer service?
Welcome to the world of lock-in. It's the same reason that they get away with charging $180 for a 120 gig hard drive when you can get off-the-shelf external drives with more than 4 times the capacity for less.