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Microsoft points and expiration dates. A buyer beware tale
Shoegaze99
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Here's a buyer beware story for y'all.
So I had a whole bunch of points in my MS account, about 5800 or so, saved up so I could snag new Live Arcade releases at will. Started with about 8,000, thanks to some promo cards, and grabbed games here and there as they caught my attention. I figured I was set for the year.
Then I looked the other day and noticed I had only 500. WTF? How did that happen? Losing a few thousand points stinks.
So I checked it seems that some points -- promo points, specifically -- can and do expire.
Now, when I read the promo cards I got the impression that the cards expired, not the points, so that if you redeemed your card (i.e. punched in the code) before the date you got your points and you were good. But nope. That's not the case. The points expire. Notthe card, the points. You have to spend them before the expiration date or you're screwed. They disappear. Dry up. Poof! Gone.
And man, that really, really blows.
I'd consider writing Microsoft, but I expect it would be a waste of my time. I no longer have the physical cards, so I can't see how they're worded, but I have to imagine MS has themselves covered here and it was my dumbass error.
The moral of the story is, 1) expiring points rather than cards is a shit policy, 2) I probably should have paid closer attention or something, and 3) if you ever get your hands on some of these promo cards USE THEM RIGHT AWAY.
That is all.
So I had a whole bunch of points in my MS account, about 5800 or so, saved up so I could snag new Live Arcade releases at will. Started with about 8,000, thanks to some promo cards, and grabbed games here and there as they caught my attention. I figured I was set for the year.
Then I looked the other day and noticed I had only 500. WTF? How did that happen? Losing a few thousand points stinks.
So I checked it seems that some points -- promo points, specifically -- can and do expire.
Now, when I read the promo cards I got the impression that the cards expired, not the points, so that if you redeemed your card (i.e. punched in the code) before the date you got your points and you were good. But nope. That's not the case. The points expire. Notthe card, the points. You have to spend them before the expiration date or you're screwed. They disappear. Dry up. Poof! Gone.
And man, that really, really blows.
I'd consider writing Microsoft, but I expect it would be a waste of my time. I no longer have the physical cards, so I can't see how they're worded, but I have to imagine MS has themselves covered here and it was my dumbass error.
The moral of the story is, 1) expiring points rather than cards is a shit policy, 2) I probably should have paid closer attention or something, and 3) if you ever get your hands on some of these promo cards USE THEM RIGHT AWAY.
That is all.
Shoegaze99 on
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I almost lost my promotion points from the GTA4 purchase. (Also ,is it "buyer beware" since you did not buy the points?)
Given that they expired before you could use them, I would argue that it was NOT in fact an excellent deal for you.
As it stands, the amount of points I used was close to the amount of money the cards cost me, so it wasn't a total loss. I probably lost about $10 or so. No great loss, which is why I offer a warning rather than a whine.
LIZ: Different.
VOICE-OVER: It's September 24th, I'm Liz Parker and five days ago I died. But then the really amazing thing happened. I came to life.
Anyway, I got bumped to his supervisor, who agreed that there seemed to be an issue. He said he had to review my account to get an exact accounting of how many points I should have left, buthe'd get it taken care of. According to him, he had to go to "upper management" for approval and they'd call me with the results.
That was Sunday. So far, no call, no points.
Drat!
My box red ringed later that day.
(It recovered and seems to be playing okay, which is how I know I've not gotten the points)
So, I really can't complain.
Thanks for that. My only surprise was finding exactly 400 MS points in a year-old account I hadn't logged in to after a red ring. This was exactly enough for ME DLC, fortunately.
I haven't ever gotten promo points, but I'll keep it in mind if I do.
Call em if you like, but their legal clause with DLC (and from what I'd seen in the Marketplace, all of that) isn't very accommodating. Obviously it's a defense to forged MS points but it was annoying that I couldn't get my M:UA DLC on the new box.
Some of their products suck ass, but their customer service, in my experience, has always been awesome.
Let's just put this out there.
It wasn't classy, it was to avoid a much more expensive class action lawsuit and the ensuing bad PR.
PSN: super_emu
Xbox360 Gamertag: Emuchop
Here's the kicker, the estimate on when they disappear is shite. I have $50 in points left, and was told they would expire in less than 30 days. Okay I figure, I have a window in which to choose what I want. Next day, they were all gone. Technically the warning was right, but you'd think they'd have a slighty more more accurate message, maybe "These expire next week", or "Your points will be gone tomorrow, asshole."
Yeah, sucks.
MS does have the shittiest customer service ever though.
I dealt with them weekly at my tech desk job, and I dealt with them again when trying to get my cousin's 360 repaired.
Every single time dealing with them is like pulling teeth.
Not only is inserting a $ symbol in Microsoft lame, but you used it to replace the 'f', rather than the one that makes the most sense assuming you're okay with being lame, the 's'.
This would apply to the purchased cards, but I wonder if any of these laws would apply to the promo cards, and more specifically, I wonder if these laws would apply to any of the points, whether from purchased or promo cards.
microsost is a really evil business ok
you see, they want to make money
Promo cards, those that are given away for whatever reason, also expire. The points will also expire after a certain time. When you are given these points there will be some sort of documentation telling you when this will happen.
Xbox Live (or the Zune Store, I imagine) will always deduct points according to this, so the points that are expiring earliest will be used up first.
To be honest, you did something dodgy by buying the promo cards in the first place, and it's your own fault for not reading the small print. You're not entitled to anything.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
This is exactly why they expire... maybe they were given to some street marketer, or to a vendor, who basically decided to steal them.
I remember when I saw Incubus last summer I must've snagged 25 of the 100 point cards.
They just had stacks around, but some were a free month of Zune Pass, which you had to be careful not to grab (since you can only use one of those, I think).
Selling them is probably illegal, though.