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Xbox Live Support an Epic Fail

July 31, 2008 in Blog comments 18

The following is a recounting of events which occurred to a writer over on GamePlayer regarding their experience with Xbox Live Support. Suffice it to say, it wasn't pleasant.

"Xbox LIVE, for the most part, is a pretty decent online experience that can offer you hour upon hour of fun, adventure, and merciless teabaggings by random idiots. But what happens when you’re a Gold customer, who’s paying good money for a yearly service, and something goes wrong with your account, do Microsoft have your back? Well now, rather than have you continually wonder about the quality of service Microsoft provides, the cosmos saw fit to offer me an opportunity for some hands on experience - and these are my stories…

PROLOGUE:
Day 1

11 am – I lay down fifty bucks at my local EB for a 3000 point Microsoft card. I’m buying it for the expressed purpose of writing a feature article based on Xbox LIVE Arcade games. The sun is shining and spirits are high.

12 pm – I free the Points card from its plastic prison (using a fricken hacksaw), I do the ‘lottery scratchy’ thing on the back, and I enter the code into my 360.

The card fails to redeem my points and an angry side bar pops up saying the following, “Can’t retrieve information from Xbox LIVE. Please try again later. Status code: 80169d94”

Unfazed, I attempt to redeem another ‘bonus’ Points card that I received for pre-ordering GTA IV. Curiously, this sucker works straight away and the Points happily appear in my account. Weird, perhaps my first attempt was just a network issue or some dyslexia on my part. Shrugging my shoulders I re-enter the 3000 point card code.

QUOTH THE XBOX, “Can’t retrieve information from Xbox LIVE. Please try again later. Status code: 80169d94”.

Hmmm, that’s mildly annoying. Next, I check to make sure all of my billing information is up to date and correct (clearly I’m running out of options and this is the best solution I can come up with)."

[More at source]
Bandito via gameplayer.com.au »
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  • 3
    TurMoiL911 Jul 31, 08
    *sigh* Jesus Christ, anti-Xbox "news articles" seem to appear on GameGrep and much as the anti-American threads appear in Loungin'. Who were the three people who approved this damn thing ?

    quote
    I lay down fifty bucks at my local EB for a 3000 point Microsoft card.
    I thought you got 4,000 Microsoft Points for $50 bucks.
    • 1
      chautemoc Jul 31, 08
      One person approved it (myself). And I'm not really the totalitarian type; I don't approve only things I agree with..that'd be a much worse situation overall if approvers did that, I'd think.
      • 1
        Krunal Aug 1, 08
        I don't see anything wrong with the article. If people were to submit 'anti-PS3' articles, there won't be anyone that will even think twice about approving it, they just will approve it.
        • 1
          Lost_Cause Aug 1, 08
          lol Yeah, if there's bias there's anti-PS3 bias.

          I'm being sarcastic. What a dumb thing to say.
        • 0
          RabidChinaGirl Aug 2, 08
          There's bias all around. But whenever an article pointing out the PS3's flaws arises, there's usually a slew of hateful comments that struggle to tear apart the article, even if it is valid.

          When a 360 article pops up, people immediately start hopping the 360-hate bandwagon. So really, it doesn't help that there's blog posts like these stemming from isolated frustration.

          Some of the comments for that article seem to recognize that it's a problem with general customer service centers and not solely a Microsoft issue, at least.
  • 5
    Shadow of Death Jul 31, 08
    Hey, it is a perfectly legit annoyance blog-type article. LOL at page 5 >_>

    Besies, we haven't hit this week's quota of anti-MS articles.....I've been noticing a disturbing lack of anti-MS-ness lately....Are the fanboys taking a break?

    I'd get pretty pissed if I were him....
  • 1
    HisServant77 Jul 31, 08
    I was going to approve it, but was late since I read slow apparently

    Anyways, this sounds VERY familiar with what I've gone through, except add about 20 or so minutes of hold time to my case!

    This is why, I say customer support for companies has gone way down because it seems they don't know as much as they should. But . . . ah well, c'est la vie!
  • 0
    Bale Fire Aug 1, 08
    Sounds like a horrible experience, the right hand of most companies these days don't seem to know what the left is doing
  • 1
    Donnelly Aug 1, 08
    Calling MS's call centre's is a massive pain in the arse.

    I spoke to an American who I could barely understand and could barely understand me.

    At least the calls free, I s'pose.
  • 1
    streetcarp81 Aug 1, 08
    You spoke to an American u could barely understand? That sounds like b/s unless the person was from the southern United States then yes, they are hard to understand. But please don't call them Americans. That really offends us Americans that live everywhere but the south and especially those of us in the north east. You need to specify that they were either southern or those god awful south carolinians. lol

    I also have had awful experiences with MS customer support. And for some reason every time I call I get someone from India, and I could not understand that person at all.
    • 1
      Donnelly Aug 1, 08
      I have no idea where about in America they were from, and I'm fairly sure they couldn't tell where about in Scotland I'm from.
      • 0
        streetcarp81 Aug 1, 08
        one of my friends from college was from scotland, u guys have cool accents...he did well with the drunk long island bar girls b/c of it.
    • 1
      Fatal Error Aug 1, 08
      You're a total joke, dude.
    • 0
      HisServant77 Aug 1, 08
      Hey now . . . I'm in Southern Louisiana and I probably talk with less of an accent, with more clarity, and better grammar than many others -- especially in the North East! And hey, I was born in North Carolina so that SC comment also hit close!

      But how 'bout 'dem Tennessee folk, over yonder, or dose from Brooklin?

      No worries though, I'm sure you were half-joking. We have so many dialects and accents all within one single country it's funny.
    • 1
      Slumpy monkey Aug 1, 08
      Every one has an accent to someone else, but you just don't notice it as it is the way you learned the language and so seems perfectly normal to you.
      • 0
        HisServant77 Aug 1, 08
        Ha yeah, I've lived in more states than I have fingers on both hands and toes on both feet. The result? People say I sound Australian, and then every so often I end up talking with an Irish accent out of nowhere
  • 0
    streetcarp81 Aug 1, 08
    i was only joking, hell im from new jersey if u heard me speak u would have a hard time understanding me. have u ever seen the soporanos?
  • 0
    RabidChinaGirl Aug 2, 08
    Please, I've dealt with Microsoft customer service on numerous occasions (mostly when I was first making my LIVE account and didn't know wtf I was doing) and I can honestly say I have less trouble with them than any other customer service I've had to contact.

    To the original author (who will probably never read this):
    Your experience can be applied to just about ANY CUSTOMER SERVICE ON THE PLANET right now. Trying to work out problems over the phone isn't the best way to handle things, but it's WHAT WE GET. I'm getting really tired of these extremely POINTLESS blogs that document experiences of angry nerds who only know how to talk out of their ass rather than offering any insightful advice or take action to improve their situation.

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