Nightmarish "support" stories like this one, in which a consumer buys a new XBox 360-with-Kinect system, has it break right away (on the first day of use), and then spends weeks trying to get support for it while being told something different at every turn, tend to seem hilarious to everyone except the parties involved. I remember when Vicki and I worked at the bank back in the 90s we would hear the most atrocious tales of tellers or call centre operators providing crappy service, but fortunately such things were extremely rare. I'm not sure that's quite as true when it comes to Microsoft, though.
Speaking of whom... I have a mildly amusing MS story to share, now that I think about it. I've paid the annual Gold XBox Live membership cost ($59.99?) for the past several years, so that I could play the odd 360 game online with friends. My most recent subscription was due to expire in mid-November, and I had toyed with the idea of canceling it. To be honest, I've probably only played three or four hours of XBox 360 online so far in 2010, and considering that the PS/3 equivalent is free, it's hard to justify $60 for so little return. However, I'm a notorious procrastinator, and so I did nothing about it.
Eventually, I got the e-mail telling me that MS was renewing the subscription "for me", as they've done each of the past several years since I bought the box. Sigh. Oh well.
But wait! Then I received an e-mail saying that the credit card I'd used for that account had expired, and so I should please go and update the details so that I could get my subscription renewed and not miss out on the chance to play online with my friends! How perfect! Now I could procrastinate and actually get what I wanted, which is exactly what happened: I no longer have a current membership in the Gold XBox Live club, and have saved myself $60! This story, at least, has a happy ending!
[Update Dec 12/10: Sadly, I just saw on my credit card statement that the Gold XBox Live charge did go through, after all. So much for that good news story!]
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