Tuesday, January 25, 2011

That's Very Annoying, Microsoft!

I reported back in November/December that I thought I'd finally broken free of XBox Live when my credit card that was on my XBox 360 account expired. However, the joke was on me, as the transaction apparently still went through, despite having the wrong expiration date and verification code (it still had the values for the old card, rather than the new one). Therefore I've been signed up for another year of XBox Live Gold, despite barely using it over the preceding year of service.

Tonight, since I was downloading the demo for Crysis 2 on my 360, I thought I'd remove the credit card entirely from my account, so as to ensure the same thing didn't happen next November. However, when I tried to remove it through the console, it directed me to a website. When I went there on my laptop, I was told that I couldn't remove it because there's a "service" on it. When I tried to deactivate that automatic renewal "service", it wouldn't let me!

So I guess I'm left with no option but to either call Microsoft Support and get them to deal with this - unlikely! - or call Mastercard in the fall and make sure they know not to authorize the $59.99 charge when it comes to them with the wrong credit card info (which they shouldn't be doing anyway!). What a scam by MS: make it childishly easy to sign up for the service but ridiculously hard to cancel it! This of course makes me all the more determined to be free of it!

No comments: