Refunding an Xbox Live Annual Renewal Fee?

craigandthem is curious about the following: "Recently, I was going over my credit card statement, and noticed a charge I didn't remember making. After investigating, I determined that it was an auto-renewal for my Xbox Live account (for an Xbox that hasn't worked in months). I called to have the fee refunded, and Microsoft refused. They informed me that since it had been longer than 60 days from when my account was renewed, I was not eligible for a refund. The problem lies in that they didn't charge my credit card until December 26, despite renewing my account on November 15. I feel that this was done to increase the odds that I'd only be aware of the charge after it was too late to have reversed. They also claim I had fair warning I was going to be charged, since they sent me an email detailing my upcoming renewal. The email was sent to an old university account, which was de-activated after I graduated, and therefore never received. Have any fellow Slashdot readers received similar treatment, and if so, were you able to recover your money? Legally, is it my obligation to keep my Xbox Live information up to date to avoid this dilemma?"

Comments

Get the BBB involved

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't have an Xbox or a Live account, but here is what I would do.

1. Submit a Better Business complaint in from the website www.bbb.org

2. Dispute this fee with your credit card company. Explain to them everything you just told us.

3. Sit back and watch the 2 big companies battle it out.

A company simply can not charge you for services you no longer need. Just because it's their policy to charge you doens't mean that it was legal or even that it was morally right. Once you involve the BBB into something that is questionable they seem to make the company turn itself around.

Re:Get the BBB involved

[Murdock037]

A few things:

Submit a Better Business complaint in from the website www.bbb.org

I'm sure this would not be the first contact Microsoft has had with the Better Business Bureau. They probably won't run and cower.

Dispute this fee with your credit card company.

Disputing the fee may work, but... it's messy. The credit card companies tend to favor the consumer in disputes, but it may not be worth the massive headache to the consumer over the money. (What kind of money are we talking about here? How much does Xbox Live cost, anyways?)

A company simply can not charge you for services you no longer need.

A company can, in fact, charge you for services you no longer need, if you agreed to those terms in the first place.

Just because it's their policy to charge you doens't mean that it was... morally right.

This matters how?

Let's face it, folks, the guy's on shaky ground here-- he should have acted sooner. No matter how satisfying it may be to have one more way story that points out Microsoft screwing the little guy, that's not the dynamic at play.

You, sir, are an asshat.

[Anonymous Coward]

If I have this straight, your argument is approximately as follows:

You: "Hey, I didn't use my wireless phone at all this month - why are you charging me for it?"
Phone company: "You initiated service with us, agreed to the service contract and set up auto-pay using your credit card number."
You: "But you never sent me a paper bill to my new address!"
Phone company: "Oh, so you moved without telling us? How were we supposed to send you the auto-bill receipts if you didn't tell us when you moved?"
You: "This fucking sucks! I'm going to post on Slashdot!"

Stop whining. You are responsible for your neglegence - not Microsoft. You *asked* them to charge you.

Moral of the story is: Don't buy shit you're not going to use, then act all suprised when you actually have to pay for it.

Keep this from happening again.

[base3]

Use a single use credit card number, such as Private Payments from American Express. That, or buy a Webcertificate for exactly the amount of the first year's subscription. I've found these useful for buying services that I only want once, but either won't sell the service or charge an outrageous fee for not using recurring billing.

Re:It sounds to me like they gave you ample warnin

[Quarters]

Your comparison to gyms is misplaced and not accurate. There is nothing in the XBox Live! agreement that says you have to snail mail Microsoft a written letter to cancel. At worst you have to call them. There's nothing hard about the process. The problem with the original poster, though, is that he never even did that and now thinks that Microsoft is shafting him. All he had to do was call when his XBox broke and say, "Please don't renew my subscription, as I won't be needing it". Instead he just forgot about it.

Any frustration and/or anger he is feeling now should be directed at himself for failing to fully understand his responsibilities when he entered into a business contract with Microsoft.

There is need to involve the court system in this. It would be just another useless lawsuit tying up an already overstressed and abused court system.

Gettng a chargeback from the CC company for this would be at best underhanded and at worst immoral or fraudulent. He was not charged for something he didn't approve. He was charged for something he forgot about. Chargebacks are not a refund for stupidity. The more people abuse chargebacks the less chance the CC companies will grant them to people with valid complaints. Besides, like another poster said, the second he calls the CC company he will be asked, "Was this for a subscription service you agreed to?" The CC companies are already sick to death of people buying a month's pr0n subscription online and then calling 30 days later trying to get their money back for those "obviously fraudulent" charges that appeared on their bills.

The only respectable thing for the original poster to do is to admit to himself he forgot to cancel the account, pay the $50 and learn a lesson from this.