So I got one of those splash screen on XBL late last week offering me 12 months for $29.99. Sweet! My Gold account lapsed at the beginning of the month, and we just got Kinect, so while paying $60/month to post Kinect Adventure action shots on Facebook seems ludicrous, I can get behind $30 in some weird, twisted way. I don't play MP on XBL really at all, and now I only use Netflix on the 360 if PSN is down. Still, $30 seemed tolerable to be able to show family pictures of my kids dancing around like idiots in front of the television.
Anyway, yesterday I logged into xbox.com to pick up something they had on sale and noticed that my Auto-Renew was turned back on. Weird, sure, but obviously when I took the $30 subscription option, they turned it back on by default. Little shady, but hey, it's MS. 3-4 months ago I turned it off on their site because of the price increase and the fact that I didn't want to renew, so I went hunting around for auto-renew switch. No where to be found, instead now the site says you are required to call MS to turn off the auto-renew during "regular business hours".
More shady, but I check the clock and I'm still an hour away from XBox Live Support closing for the day, so I call. After sitting on hold for 15 minutes I get a support person who spends 5 minutes asking me a barrage of questions and encouraging me not to turn it off since it will likely disrupt my "gaming experience" later down the line when my subscription expires. I finally just have to stop her because life is too short and i tell her I'm well aware of the potential consequences of my actions. At this point she tells me she isn't able to turn it off, but she's gonna put me on hold and get me over to someone who can. By this point it's around 20 minutes before XBox Live Support is supposed to close.
After sitting on hold for another 10 minutes, she comes back, lo and behold, while she's sitting there berating me for turning off the auto-renew, the people who could actually have done somthing for me had closed up and gone home for the night. Long story short I asked for a manger, got one, someone who sounded like they were from the cast of Outsourced, who continued berating me for turning off the auto-renewal, only stopping when I finally yelled into the phone "Stop fucking talking over me" In the end, she wouldn't do anything for me, so I hung up.
Called back this morning, after another 20 minutes of talking to 2 women who spent more time trying to talk me out of what I was doing than actually doing what I wanted, it's finally turned off.
Needless to say, my camel's back is broken, this will be the last Gold subscription I pick up at any price.
It does make me wonder if Gold subs might be down in light of Netflix coming to the PS3 and Wii or for whatever reason. MS seems hellbent on not only overcharging for their services, but making it as painful as possible to not pay.
Anyway, yesterday I logged into xbox.com to pick up something they had on sale and noticed that my Auto-Renew was turned back on. Weird, sure, but obviously when I took the $30 subscription option, they turned it back on by default. Little shady, but hey, it's MS. 3-4 months ago I turned it off on their site because of the price increase and the fact that I didn't want to renew, so I went hunting around for auto-renew switch. No where to be found, instead now the site says you are required to call MS to turn off the auto-renew during "regular business hours".
More shady, but I check the clock and I'm still an hour away from XBox Live Support closing for the day, so I call. After sitting on hold for 15 minutes I get a support person who spends 5 minutes asking me a barrage of questions and encouraging me not to turn it off since it will likely disrupt my "gaming experience" later down the line when my subscription expires. I finally just have to stop her because life is too short and i tell her I'm well aware of the potential consequences of my actions. At this point she tells me she isn't able to turn it off, but she's gonna put me on hold and get me over to someone who can. By this point it's around 20 minutes before XBox Live Support is supposed to close.
After sitting on hold for another 10 minutes, she comes back, lo and behold, while she's sitting there berating me for turning off the auto-renew, the people who could actually have done somthing for me had closed up and gone home for the night. Long story short I asked for a manger, got one, someone who sounded like they were from the cast of Outsourced, who continued berating me for turning off the auto-renewal, only stopping when I finally yelled into the phone "Stop fucking talking over me" In the end, she wouldn't do anything for me, so I hung up.
Called back this morning, after another 20 minutes of talking to 2 women who spent more time trying to talk me out of what I was doing than actually doing what I wanted, it's finally turned off.
Needless to say, my camel's back is broken, this will be the last Gold subscription I pick up at any price.
It does make me wonder if Gold subs might be down in light of Netflix coming to the PS3 and Wii or for whatever reason. MS seems hellbent on not only overcharging for their services, but making it as painful as possible to not pay.