A friend of mine has been living a nightmare dealing with Microsoft’s Customer Service for the past two+ months. There has finally been a resolution to his ordeal, but it is an unacceptable one in my eyes. His story is not unique unfortunately. There are many other horror stories out there in dealing with this seemingly untouchable company. When will someone do something to help protect the consumers?
This is his story. Anything that links him to this story has been edited out to protect his identity because he fears his account may be banned in retaliation for this article.
Customer Service, by a guest writer who will remain anonymous :
Outsourcing customer service to foreign countries can save a company a lot of money. A company as big as Microsoft? You could be talking millions of dollars a year. The trade off? (There’s always a trade off.) The trade off is the care, or lack thereof, that their customers receive.
I had a problem, a problem caused by their servers that broke my account. Before I tell you about my 61 day horror story, there’s something I’d like to say.
Customer service is all about the customer’s experience and what impression they walk away with. There are companies who pride themselves in having top notch customer service because they know a happy customer is a repeat customer. Nordstrom is an example that comes to mind. Nordstrom is world renowned for their customer service. They take extra time to ingrain it in each of their employees and associates. I know this firsthand because for a period of time I worked at their .com office. Even at the .com call center, customer service was paramount. They ingrain it in you during training because they want you to live and breathe service. They want you to live and breathe service because they like when their customers call back and place another order.
There are also companies who don’t take adequate time to find and train quality people. We all see it on a day to day basis. The barista who doesn’t greet you, the gas station attendant who doesn’t thank you (or even speak to you as the case may be), the summer job high school student who looks at you like you’re an idiot when you ask for help finding something.
Eventually I started to wonder, is it that they don’t have the resources? The time? The money? Is it because they know I’m forced to use them? Let’s face facts; if you’re going to use a computer (and you are-even now as you read this) you’re going to run across Microsoft products. Sure there are a handful of the hardcore Mac faithful and Linux missionaries but when it comes down to brass tacks Microsoft runs the software (computer) business. We’re talking about a company that was fined 613 million dollars in 2004 and another 357 million dollars in 2006 by the EU. Just a hair under a billion dollars in fines in three years, and yet they continued to post profitable quarters. Take a minute to wrap your head around that please. 1 billion dollars, still making money hand over fist.
As I mentioned, I had a technical issue with my XBL account. What should have been a simple fix turned into a nightmare.
On Wednesday, April 18th I tried to change my gamertag from (gamertag #1), to (gamertag #2). I paid the required 800 Microsoft points and input the new tag on my new Xbox 360. When I tried to go back and play Halo it wouldn’t work. I immediately called XBL customer service and was instructed to delete the profile and attempt to recover it. When I put in my new gamertag and Windows Live ID it told me that the Windows Live ID was linked to (gamertag #1), my old tag. I explained this to the representative and was instructed to recover the old gamertag. I tried this and got an error message stating that (gamertag #1) did not exist on XBL. The error message continued asking if I would like to recover my account using the Windows Live ID, I said yes, entered the Live ID and was again informed that the Live ID I’d entered was associated with (gamertag #1), the same gamertag I’d just been told did not exist on XBL.
Upon hearing this the representative put me on hold to find a supervisor. The supervisor walked me through the steps of doing some type of hard drive maintenance by tapping a combination of bumpers and buttons in one of the menu blades on my 360. Nothing we tried was successful. The supervisor then told me they would escalate my issue and have an answer for me in a couple of days. A couple of days went by with no resolution so I called back to XBL customer service. Another supervisor had me look on Xbox.com to see which GT my Live ID was bringing up. I could log into my account on Xbox.com using my Windows Live ID and it showed the correct (gamertag #2). Again the supervisor was stumped and told me to wait another couple of days; I’d receive a call from someone at Microsoft. Another couple of days went by with no call. This cycle repeated itself. I’d call to customer service, give my latest reference number, 103413#### (memorized), and talk to a supervisor who instructed me to wait for a call that didn’t come.
Well, let me back up a little…You see when you call to XBL customer service… A normal call typically goes like this:
*Automated voice* THANKS FOR CALLING XBOX LIVE CUSTOMER SUPPORT….YOUR CALL MAY BE MONITORED OR RECORDED FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE… HEY, WE’RE CURRENTLY GETTING A LOT OF CALLS SO YOU MAY EXPERIENCE A LONGER THAN NORMAL WAIT TIME….MY NAME IS MAX AND THERE ARE SEVERAL THINGS I CAN HELP YOU WITH….YOU CAN SAY THINGS LIKE XBOX CONSOLE… XBOX LIVE….BILLING….
me: xbox live
AV: OK WHICH SYSTEM ARE YOU CALLING ABOUT?…ORIGINAL XBOX OR XBOX 360?
me: 360
AV: THERE ARE SEVERAL THINGS I CAN HELP YOU WITH…YOU CAN SAY THINGS LIKE THE IP CONFIRM TEST IS FAILING OR I WANT TO MIGRATE LIVE TO MY 360…TO HEAR EVERYTHING I UNDERSTAND JUST SAY GIMME THE LIST
me: representative
AV: OK, LET ME SEE IF I CAN FIND SOMEONE TO HELP YOU….THE AGENT WILL BE ABLE TO HELP YOU FASTER IF YOU HAVE YOUR GAMERTAG READY….
….
….
FEMALE AUTOMATED VOICE: WE’RE UNABLE TO PROCESS YOUR CALL AT THIS TIME…PLEASE CALL BACK AT ANOTHER TIME…~~~CLICK~~~
And they hang up on you. Unreal, a customer support automated voice that hangs up on you. So I call back 1 or 2 more times and go through all of that a couple more times until it actually puts me on hold to talk to someone. Then I hold for about 15-20 minutes on average. A HA! Someone comes on the line…
me: Hello?
CSR: (Heavy Accent) Hello, my name is Sam, may I have your name please?
me: My name is (edited). Sam, is that short for anything?
CSR: Samaprakashradhakrishnan…
me: So…Sam, what else do you need from me to look up my account?
SAM: What’s your last name? Your phone number? Your address? Your gamertag? The last four digits on the card you used to open the account?
me: (I give him all of the info he asks for)
SAM: Are you the person who holds the card on the account?
me: Yes…and I have a reference number, it’s 103-413-####.
SAM: Ok I’m going to place you on hold while I look up this account…(puts me on hold for 5-6 minutes)
SAM: Mr. (edited)?
me: Yes?
SAM: Thank you for holding, I looked up your account here and it looks like you had some trouble changing your gamertag?
me; Yes, I paid the Microsoft points and tried to change my name but it broke my account…it’s been broken for over a month now.
SAM: Oh, I understand…Have you tried recovering the account?
me: Yes, it should be in the notes there that I’ve tried everything over the last five or six weeks that you have suggested to me and have gotten the same results.
SAM: Oh, I understand…I’m sorry…It shows here that this problem has been elevated to Microsoft and they’re going to give you a call. Is there anything else I can help you with?
me: When?
SAM: When what?
me: When will microsoft call me?
SAM: They usually call within 1 to 2 weeks.
me: It’s been over 5 weeks…
SAM: Oh, I understand, well they’ll call you. Is there anything else I can help you with?
me: What if they don’t call?
SAM: They’ll call.
me: But they haven’t…
SAM: Oh, I understand, well this issue has been elevated to Microsoft so there is nothing else I can do to help you…Is there anything else I can do to help you?
me: You guys already charged me for this account, and now it doesn’t work…I feel like I’m being ripped off paying for something that doesn’t work…
SAM: Oh, I understand…hold on while I get my supervisor… (another 4-5 minutes on hold)
Sam: Mr. (edited)?
me: Yes?
SAM: I have my supervisor on the line, he’ll be able to help you, have a nice day…
Supervisor: Mr. (edited)?
me: Yes?
SV: My name is John; Sam told me that you’re having some trouble changing your gamertag?
me: Yes, I tried to change it and it broke my account…that was over a month ago and I haven’t heard from you guys…meanwhile you have my money and I can’t play Halo.
John: Oh, I understand. Have you tried recovering your gamertag?
me: (At this point I’m 45 minutes or an hour into the call and have gritted my teeth down to smooth) Yes, I tried that and everything else that you told me to try.
John: Well it shows here that this issue has been elevated to Microsoft and they’re going to call you. Is there anything else I can help you with?
me: When will Microsoft call me?
John: It takes about 1 to 2 weeks. Is there anything else I can help you with?
me: It’s been five weeks and no one has called me.
John: Oh, I understand. Well it’s out of our hands now, we can’t do anything further.
me: Can I have the name of who can?
John: No.
me: Can I have the number of the person it was elevated to?
John: No.
me: Can I talk to your boss?
John: No. Is there anything else I can help you with?
me: What do I do if no one from Microsoft calls me?
John: They’ll call you.
me: When?
John: It usually takes a week or two.
me: It’s been five weeks, over a month, and no one has helped me or called me..
John: Oh, I understand…Is there anything else I can do for you?
me: Let me talk to someone who can fix my account or help me with my problem?
John: Someone will call you, is there anything else I can help you with?
me: Give me a working account, like I paid for?
John: ~~~CLICK~~~.
And oh boy did I get hung up on, over and over again. The maneuver that I experienced most was to be put on hold for whatever reason, and after 15 minutes or so they would just hang up on me. CSR’s, Supervisors- whoever. It didn’t matter, if I asked the wrong question, if I needed them to hold for a minute while I found some information they said they needed off my 360, any time they could, they hung up on me. Once I refused to be put on hold. I told the CSR that I would wait on the line- he hesitated, then after a few minutes of whatever he was doing came back on the line and gave me a number to call- “They’ll help you” he said. So I did as he instructed, I hung up and called the number he gave me…drum roll…Windows support! Was my Vista not working? Was I having trouble with IE7? …No, in fact I wasn’t calling about a computer at all…but it sure was an easy way to get me off the phone right then.
I was frustrated for a couple reasons beyond that though; I’ll do my best to explain: I had an original Xbox for two years, I bought it new and it was a tank. It never had one problem. Recently I spent $500+ dollars on an Xbox 360 so that I could play the Halo 3 Beta and it’s given me a slew of problems, from failing to load maps to screen burn-ins. It even made funny noises when I’d only had it about a month or so. About four or five days before my XBL service broke I paid my $50 renewal fee, normally I would have just requested a refund and used the money to start a new account, I couldn’t do that however because my Halo 3 Beta invite was tied to my broken Windows Live ID.
I think this is where most people who experience XBL throw their hands up and surrender. They’ll pay for a new account or even just stop playing online.
I was determined though, and in a way, Lucky. I capitalized that on purpose because it was Luck, not luck, which got me my account back. That’s right, this story has a happy ending, for me at least. I’m sure there are those who aren’t Lucky, and still going through similar situations with XBL customer service. All of you have my deepest sympathies.
Guess what makes me Lucky, and not just lucky. I live in Redmond, WA. I’m not going to pretend to be super-connected or to have a lot of juice but I do know a couple people. One of them is (edited), an employee at XBL. I don’t like to bother him about his work when he’s not at work but I had to talk to someone to try and get some help. So I wrote him an email, explained what was going on and begged for his help. I told him that I’d gladly drive right down to MS, sit down and talk to someone. I related a small part of my experience calling whatever country XBL customer service is outsourced to. I’m Lucky he’s a good friend. I’m Lucky he passed my note along and I’m Lucky he is who he is there so that my note finally got some attention. I gave them my info and they recreated the problem on an in-house box.
A week or so later I got a call from a gentleman, (edited), at Microsoft. He said that he’d seen my email and thought he knew what was wrong. Some problem with their servers, when I changed my name it didn’t update correctly etc. I’ll spare you the tech-talk. He told me that he would take care of it. And so I waited, and I waited and I waited. One thing (edited) at Microsoft did do was provide me a one month token so that I could play while my account was down. I used it up waiting, and had to ask him for another, he was kind enough to oblige. After waiting over two months I got a call from (edited) this week. My account is back, and working.
(Edited) has offered to compensate me by giving me a token to restart my year subscription now, so that it didn’t run out months early, as I paid for a year and then my account went down right after. He has also offered me the 800 MS points back. I thanked him, and then told him that’s not what I wanted. What I wanted was real compensation, for the hours of my time that come from trying to explain a technical problem to people who barely speak English. I want compensation for the frustration. I want compensation for being hung up on. I want compensation for being lied to, repeatedly. I want compensation for the things that matter, for the way my situation was handled, for the way I was treated and the way I was made to feel.
“How do you expect-?” he said.
I interrupted… “How do I expect you to quantify that?”
“Yeah, exactly”
“Simple, I want a hardware upgrade. I’ll send you my box, you send me an elite.” I replied.
“Nope.” He said. “We won’t do that.”
And then he told me “Sorry”, and hung up.
Sorry indeed.
Posted by Excardon on June 26, 2007 at 7:11 am
Geez, well that sucks big time.
My wife was thinking about changing her GT and we may just go about it cancelling her account, get the refund for the non-used months, and create a new one to avoid this issue.
Did they just recently outsource? I the first week of the beta I called about an issue I had with my 360 and got an American on the line. Very helpful guy too. Maybe I got lucky.
It is good to hear that you got your problem fixed.
Posted by Tortacular on June 26, 2007 at 10:54 am
They’ve been outsourced for quite a while now, just like the majority of major companies.
It saves them a ton of money on the surface, but I think companies are slowly figuring out that it’s going to cost them money in the long run because you just can’t get good customer service from someone who doesn’t know a damn thing about the products/services they’re representing. It’s not something exclusive to Microsoft, but they’re a perfect example. I hear complaints about this kind of thing every day in my job.
I had similar issues, which is why my beloved Tortacular tag is now dead. I got information from someone at XBL and expected that information to be correct… not so much. After a few weeks of trying to save that tag I just gave up.
It’s good to see you back on X-Box Live.
Posted by Locke on June 26, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Outsourcing is a very short term business solution, and things like this are the reason.
Just reading that made my blood boil. I have had some less than fun Customer Service calls also.
What irks me the most is that nobody you talk to seems to be able to DO anything.
It’s as if they are behind a pane of glass looking at the computer screen, and can only read from it.
If anything needs to be checked or changed, they don’t seem to understand how to deal with it.
CSR: Is there anything else I can help you with?
Yes, indeed. Treat me like a person, you condescending assbag.
The ONLY time I have had a positive experience is when I got lucky and reached a supervisor from Detroit.
My hat’s off to you.
Posted by TTL Demag0gue on June 26, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Customer Service for most companies is a royal joke. Microsoft can get away with it, for the most part, because they know they own a large part of a high-demand market and therefore customers will put up with a load of crap to acquire their products. If we all decided to put an embargo on Microsoft and refuse to buy any MS product until they do something about their customer service, that might change their tune.
I don’t really expect that to happen, though.
Posted by TTL zeuz patter on June 26, 2007 at 1:12 pm
The problem is that every customer support service is outside the company they`re supporting. They are given a “Manual” and everything outside that little useless book is out of there comprehension. i saw a program on Discovery were they were teaching poeple fron India to speak in English as good or even better than an average US citizen. So go figure.
Posted by Fezzer on June 26, 2007 at 9:18 pm
At least your back my friend. Sorry for the hassle.
This makes me very weary of ever trying to fly my clans 3-letter acronym in front of my name.
I might just start a whole new account to avoid the problem.
Posted by TTL Dren on June 26, 2007 at 10:25 pm
First off, I feel real bad that any one has to go through that hassle to get something taken care of. I recently purchased a new face plate for my 360. It came with a code to enter in to get the matching dashboard theme. I typed in the extremely long code and blamo, no good. I double check and even entered the code again. Nope sorry, code invalid.
So I grab the phone and dial up the support. Run through the automated voice. Which only seems to anger me. Then finally get to a human. No accent though. I run through my problem and he then asks for the code. I read it off and he tests it on his end. He says the code is no good. Well duh, thats what I was telling you. So I think the next thing he is going to tell me is here is a new code. Nope wrong. He tells me that I need to take it back to the store and exchange it for another one. First off the store is going to think I am just scamming for the code. Because they will see that the package is open and the code has been used. So I try to coax him to give me a code. He tells me no again and then I tell him that its just to much trouble to exchange it. I have already wasted 20 mins talking you and I bought the last one the store had anyways.
Companies need to understand that when people need help, they want to talk to someone that can do that. If you call up and get a bunch of hot air, it will make that person not want to do business with your company.
Posted by Kris Erickson on June 29, 2007 at 12:19 am
Wow, we live in a bizarre world where Sony is now the hardware underdog and Microsoft enjoys enough clout to be able to do this kind of thing to their customers. I am vascillating between getting either a 360 or a PS3 once Grand Theft Auto IV comes out. This story has given me some doubts about the Microsoft product. I wonder what Sony’s customer service is like these days?
Posted by Geek Drivel » Blog Archive » Google comes through! on August 25, 2007 at 9:43 pm
[...] The customer may not always be right, but if you plan on keeping his business, you’d damn well better treat him with respect. [...]
Posted by Chris on October 1, 2007 at 9:43 am
Hey I am having the same problem, and getting the same type of answers.. is there any way you could ask your Mr. Edited friend to help me out as well? Please reply via email..
Posted by trone on November 27, 2007 at 9:03 am
i have the same exact problem and they said they cant give me a solution today what should i do? im so pissed
Posted by bs angel on November 27, 2007 at 9:52 am
Hey Trone. I am hoping by now they have gotten a little more efficient at dealing with this particular problem. I would give them a few days and see what happens.
Posted by trone on November 27, 2007 at 4:01 pm
i hope so, ive been waiting since friday now and now response back yet, and unfortunately for me i dont know anyone at microsoft or xbox, im thinking about calling back and saying about a similar problem occuring in that past and to see if they can look up the records of how it was solved the first time
Posted by trone on November 27, 2007 at 4:28 pm
would one of you who has overcome this problem please email me with some help, i cant take talking on the phone with these women or men who talk with accents and are very hard to understand, who eventually hang up on me or have me on hold for hours, i cant take it anymore!
Posted by domi on January 10, 2008 at 10:53 am
Hi there I stumbled across this entry and since I have decided that I am going to post my own horror story anywhere I can, I thought I would drop you this note….
I had the same problems as you are having only involving a replacement Xbox360 they sent me. Seems as though copyright issues do not allow transfer of games from old to new even though THEY are the ones who sent me the “refurbished” unit.
After 3 months of the conversations listed above (almost word for word might I add including “we are having technical problems with our server, call back later” — hi you’re Microsoft and you’re having issues with your SERVER? You should use Mac’s ;-) ). I finally called someone in general support (versus XBox Live) and talked to someone who understood English and finally stopped giving me the run around. Essentially….I’m screwed. Nice company huh?
I didn’t even get an offer of anything for my problems. Now I’m out close to $100 for games I downloaded and can no longer access. Guess this is how they make their money!
Posted by bs angel on January 10, 2008 at 11:03 am
I have had the same thing happen, luckily I only lost two or three games though because it happened early on. I definitely agree something needs to change there. I have heard of people getting their points refunded back to them so they could repurchase the games. Don’t know if they would be willing to do that for you or not. :(
Posted by ms hater on May 19, 2008 at 4:18 pm
i have been waiting for my repair for 4 weeks now, and ms is just being a dick about it. for four weeks i’ve been calling them and they tell me to wait a week for their service center update, then they tell me it’s been shipped, and to wait 3-5 business. when these days pass, guess what NO XBOX!!!! they tell me the same thing over and over aging every time i call. it’s sad that they transfer me to a stupid supervisor who tells me the same thing as the representative but that they can’t do anything for me.
Posted by Waffle Deluxe on February 21, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Chocolate Rain.