You may remember that I am banned from Xbox Live. Not only that, but I signed up with a credit card that has now expired, so when I started getting reminder emails from Microsoft about my subscription, I thought it would be quite safe to ignore them. My subscription would lapse and I would lose my account.
The email headed “Your Subscription Cannot be Renewed” just confirmed what I already knew. They wouldn’t be able to take any money from me and everything would be fine. Hooray.
So imagine my surprise when I checked my credit card statement and there was a charge for £39.99 from “Microsoft Online Services” for another year of Xbox Live. Cheeky sods! Even being banned from the service and having an expired credit card on file isn’t enough to keep Microsoft’s grubby paws off your cash, it seems.
In fairness to Microsoft, after a brief phone call and a short argument with the person at the other end over whether the email had said “cannot,” or “might not be renewed”, I got my money back in full, despite leaving it nearly a month between seeing the charge and complaining about it.
And the person on the phone didn’t seem to be able to tell that I was banned - which was a bonus. I didn’t really want a phone lecture on the evils of modchips.
The lesson here? Microsoft = bastards.
