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1-800-4MY-XBOX is absolutely TERRIBLE

S

siamesedreamer

Banned
You would think that the people who work in the "Problems with connecting to Xbox Live" department would have some knowledge of how these things work. But no, they are clueless shits who probably don't even know how to access the internet. And they're all women.....and foreigners. My God, why hire people with horribly thick accents who are just going to confuse the customers even more? I felt like I was calling some call center in New Delhi.

Anyway, on my THIRD call to the center the woman (who was the most clueless of them all) told me that we had done everything we could do and that the protocols stated that we needed to recover my Live account from the system - a process that would have ERASED ALL MY SAVES.

I was like WTF?!? I knew that was wrong. So, I got a reference number and called back hoping to get a male. Well, I didn't. But, this chick knew what the fuck she was doing and had me on Live in like 5 minutes. I was pumped, but it shouldn't have taken four phone calls and a couple hours of frustration to fix the problem.
 
This is from a guy who think Andruw Jones was robbed?!?

The guy hit .263. The XBOX rep was clearly on to you and wanted your saves to be deleted.
 
When I called to cancel my Live account they had no one for french service (canada) so I left a message and they only called back a day and a half later. Anyway I called back right away with english service then I talked to this woman who couldn't find my account with either my phone number or my gamertag. I called back again later talked to some guy who knew is stuff and he cancelled my account right away.

So yeah french service sucks and english is miss or hit I guess =/
 
siamesedreamer said:
You would think that the people who work in the "Problems with connecting to Xbox Live" department would have some knowledge of how these things work. But no, they are clueless shits who probably don't even know how to access the internet. And they're all women.....and foreigners. My God, why hire people with horribly thick accents who are just going to confuse the customers even more? I felt like I was calling some call center in New Delhi.

Anyway, on my THIRD call to the center the woman (who was the most clueless of them all) told me that we had done everything we could do and that the protocols stated that we needed to recover my Live account from the system - a process that would have ERASED ALL MY SAVES.

I was like WTF?!? I knew that was wrong. So, I got a reference number and called back hoping to get a male. Well, I didn't. But, this chick knew what the fuck she was doing and had me on Live in like 5 minutes. I was pumped, but it shouldn't have taken four phone calls and a couple hours of frustration to fix the problem.
Click to expand...

Sexist much?

DA WOMENS DON'T KNOW NUTTIN BOUT THE COMPUTERZ!!!
 
I've called them twice.

#1 - couldn't get my 360 to connect to my PC, in the end they were no help.

#2 - my "double tax" thread is probably page 5 by now. I complained about getting taxed twice on my bill for Microsoft points, and got the supervisor. His stance? $15.50 including tax means $15.50 plus tax. So yeah, even highschool dropouts can become a supervisor at 4MyXbox!
 
My mate’s wireless controller stopped working so he called and told me off the following conversation he had:

Mate: blah, blah wireless controller is not working! What could be wrong?
Person: Turn 360 of, then back on
Mate: I tried that
Person: Is you controller connected correctly
Mate: Is a wireless controller
Person: Is it connected the Xbox 360 unit
Mate: It is WIRELESS

*silence*

10 minutes pass and problem is not fixed. Conversation ends in the person saying “you may need to buy a new controller”
 
yeah, i'm actually quite pissed with that whole dept.

awhile back i had problems with my Op1vy gamertag. i was unable to sign in with it at all, as live would give me an error saying that my ccount was suspended due to a payment problem. you see, i've had my live account nearly from the beginning, and at this point it was charged 5 bucks a month for service. i had left my atm/debit card in an atm machine in mid december and promptly had the card canceled and a new one issued. of course i had completely forgotten about live being attached to that number, so in early january, my live account went suspended due to problems with the card on file.

i called the 800 number and was directed to a website for MS's billing where i could update my account and change the billing credit card. sure enough, this site listed the old CC#, and my live account as "suspended". after putting in the new CC, the system quickly updated to "activated" and all money owed was promptly removed from my bank account.

but live still would not work.

i honestly called nearly everyday for a week. no one on the other end new what the issue was, as on thier end too it showed my account was active and should be working fine. i was told initially that maybe it would just take 24hrs for the system to update the active status. i was then told to try to sign onto my xbox1's live and check settings on that machine (wtfbbq). lastly, i was told to remove my gamertag and try relinking, which of course would delete all of my saves and progress off the machine which at first i was unwiling to even try.

eventually, after MANY calls, of being on hold forever, and of being hung up on (by accident, but still) more then once, i'm told that my problem has been moved up the ladder, and that i'll be getting a call in the next 5 buisness days to resolve this. goddamnit, 5 more days, and its gonna be them calling me?

on the 5th buisness day i hadnt heard a peep and decided to call them. i get some dude on the phone and explain my situation. i ask to speak to a supervisor and in the process of transfering, i get hung up on. so, i try again. i finally get through to a supervisor and they tell me that my issue has been bumped up the ladder and i'll be getting a call in the next 5 buisness days (yes, again).

so, at this point i'm very frustrated and feel this will never get resolved on there end. i delete the Op1vy rpofile and try to relink it, however, each time it gets 90% of the way through the process then craps out saying "there is something wrong with the xbox live service at this time. please try again later". it does this everytime i try, over the span of several more days.

so, i give up. using the new CC, i sign up for a new gold subscription (LoopOfHenle) figuring that i could resolve outstanding issues with live later; compensation for my MS point balances, marketplace downloads, saved games, and paid subscription fees for an account that hasnt been working). as you can imagine, the new account worked perfectly, and i had almost forgotten about my troubles.

about a week after i signed up for the new account (mind you WAY past thier "5 buisness days" thing) i recieve a call from their "tech". basically, he sounded just as uninformed about the workings of live as some of the worst people i had dealed with regarding the service earlier. i explained to him all that had happened and what i have gone through to try and resolve the issue. i ask him to please credit my new gamertag with the downloads and points associated with the Op1vy tag and ask for any compensation for all this bullshit. he says hes unable to do any compensation at all, and that there is no way to get me any points back or downloads. he says that i can set up Op1vy on my system as a silver subscription and still be able to use those points and downloads.

so, in the end, i have to keep my old gamertag on silver (which now works by the way) for previous live arcade and MS points acquired. i got no compensation for the weeks of my inactive account and trouble and time spent. i got no refund for the month of january, despite not being able to sign in for 1/2 of it.

fuck 1 800 4myxbox.

jesus that was too much typing. i dont think anyones going to read that :P
 
Dr_Cogent said:
Wow. That post appeared to be pretty sexist dude.
Click to expand...


I agree. But on that note, it is certainly more likely that men are into electronics more than women. So, by pure averages your chances of getting a guy who knows more about this stuff, is probably higher.

I think this forum should be a good enough example of that for you. :)
 
The majority of helpdesk functions in the commercial IT world have been outsourced to foreign countries, and the service varies from excellent to pathetic. Sounds like you had a bad experience.
 
This is only somewhat on topic, but completely relevant.

I had a problem with Cingular wireless back when they bought out AT&T. They had a promotion for all former AT&T customers to get two free cellphones when they switched over to Cingular plans. I took them up on the offer and did it. I never received the phones.

I called their customer service line no less than 5 times, and was hung up on at some point during the transfers every single time. I spent probably 8 to 10 hours on the phone with customer service with no resolution to the problem. I had spoken to reps, supervisors, managers, and whoever the hell else. I finally got frustrated enough and sent the following email to every single company VP I could find (just google for press releases and try to piece together email addresses for the VPs)

Warning: Long Email

Hi, I'm Jonathan Black. I'm one of your 46 million customers, and
tonight I've been unlucky enough to spend 3 and a half hours on the
telephone with various members of your customer service team and many
other members of your extremely disorganized corporation. I've got
one positive thing to say about my experience tonight, and a whole
laundry list of negatives. I'll start with the positive item for
those of you who wish to look at your company with rose-colored
glasses and imagine that all 46 million of us are happy to be your
customers.

You have one customer service rep named James who carries the employee
ID T249 (according to him). I spent a little over an hour of my time
tonight talking to James, and he was the only one who was extremely
helpful, cheerful, and likeable. He legitimately tried to get me the
help that I needed, and although he was unable to do so (through no
fault of his own, the fault lies in the complete lack of
management/organization/structure inherent in this merger), I still
appreciate his efforts and his concern. He was friendly, he had a
good sense of humor, he was willing to help, and he did everything I
asked to his utmost abilities. There eventually came a time where he
had to transfer me to another department because he was unable to
offer any further assistance, but somebody should take a look at him
and consider moving him up the corporate ladder to a place where he
actually can make a difference. It would certainly help to make your
customers happier.

Now if that's all you wanted to hear, you can stop reading now. I'm
about to go into the negatives in very gory detail. I hope you'll
choose to stay with me though.

My experience started off at about 4 o'clock p.m. Eastern Time as I
entertained the idea of purchasing a new camera phone for myself. As
I logged onto the AT&T Wireless site, I noticed that all the branding
had changed to Cingular. I clicked on the Shop link and began to look
for a new phone. I was asked if I was an existing customer, so I said
yes. I gave the required information, and I was given a message that
if I transfer my lines ("migrate" I believe is the internal
terminology) to Cingular I would have the option of selecting a new
plan and a new phone. I was told that there would be no early
disconnect fee since I wasn't really disconnecting, but merely making
my switch from AT&T to Cingular official. I proceeded with the offer
and eventually received a message that I could not migrate my lines
because I have a family plan through AT&T Wireless. I was told to
call a special number where your customer service reps would be able
to assist me in the migration effort.

So call this number I did with youthful optimism and excitement. It
seemed to me that I'd be able to transfer my lines, get a Cingular
plan with rollover, and get a free camera phone (since it was offered
on your website) for my efforts. After waiting on hold for about 20
minutes (understandable considering the merger efforts taking place) a
customer service rep picked up and tried to assist me with my request.
At this point I can't really even remember the details or the
conversations, and I honestly don't feel like recounting them
line-by-line (and I doubt you care to read a line-by-line description
of it all), but suffice to say this young lady was unable to assist
me. She offered to transfer me to another department. That other
department was unable to assist, so they transferred me again. This
third department was unable to assist, so they transferred me to
something called Webmatch. The man that picked up from Webmatch
informed me that I wasn't in "his area", so he transferred me to
somebody else. Only he hung up on me instead. This wasn't the last
time that would happen.

After navigating through your automated customer service system (which
was apparently designed by people who have the utmost disdain for
humanity), I managed to get myself back to Webmatch. This new guy
offered to help me out, and he put me on hold to "check on things",
only by "putting me on hold" he actually meant "hanging up on you".
So I got disconnected again. At this point I'm pretty angry, so I
call back up the number I was given and ask to speak to a manager. I
finally get to speak to a manager (named John), and all he offered to
do was transfer me back to Webmatch. After I informed him that
Webmatch apparently has a problem with hanging up on people when they
try to put them on hold, I asked to speak to some sort of manager
above him. He said he'd put me on hold while he found a supervisor.
John must have been promoted from the Webmatch department because; he
too, hung up on me. I call back again and I speak to nice lady who
offered to help me out. I informed her that I pretty much knew she
wouldn't be able to help me and that I'd like to speak to a
supervisor. She said she'd get a supervisor for me, came back to the
line ten minutes later, and told me that her supervisor was in a staff
meeting. When I asked to speak to the supervisor above that
supervisor I was again told (after another ten minutes) that this
supervisor was also in a staff meeting. At this point I asked to
speak to the highest ranking manager that wasn't in a staff meeting
and didn't work at Webmatch, and the young lady informed me that she
would find someone for me. Unfortunately, this young lady also
received the majority of her training from Webmatch supervisors
because she also hung up on me.

At this point it all just became comedic. It was absolutely unreal.
I couldn't believe what I had been through trying to talk to somebody
that could actually do something. Frustrated to the point of being
delirious, I called back and talked to James. The only good guy that
works at your company. James tried his best to help me, realized he
couldn't, and eventually transferred me back to Webmatch to talk to a
lady named Patricia. Patricia was also pretty friendly, but she
couldn't help me either. When she tried to migrate my lines, she
received a mysterious error (I assume the same people that programmed
the automated customer service system also worked on the migration
tools that you use), and told me that she couldn't do it tonight. I
specifically told Patricia that after being on the phone with various
members of the Cingular family the battery in my cell phone was in
danger of dying. I gave Patricia an alternate number and pleaded with
her to call me in the event that the battery on my phone died.
Patricia promised me that she would. Care to guess what happens next?

Yeah.... my phone died. And I still haven't received a phone call
back from Patricia. I don't care to try to call back any more
tonight. I'm frustrated, I'm tired, my cell phone is dead, and I just
want to sit back and eat some dinner and watch some TV. I don't know
that I'll bother calling back tomorrow or ever again. I just can't
believe the level of incompetence that surrounds the customer service
program at Cingular. After 3 and a half hours of transfers,
disconnects, and giving the last four digits of my social security
number to half of America, I had absolutely nothing to show for it
except for an abnormally large usage of cell phone minutes. So I got
doubly screwed.

What am I expecting to hear from you guys? Nothing really. I don't
know if any of you will ever read this, and I don't expect anyone to
respond if they do. All I wanted tonight was to take advantage of a
publically advertised offer on the Cingular website, and it was
impossible. I wanted a Motorola V220 for each line on my family plan,
and I wanted to switch my plan to Cingular's 59.99 family plan with
rollover minutes and nights and weekends. This proved too much for
your company to handle.

To me, it's hard to imagine that you have annual revenues of more than
15 billion, but you can't manage to send out two cell phones and
switch some guy's cell phone plan. It's ludicrous.

I wish I could cancel my service. I really wish I could. Due to my
own lack of foresight, I'm locked in until mid-2006. So I'll pay
every bill from now until then, and I won't complain about it. Come
July 2006 though, I won't ever give my zip code or last four digits,
or one more dollar to your company again. It's terrible. If you
actually read this far, thanks.

Three days later, I had my new phones and a month credit for my bill.
 
Haleon said:
This is only somewhat on topic, but completely relevant.

I had a problem with Cingular wireless back when they bought out AT&T. They had a promotion for all former AT&T customers to get two free cellphones when they switched over to Cingular plans. I took them up on the offer and did it. I never received the phones.

I called their customer service line no less than 5 times, and was hung up on at some point during the transfers every single time. I spent probably 8 to 10 hours on the phone with customer service with no resolution to the problem. I had spoken to reps, supervisors, managers, and whoever the hell else. I finally got frustrated enough and sent the following email to every single company VP I could find (just google for press releases and try to piece together email addresses for the VPs)

Warning: Long Email
....

Three days later, I had my new phones and a month credit for my bill.
Click to expand...

i should email Bill, Peter and J
 
op_ivy said:
i should email Bill, Peter and J
Click to expand...
You should email every VP at MS you can find. Regardless of whether or not they have anything to do with the Xbox. Your email will eventually be forwarded into the right hands.
 
This is what you get when companies farm their work out to other countries in order to save money. Even shittier customer service. I don't see it changing anytime soon.

Hell, it's hard enough when they speak the language, but when they don't - it's even more of a bitch.
 
this guy would probably do a better job than the entire support team :(

clippy.jpg
 
I tried the chat support and they're not better. I bought two MS points cards, they didn't work. I asked the support person if they were region specific, they said they were region free (passport account is registered for the US, but codes are European) - turns out it was flat out wrong (the codes worked with a new European passport account.)
It was a bit annoying that the person obviously had no knowledge at all about what he/she was doing...and although you have to provide information about your problem on the chat request form, they didn't bother to read it, I had to explain it again :-/
 
I called them for the first time yesterday regarding an Xbox Live question. It went pretty well, guess I am in the minority.
 
"How much for the little girl? How much for your women? I want to buy your women."

srmpctal.jpg


Anyway, yeah... I've only had to call Xbox support once, and I got someone who spoke English and had a penis. Imagine that! :lol
 
In the 7+ hours I've spent on the phone with MS the women were by far better than the men. Well, except for the one woman who sounded like someone had ripped out her tongue. She was pretty bad.

And hey, I had a lot of the same problems you did, op ivy! I made a post even longer than yours in the 360 defect thread. It's been 9 days since I was told they'd call me wiithin 2-3 days. Still no call. On Saturday a dude said he fixed my problem, I just had to wait 24-48 hours for their system to update or whatever. But guess what! He didn't! So I called and cancelled on Monday

Then my friend ended up buying a bunch of those half off Live kits from TRU, and he peer pressured me into making a new account. I did. I'm sucha sell out. :(

I'm still gonna call that BBB, though!@#
 
I've always been thinking about picking up an XBOX and joining this community, but these horror stories always keep me away. Maybe once they get things straightened out and handle things in a professional and efficient manner, I'll be down.

Thanks, Nintendo, for helping me out through all my problems without any crap.
 
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