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?"

Credit is good, Debit is Bad

[ResHippie]

At least for things not done in person. With a credit card you can simply call your company and contest the charges. Maybe enough people doing that will send a message.

Re:Acutally, this just happened with me

[PktLoss]

Oh, One foot not sorry.

The email account I registered with is active and I check it regularily, i was not sent a message regarding being re-billed.

Interesting question about the TOS for X-BOx Live though, if your TV is too small to actually read the TOS, and thats the only place you see a lot of it, can they hold you to it?

Re:Credit Card Fraud Is a Serious Crime

[zulux]

Microsoft does make it tough to cancel, often requiring passwords you may have forgotten, or specifically notifying them at least 60 days before renewal,

I make it easy on myself - I just send the company a written letter that they stop service and send it via certified mail.

The small change of certified mail is worth not having to deal with some kid on the phone for 30 mins.

Underhanded tactics

[Slashdot Insider]

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.

That does sound underhanded. If you receive your monthly statement around the middle of each month, by the time the December statement comes in at the middle of January, it would have already been too late for a refund. Bastards.

Smartcards are good, Credit/Debit are bad

[0x0d0a]

The whole concept of an "auto-renewing" system even being considered acceptable just really burns me up. There's no good reason for companies not being forced to re-request a payment once a year. Let the burden be on the company to ensure that the consumer still wants the product, rather than on the consumer to ensure that he doesn't get shafted.

This is why I wish everyone would use smartcards. While theoretically you could build an auto-payment authorization system with one, it isn't just a matter of "company A has your CC# and can charge you whatever they want to charge."

Re:Smartcards are good, Credit/Debit are bad

[UconnGuy]

But the fact is that you sign a service agreement with the company. My favorite solution is signing up for things online and using a credit card that offers virtual numbers - the ones that can only be used once. I have found that this works pretty well and that I kept receiving emails from the companies saying the credit card failed when they tried to charge it and if I didn't update my information, the service would be cancelled - which is what I wanted.

Temporary credit card numbers are the way to go.

[hikerhat]

My credit card company, MBNA, has a system where you can generate a temporary credit card number, and assign a limit and expiration date to it. I try and use it for any "auto-renewing" system. So if I find a service I want to use for say $20 a year, I'll generate a CC# with a $20 limit, and an expiration date of next week. Then, a year later I have to manually renew with a new valid CC#, or they don't get any more of my money. Check if your credit card company has something like this.

November 15 you say?

[ajd1474]

From MS' point of view you've had your "new" account for nearly 3 months now. That's 1/4 of the duration of the billing period. For all they know you've been playing the hell out of xbox live in the last 3 months.

ALthough i feel sorry for your situation, there certainly isnt a clause in their contract that says "XBox Live, buy 12 months get 3 months free".

At the end of the day you've had access to their service for 3 months, and although i'd support the refund pro-rata, you can't possibly justify being refunded for the time you've already had access (whether you used it or not is hardly their fault).