Microsoft's got some nice talons...

[Iakun]

So this morning I found out my Xbox Live account was set to auto-renew my gold subscription. I bought a month subscription cuz they had it going for 1 buck! So I figured, of course there's a catch, they put your subscription on auto-renew to auto charge your credit card. x.x Nuuuuuuuu~~

So I logged into my account to try and turn the auto-renew feature off only to find out.... YOU HAVE TO CALL IN TO CUSTOMER SERVICE TO DO THAT. ARGH damn Microsoft. It's ridiculous that they make you jump through hoops just to turn off the auto-renew feature. At least I didn't get my call outsourced to India or something and they didn't give me any trouble for my request.

edit: Oops poll added

 

[Moonracer]

Aw, poor little brother! *huggles* I sorry it was a pain, but I'm glad it wasn't as bad as it could have been. *nods* That's why I'm rather sceptical with some things is because I tend to get shafted like that when I don't.  

[Tybarious]

for some reason I'm not surprised

oh you forgot to add a poll  

[xwhateverxdudex]

Yeah, I'm not surprized either.

Sorry, but yeah, they're evil.  

[Tybarious]

its not that they're evil, its just common business practices  

[I_Am_The_Calm_One]

Personally I believe it is poor business practice. If your consumers cannot rely on you eventually someone will come out with the very same product but their product will not be so poor quality thus the original company loses their consumers.

However, for this particular problem I believe it to be underhanded and completely immoral.  

[Rinioa]

That sounds about like 90% of companies nowadays. 3nodding
That's how most magazine subscriptions go.

 

[Iakun]

To be fair, it's not so much the automatic subscription that bothers me. I figured for 1 buck for that month's duration, there would be a catch. But what's terrible is that the auto-renewal setting of your subscription can't be changed when you log in to your xbox live account on the website.

When you phone in, they pretty much turn the auto-renewal off at your simple request. If it's that easy and not an issue for them, it's ridiculous to not add that option in the billing management section in your account on the website.

edit: That and I didn't even know what their phone number was without having to search online.

 

[Rinioa]

✖ ✖ ✖ ✖ ✖ ✖ ✖ ✖ ✖

Well, I do agree that there should be an option to opt-out of that when you get into your account settings and not have to contact them via phone. Unless the phone number was very boldly displayed on your account page or an easy to access "Contact Us"

ℛîñíÏʞã৳å®û

 

[xwhateverxdudex]

Maybe they did that like that because there was a glitch that let people turn it back on after the beginning of the month to avoid the bill.

Or maybe they were just counting on the people that would think it's easier to pay one dollar then go through the trouble of trying to find the number.

(probably the second one)  

[I_Am_The_Calm_One]

Most logically it is probably the second option or that they would figure most people would give up in trying to find this number or that most people wouldn't even realized they were continually getting billed till months later.

Still I find this tactic of business detestable.  

[Tybarious]

the US government does the samething

but the important thing to do is read all the fine print before agreeing to it  

[Moonracer]

Couldn't of said it better myself guy's! What they do blows, but it's a way of life anymore, but yeah sadly ya gotta read everything now with a fine toothed comb I swear.  

[Rinioa]

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Yep. 3nodding
Like I said, just about every company does stuff like that now, so you've gotta really check out that "fine print" before agreeing to anything.

 

[xwhateverxdudex]

Yeah, It comes as no surprise to me either.

I kinda just except it as how things are.
(not how they should be, be I can't change that)