My open letter to Bill Gates and Kathleen Hogan
Dear Bill and Kathleen -
My name is Justin Reynard, and I've been a proud Xbox owner since launch. I'm also a programmer in the video game industry and the kind of person who people come to for advice regarding the industry.
Thanksgiving 2006 I purchased a movie on the new "xbox live movie marketplace" for what I believe was about 6 US dollars. The movie never finished downloading the entire holiday weekend, my family didn't get to see it, and it would not let me start the download again. I immediately contacted customer support and explained the problem. The hold times were ridiculous and after quite a while I finally got them to tell me that my account would be credited over the next few days.
It never was.
Now, I may not be as rich as some of the heads of microsoft, but 6 dollars isn't going to break me. I was so frustrated with the bad service that I decided to just let it go. But I would limit my purchases on the Xbox live marketplace if the system (and service) is going to be that unstable.
Fast forward a year to this thanksgiving. I'm undergoing Chemotherapy for my recent bout with cancer and finally felt up to playing some Xbox Live. I sat down on my couch for the first time in months and turn on my xbox. It will not connect to live. It starts to, logs in, and then crashes back to the dashboard with no message. After trying to figure this out and ruling out my connection, I tried to login from within a game. This time it tells me there's a problem with my account and takes me to the account management screen. When the account screen finishes loading, it crashes me back to the dashboard. Once again, NO message whatsoever. At this point I was frustrated beyond belief (not to mention sick and not wanting to deal with this.).
I got my cell phone (on a weekday so using my prime minutes) and called Xbox Live. The guy asked me the usual questions but since I've been an xbox live member for over 2 years I wasn't sure the last 4 digits of my card. He told me that my account was closed for a violation of the user agreement and there was nothing he could do. He basically told me I was banned for "hacking". I assured him that although more than capable there was no way this was possible. My Xbox 360 (including my HDDVD player, camera, 2 keyboards, wireless adapter, charger, wireless headset and multiple games) were all purchased legally and new. I normally use my xbox to play Final Fantasy XI and have no reason or desire to "hack" my system and risk losing the ability to login. The man was rude with me and not helpful at all. Finally I told him to try a few "last 4 digits" and managed to guess which card I had used.
At this point, he changed his story and told me that I was not banned for hacking, but it was a simple billing error. Although this angered me I thanked him and he transfered me to the account department. She told me that my card on file had expired and they let me go almost 3 months into my new service without charging me so now I HAD to pay them the 49.99. This seems to be bad practice, as I had a 1 year card I was planning on using instead of the 49.99 but they told me the only way to regain access to my account was to pay. Eventually I told them this was fine, but I wanted them to rectify the missing points on my account before I paid. She told me this wasn't possible until after I paid them the money I owed. Reluctantly, I agreed and gave them a valid credit card and paid the 50 dollars. She transfered me to the people she said could me.
She transfered me wrong. The hardware people were nice and transferred me again to the people they said could help me. So this is 3 people so far I've talked to, with about 15 minutes of hold time alone per person. I could feel my cell phone bill running up but I was determined to sort this out.
Finally I got to the right department and explained everything to the guy. I explained him the entire situation and everything that went wrong and told him I just wanted the points put back on my account out of principle and we could be on our way. He told me they had high call volume and he'd just get a supervisor to look into it since the purchase date was too old for him to find. This ended up taking about an hour and finally he comes back and tells me his supervisor has denied my claim. Their records show problems that weekend, but that everyone's refund had gone through. I assured him mine has not and asked him to try again. Still no results. At this point, he tried to thank me and told me there was nothing more he could do (he wanted to hang up). I asked to speak to his supervisor and he refused again. He told me that he has to get some kind of authorization to transfer me and his request was denied.
I assured him I wasn't going to hang up and I wanted to be transferred. He was angry, but finally agreed. I ended up being on hold for 45 more minutes and he came back and said it was almost time. 15 minutes later I finally got online with a supervisor (I wish I had written down these people's names). This guy was obviously very angry that he was "bothered" dealing with someone he had already "rejected". In a low, frustrated tone he asked me for my gamertag and a few other questions. I then explained to him the story again and that I didn't even care about the 6 dollars.
I had spent FIFTY dollars on another year of service, almost a THOUSAND on hardware and software and another FORTY dollars in cell phone minutes on this call.
All I wanted was someone at Microsoft to tell me that they valued me as a customer and they apologize for causing me these problems. I would be fine with 5 dollars in points or something if they couldn't refund the purchase in question. I just wanted to know that SOMEONE values me spending all this money on the products and supporting the company for so long. After telling him everything, he hung up on me.
FOUR hours or so total on the phone only to end up being hung up on. Ridiculous.
When my anger subsided I called back again. I had decided to demand a refund for my 50 dollars (prorated if need be) and to sell my Xbox 360 and buy a Playstation 3. The lady was nice and was sure that she could resolve my issues instead of such a drastic decision. She put me on hold once again to get a supervisor. She apologized for it taking so long after about 30 minutes on hold. I told her it was ok, and thanked her. 15 minutes on hold again, I was disconnected.
Again.
Funny that when Microsoft owes me money I have to jump through hoops to get it back but when I owe them something they just shut off my service with no notice and expect me once again to jump through hoops to figure out how to get it back.
At this point, I am selling my Xbox 360 and accessories on craigslist. I'm going to (probably without avail) suggest to my 10 or so friends that bough xbox's on MY recommendation to do the same. And working in the game industry I'm going to do my best to not support or work (any more than I have to) on Xbox hardware, DirectX software, XNA platform and anything else your company endorses. Why would I want to support a company that doesn't care at all about it's customers and constituents in business?
All over 6 dollars.
Takes this at what you will. I really wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt. I mean such a large company who outsources their customer server to try and save money maybe has no idea. Outsourced customer service doesn't care about the company they represent nor do they care about the customer with the problem. So why would they help me? But at this time, the ball is in your court.
If you truly care about your customers. If you truly had no idea your service was this bad: then do something about it. Fix it. Otherwise, I hope what happened to me and I'm sure so many other people (read: online forums) will sink in like it did to me and enough people will stop supporting your products for you to realize.
But maybe I'm wrong, maybe you do care about us. If you so, I'll be here to hear about it.
Sincerely,
Justin Reynard
gamertag: rockmusicnerd
***.***.****
********@gmail.com
My name is Justin Reynard, and I've been a proud Xbox owner since launch. I'm also a programmer in the video game industry and the kind of person who people come to for advice regarding the industry.
Thanksgiving 2006 I purchased a movie on the new "xbox live movie marketplace" for what I believe was about 6 US dollars. The movie never finished downloading the entire holiday weekend, my family didn't get to see it, and it would not let me start the download again. I immediately contacted customer support and explained the problem. The hold times were ridiculous and after quite a while I finally got them to tell me that my account would be credited over the next few days.
It never was.
Now, I may not be as rich as some of the heads of microsoft, but 6 dollars isn't going to break me. I was so frustrated with the bad service that I decided to just let it go. But I would limit my purchases on the Xbox live marketplace if the system (and service) is going to be that unstable.
Fast forward a year to this thanksgiving. I'm undergoing Chemotherapy for my recent bout with cancer and finally felt up to playing some Xbox Live. I sat down on my couch for the first time in months and turn on my xbox. It will not connect to live. It starts to, logs in, and then crashes back to the dashboard with no message. After trying to figure this out and ruling out my connection, I tried to login from within a game. This time it tells me there's a problem with my account and takes me to the account management screen. When the account screen finishes loading, it crashes me back to the dashboard. Once again, NO message whatsoever. At this point I was frustrated beyond belief (not to mention sick and not wanting to deal with this.).
I got my cell phone (on a weekday so using my prime minutes) and called Xbox Live. The guy asked me the usual questions but since I've been an xbox live member for over 2 years I wasn't sure the last 4 digits of my card. He told me that my account was closed for a violation of the user agreement and there was nothing he could do. He basically told me I was banned for "hacking". I assured him that although more than capable there was no way this was possible. My Xbox 360 (including my HDDVD player, camera, 2 keyboards, wireless adapter, charger, wireless headset and multiple games) were all purchased legally and new. I normally use my xbox to play Final Fantasy XI and have no reason or desire to "hack" my system and risk losing the ability to login. The man was rude with me and not helpful at all. Finally I told him to try a few "last 4 digits" and managed to guess which card I had used.
At this point, he changed his story and told me that I was not banned for hacking, but it was a simple billing error. Although this angered me I thanked him and he transfered me to the account department. She told me that my card on file had expired and they let me go almost 3 months into my new service without charging me so now I HAD to pay them the 49.99. This seems to be bad practice, as I had a 1 year card I was planning on using instead of the 49.99 but they told me the only way to regain access to my account was to pay. Eventually I told them this was fine, but I wanted them to rectify the missing points on my account before I paid. She told me this wasn't possible until after I paid them the money I owed. Reluctantly, I agreed and gave them a valid credit card and paid the 50 dollars. She transfered me to the people she said could me.
She transfered me wrong. The hardware people were nice and transferred me again to the people they said could help me. So this is 3 people so far I've talked to, with about 15 minutes of hold time alone per person. I could feel my cell phone bill running up but I was determined to sort this out.
Finally I got to the right department and explained everything to the guy. I explained him the entire situation and everything that went wrong and told him I just wanted the points put back on my account out of principle and we could be on our way. He told me they had high call volume and he'd just get a supervisor to look into it since the purchase date was too old for him to find. This ended up taking about an hour and finally he comes back and tells me his supervisor has denied my claim. Their records show problems that weekend, but that everyone's refund had gone through. I assured him mine has not and asked him to try again. Still no results. At this point, he tried to thank me and told me there was nothing more he could do (he wanted to hang up). I asked to speak to his supervisor and he refused again. He told me that he has to get some kind of authorization to transfer me and his request was denied.
I assured him I wasn't going to hang up and I wanted to be transferred. He was angry, but finally agreed. I ended up being on hold for 45 more minutes and he came back and said it was almost time. 15 minutes later I finally got online with a supervisor (I wish I had written down these people's names). This guy was obviously very angry that he was "bothered" dealing with someone he had already "rejected". In a low, frustrated tone he asked me for my gamertag and a few other questions. I then explained to him the story again and that I didn't even care about the 6 dollars.
I had spent FIFTY dollars on another year of service, almost a THOUSAND on hardware and software and another FORTY dollars in cell phone minutes on this call.
All I wanted was someone at Microsoft to tell me that they valued me as a customer and they apologize for causing me these problems. I would be fine with 5 dollars in points or something if they couldn't refund the purchase in question. I just wanted to know that SOMEONE values me spending all this money on the products and supporting the company for so long. After telling him everything, he hung up on me.
FOUR hours or so total on the phone only to end up being hung up on. Ridiculous.
When my anger subsided I called back again. I had decided to demand a refund for my 50 dollars (prorated if need be) and to sell my Xbox 360 and buy a Playstation 3. The lady was nice and was sure that she could resolve my issues instead of such a drastic decision. She put me on hold once again to get a supervisor. She apologized for it taking so long after about 30 minutes on hold. I told her it was ok, and thanked her. 15 minutes on hold again, I was disconnected.
Again.
Funny that when Microsoft owes me money I have to jump through hoops to get it back but when I owe them something they just shut off my service with no notice and expect me once again to jump through hoops to figure out how to get it back.
At this point, I am selling my Xbox 360 and accessories on craigslist. I'm going to (probably without avail) suggest to my 10 or so friends that bough xbox's on MY recommendation to do the same. And working in the game industry I'm going to do my best to not support or work (any more than I have to) on Xbox hardware, DirectX software, XNA platform and anything else your company endorses. Why would I want to support a company that doesn't care at all about it's customers and constituents in business?
All over 6 dollars.
Takes this at what you will. I really wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt. I mean such a large company who outsources their customer server to try and save money maybe has no idea. Outsourced customer service doesn't care about the company they represent nor do they care about the customer with the problem. So why would they help me? But at this time, the ball is in your court.
If you truly care about your customers. If you truly had no idea your service was this bad: then do something about it. Fix it. Otherwise, I hope what happened to me and I'm sure so many other people (read: online forums) will sink in like it did to me and enough people will stop supporting your products for you to realize.
But maybe I'm wrong, maybe you do care about us. If you so, I'll be here to hear about it.
Sincerely,
Justin Reynard
gamertag: rockmusicnerd
***.***.****
********@gmail.com