Xbox Live

lee_hill

hey all, im new here so sorry if this is on the wrong place.
i would like to give a warning and also ask for advice using Xbox live.
I just had a bill from my credit card stating that i owed £50 odd.
i logged on and found out that Microsoft xbox live has renewed my account.
i was pretty shocked, mainly for 3 reasons.
1. i cancelled my membership with xbox live.
2. i cancelled my credit card.
3. the credit card expired in 2007...this happend in may 2010.
i logged into xbox, thinking i wont be able to, as i cancelled the account, but no. i went stright in, found all my old details there, and also my credit card was still there, despite expiring 3 years ago.
i went onto the support section of the site, looking for the cancel membership page. but i was just lead in circles. there is nowhere that you can cancel, once you have signed up.

so for a word of warning...beware using microsoft. once they have your details there not gona let go.

also if you have had this problem, and manged to cancel/ get a refund please let me know

lee

sporedude

To cancel Gold membership you need to call them as far as I know, I know I did.

Crazy_Jamie

How did you cancel your membership originally?

It doesn't sound quite right that they used old credit card details to charge a current account. Surely the payment would just have been rejected?

DCFC79

1. you should have called to cancel,
2. there is nothing wrong with xbox live, if you want a gold subscription you buy a subscription form websites and you can get it cheaper than the £39.99 that ms offer
3. If you use it the right way then you should be fine
4. i wouldnt enter card details into the xbox just to be on the safe side

mr.brightside87

It's an auto renewal service. You can not cancel over the internet for security reasons so a phone call is the only way to cancel it... This is actually in the T&C's as well so chances are very slim you will get a refund (I know I didn't when I set up my account on the original xbox and I forgot to change it to a monthly subscription) as they will tell you that you have read the T&C's even though you might not have done as you have to agree to it (but who reads those all the time anyway!?!)

But let me know what goes on if you attempt to get a refund.

unholyangel

If you go into account management then look at your membership details it tells you about when its due to renew and how.

Although i'm not 100% sure, if you dont register card details with them (you need to call to get them to remove your card details i believe) and only use the cards/codes for membership, then they wont auto renew.

You can also turn OFF auto renewal. Heres a link with instructions how:
http://majornelson.com/archive/2009/07/29/how-to-turn-off-xbox-live-account-auto-renewal.aspx

DCFC79

unholyangel wrote: »

Although i'm not 100% sure, if you dont register card details with them (you need to call to get them to remove your card details i believe) and only use the cards/codes for membership, then they wont auto renew.

yes your right, if you use the subscription cards ms cant auto renew as they have no card details to auto renew with and you get an email telling you when the subscription is due to end, in a way the cards are better

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

You can cancel/delete existing cards through the 'Manage Payment Options' in the 'My Account' section on Xbox.com.

unholyangel

Ah thanks for that. I was only going on what a friend said as i am too paranoid to give microsoft my card details Plus i got 14 months of subscriptions free when i bought mine (2 games had 1 month each and got 12 month as part of the package too).

And yeah you get 12 month subscriptions for a lot cheaper than MS offer them. Same with the points packages, get them cheaper elsewhere.

adam.mt

You probably want to talk to your credit card provider for approving a transaction on a cancelled card. Actually, sounds as though the card wasn't cancelled, they just sent you out a new card with the same number! If it was cancelled then future transactions shouldn't be possible.

Seems either you didn't cancel it correctly or your credit card company have messed up..

lee_hill

Thanks for the replies all.
I tryed phoning Microsoft but gave up after 15 mins. i dont want to sound racisit, but i think they must have a call centre in india. i couldnt understand 3 of the call centre staff.
There was a feature on the "your account" page, that you used to be able to turn off auto renew, but after googling how to do it, i found out that MS have changed the page, disabling that feature. now the only way to do it is through the phone. Hopefully MS still use the post service, so ill have to get the pen and paper out.
Also, i will be writing to the credit card company (alliance and leicster....care of MBNA) to get a reason asto why a 3 year old expired card was abled to make a transaction...wish me luck, and ill report when i get some news