Xbox live auto renewal refund?

Kenwith01

Hi,

I recently noticed on my bank statement that i was paying for a monthly xbox live subscription (£5.99 pm) that i did not know i had.

I did some investigation and found out that in Jan 2010 I foolishly paid for a month of xbox live for my friends xbox with my card details. It has since auto renewed every month for the past 3 years without my knowledge.

All of the emails regarding the subscription were going to his email as it was his xbox live profile, so i was completely unaware of the continuing payments. He didn't say anything to me either.

If he hasn't been using the xbox live service do i have any grounds for a refund? Do microsoft have a duty to let me know of the subscription as i'm paying the bill?

Or am i totally at fault and will have to put this down to experience?

Any advice would be appreciated.

benje302

Hello and welcome to the forum

After you have joined Xbox live you receive a confirmation email etc from them with your gamertag (username) and what subscription you have so it would/should have mentioned it was re-occuring.

Prior to you entering your details it would have also stated it was re-occuring until you cancel it.

As its been for 3 years I can not see you winning anything from Microsoft as they could argue it has been a long period of time.

Have a word with your friend and if he has been using it them maybe he could give you some compensation but you may have to swallow the cost on this one

tyllwyd

How was Microsoft supposed to know that you weren't happy to pay for the service? How were they supposed to let you know if you hadn't given them your email details? I think your argument is with your friend - he's been merrily letting you pay his xbox subscription all this time, and he's the one you should be asking for a refund.

DCFC79

Kenwith01 wrote: »

Hi,

I recently noticed on my bank statement that i was paying for a monthly xbox live subscription (£5.99 pm) that i did not know i had.

I did some investigation and found out that in Jan 2010 I foolishly paid for a month of xbox live for my friends xbox with my card details. It has since auto renewed every month for the past 3 years without my knowledge.

All of the emails regarding the subscription were going to his email as it was his xbox live profile, so i was completely unaware of the continuing payments. He didn't say anything to me either.

If he hasn't been using the xbox live service do i have any grounds for a refund? Do microsoft have a duty to let me know of the subscription as i'm paying the bill?

Or am i totally at fault and will have to put this down to experience?

Any advice would be appreciated.

They dont have to give a refund but you or your will have to ask. You should have been more aware since its your card you used.
Does it not say when you sign up that its a recurring payment ?

Your friend should have told you since he was getting the emails, ask him to pay half.

Why did you or even your friend not just buy a 1 month subscription or a 12 month from 1 of the retailers.

So thats £215 you have spent on your friends xbox live subscription. So it took you till now to notice this, if you had seen it earlier you could have asved alot of heartache.

albionrovers

Lesson learned to always check your card bill closely. I did similar recently to the tune of £90.

Remember to ring up and cancel? Think the call centre is based in ROI. Certainly used to be.

Kenwith01

Thanks for all the replies.

I suspected i didn't have much ground to stand on with this one.
I just wondered if there was any legislation that requires a company to notify the bill payer of their continued payments?

There would have been small print in the terms and conditions when the subscription was initally bought that mentioned the monthly renewal, I know of it as i have an xbox live account myself. But i didn't get any emails because they were directed to my friends email account.
My issue is being continuously charged for a service i had no idea i was paying for.

This went on so long that the card i purchased the live subscription with expired in 2011. So my bank automatically transferred the payments to my new card. How was i not asked about this?

Johnmcl7

I don't know what payment mechanism Microsoft uses but if it's a Continuous Payment Authority then it'll be automatically carried over to a new card.

I would recommend against putting your credit card details into any of these systems (Microsoft Live, Playstation Network (SEN), Itunes etc.) as in most cases you can buy a prepaid card which means you can keep your credit card details safe from accidental purchases and auto-renewals. You do miss out on some of the special offers but I prefer that and not have to put the credit card details into the console.

John

Mr_Toad

Kenwith01 wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies.

I suspected i didn't have much ground to stand on with this one.
I just wondered if there was any legislation that requires a company to notify the bill payer of their continued payments?

There would have been small print in the terms and conditions when the subscription was initally bought that mentioned the monthly renewal, I know of it as i have an xbox live account myself. But i didn't get any emails because they were directed to my friends email account.
My issue is being continuously charged for a service i had no idea i was paying for.

This went on so long that the card i purchased the live subscription with expired in 2011. So my bank automatically transferred the payments to my new card. How was i not asked about this?

The other problem is that the payment will have been on every bank statement since the payment started.

It's nobody's fault but your own that you don't check your statements.