Microsoft Taken £450 & won't return it

Aylesbury_Duck

Seagull1980 said:

pinkshoes said:

Seagull1980 said:

WhiskersTheWonderCat said:

Surely you can return the X-Box for a refund? Then try to order again using the points. 

Unfortunately not, then I'm back to the point where you can only order one per household and I'm back to having no Xbox and them still having my sons money

But returning it means they can cancel the transaction, so you will then have NO X-box, and can then re-order it. They were able to clear it last time, so should be able to this time. 

They've told us that if we return it they can't guarantee that we will be able to re-order it.  I do think it's about our only option though.  MS have been horrendous through all this, just an outright refusal to listen.

That's presumably just a pre-Christmas stock level thing, though?  They'll be available again soon.

Seagull1980

400ixl said:

I assume the OP means that they are then left with £450 in unusable Microsoft points, which they consider to be £450 down in cash terms.

Hi, I should have made it clearer.  It's not Microsoft Points being redeemed (a small amount of it is), the majority is converted vouchers which were purchased legitimately.  So it's not that I consider it to be £450 down, I am actually around £400 down (taking out the MS Points redeemed value).

MS Have also said sending the Xbox back and getting a refund doesn't guarantee that I can use the MS balance & they can't tell me until we try it.  So I could be in a situation where I send the item back and I still then can't use the funds and I'm still £450 down (probably an even worse case, because then my 11 year old also hasn't got his device)

So frustrating that they can't just refund the payment and then take the payment from my balance, I wouldn't even care if they took the 2nd payment first and then refunded me.

MS are so difficult to escalate issues with and I've genuinely never been so stressed about a purchase.  It's no wonder people are pushed to Amazon with how simple their processes tend to be with regards to returns or errors (most of the time)

born_again

Send it back, then either wait for M/Soft or go elsewhere. 
Might even get cheaper next week/after Christmas.

WhiskersTheWonderCat

MS Have also said sending the Xbox back and getting a refund doesn't guarantee that I can use the MS balance & they can't tell me until we try it.  So I could be in a situation where I send the item back and I still then can't use the funds and I'm still £450 down (probably an even worse case, because then my 11 year old also hasn't got his device)

Well, at least there's a chance that you will be allowed to redeem your MS Balance in exchange for the Xbox. From your earlier posts, it seems like they were going to do that for you (until the error happened). But they are clearly not going to be able to refund you until you return the Xbox to cancel that particular transaction. So sending it back seems like your best and only option of not being stuck with £450 on your MS account balance. Though, I'm sure your son will love having £450 to spend on games in the Xbox store. 

MattMattMattUK

born_again said:

Send it back, then either wait for M/Soft or go elsewhere. 
Might even get cheaper next week/after Christmas.

Very unlikely, it is expected that there will be a price rise early in the new year, not a price cut. Currently £435 on Amazon which is £15 cheaper than buying direct.

MattMattMattUK

Seagull1980 said:

400ixl said:

I assume the OP means that they are then left with £450 in unusable Microsoft points, which they consider to be £450 down in cash terms.

Hi, I should have made it clearer.  It's not Microsoft Points being redeemed (a small amount of it is), the majority is converted vouchers which were purchased legitimately.  So it's not that I consider it to be £450 down, I am actually around £400 down (taking out the MS Points redeemed value).

MS Have also said sending the Xbox back and getting a refund doesn't guarantee that I can use the MS balance & they can't tell me until we try it.  So I could be in a situation where I send the item back and I still then can't use the funds and I'm still £450 down (probably an even worse case, because then my 11 year old also hasn't got his device)

So frustrating that they can't just refund the payment and then take the payment from my balance, I wouldn't even care if they took the 2nd payment first and then refunded me.

MS are so difficult to escalate issues with and I've genuinely never been so stressed about a purchase.  It's no wonder people are pushed to Amazon with how simple their processes tend to be with regards to returns or errors (most of the time)

I can understand why their systems do not allow you what you want to do, though equally I can seenjr is frustrating. 

I see it as you having two choices, return the console, get the refund reorder and likely get the full reorder in the new year. Keep the console, use the MS points for game purchases and Game Pass, not ideal but also a solution. You have two imperfect solutions, you need to choose which works best for you.

Seagull1980

After many weeks and months of battling over this with MS, they eventually gave me a full refund in cash along with a very welcome gift for the trouble they'd caused (WOW!). The error was 100% on their side on 2 occasions (their system saying we'd bought one already initially & then their agent purchasing the item with bank funds and not the amount in the MS account).  Thankfully we'd got it documented and while it took them a long time to understand the issue, once they did and were able to put us in contact with the right team it was fully resolved