Xbox Live User Denied Access To His Account Following 30 Day Investigation - Polidicks

[quote]It looks like the infamous Xbox Live “Phishing” scandal have taken a rather shocking turn. As we all known, “Susan” (the creator of the TUMBLR blog ‘[url=http://hackedonxbox.tumblr.com/]Hacked On Xbox[/url]’) recently had her Xbox Live account hacked. Following the hack, was a display of mediocore Customer Support on Microsoft’s part. Susan was told that her account had been locked down, and an investigation that would last for up to “3 months” was under way. This was a lie. Susan awoke the following morning to find “a further $124.98+ Tax” had been charged through her PayPal account by the alleged “hackers”. Upon getting on the phone with Mircrosoft’s Customer Support and explaining the whole ordeal to them, Susan found out that they had not only failed to lock her account, but they also neglected to contact her about this problem that they were having. If Susan hadn’t linked her PayPal to her Xbox Live account, she wouldn’t have found out about the charges or any possible additional charges until her credit card bill came in at the end of the month. After having her story broadcast across [url=http://kotaku.com/5873604/is-microsofts-xbox-live-hacking-problem-worse-than-microsoft-realises]various gaming news outlets[/url], Susan was finally able to get her money refunded by Microsoft as well as her account transferred to another email. So everything’s fine now right? We can return to playing Xbox Live and nobody has to worry about this issue progressing any further correct? No, not correct. [url=http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=34061302&postcount=498]NeoGaf forums user “PistolPete”[/url] also got his account hacked. The difference between Pete and Susan’s predicaments is that Pete was not able to reclaim his account after the lengthy 30 day investigation concluded. Why wasn’t he able to get his account back you ask? Well according to Pete, Microsoft took it upon themselves to notify him only after they had finished the investigation that he had “violated the terms of service by using my first initial of my full name when setting up my account”. Microsoft denied Pete access to his account because of his user information. Initially I sympathized with Microsoft; you make your name shorter, then there’s no way to cross-reference that name and the name on your credit card to make sure that you’re the real user. Makes sense. That is, until someone on NeoGaf thought that this sounded too peculiar so they contacted Stephen Toulouse (the Director of Xbox Live Policy and Enforcement) via [url=https://twitter.com/#!/Stepto/status/155848764924493824]Twitter[/url] about the supposed TOS violation and he had this to say; “No such policy exists. If it did, my account would be in violation”. So it turns out that Pete didn’t violate any TOS by shortening the name tied to his account, Microsoft simply wouldn’t restore his account. At this time, further comment from neither Microsoft nor Pete could be acquired.[/quote] [url]http://www.analoghype.com/video-games/xbox-360-video-games/xbox-live-user-denied-access-to-his-account-following-30-day-investigation/[/url] This is poor customer service smh.

Tsk tsk Microsoft. Lift your game.

Assholes.

This is why you don't outsource your service people.

Microsoft support is fucking terrible. When my Xbox stopped working, I had to ring up and wait in queues 6 times, each of which having to explain my situation again because they are too incompetent to keep records.

[QUOTE=Jasun;34109656]Microsoft support is fucking terrible. When my Xbox stopped working, I had to ring up and wait in queues 6 times, each of which having to explain my situation again because they are too incompetent to keep records.[/QUOTE] All I did was use their online service.

My friend called at 4:00 AM and by 5:00 their account was locked and the $125 they had been charged were refunded shortly after the same day. This was back around Thanksgiving, and they got their account back about a week ago. [editline]8th January 2012[/editline] So from my experience, they handle it quite well.

-snip-

[QUOTE=Doctor Zedacon;34109813]My friend called at 4:00 AM and by 5:00 their account was locked and the $125 they had been charged were refunded shortly after the same day. This was back around Thanksgiving, and they got their account back about a week ago. [editline]8th January 2012[/editline] So from my experience, they handle it quite well.[/QUOTE] See, service can range from terrible to competent. Stop saying "fuck microsoft" so soon when evidently they can handle situations well.

"You broke a term in the ToS that doesn't exist, say bye bye to your account" God damned support

Microsoft support has been nothing but trouble for me, waiting on the phone for hours, unable to get any support online because "we are not willing to spend resources on an online helpdesk". Customer support douchebags completely unwilling to help, being condescending as all hell. Not to mention them not wanting to stop charging me until I forced my bank to get the money they had been charging me for the past year back.

[QUOTE=Miskav;34110369]Microsoft support has been nothing but trouble for me, waiting on the phone for hours, unable to get any support online because "we are not willing to spend resources on an online helpdesk". Customer support douchebags completely unwilling to help, being condescending as all hell. Not to mention them not wanting to stop charging me until I forced my bank to get the money they had been charging me for the past year back.[/QUOTE] It took you a YEAR before you decided you didn't want to be paying for the services? WHAT? They autocharged me one month when I didn't want it, because I forgot to unsubscribe. It took me maybe 2 minutes from my phone to end my subscription and cancel auto renew.

I gots these first world problems

So NeoGaf has been complaining about a two-step varification process that needs to be implemented into microsoft's security system. I would've written about that in the article as well, that's if i knew what exactly that is and how it would affect the security. So facepunch, what's a two-step varification process?

Exact same thing happened to me, I don't get why she's bitching about having to spread her story around, MS support just takes a long time to recover accounts. The support people are usually terrible, I had to start the whole 3 month's process over again because the first guy decided not to ask me for my console id (which they won't investigate without) and told me it would take 3 weeks.

[QUOTE=Squad;34111050]It took you a YEAR before you decided you didn't want to be paying for the services? WHAT? They autocharged me one month when I didn't want it, because I forgot to unsubscribe. It took me maybe 2 minutes from my phone to end my subscription and cancel auto renew.[/QUOTE] I found out after a year because I don't use creditcards, so it automatically went out of my account. When doing my finances I noticed I was missing money. [editline]8th January 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=jwk94;34111133]So NeoGaf has been complaining about a two-step varification process that needs to be implemented into microsoft's security system. I would've written about that in the article as well, that's if i knew what exactly that is and how it would affect the security. So facepunch, what's a two-step varification process?[/QUOTE] Most likely having to verify it in two different ways. E.g. by phone and digitally, or by phone and through your bank.

I'm pretty happy that I sold me 360 right about now

I'd say PC gaming is better but we have EA.

I'm no longer allowed to have an account on my xbox because one of the updates thought I was a "hacker" or had a modded system. Even after calling customer support, they refused to believe me and basically told me to fuck off because I'm obviously a cheater. :rolleyes:

that sucks

I hate Xbox Live and its policies -so- much. It's a tight, restrictive system that is extremely unfun to deal with when something goes wrong with it. And then they updated the Dashboard to that ad-ridden piece of shit, so now even us non-Gold users can't have fun without being reminded how shitty XBL is. One of the most annoying parts of XBL to me is their DRM. Holy shit is it bad and unreliable. My first 360, a launch model, finally red-ringed around the time they announced the slim. It was far out of warranty, so rather than buy an expensive slim or deal with Microsoft's terrible 'repair' service (which costs $100 anyway), I just bought a price-dropped Arcade console. I did their thing where you can transfer all your digital rights from one console ID to another, so that your DLC will work offline. It said that it transferred just fine...but it clearly didn't. Every time my 360 loses internet connection, ALL my downloaded games and content locks itself. Some games even boot me out because I no longer have the rights to play them. I've tried the console transfer a second time since then, and it still won't work. Meanwhile, the PS3 lets you have content activated across five consoles at the same time... Seriously, if it wasn't for Rock Band still having the best version on 360, I wouldn't even bother owning one anymore. Every game I've wanted that's come out lately is multiplatform anyway.

I've never had a problem with their support.

My warranty was expired on my 360 (I had bought it the day the 360 first came out), it red ringed one day and they were just like "here's a new one and some xbl go away". I've had friends get fucked over by support though.

I laugh every time someone claims that paying for Xbox Live goes towards "security" for Live. More like security for Bobby Kotick's solid gold mansion.

I have never had a problem with them to be honest. A while ago, I was broke from all the steam sales and they couldn't charge my card for the year service subscription. So they locked my account, I called them and told them the bank the card was through went out of business (not true of course) and they credited my account and gave me a free 3 months. So a "Fuck you" moment is something very rare then.

[QUOTE=Swiket;34112847]I laugh every time someone claims that paying for Xbox Live goes towards "security" for Live. More like security for Bobby Kotick's solid gold mansion.[/QUOTE]Kotick doesn't run Live.

I've had my Xbox for as long as I can remember and it runs like it did on the first day. What are people really doing to their Xboxes? I mean it's probably not very reliable after my friends' reports, but if you keep a regular maintenance it should run fine for a long time.

hacking =/= phishing I doubt she got hacked.

[QUOTE=Gears of duty;34113070]I've had my Xbox for as long as I can remember and it runs like it did on the first day. What are people really doing to their Xboxes? I mean it's probably not very reliable after my friends' reports, but if you keep a regular maintenance it should run fine for a long time.[/QUOTE] I kept mine well ventilated (wasn't even in a computer desk or anything, was practically in the middle of the room), didn't even play it much, maybe 1-2 hours per day. Took absolute perfect care of that thing to have it RROD on me.

Reasons of why I only trust Microsoft with my Operating System.