Credit card removal still proving difficult
The internet is a wondrous tool for a lot of things, but some people are very protective over their details. Internet banking is considered a no-go area for many, as is shopping online with a credit or debit card. Wouldn’t want a thief to steal your identity would you? Why is it then, that on a subject so sensitive, do Microsoft make it nigh-on impossible to remove your card details if the need arises? Blogger and Xboxic reader Jmel highlights the struggles faced with the billing procedures of Live accounts.
According to Major Nelson:
“I confirmed that you CAN get your CC removed from your account. It will take a call to support and a few days, but it can be done.”
Upon ringing a few days later, Jmel finds that, in actual fact, support say no, the card cannot be removed. A few supervisors later and they apparently say the card will be removed within 7-10 business days. However given that the staff on the end of the phone were so uncertain, it is unlikely that it will ever happen.
Due to uncertainty, Jmel decided to lodge a complaint with TRUSTe (who are ironically sponsored by Microsoft), and received an email back which had the following information:
Thank you for submitting your privacy complaint through the TRUSTe Watchdog Dispute Resolution program. The TRUSTe Compliance Team has reviewed the details of your complaint and we have determined that it is a valid privacy complaint. We have contacted www.microsoft.com on your behalf and have outlined the steps necessary for proper resolution.
It seems that the complaint has at last been taken seriously enough for an official complaint to go through to Microsoft. Whether or not MS act upon this is a different matter, but at least the problem has been brought to their attention.
Why is it then that the removal of a credit card is so difficult? I highly doubt it is so hard to remove the card from the servers that it takes up to ten days to do. The option should be available in the Billing part of Xbox Live through Xbox.com. You can see your credit card, yet there is no option at all to get rid of it; only an option to add another one.
All you can do then is wait however many years it is for your card to expire, so they have old details about you. This isn’t helpful at all because some may have to wait for up to three years. Hopefully something can be done about this soon, otherwise more and more people will become increasingly upset about the situation.
I have my credit card attached to my 360, and the sad part is, I just got one in march. Boo!
Anyways, I’m not too worried about this since I have no reason to give my 360 away. But when the day comes for me to sell it, I’ll make damn sure I erase ‘EvErYtHiNg’! Even if I have to call support to do it, and if they don’t and I find I was charged with things I haven’t brought; Lawsuit on Microsoft.
Since it is such a pain to get MS to remove your CC info, simply create a virtual card number with a $1 limit on it. Most major CCs offer this feature through their online interface.
I want to thank Deaconblade360 (an ms mvp) for making the effort to get at least the “official” word from ms about the situation:
http://www.unscripted360....ving-credit-card-details/
However, my card is still in their system even after the 2 support calls, AND the truste complaint. It’s been about a month for me since I first called.
So I hate to say it, but its as I said before, left hand (those in charge) isn’t talking to the right (those that make it happen).
just report the card as damaged or lost.
See, people like to come up with “workarounds”, I think its natural to do that as anyone that is interested in technology… but that’s not a solution… it’s just a workaround… It’s like if there is a giant roadblock in your driveway, and everymorning you get up and have to climb over it to get to your car every day.
That’s not a solution, it’s just skirting about fixing the problem. The solution is for them to actually allow you to do what most other websites that offer sales and services allow, and thats to be able to remove your card if you don’t want them to store your personal information.
there should be an option on the account tab/blade to remove previous cards. i have at least three cards showing on there because i’m a clumsy sod and keep snapping them so i have to get another, and input my new detaials in order to buy m$ points and renew my live subscription.
may be they should think about this for the next dashboard update
of course you should be able to delete your cc info from the system, but as we can’t and MS seem unable to do it either, a work around is the best we have.
Luckily for me I wear out a cc in a few months so I replace mine every 4 months or so.
Ms says you can, so eventually you will be able to, the problem is just that right now they say you can, and will even escalate it up, but so far its not happened for me or anyone i’ve talked to.
Try going to…
http://billing.microsoft.com
It’s possible to remove the CC here and it will be removed on your 360 instantly.
It works i’ve done it.
Completely false.
Think you’ll find it’s right if you can be bothered to try it.
I had two CC on my 360, now i’ve got one.
Explain that !!!
It’s easily explainable - you can remove cards as long as you have another one on file.
Yep, so that kinda proves that you can’t remove your only card on file with them.
Haha I finally stuck it to microsoft because of this issue. I had reported my card stolen because it was stolen and Bank of America cancelled my card. That same night without really thinking I purchased points to download some stuff and a movie with that same card number because you cant get them out of XBox live. Microsoft gave me the points immediately (as they always do) and I then spent all of them on stuff I wanted. (Employee of the Month..dont laugh) The next morning I got an email from Xbox Live saying the transaction couldnt occur because the card was cancelled. Well too bad MS I already used your points..hahaha Long story short, I never got billed.
LOL can you say FRAUD? That’s pretty much theft there ya dumbass. Then you brag about it online? Smooth move.
It’s not fraud if it’s not intentional. It’s Microsoft’s fault for not checking your card details online, which they could easily do.
how is it fraud when I used my credit card?? douche
Because you don’t own your credit card anymore after reporting it canceled. You reported your card stolen, and then knowingly committed transactions on that card. This would be considered fraud.
Long story short they can ban your Xbox Live account until you fork over the money that is due to them.
long story shorter.. that happened over a month ago and havent heard anything since.. thanks for raining on my parade
well i cancelled my xbox live account on my xbox 1 but not before the monkey on the other end of the phone lterally begged me to try and sell my account to a friend when i told him screw that i want it cancelled before you take payment for the next year which was coming up in a few days the monkey then grudgingly cancelled my subscription atleast that what he told me.
a week or so later i get an email from xbox live your subscription payment has been taken i was livid to say the least but what do you expect when dealing with monkeys so i phone the monkey hotline and let the mknow how pissed i am and to get them to cancell it and pay me back what they owe me and yet again they begged me to try and sell it to a friend rather than cancell my account i told him no you can F’n well cancell it give me my damn money back and loose my f’n CC details i got my money back and thaught thank F… maybe thats that i will never subscribe ot live again..
atleast that whati thaught 1 year later i get an email from live agian your payment has been taken for your yrs subscription i swear to god i was about ready to get postal on these f’ers by this point so i phone the monkeys up again and guess what they did when i told them how angry i was and asked them once again to cancell it and loose my card details as its about mounting up to theft now yes you guessed it they begged me to try and sell my account to a friend again.
thank fuck the year has just passed and this time no email and on checking my CC statement for the month there was no live subscription.
F*ck M$! F*ck Bill G@tes! I hope the motherf*cker burns deep in hell.
I bought a second hand xbox from ebay. The chap I bought it off cancelled his card, but gave me the info for his hotmail and live account. MS keeps e-mail him telling him (me) that his card was declined - this happens every month, its been over a year now
I can understand them wanting to guarantee a payment method for future billing, but surely they can employ some logic on this:
If there is only 1 payment method entered, you cannot delete it.
If there is >1 payment method, you can delete as many as you like until there is only 1 method left.
you would think a software developer the size of M$ would be able to achieve this…..
Well, I’m having a similar problem with MS. My previous XBL account was telling me that it was suspended until I added more time. I then purchased a 1-year XBL subscription card to enter it into my account, as it would turn out, they don’t allow that. My credit card was cancelled and they continued to try to bill it. I had to call up support. They told me that I had to add another credit card to the account, I could not use the subscription card I payed 50$ for, and I had already scratched off the code. After I gave them a new card they would reinstate my account, giving me only 7 months of use (Right about the time my account stopped working, I’ve been completely unable to access it at all.)
My account was set to auto renew, but MS decided to try to charge me over 10 times. They won’t cancel the account. I dont WANT the account, I had to use my 1-year card and now have a different account. If this puts a mark on my credit score, hell will be raised. Microsoft just wants more money, even if the customer is screwed in the process.