i bought a 3 month xbox live gold membership and it doesn't work

This seems an overdue payment issue. To settle it you should contact xbox chat support billing section: http://support.xbox.com/en-US/contact-us

Or if you are part of US/CA region call (800) 469-9269

No I kind of agree. I paid $24.99 for a 3 month xbox live gold membership, I played it for a month and a half, and didn't play for a while after that. 2 or 3 months later when I go to play online, its says my gold membership ran out. Its *** up that they
charge you when you're not even using your xbox. I payed for 3 months of gold, only used 1 and a half, and even when I wasn't playing they were taking time off my membership. They should only charge and deduct your membership when you are playing. I bought
3 months of gold membership, I deserve 3 months of gold membership. So time of the xbox gold membership should only be taken off when you're logged in.

Thank you for quick reply!

I haven't played in like 6 months (my last one broke down) and I think I have been paying for a gold membership all that time. Maybe it ran out today then because I just bought I new xbox 3 days ago and been playing live since and it worked just fine til
now. I'll redeem my code for one months gold live membership and see if it works!

Thanks

That's the same problem by me too. I have a 3 months gold membership prepaid card but it doesn't work. Need help.

The free month with gold membership is a trial period and doesn't offers all the privileges of the paid gold membership. I suggest you to purchase xbox live gold membership to enjoy the full privileges of this membership.

For further info:

www.xbox.com/.../gold