New Xbox Live Gold account created and locked out 2 days later with no ability to send text...

This is a repost of my original post from March 2, 2023. I am reposting in order to get attention to this issue as it appears that many Microsoft account holders are having this same problem and it appears that your Software Engineers are unable to fix nor resolve these issues and get people access to their accounts they have paid money for subscription services and gaming software. My original post and your reply are below. I acknowledge that you have previously identified this issue as a known issue, but keep in mind that it has been a month since I reported the problem and I am still unable to access my account. The solutions you recommended do not work. Trying a new phone number does not work in order to get an "unlock" code. to my phone Clearly, the problem is your back-end code with the SMS features. Or, your automated system is incorrectly blocking phone numbers. Microsoft needs to regain control of this "automated" system and help its Customers.

I also sent in a "Compliance" form requesting that my account be unlocked. I eventually received a response which tells me that my account was locked due to "unusual" behavior. I guess you consider paying Microsoft money and setting up an account as unusual behavior. However, no details as to the particulars of the "unusual" behavior was provided, so I have no idea how to avoid this situation again, should your "automated" system attempt to lock me out of my account. I'm going to think twice about continuing to use your services for gaming. I see that many others are having problems accessing thousands of dollars worth of games from their accounts as well which are getting locked out. I too have invested thousands of dollars in games (400+) to be exact and I'm greatly concerned about the investment in games I have made through Microsoft.

The suggestion from your Compliance Department was no different. They ask that I request an unlock code and that is still not working. I get the same error message, that a code cannot be sent to any phone number I enter.

Keep in mind that the only way that I'm even able to make this post or even attempt to get Microsoft to call me back so I could open a ticket about the issue was that I already had this account which I have had for years and thankfully, this account has not been locked out. Otherwise, and I would presume like so many other Customers, once your ONE account is locked out, you have no ability to login to get support or even find a way to get Support to call you back.

Also, your Support is not actually technical support and they are just Customer Service reps who have been provided nothing more than scripts to read off to the Customer and are incapable of actually helping to resolve issues. This is terrible Customer Service. I have lost all faith in the online delivery of gaming services from Microsoft due to this issue and the inadequate response and inadequate help that I have received.

ORGINAL POST:

I just recently created a new Xbox Live Gold Membership account associated with a new Gamertag. I created it to be able to play Elder Scrolls Online with the new account exclusively for just ESO. I paid for 12 months of Gold Membership at Best Buy, entered the Code, paid for the latest Deluxe version of the Elder Scrolls Online Necrom and played the game for 1 day without issue getting to level 10 and transferring a bunch of items to this account to sell in the ESO Guild traders. One day later, without any warning, the account is showing as locked out and I am unable to send a "reset" code to the phone number I used to set up the account. It will not let me send a reset code to any phone number I input.

I was able to contact Microsoft Support via a callback using my other primary account which I have had for years and was not able to get any help with this issue. I was told to retry a different phone number and that they were unable to help me. Microsoft has stolen my money for the Gold Membership and the video game and then locked me out of my account with no explanation as to what is wrong and no way to remedy the problem.

Can anyone assist me with the scam and theft which Microsoft has perpetrated upon me? This is the first new Xbox account which I had created ever since I created my original account back in 2003. If it were not for this primary account I already had, I would have had no way to contact Microsoft about this issue, since you have to use the Gamertag and email address to "sign in" in order to get someone to call you back. Otherwise, the automated process is broken since the system does not allow you to send a text message to a valid phone number allowing you to unlock the account to be able to login and get someone to call you back. This type of automated Customer Support is terrible and broken. Also, it does not help that the Support Representative has no way to figure out what the problem is and is incapable of fixing the issue over the phone.

I would like to get the account unlocked at best, but I would also like to get my money back at a minmum.

MICROSOFT RESPONSE:

Hello ,

Thank you for sharing your concern here in Xbox Community Forum, and we hope that is well.

If you have tried to sign in to your account and received a message that it's been locked, it is because activity associated with your account might violate our Terms of Use. or this happens when too many incorrect passwords were entered consecutively while attempting to sign in, either by the account owner or someone trying to sign in to the wrong account. However, this can be caused by a computer or mobile app that is still using an old password or that needs to use an "app password." We understand that this can be frustrating, what we can do is to help you how to unlock the account.

Before we go any further, I would like to set your proper expectations that Microsoft accounts are fully managed and handled by an automated server and we don't have manual access to it because Microsoft really takes our security and privacy very seriously.

As per description, you have tried unlocking the account and your phone number did not receive the reset code. Just to set your expectation that this is identified currently an issue on our end and our experts engineer are working for a fix.

Here are the things that we can try:

1. You can use any phone number that can receive text messages; it doesn’t need to be associated with your account.

We won't use or give out the phone number, and the code sent to it will expire after 10 minutes.

This means you could use a friend or work colleague's phone without compromising your account security.

The quickest way to get your account unlocked is by requesting and entering a security code online. If you haven’t tried unlocking your account online, we recommend you start there.

Tip: If your security code doesn't work, make sure you enter the numbers in the body of the message, and not the numbers in the header.

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If you see a "usage limit exceeded" error message when requesting a security code, this could mean the phone number has been used too many times in a short period of time, or that we've detected something suspicious about the phone number. You can find the support article here: Account has been locked - Microsoft Support

We look forward to your response. Kindly let us know, if there is any misunderstanding or clarifications of our description by sending us a reply.



Sincerely,

Tomm_A

Xbox Forum Moderator

Microsoft Community

:)