Refund Issues After Digital Purchase

Hey guys and gals! Looking for some advice on how to handle this situation. Long story incoming...

I tried making a purchase recently on the Vudu app on my Xbox Series X. A new movie was out and I had a special offer for it for $9.99 USD. I personally didn't like the movie at all, but my 3 and 6 year olds loved it and that's all that mattered. Anyway, I went to make the purchase, got the Xbox purchase window, then nothing. The movie wasn't in my library, the offer was gone and I had been charged by Microsoft for $10.73 (cost plus tax).

I immediately attempted to contact Vudu via their customer support number I found online. However, their automated system appeared broken and I kept getting looped to the whole "please select the following option" que. After trying for over an hour, I gave up and went to bed. The next morning, I tried again, and was met with the same loop in their automated system. However, after the 3rd or 4th attempt, I finally managed to get through to someone. I gave them my information, they looked up the order, then explained to me that Microsoft cancelled the order and that I would need to contact them for any refund. The CS agent advised I might should wait because the charge may just drop off my card since it was still pending.

Two days later, I checked my bank and sure enough, the charge had been finalized and not fallen off. At that point, I tried contacting Xbox/Microsoft about it. Unfortunately, the only thing I could find was a link on how to request a refund. I started to fill out the refund request form, and had to stop because the purchase wasn't even showing on the list of purchases I had made that were eligible for a refund.

After taking a break and spending some time with the family, I started digging again. I found another form I could submit, basically a generic Xbox support ticket. I included the order number and an explanation of what happened and how I was directed by Vudu to contact Microsoft for the refund. Not soon after I sent the ticket did I receive an automated response telling my the order was not eligible for a refund. I was a bit irked, and proceeded to contact Vudu again. I advised them what the email said, and got the whole "Microsoft is the one who charged you, you HAVE to go through them."

I replied to the ticket, explaining I understood the policy but in this case there was an error and I never actually received the product. Again, not long after, I got another automated response with, you guessed it, the whole "this transaction is not eligible for a refund."

Called Vudu again. Told them again I was not getting a refund from Microsoft. Asked to speak to a supervisor. Supervisor tells me the only thing they can do is escalate a ticket to a different department and that I would receive a call back at some point. That was a few days ago, and no call yet.

Three days ago, I pinged Xbox Support on twitter to help me out. Requested a callback and the next day I did actually receive a call. I explained the situation to the agent, clarified a few details he had missed when he was repeating it back to me, only to be told that he didn't have the authority to issue refunds but that he would notate it on his ticket. I'm really annoyed at this point, and asked to speak to a supervisor, in which his response was he would also note that I'd like to speak to a supervisor on the ticket before ending the call.

Forward to this morning, and I receive yet another ticket response from Microsoft that says, you guessed it, the transaction isn't eligible for a refund.

So now I'm stuck and don't know what to do. I can't actually reach anyone at Microsoft that has any authority to explain what happened. Vudu has been less than helpful and I'll likely never use the service to purchase digital movies again. If anyone has any suggestions at all, I would absolutely love to hear (read) it.

Thanks for taking the time to read and respond! Hope you all have a fantastic holiday season!

TLR Version: Purchased a movie on the vudu app, an error of some sort occurred and never got the movie, trying to get a refund but can't seem to get it from microsoft because AUTOMATION!

:)