Refunds on Fraudulent Charges - A Customer Service Nightmare

No phone support. That seems to be the common theme among Microsoft departments these days. When someone is willing to talk to you, they think you're trying to buy something and are usually surprised when you say that's not why you selected the option that gives you to a real person. Even then, some of Microsoft's customer service departments are "offline," meaning they only help via email - no phone or chat support.

Keep in mind, this is from a company that touts its good customer service. Obviously they've gotten out of touch with what that actually means.

So when my credit card number was appropriated for fraudulent charges a few weeks ago for 34 charges over 3 days before I noticed? You can bet it was a nightmare. The first agent helped me a little bit - I put in a refund request and some of it was refunded. The first 7 charges. I assumed it was because they didn't read the body of the request that explained how many charges there were and what the situation was. I found out later that they have a policy: a maximum of 7 charges refunded per year. That's all well and good if I had made these purchases and later regretted it. If only it were that simple.

No, not even close to that simple. Of course I followed up, and have been trying very actively for two weeks now. Each time, I am quoted section 16 of the "Terms of Sale," as if that's somehow relevant to a person who has never made an Xbox purchase (and therefore never clicked "Accept" on its "Terms of Sale" agreement). Each time, I am told the refund team is an offline team and I cannot speak with someone, but the Xbox agent I am web-chatting with (or later, when I discovered how to get one on the phone, talking with) really wants to help me and they feel for me. And each time, my request to escalate the concern gets entirely ignored.

A common response is "We’ve performed an additional review on the account and found it's not eligible for a refund." Sometimes additional things are added in like the reference to section 16. What's missing every time is an element of critical thinking and applying the facts of the situation to the case. I understand that Microsoft, as a multi-billion dollar corporation, sees a ton of "customers" trying to scam them out of money in some way or another. I have no doubt that some of that comes in the form of lying about why they need refunds on their purchases. I'm not expecting them to reward that type of illicit behavior. I am, however, expecting Microsoft and its customer service department to practice common sense and try to actually deliver some semblance of customer service.

I was told just the other day by an Office 365 for Business representative that every department at Microsoft has at least three tiers of escalation (the first point of contact, tier 2, and tier 3). He gave me the instructions on how to reach tier 2 or if needed, tier 3. I tried this with the Xbox representative and was told they can't help me. No tier 2 or tier 3, just that they can't help me.

It's really too bad, because I'm trying to prevent hassle all around (credit card chargebacks can get messy and are largely unnecessary in most honest cases), but it has fallen on deaf ears. Sometimes a credit card will prevent future transactions with a vendor after you do a chargeback with that vendor. What if I choose to buy something from Microsoft legitimately sometime down the road? I don't want that hassle, and I feel like Microsoft shouldn't want that either. This is in addition to the bank's advise to try to work it out with the vendor first because, and I quote, "most businesses are pretty reasonable and will give you a refund if you explain the situation."

Not Microsoft. No, definitely not Microsoft. I'm not sure how the company can claim to be good at something they don't even do.

Share your Microsoft customer service nightmares here - perhaps they need to hear your frustrations too.

Sincerely,

Upset Customer

:)