Refunds on Fraudulent Charges - A Customer Service Nightmare

Trexokor · Jun 25, 2021

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

:)

TenthStreetRed

In actuality, because the charge was made without his authorization, it could be considered fraudulent charges, which means that Yes, a refund could be negotiated, though typically in the case of fraudulent charges, that must be taken up with your bank.

Also, as I said, you get one free, no questions asked refund for the year that he could apply for. Once again, he would just have to take it up with Customer Support.

eed6ee5d-1f26-4d5a-a

because their customer service is appauling, so many departments..I'm still trying to get a refund. Nightmare. Never trust microsoft honestly

Georges C.

Hello, first it's a pleasure to be able to help you today.

My name is welcome to the community.

Hello PurpleFrenchie, I'm sorry for the situation you're going through, however if the purchase was made and the code used, Xbox support informed you correctly.

In your description you mention your Paypal account, if it had a fraudulent transaction and the purchase was made using your Paypal account, contact their support to see if they can get some kind of refund.

https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/contact-us

BigMacR66

I would agree that Xbox Live customer service is by far the worst that I have ever dealt with. Everyone that you talk to tells a different story, often it is obvious that the CSR is jut guessing at the answer.

They do absolutely nothing to protect their customers. Between September 6 and October 11, 2011, we had three charges of $74.99 each to an inactive Xbox account. The account had not been used for two years. Once we discovered these charges, we called the
Xbox Live Customer Service line. We were told: 1. it would take 3-4 days for our bank account to be refunded the charges; 2. that they were changing the contact info. on the account so that we would receive any emails pertaining to this account, as the email
address on file was no longer in use; 3. that they could not delete that account even though we were no longer using it and it had been inactive for two years and; 4. that they would remove financial information from this account that they refused to delete
so that our bank account would no longer be hit for fraudulent charges.

Six weeks later, not 3- 4 days, we received our refund. This was after numerous times of of contacting Xbox and getting numerous stories as to the status of our refund.

Less than one week after receiving this refund, our bank account was hit for $74.99 and $49.99. This after being assured that our bank card was being removed from the account. Furthermore. we had no way of knowing that our card was not removed because Xbox
did not update our contact information as promised. Therefore, all contact regarding this account was going into cyberspace oblivion.

Upon contacting Xbox Live about this latest round of fraudulent charges, we were assured that it would take no longer than 2-3 days to receive our refund. After 5 days and yet another story with another timeline, we contacted our bank to report that our
card had been used fraudulently. Our bank issued a temporary credit to our account while they waited to hear back from Xbox Live.

On Christmas Eve day, one month after the second round of charges was reported due to Xbox Live not removing our card information as promised, we received notification from the bank that they were again debiting our account for the amount of temporary credit.
According to them Xbox Live could neither confirm, nor deny, that the the charges were indeed fraudulent. This despite the fact that they had a month to research whether or not the account which was inactive for two years prior to the fraudulent charges a
month earlier and that was no longer supposed to have any bank information associated with it.

Six weeks later, we still wait to hear about our refund on a fraudulent charge that should have never occurred if Xbox Live had protected their customer. The first round of charges is forgivable. the second round, not the least bit. They promised to remove
our bank information on this account. They refused to delete this account. Yet, they have made us wait more than six weeks, and counting, for a refund for charges that occurred as a result of their company's negligence.

Boss2018

Hello, how did you get a refund if you was charged? Did you have to request a refund or contact Xbox customer service? Thanks!

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