Sneaky Auto-Renewal tricks!

I got an offer for a free 30 day trial. Cool, So I signed up- Alert you have to sign with your card and Auto renewal is always the DEFAULT. So I turned that auto renewal off same day. But I purchased some movies and I don't know if that re-triggered an auto
renewal or what-but there it was, a charge for a renewal fee. It's happened before to me. I guess in the future, not only will I stop the auto renewal but also when I go to place an order for a movie, I will immediately remove my credit card info too- a pain
but if you leave it on there, you have no control of fishy charges. NO CARD- NO CHARGE! XBOX!

:)

 

Can't Remove Payment Option?

Because Microsoft is sneaky and makes it incredibly difficult, time consuming, and all around obnoxious to turn OFF auto-renewal.

 

unethical practice - auto renewal trick

fyi ask your cellphone provider to give you regular cellphone mins contract with no autobilling and with prepaid monthly cards see what they say

i garentee its a no

there is pros and cons with prepaid suggest you read up on it

prepaid = no autobilling but no discounts other then what is on sale at the till

 

Or, you could just use Microsoft Currency for purchases and pre-paid sub cards.

 

How did you turn off the renewal?

 

I've had something similar happen to me as well in the past where I have logged into my account on Xbox.com and turned off the auto renew on my account and it still charged me for a renewal fee. Sometimes the website has a hiccup and doesn't turn it off
when you out in for it. Sometimes it can have to do with the kind of internet browser you use like Chrome or Firefox. Xbox.com can working on browsers like that but sometimes it does not. Internet Explorer is a sure fire way to make sure that when you do something,
it sticks. Also you could call Xbox Support and have them pull up your account and just turn it off on their end. And, lastly, you can do what Lillith suggested and just use MSC and pre paid sub cards on your account and never have to have our credit card
on your account.

 

You can turn off your auto renew BUT... it should give you the option to buy one off.

This is a disgusting tactic by MS to get more money out of there customers. They will say 'oh well its to save you forgetting to renew' but in actual fact it a clever ruse in order for you to forget about it and if you use it or not they will get paid. they
then further make it so you have to wade through sub menus to find the stop the renew. To MS Xbox if you think your customers don't know what your up to then you have another thing coming.

BTW pre-paid cards are for kids who don't have a credit card.

Not happy. Just don't be so sneaky and your customers will love you for it.

 

Mrbuff prepaid cards are not just for kids who dont have credit cards. Most of the time you can buy prepaid subscriptions much cheaper than buying from Xbox and you don't have to deal with auto-renewal.

 

Unfortunately, you didn't disable that option then. Making a purchase on the Xbox Store will not re-enable auto-renew. The only time it will be re-enabled is when you redeem a code for Gold or purchase Gold on the dashboard.

 

mrbuff, this is standard operating procedure for literally every online service I'm aware of. Auto-renewal isn't a secret, nor is it rare. The idea that this is something unique to Microsoft, or something underhanded is simply ridiculous.

 

I think the main reason that people are frustrated by the auto- renewal, is the difficulty in finding and turning it off. A simple on/off switch in an easy to find place would lead to a lot of happy customers.

 

Always buy Xbox Cards, they are the best way to avoid unexpected charges and go on sale often.

 

Leo, those will re-enable automatic renewal. I said this in my post..

 

Prepaid gold cards will not enable auto-renewal.

 

This Auto-Auto-Renewal system is happening almost everywhere now. It is not unique to Microsoft. As someone mentioned earlier, you can actually buy, persay, 12 Months of Gold separate, then redeem that card, and Auto-Renew cannot be re-enabled as you are
activating it a different way. You could also select to just buy a single subscription of Gold from the "Account" section of the Settings tab from your Dashboard. Auto-Renew shouldn't re-enable, but if it does, you should always be able to turn it off from
the Account section of the Settings as well. Good luck.

-TEA