Why are Xbox accounts so stupidly complicated

So in the beginning of June, I posted a question asking how I could buy Portal 2 on my Xbox. I thought that you could only buy it on an Xbox 360 or an Xbox 1 X, but I was wrong. You had to buy it through the online store instead of the Xbox store. So, I
tried that, and it said I had to verify my email. I then noticed my email associated with my account was wrong, so I fixed it. Then it told me I had to wait a MONTH before I could buy anything.

So I waited a month, and I was finally able to buy the game. But, when I went to buy it on the online store, it said I had to buy it on the Xbox store. This made no sense. The Xbox store was telling me to buy the game on the Online store, and the Online
store was telling me to buy it on the Xbox store. So long story short, both stores were broken, and I ended up buying a used copy of Portal 2 at GameStop.

But now comes to the extremely stupid part of all this. At about the end of July, I wanted to buy Xbox Live (I had it earlier but it expired). So I went onto my Xbox, and it said "You need a parent to buy this". So I had my parent log into the parent account.
BUT, they had lost access to the email accosiated with the Xbox parent account, so they couldn't confirm it was actually them logging into the account. I figured out how to change the email, but then I had to wait ANOTHER MONTH before I could use the parent
account to buy Xbox Live.

And here I am today. I'm finally able to use the parent account again, BUT when I went to buy Xbox Live through the Parent account.........it says I have no money. Which is REALLY stupid, since I have nearly $50 on MY ACTUAL ACCOUNT ALREADY. So now, I'm
gonna have to go get an Xbox Gift Card so I can add money to the parent account.

Do you see how stupid all this is? I've literally had to wait the ENTIRE SUMMER, just so I could get Xbox Live. This NEEDS to change.

First off, you need to fix the Backwards Compatibility store. It just doesn't work at all.

Secondly, you need to make it clearer about what I'm getting into when I'm changing my email.

And finally, you need to reduce the time it takes to change emails. 2 weeks would be much better than a month. I get Microsoft doesn't want someone taking my account with their email, but if I have to wait my entire summer just so I can buy something, they're
doing something wrong. Also, if someone actually did try to take my account, I would get an email about it immediately. I don't need a month to stop that. It would take at most a few minutes to stop someone from taking my account, cause all I have to do is
click the button on the email or whatever that says "This wasn't me". Easy as that.

:)

 

Why so complicated?

unfortunatly only one gamertag can be linked to an email at a time

simply create a new free email account for your grandson to create a gamertag that you will be able to associate it to.

(you will also be able to set it as a child account and apply parrental control settings to it)

this will also prevent you 5 year old grandson to have access to you private emails

since your email and password is required to log in to xbox live you would be giving your grandson access to all your microsoft services (including access to your billing info)

for security reasons (including the one's i just mention) microsoft preffer that everyone use sepperate accounts and not to share your info with anyone

you can create a new account here: Microsoft account

 

Why so complicated?

I simply want to create a seperate player account - which is for my Grandson who is 5 years old, does not have an email address and does not have a mobile phone!!

The game we have is Disney Cars 3 and we want to be able to play seperate games with there own saves etc.

I've bought the Xbox, bought the games - now let me use them without going round in circles and being asked for my Grandson to create their own xbox account. When I try and do that with my email I'm told that the account already exists and to create a new
one.

Stop trying to dictate what we can/can't do and make it easier for families to use the product!!

 

I'm glad you got the email problem fixed (the 30 day period is triggered when you change too much personal info) but unfortunately the problem about money in your account not being usable for xbox 360/xbox original games is by design. It has been like this
since currency was microsoft points - they can't be used to purchase xbox 360 or original xbox games and you must be on an adult account to buy them.

So you will have to buy Portal 2 on an adult account and with a credit/debit/paypal payment method as the currency stored in your account can NOT be used for xbox 360/xbox original games.

Sorry.

Here's more info on the error you saw when trying to purchase the xbox 360 game as a child account:

Troubleshoot Xbox 360 Marketplace Purchasing