Xbox Gamertag Policies

I am a longtime Xbox supporter since close to the launch of the original console. I had originally created a gamertag for my account when Halo 2 launched. A year or two later I couldn't afford to keep my account and it was cancelled as a free or "silver"
version wasn't an option at the time. When the Xbox 360 was released and I could afford an account again I subscribed and tried to create my account with the same gamertag, . The xbox live service said the gamertag had been taken. I called support
and they stated that the name wasn't taken, but that many cancelled gamertag names were not available. I asked if I could prove my identity or if there was anything else they could do to get me my original gamertag and I was told no. Sadly I created a new
tag, 0. Years went by and finally Microsoft offered the ability to change gamertags but at a $10 fee. Then at some point they released the abandoned gamertags so that they were available again. I checked online and my original gamertag,
is available again at last, but if I try to change it the system wants to charge me $10.

I understand that there's a fee to keep people from constantly changing their gamertags and I'm not opposed to the fee in general, but most companies deal with issue by limiting name changes to once per year or some similar system. That being said, I am
frustrated that I was kept from getting my original gamertag back and now Microsoft wants to charge me $10 to get it back. I called customer support today to ask if they could make an exception and change it without the $10 charge and was told a firm no.
The customer service rep acted as if he couldn't care less and didn't show any empathy or emotion of any kind. He just said a simple "no, we can't waive the fee". I was surprised. I expected some kind of response or maybe some explanation as to why the
fee couldn't be waived but really just got a cold, disconnected response that sounded a lot like "I couldn't care less about your gamertag".

In short, it's not a big deal, it's annoying, but it's worse that Microsoft doesn't seem to care at all when they do create these small irritating inconveniences. The fact that I've been a loyal Xbox supporter since the launch
of the original system didn't seem to matter at all either. It's a real shame too. I feel as though gamers who show loyalty to Microsoft (including spending thousands of dollars over the years) should expect some small amount of loyalty or goodwill in return,
especially over something as trivial as changing a gamertag that was only lost due to Microsoft's inexplicable policies of yesteryear.

:)

 

Question about innapropriate gamertags.

if you do end up making an innapropriate gamertag which you are not allowed to do do to the Terms and policy of the Xbox live Community You will get a gamertag change from Microsoft enforcement team make sure you actually read the Terms and policies before
doing this gamertag change.

 

I'm being harassed on Xbox Live! Help!

Alright, thanks anyway. I also found their gamertags on xbox live, so in a way, I think I actually can contact them directly. Also I sincerely apologize if I broke any policies on the forums. I would edit the post if I could.

 

I empathize with your frustration. I would recommend submitting your ideas to feedback.xbox.com . Let others support your ideas and get the developers to see them! That would be the best place to start and suggest what you'd like to see changed with
the service!

 

Xbox Support agents work with the policies that are set in place and they have to follow them.

They get thousands of calls requesting "things for free" and if its not within their policy/rules they can't do much more than give you the news that you don't want to here.

You're not kept from getting your gamertag, you just don't want to pay the fee.

Your request is better served posting on the site feedback.xbox.com as the previous post had stated.

Most policies that are in place are due to others abusing the system.

 

Thanks, I was going to submit to feedback.xbox.com but they changed it and it didn't seem like the right place anymore.

Xbox Feedback and Xbox Ideas: About The Transition – Xbox Ideas, powered by UserVoice

I guess I'll dig deeper into that site again. I tried to find an email address to send to microsoft directly but those seem to all be gone now too.