Xbox One Advanced Exchange Problems - Going on 4 Months Now

Back in December of last year, I had a faulty Kinect sensor. So I went through the Advanced Exchange and accidentally ordered the Console, not the Kinect. So I tried cancelling it within a few minutes of ordering it via chat with tech support, but the
guy said it couldn't be cancelled. I was not happy because I didn't want to be liable for the Console, especially during the holidays and associated shipping issues. So I finally get the console and mail it back with the pre-paid shipping label. I dropped
it off at a FedEx/Kinkos on January 3rd right as the driver was leaving. I gave him the package and he scanned it in, but I forgot to get the tracking number and he didn't give me a receipt. Fast forward a couple of weeks, and I get an email from MS saying
they are going to charge my credit card for not receiving the Console. I open up another Support case with MS explaining that I already sent back the Console. I was reassured multiple times that it was probably just delayed due to bad weather. So they assign
the case to "Tier III" or Advocacy Team something.

I waited a few days and didn't hear back. So I called in and spoke with someone who said they would escalate again and try to locate it at their warehouse. Again I was reassured that I wouldn't be charged. All the while I was asking why they can't look
up the tracking number associated to the pre-paid label they sent me - but apparently this simple cross reference check is something the lower level tech support teams don't have - which baffles me. What if the customer looses the tracking number or forgot
to write it down? I'm usually pretty good about keeping track of that kind of stuff, but of course Murphy's law, I didn't write it down when I shipped it out. So that's it? They don't have any other way to look it up? I was told again not to worry and
that they would work with FedEx - well I never heard back from anyone (BTW - I never did hear back from anyone at all through this - it was always me initiating contact). So my case was closed and I assumed things were resolved.

Now today I see a charge from Microsoft.com for the cost of an Xbox One. No email warning/notification, nothing. So I chat with Xbox support for the umpteenth time again, have to re-explain everything. And this guy will not reverse the charge. He says
he needs to open another escalation case with the "Advocacy" team. I asked him, is that the same as "Tier III" - he says yes, and I told him I already gave that group all the information to resolve the issue back in January. Doesn't matter, I now have to
go through all this again while they've charged me for a Console that I shipped back. I don't know if it got lost in the mail, or lost at their warehouse, or if it is a clerical error on my account, but this whole experience has been ridiculous. He said
the Advocacy team has access to the pre-paid shipping label, and thus a tracking number. I asked him why wouldn't they have looked this up when it was escalated back in January, and he said its because they didn't have all the info. I told him I gave them
all the same info I just gave him today.

So that doesn't make any sense. If someone on their end could find the tracking number associated with the pre-paid label, this would probably be resolved. But apparently that simple bit of cross referencing is too difficult for Microsoft's Xbox support
teams. I've been a Microsoft customer of various products for over a decade, but it doesn't matter since they incorrectly think I'm liable for a package that I sent off over three months ago. A strange thing is that on my Xbox support account, my Advanced
Exchange order history is gone, but it shows two consoles under my account, my original one, and the one they sent out. Can't they just look up the console serial number to see if it has been online (if it was in fact stolen or whatever)? My MS Support account
still has all the cases I've opened for this whole ordeal - so hopefully they can review that to see all the crap that has happened. And of course I can't contact this "Advocacy/Tier III" team directly. I feel I have no real recourse at this point. Maybe
I should get an attorney involved?

Has anyone else had problems with the Advanced Exchange program, or packages getting lost and customers getting charged for them?

:)

 

Advanced Exchange - Beware

I also had Advanced Exchange issues with my Kinect. They were rather prompt about sending the initial replacement, but it was broken as well! It was escalated to the advocacy group and that is where the real issues started. Three weeks later, and three calls
wonder what is going on, I got an email from the Global Escalation Support team saying the solution was another Advanced Exchange. Now, they did refund the cost of the second Advanced Exchange which was great, but they had this in their email: "You can contact
us at 800-4MY-XBOX (9262) to create the Advanced Exchange." Now, I dialed what they had in the parenthesis instead of 9269 and it was an ADULT PHONE LINE. They gave me a free month of Xbox Live for that mistake. In all, it took a month, and an embarrassing
speakerphone call, but I finally received a working Kinect.

 

My Xbox One is refusing to read games

I'm having this problem too. Got an email offering advanced exchange and $22AUD refund and a 1800 number to call. Call them, they say no advanced exchange available and to call microsoft store where I purchased it. Call them, and they said they have to make
an exception for me as advanced exchange is not available in Australia and that it will be 3-4 business days going through the escalation process. But, the email quoted an AUD amount of money and even provided for the difference in exchange rate AND told me
I could get an advanced exchange.

This is ridiculous. I have had nothing but problems with microsoft since ordering. Firstly, the store doubled up on orders and charged me for 3 xboxes which took forever to be figured out (2 hours on chat with reps lieing to me and not doing their jobs)
and then 2 hours on phone. Got my xbox a week later with nil ability to play disc-based games. Contact support who said an update will fix it. Get the email as I described before a couple days ago and now this.

I'm so tired of dealing with crappy customer support where one hand can't find the other and no one can solve a problem. I am going to return this console and never buy Microsoft again.

Extremely disappointed.

 

When you do an advanced exchange, MS expect to receive a console with a particular serial number, so in your case, even though you didn't need to replace your console, they would have been expecting to receive your original console, not the console they
sent to you as an exchange. If you sent the latter back, that can be the reason why they charged your card.

The same thing happened to me. I had a faulty PSU. I spoke to someone at Xbox support. They said that they would do an advanced exchange and replace the entire package, but just a console on its own turned up, so I returned it and 30 days later, my card
was charged as I returned a different console to the one they were expecting. Thankfully, I managed to get the money refunded by getting through to a manager at MS, but in my case, I had both the receipt and the tracking number so I could at least prove that
I had returned a console - just the wrong one as far as MS were concerned.

As you have no tracking number and no receipt, I don't see what you can do really. Without that, an attorney isn't going to be interested in the case as you have no way to prove that the console was even sent back.

 

Do you recall how you got a hold of a manager at MS? I spoke with an Xbox representative who finally realized the scenario you described. So he opened a new case with Tier III so they can remove the hold on my account. I'm surprised no one on their team
figured this out in the last 4 months, and why something as simple as a tracking number can't be pulled from their database. Even if they can't find the tracking number, they should be able to look up the console serial number to see where it is at, or if
it had been activated/re-assigned under a different person or account, or if it is just sitting in one of their warehouses.

I also called FedEx and they said if Microsoft called them with their information, they would be able to look up the package without a tracking number - something they couldn't provide me, the request would have to come from Microsoft. And again, I don't
know why they didn't do this 3 months ago when the issue was initially escalated. Anyway, hopefully this will get resolved now. If it doesn't then I may have to get legal advice. It sounds like I can prove I mailed the console back by having FedEx go back
through their records.

 

When I first got my Xbox One and had issues with it, I felt like I was getting nowhere with regular support, so I wrote an email and sent it to a bunch of email addresses at MS that I thought might belong to certain Xbox execs. All of the emails bounced
back except 2 and a day later I got a reply, then a manager in the UK took over my case and it went from being the worst customer service experience I'd had in a while to them bending over backwards to make sure I was satisfied.

I think they need a big shake up of their customer services operations, because while every support agent I spoke to was friendly, polite and tried their best to help me, one of them made mistakes (a supervisor who thought that an advanced exchange meant
replacing the entire package, not just the console), one of them didn't know what to do and his supervisor had gone home for the day, and a couple of them were powerless to help me. It made me feel like I was talking to people who weren't trained properly,
which obviously made me lose confidence and the more failed attempts I had at resolving my situation, the more frustrating it became - I'm sure you can relate to that!

I hope your issue is resolved soon.

 

Hey there mattattack0

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