Xbox refund?

Hi! My son was given XBOX gift cards for Christmas in order to purchase a Xbox Series X, when it came available. (The gift cards he received did not have an expiration date on them). After receiving the gift cards he loaded them onto his account so that when he got an invite or when they became in stock he could buy one immediately. Well he finally received a invitation to purchase one last month. So he went straight to his Xbox store and when he logged in he saw that his balance was $0. So we contacted Microsoft/Xbox and after a few days of back and forth they admitted it was there fault and that they would proceed in putting the funds back in his account. Several days later he did receive a refund but it was only half of the amount that had been taken. So we have been emailing them back and forth for the last 3 weeks trying to get the balance refunded. My son was worried about how long his invitation would be active for.. and he was told that they were working on it and that he was free to go buy a Series X from another retailer.

Then they sent an email yesterday stating that they would need our banking information in order to refund us the balance of what they “stole” from him. We refused to give them our banking information (of course) and I asked why they needed the info. I was never given an answer.. we have never been given an answer as to why the funds were removed to begin with.

So I emailed them back requesting that they remedy the situation ASAP- I even gave them 3 different scenarios in which they could give us back the funds they removed from his account.

I told them we would be happy to accept a check for the balance owed or they could keep what they owed us and also keep what had already been given back and just send him a Series X, I even told him if there wasn’t enough with both amounts I would gladly pay the difference. Or I told them they could just put all of his money back on to his account without an expiration date. Because even though the cards that we purchased and loaded on to his account did not have an expiration date the refund they gave him does expire in less than a year!

My kid just wants to buy the series X console which is what he has wanted to do since Christmas. We have been patient and we have been polite. But this has been going on for over a month now. Why does it take so long to be refunded something that was stolen from us in a matter of minutes? If they can remove it then why can’t they put it all back? Or why can’t they just send him the Xbox? So now not only do we have to wait for them to refund the money they “stole” from him we have to also wait around and just hope we get another invitation? Seriously? How is that even fair? We also had to prove to them we bought the gift cards that was put on his account and wait for them to investigate that we didn’t do something wrong! I have asked the employee that has been emailing us about this for the information to file a complaint but have not been given it.. so I decided to post on this forum to hopefully receive some help?

Thank you from a Mom just trying to keep her son from being screwed over!

:)