Reader Brad took his XBOX Live Gamertag to a friend’s house. When he got home, he realized that he’d forgotten his memory card (with the Gamertag on it) at his friend’s place.
He used the “recovery” service to get the tag back, but when he got access to his tag he realized that he could no longer use any of his saved games.
That was about a month ago and Microsoft still has no solution for his problem. Frustrated with losing all the games he’s saved, Brad filed a complaint with the BBB.
Microsoft responded:
We are unable to comply with your request to provide a free Memory Unit. Accessories such as that may be purchased from a retail location.
Brad doesn’t want a free memory unit. He wants his saved games back.
Brad writes:
After using the account recovery service on my 360 to recover my gamertag after using it on a friends 360, I found that I could no longer access ANY of my saved games. I contacted 18004MYXBOX four times about this issue, each time, receiving the same script and run-around. I finally escalated the issue, and Jeff from the Xbox Live division called me back to discuss it. He acknowledged that there was an issue with their account recovery service, but that there was nothing they could do, and offered me no compensation. Unfortunately, MS decided to use their DRM system on the saved games as well. When my gamertag account became partially corrupted on their server, it no longer allowed linked to my saved games. And of course, MS does not know how to fix their own system.
Thank you for using the Better Business Bureau’s Online Complaint System.
Your complaint has been assigned case # *NUMBERDELETED*.
Correspondence regarding this complaint will be emailed to : *EMAILDELETED*
Please print a copy of this for your records.Filed on : January 24 2008
Filed by :
*MyNameDeleted*
*MyAddressDeleted*
*MyLocationDeleted*Filed against :
Xbox
1 Microsoft Way
Redmond WA 98052Complaint Description:
When moving my Xbox Live! gamertag from a friends Xbox 360 console back to my own console, I lost the ability to access my saved games, even though they are still present on my 360′s hard drive. Moving the gamertag to play in different locations is how the Xbox Live! service is intended to be used, there is some error causing my gamertag to not recognize my saved games. This occured Thurday, January 17th. I placed calls to 1800MYXBOX on 3 separate occasions: January 18th, January 19th, and January 20th about this issue. Customer service did not offer any solutions which worked, and failed to put me in contact with someone who had expertise in the area. My 1800MYXBOX reference number regarding this issue is 1056102591. These saved games are my personal data, and represent 2 years of my time and effort. Microsoft’s Xbox live service, either intentionally or unintentionally, has caused damage to my gamertag and/or my personal saved game files. I have documented my issues and experience on the Xbox Forums here: http://forums.xbox.com/18015242/ShowPost.aspx#18015242 . Other Xbox Live! and 360 uses have had identical or similar issues as shown by the following forum posts: http://forums.xbox.com/17067018/ShowPost.aspx , http://forums.xbox.com/18049832/ShowPost.aspx#18049832 . I have been in contact with several other Live! users that have experienced the same problem. Their Live! gamertags are: ‘klamath xor’, ‘JigSaw XV’, ‘d3adpoetic’, and ‘XCALIBUR18′. ‘klamath xor’ has also filed a complaint with the BBB regarding this issue here: http://app.alaskaoregonwesternwashington.bbb.org/complaint/view/*NUMBERDELETED*.Your Desired Resolution:
I would like Microsoft to acknowledge the problem and fix it, allowing me and the other affected to use their saved games again. If this is not technically possible, I would like Microsoft to prevent the issue from occurring in the future, and offer a formal apology. If that is not technically possible, I would like to be offered a full refund on my Xbox 360, Live! service, and all of my games and accessories. It is unacceptable for Microsoft to provide a game console/service that destroys users data, and I cannot support such a system/service.
Microsoft responded:
RE: Your complaint to the Better Business Bureau
Case Number: 22146246
Dear Brad,
A copy of your report filed with the Better Business Bureau of Oregon & Western Washington regarding your Xbox Video Game System has been forwarded to Microsoft.
Our records indicate, that we contacted you by phone on the 7th of January in regards to your Xbox console.
We are unable to comply with your request to provide a free Memory Unit. Accessories such as that may be purchased from a retail location.
Thank you for your continued support of Microsoft Xbox gaming platform.
If you have any further concerns regarding this issue, please contact 1-800-4MY-XBOX and use ticket number: 1053326815. Otherwise we will consider this issue closed.
Sincerely,
Kevin Lamb
Xbox Customer Support
Microsoft Corporationcc: Better Business Bureau of Oregon and Western Washington
Brad pointed us to a forum thread where he details the steps he took to recover his saved games, etc. You can read that here.
After recovering my gamertag I can no longer access my saved games! [XBOX Forums]
(Photo:louder)
More From Consumerist
-
Microsoft Apologizes For Loudmouthed Creative Director’s Tweets
-
No, Microsoft Techs Are Not Proactively Calling You About Your Error Messages
-
Lawsuit Aims To Call BS On Microsoft Surface Memory Size Claims
-
Hotmail Going The Way Of The Dinosaur As Microsoft Opens Outlook To The Public
-
Zune Pass Customers Not Getting All Of Their Free Downloads, No One Knows Why
It’s funny how useless complaining to the BBB is. A while ago, I wrote a complaint about a company handling the water services for my apartment complex at the time, because the online system they used for billing was inaccessible due to poorly coded/executed code. They would send a paper bill through the USPS and expect payment to be sent back to them within 3 days of THEM SENDING THE BILL, otherwise, I would have to pay a $20 late fee, which was more than the actual bill every single time. I complained to the apt manager many many times, who recognized that their company was full of shit, and got credits against the “late” payments. However, when I moved, I obviously couldn’t go back to the apt building as it was 3k miles away and complain when I received the last two bills with like $80 of late fees tacked on.
I called the company and complained, saying that I see in their system when I was billed (because that was the only usable part of the online system) and when they charged the late fee… literally separated by 3 days. Half of the time, I never even received a paper bill, and told them that. They said that it was impossible as they documented every case of sending out a paper bill. I said that was unlikely, because I was able to receive mail from every other company/individual who sent me something, but I rarely got a bill from that company. I implied that the statement on their bill “late payment due to not receiving a bill via USPS will still result in the $20 late fee” printed in huge red letters across the top of the letter was simply a way for them to make a crapload of money off of people by not actually sending the bill, sending the bill late, or doing the 3 day turnaround billing process. They hung up on me after I asked for escalation.
So, I wrote to the BBB. That process took about a week to get a response. After stating my case, it was obvious that the company did not even bother to read the complaint, as they addressed me as someone completely different, did not address ANY issue in the complaint, and basically said I was at fault. I wrote back with a scathing response suggesting that they actually read the complaint, understand it, and then respond so as not to look like fucking dumbasses. No response. BBB writes to me and asks if I’m OK with the “resolution” of absolutely nothing, and calls me to discuss, basically telling me they can’t do anything anyway. So I was like why even bother? And they said that it will help customers make decisions in the future. I said I didn’t have a choice because I wouldn’t have accepted the terms during the lease signing (which I noticed were crap while signing the lease) had I been aware of the shady billing practices.
End of BBB is completely useless rant.
@Aprotosis: I’d love to agree with you, but I’ve experienced all 4 problems. “Scratched rings” in perfect circles on my game discs, more than one RRoD, lots of Live downtime, and games that are so DRM’d that I’m virtually locked out from them. You are right, we never do here the press of good customer service from MS, frankly I’m not sure if it exists. When I checked the Consumerist tags for Nintendo, I found quite a few though. And for Sony, outside of the dusty PS3 debacle, I didn’t find ANY stories, good or bad. I love gaming on my Xbox, but right now it seems I have to spend more time dealing with faulty products or services than playing games.
Some people have been mentioning that I should have received a warning before recovering my profile. Here is the warning from Xbox.com regarding ‘Roaming’: “With Xbox 360, your gamer profile can exist only in one place at one time, so downloading (or “recovering”) it to a friend’s system will invalidate the version of your profile that’s still on your Xbox 360 Hard Drive, endangering any offline achievements and game saves since your last visit to Xbox Live.”
This isn’t the case here. My saved games were made when my profile was online and very much valid. Secondly, I’ve recovered my profile dozens of times in the past, and this has never been an issue. As well, Microsoft has acknowledged this as a genuine issue, so it’s not a problem of misunderstanding the function of the service.
Thanks everyone for reading about my issue. I still love my 360, and hope Microsoft will do the right thing.
@jtheletter: It is broken functionality, I agree. And when someone who has that problem is screwed by it, then we can talk. This guy didn’t have that problem.
What MS should do is if the gamertag is corrupt, it should be able to read that tag off the hard drive, memory card, whatever, then verify and restore. If the hard drive and memory card pass checks and the tag is nowhere to be found, then SOL. It’d solve their problems, those who do get corrupt gamer tags, and make people like Brad go back to friends house to get his memory card like he should have in the first place.
I had a similar problem with the eBay “get mobile alerts” mainly the “via IM” feature. After logging into AOL IM, ebay.com says “service failed to respond.” I emailed ebay and they replied “sorry your AOL browser doesnt work, use Internet Explorer”. I replied “This did not resolve my Instant Messaging Alerts problem. Please help me resolve it.” They finally said they’d investigate the issue. Still not fixed, it’s been 10 days.
What a nice fellow!
“Talk to ma’ hand sucker!
Kevin Lamb
Xbox Customer Support
Microsoft Corporation “
I Love it! ^_^
This exact same issue happened to me and my friend when we tried recovering our profiles.
Not only that but when I moved from Europe to Canada I could not change my address information for my profile, which meant I needed to get a new gamertag. So since I was on the phone with an agent from customer service, I was asked whether I wanted to deactivate my old gamertag, which I agreed to, not knowing that in doing so I would not be able to access any games anymore that I had previously purchased on Live Arcade!
Now I can’t sign into that profile anymore and I cannot launch my games anymore in my other profile.
Hilarious. I know how he must feel. I had similar troubles contacting Microsoft, but not to this degree.
LOL, thats what you get for not reading Terms of Agreement, and I like how people think their game saves are important business, no one cares, restart the damn game
they aren’t going to give you free stuff because your friend is too cheap ti get xbox live himself.
@RAREBREED:I bought a 360 at launch and had problems from day one.When I called they said everything purchased at launch was under waranty console premium,xtra controller,PGR,wifi adapter,rechargable batteries. Plus I bought a 3 Year extended waranty.Customer service is a joke!I had purchased all kinds of games over xbox live and after several consoles replaced the games could not be played unless I was online.At that time their was no mention in the downloads about being online to play.When I was at my end with sending consoles off and telling me there consoles don’t scratch games what a joke, and the wireless adapter purchased from launch was not under any kind of waranty from day one. I demanded a refund on my live account and all dowloadable content and waranty I purchased threw them they denied me.I went a year and a half sending consoles, hd,and power bricks to them .Xbox live or any service is not worth that kind of hassle.I babbied all units made sure they were level and my stand was glass in a triangular shape no way could the console ever get hot.The consoles scratched every game I played. Heck I even used the remote to open and close the tray biggest waste of money I ever spent.In the end when they sent me a console that came on I went to the local game store with 2 rubber made containers filled with Xbox games,controllers,rechargable batteries,wifi adapter that worked some times I got a lousy credit of $800.00 because of me 25 friends of mine bought consoles at launch and had to deal with MS over thier units.I will never support this company again.I now have 2 PS3s 28 games 50 Blue Ray movies and not one problem going on a year.I am what some clasify as a hardcore gamer with expendable encome I am the last person they wanted to loose.The games over psn network do not require you to be online to play and game saves can be taked on any usb flash stick.All of my friends have done the same and not one has complained about any problems.I have left a PS3 running folding home for 2 months straight without any problems. replaced@RAREBREED:
finally! this happened to me about 3 weeks ago. Myxbox had no answer, but i finally found out the trick for this (yes there is a “trick”). If you try to do it at a certain time (usually after about 6-7) it will fail, and you will no longer be able to access your gamtertag, and therefore you’re unable to get you’re gamesaves or on xbl. Usually if you try again in the morning, you will be able to recover you’re gamertag succesfully. Hope this helps, and it has been a problem for me on over 6 occasions
I love how on the thread where he posted his problem on Xbox.com somebody said to back up his saves. I wasn’t aware I bought a PC. I thought it was called a console.