Whoops: I Paid $143.82 for 1.5 Years Of XBOX Live
Thomas did something dumb and he wants to warn others not to follow in his footsteps. He assumed (incorrectly) that his $7.99 per month subscription to XBOX Live would roll over into a yearly subscription once he'd paid $50. (A yearly subscription costs $50, obviously.) Yeah, it didn't.
Thomas says:
Just wanted to shoot you guys and gals a quick note on how I am an idiot and hopefully others don't make my mistake. I was under the impression that the monthly charge of $7.99 for Xbox Live service would roll into a year once I hit a total of $50 in charges.
I was wrong. Dead wrong. Over the past year and a half I have paid $143.82 for Xbox Live. Almost the price for THREE FULL YEARS of service.
When I noticed this I called their support and asked why they don't just roll it into a year once a user hits the $50 mark, both representatives I spoke with said the exact same thing "You are signed up for a reoccurring monthly payment of $7.99" and could not comprehend why I would ask such a question... I guess as a naive consumer I am expecting to much from a company to give me the best bang for my buck automatically.
I accept full responsibility for this situation and hope others avoid this.
-Thomas
Oh dear, that really sucks. At least you learned a valuable lesson (check your bank statements) and are trying to help others avoid your fate.
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Comments:
Why would they.
What you are looking for is a payment plan for the $50 they normally charge for a year, not a $7 a month plan.
@glennski:
I don't see how this is the lesson at all. I think the lesson is, if I'm on a monthly billing plan, I'm going to get billed monthly.
Always just use the cards you put codes into the XBox for in regards to XBox Live, DO NOT use the recurring billing option. Only bad things can happen when you do it that way.
Classic boneheaded move: assuming anything, especially when it involves your money going into someone else's hands.
It's refreshing that the OP isn't all indignant about it or claiming some kind of entitlement. "I messed up--learn from my mistake," flies a lot farther with me than "Micro$oft should've been able to read my mind!"
Good stuff.
Well, you are on a month by month basis, and pay for the benifit of being able to cancel any time. Just because the total you shell out ends up costing more than just signing up for a month, doesn't mean a company is going to go back and bascially change what you paid for. Like pay as you go cell phones, you don't go "well, I ended up spending on minutes what would have cost me to have had a contract all this time, so I should have had this just changed into a contract retroactively to save me money."
Also, I'm not trying to "blame the customer" but its sorta like lease versus finance, it's two different methods with different benifits and pricing structures. It's good he brought this to the attention of others though.
live cards only for me...
I don't know of any company that does what the OP expected... If you lock in for 6 months or more that's a commitment you've made with your money and the company gives you a discount. If you pay month to month you can bail whenever you want. Seems simple enough?
You usually get a discount for paying for things up front, like car insurance. There's usually a $6-$10 a month charge for monthly payments. So it's safe to assume that a monthly payment plan would cost more than an up-front lump sum.
That said, nice job with the letter, OP. Everyone makes mistakes and it's nice to see someone looking out for others.
"I am an idiot" - nailed it.
Why would anyone assume this? I imagine there are quite a few people who opt for a month-to-month deal because they can't justify the bigger upfront cost of a yearly plan. (As an aside, you can get 12 and 13 month cards for $35-$40 if you shop around)
Also, this charge went unnoticed for 18 months? Might be time to brush up on some personal finance basics.
Yeah, that stinks. Match.com has pulled some serious BS on me. They won't give me my money back either.
Whatever.
I think it's a feature. This way, MS makes more money if the customer is not paying attention. They want you to forget you're on a month to month and pay $96 for a year instead of $50 for a yearly subscription.
@glennski: No, I'd think the lesson is that you shouldn't assume a company is going to do anything that leads to them getting less money from you.
Was that sarcasm with the whole "naive customer" bit? I mean, it *was* naive and I don't think in this case the company was wrong for not understanding the complaint. Its worth drawing attention to the value of buying a large quantity of product as opposed to paying a higher price and buying it more regularly, but that's a pretty standard model. It just felt like he was being kinda snarky which was undercutting his acceptance of responsibility for what was genuinely his mistake.
I always just pay for it using prepaid cards so that they have no way of charging me once the service is up.
I'm not going to blame the OP, because he did it for me. If I had 10 bux in my bank account and xbox rolled me into a 50$ yearly subscription, then I got a overdraft fine of 40$, I would shit myself.
You know, this same thing happened to me with magazines! I kept buying Consumer Reports after seeing an ad for 63% off the cover price. But when I bought the 8th magazine, they wouldn't give me the next one free no matter how many times I called!
But seriously folks, do people really think this might happen? "I signed up monthly instead of the discounted pre-paid but they didn't give me the pre-paid discount!?"
@AlteredBeast: Correct. This is the dumbest Consumerist article I've seen in a while, but to the OP's credit, at least he's not acting like he's entitled to a refund.
I've actually signed up for the monthly when I've wanted to game with a buddy for a little while. The most annoying thing is that they make you call in to cancel it.
Sorry OP, but why would you expect a company to voluntarily take LESS of your money? I would never expect a company to automatically enroll me in a LESS expensive plan than I am already signed up for. That's like signing up for 1000 minutes on your cell phone, then calling them and saying "Well I only used 100 minutes, why didn't change my plan to the 100 minute plan for me?"
@morganlh85: Thats not the point. Verizon Wireless rolled me into a text messaging plan that saves me money after I went over a certain amount of texts, that made it more then getting a plan.
The problem with this is, he wants xbox to make a decision to withdrawl 50 instead of 7.99....Which is not what their agreement was.
I can't really fault Microsoft on this one. Does this mean that his guy just finally actually read his credit card statement for the first time in a year? At $8/month you pass $50 after 7 months.
Sounds just like plain old no-negative-connotaion-meant ignorance. Most anything with options for monthly billing are going to be more expensive than yearly billing.
@Kishi: true, but it's not like this is an exception, most companies will not roll over a monthly subscription when the yearly total is met.
This is a clear case of consumer assumption. I've been using XBL for 4 years, and I've never assumed what he did (who has?).
It's pretty clear, you pay monthly at one price and annually at another. MS WANTS (needs?) a large subscriber base, so they throw a bone if you commit to a year...and "penalize" you for going month to month.
Just buy they pre-paid cards, don't use a card to auto-bill.
It's called stupid tax, now, can you find any deductions?
Sometimes your existence is to only serve as a warning to others. :D
That sucks though. Hope you at least used it on a regular basis to sort of justify it though.
@Bladefist: "The problem with this is, he wants xbox to make a decision to withdrawl 50 instead of 7.99....Which is not what their agreement was."
I don't even think it's that. He assumed the charged would stop at $50 for the year, because that's how much a year subscription up-front is. Instead, Xbox charged him $7.99 a month, or roughly $96 a year. Sounds like he just assumed he'd be charged $7.99 for like 6 months and then be good for the year. Nothing works like that.
Something similar happened to me just a week ago. I have the recurring yearly subscription plan and my card on file expired. So in my effort to not use my credit card I bought the prepaid card at BestBuy (which is a better deal because for the same price you get 200 xbox live points to buy stuff, the vision camera and two arcade games free). I go and put the code in and it won't let me, it keeps saying I need to update credit info. I did and put my code in and all is merry. I check my email I got charged for the yearly now I am prepaid till 2010. I called customer service and they said I needed to call first to refund the charge on the account before putting in the pin. I said I never got the charge since my card expired and declined why would I have to call for a refund for something I have not been charged. The only way to refund the money is if they close the account completely which would also make me lose the prepaid card I bought. Damn you Microsoft this is an additional warning for everyone.
I understand how the OP feels - obviously it is easier on the wallet initially to pay $9.99 (or whatever it is) than $50 when you first sign up - perhaps it was just a bit naive to assume that Microsoft would roll your plan over automatically.
Moving forward - you really can't ignore the savings going with the 12 month option if you plan to continue using the service for at least one year.
Tip: Newegg has 12-month XBox Live subscription cards for about $38 shipped, and they are typically 12 month + 1 bonus month cards. 13 months for 38.92 = ~2.99 / month.
@SonicMan: agreed. considering how many places get called out for changing billing methods without the customer's consent, i'm surprised he assumed that xbox/microsoft would do that as a FAVOR.
It blows me away how many posters are still attacking the OP. He comes on, admits his mistake and the leason he learned and then almost every other post is either an insult or some holier-than-thou jerk trying to shove an "I told you so" down his throat. What a bunch savages, I tell ya.
@testsicles:
I've never heard of a company that would do that, and I'm surprised anyone would expect it. That's just not how billing works.
@Erwos:
At least the Consumerist isn't criticizing MS for doing billing him month to month. They're just throwing it out there as a PSA in case anyone else thinks the way Thomas does.
FYI - buy the 12+1 month cards. You can usually get them for ~$40 from Buy.com.
I did this too. except they were even more devious, I wanted live for one month so I could play halo 3 with my friend when I was there on vacation, so I got online and bought a month with my credit card BIG MISTAKE. Nowhere I can remember It said that these were reoccurring payments, but sure enough when I came back next year, I found that I STILL HAD LIVE... I now pay more attention to my monthly bank statements.
Many places do this - just like buying a magazine at the store - cost like $8. But a 12 issue subscription for like $20. Does not mean after you buy 2 1/2 issues at the store you should get the other 9 1/2 issues for free
Same thing at McDonalds - Go and buy a BIG MAC for $3. Later go in and buy a fry for $1.50. Later go in and buy a drink for $1.50 (total $6). If you just bought them all at once in a combo, it would only be $5.
[please note I just estimated the cost of items to make the point - the prices are not exact]
Point being - many places offer discounts if you buy in bulk or buy in advance
@coan_net: Dear Playboy, I bought 4 of your literature publications at newstand prices and am henceforth requesting the remaining 8 issues to be delivered to my home address as the price of 4 issues at the newstand price is the same as a yearly subscription.
Consumerist, this is not a story. Quit diluting your value. Hey Cell company, I'm on your 300 minute plan but I used 400 minutes and you charged me .57 a minute after 300. This cost me more than your 400 minute plan, why didn't' you automatically roll into that plan.
Why on earth would Microsoft put you on the $50 a year subscription when you didn't request it. I'd be more worried about them nilly willy moving my subscriptions around.
@aggie_brad: eff that, if you've got nothing more to contribute.
Personally I pay the month-to-month because I have no clue where my life will take me within that time. If I find one of those yearly cards for like 40 or less I'll pounce it, but when I could be away from home for months to years at a time with a phone call, I'd rather play it this way.
This customer must be kidding, right? 'Cos why would anyone expect a company to switch you from one plan to another without you asking for it? Especially when the second plan makes them less money? Wow!
@katylostherart: I just hope the XBOX people don't take this as a sign that they should start changing people's billing methods.
XBOX: Do not start automatically rolling people into plans you think they want. OP admits it was his mistake. That is all.
The OP does get points for sharing this, knowing he'd get ragged on.
@macdude22: A number of cell phone company salespeoplle will do that. They call and say "I saw you went over by X last month, I can retroactively put you into a new plan for Y that would avoid all those overages"
The upside, you avoid the big hit. On the down side, you are locked into a new contract.
I do not like that you can easily sign up for and put in your CC info for XBOX Live, however, in order to cancel, you have to deal with their HORRIBLE call center.
Seems like we do have the technology to cancel on the Xbox "Browser" they just want to rob us if possible.
Solution - Buy prepaid cards.
I can't comprehend why this is even an article.. This guy is an idiot.
Did he honestly expect that after 6 months of paying monthly that he would all of a sudden get the next 6 months free? Or perhaps at the end of 1 full year he would receive a reimbursement check for $50?
Especially considering the fact we are talking about Microsoft here, a company that revolves around profits.
At least he was smart enough to realize that his logic was fouled, unlike the old ladies of yesteryear who rented phones on a monthly charge from ma bell for 65 years.
That stinks man.
Lesson is that modern billing methods really aren't sophisticated enough to think logically like that.