Christopher did something very, very stupid yesterday. Well, that, or one of his Xbox controllers did something very thoughtful and bought him a present on its own, even though it’s not Christmas or Bill Gates’ birthday or anything. Unfortunately, the gift was a copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops that there isn’t even room on his console to download, and the Xbox used his Live account. Some present. This is the reason why you shouldn’t leave anything on top of your controller that will keep hitting “accept.”

Worse still, Microsoft probably hears “accidental” stories like this all of the time and stands by its policy to not refund the purchase.

Earlier today I managed to do a very stupid thing. With my xbox360 controller laying on the couch, I threw several other controllers and a book on top of the xbox controller. Somehow, in some cruel twist of fate, the other items landed in such a way that not only did they turn on my xbox through the controller, but they must have rested on the “A” button (the button that funcitons as “accept” when navigating the menus on the xbox 360.)

Apparently, if you hit the “A” button repeatedly after turning on your xbox, the first menu/options are to buy a digital copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops. I’m sure you see where this is going: not long after accidentally activating my xbox, I received an email of a purchase notification from Microsoft for the game, which costs $59.99 + tax (even though you can buy a physical copy on amazon for less than half that price.)

I investigated and quickly realized what had happened and, having no desire to keep that game, set about trying to get a refund. To be fair, the email notifying me of my purchase states that there are no refunds for game purchases.

But surely in a situation such as this, for a customer who’s been with xbox live for 6 years without a single problem, and for a game I haven’t even downloaded (just purhcased), they could make an exception, right?

The first rep I spoke to (1-800-4MYXBOX) was a very nice man name [M]. As I expected, he said there was nothing they could do but gladly forwarded me to his supervisor, [N].

[N] was also friendly but, he too, said there was nothing I could do since I “purchased a licesnse and licenses cannot be refunded.” [N] also gladly passed me on to his supervisor, [redacted].

[redacted] informed me he is the head of the support department and, no suprise, cannot refund my purchase. [redacted] stated there’s “nobody past him that can do anything about this” and there’s “nothing that can be done.” His only suggestion was to write a letter to the corporate offices but he “doubt(ed) that would do anything.”

Now don’t get me wrong, I understand why Microsoft doesn’t readily issue refunds to digital purchases such as this. However, I thought by being a long-time customer who purhcased something I hadn’t even downloaded (nor could I download since I lack the space on my xbox hard-drive) in such a freak occurrence I could at least get a credit or partial refund or *something.* Nope.

Of course I’ll be writing their corporate office, however I’ve never heard of a large, reputable company such as this that flat-out refused to issue a refund or credit or meet me halfway.

Gamers beware: keep books and Xboxes far, far apart.

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