Xbox Strife

While this particular issue is not, strictly speaking, entirely about Microsoft Live, it is still an interesting one. Microsoft held a Blogger’s Breakfast at the Game Developers Conference, with MS’s Chris Satchell, Aaron Greenberg and John Schappert (I shall refer to them collectively as the Pert Green Satchell). They discussed the ongoing “Red Ring of Death” issue with the 360 console, and an interesting (and wholly inaccurate) tidbit concerning Points popped up in the among the stats and info.The bullet points, as outlined by The Bigbag, are thus:

Red Ring Of Death Still An Issue?

• Failure rate has officially dropped
• Microsoft is working on the DRM issue with downloaded content
• DRM issue only affects those who don’t have access to Live
• In the interim, Microsoft will refund ALL your MS Points to re-download your content

That last bullet point is the steaming pile, here: I know from first-hand experience that even asking Xbox’s Customer Support for a refund of points is likely to result in the Adviser on the end of the phone forcing his way down the telephone line Ghost Dad style and ripping your bollocks off. Or, as Rookie at the Penny Arcade Forums puts it:

Just so everyone is clear: this is a lie. Not only will they not refund your points, but you’ll get a lecture from three different supervisors and countless first-line support morons telling you why it’s not feasible. I know they have refunded points in the past, but apparently everyone on their support staff has been told to stop doing that and to immediately fly into a rage if it’s even brought up.

That was my experience anyways. And it’s why I dumped my 360 - my THIRD 360 i might add - and bought a PS3.

Now to be fair to the Pert Green Satchell, they may not be aware of what the employees in the Customer Support department are being trained to do. That being said, they should probably be aware of what the employees in the Customer Support department are being trained to do. This thing called Research: they just can’t handle it.

Lies & Misinformation, Live Marketplace, Point Pointlessness

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