"Fun"-cancelling Live Gold auto-renewel-do not give MS your credit card

Wolfpup

Wolfpup

CAGiversary!
Wow, this is ridiculous. I'd heard horror stories, but they're sort of hard to believe...

So I sign up for "Xbox Live Gold" for the first time yesterday to play Reach with a friend, and did it through Microsoft because it was cheaper that way. I look today, and it's set for "auto renewal". Trying to change or cancel that online just leads in a big circle. So I call the number it tells you to call, and was on for THIRTY FIVE minutes, and had to be transferred because the first person couldn't change that for me.

(Oh, and the Xbox site is pretty broken on anything but IE now...that's fun too.)

Finally get to the second guy, and he's all asking these questions that to me are totally inappropriate like "why did you sign up if you weren't going to keep it" etc., on and on for probably 5+ minutes. And then he's like "well what about the other great Live features!" And I go "I'm not interested in them". And then he's like "well in November we're getting a bunch more features-you're a big sports fan, right?" And I'm like "no".

Oh, and of course first thing he insinuates that I just couldn't figure out how to turn off auto-renewal online...which is complete BS. Just goes in circles whether you try to get that off or cancel. One thing leads to another thing leads to another thing leads back to the first thing.

I don't really trust that auto renew is really off. Glad at least that I used a virtual card number I can cancel separately from my real card, but this is BS.

Moral of the story, as others have warned, do NOT give Microsoft your credit card number. Use a card or code from a store or Amazon or whatever, if you're doing Xbox. Does NOT engender confidence in Microsoft what-so-ever.
 
[quote name='CaptainJoel']I think the moral of the story actually is, make sure auto-renewal isn't enabled.[/QUOTE]

You really think defaulting to auto-renewal is okay, with the only fix a 35 minute wait with to reps and endless questions?
 
It's a simple check box when you log into live on xbox.com. I had no problem whatsoever turning it off. But yeah, it shouldn't default to auto renew.

The've had my card for a while as I usually end up buying points from them when some DLC comes out etc. and I've never gotten a Live charge as I just unselected auto renew.
 
[quote name='Wolfpup']You really think defaulting to auto-renewal is okay, with the only fix a 35 minute wait with to reps and endless questions?[/QUOTE]
I actually spent an hour and a half on the phone with them getting mine taken off of auto-renewal back 2 years ago before they had it set up where you could take it off offline.

As dmaul says, now they have it online and I just turned mine off and had no problem. No need for me to sit on the phone with them again.
 
I moused over that (and 90 other things) multiple times during the cycle-it wasn't a link for me.
 
Oh, and I don't mean to sound ungrateful to Animalspinners and others-just didn't work for me. No link there where there was supposed to be.
 
I use firefox, and it took me about 45 minutes to figure out exactly how to remove auto-renew. I did eventually figure it out, but I understand the frustration, as it does run you around in circles if you are not paying attention.
 
The site's actually totally broken for me in Firefox now. It used to work great for me, but everything just goes to 500 errors and redirect loops now unless I use IE (and that's literally the only site I use IE for).
 
I don't know what to tell you. Site works fine in firefox for me, and no problem getting to the link to turn auto renew on or off as outlined in the link above.
 
Looks like Firefox support is working again right now. It's been broken for months though (or at least whenever I've tried it), and there was no toggle link for me yesterday on IE.
 
I just get the cards and such; I'm hoarding the $40 cards for a few friends before the yearly cost spikes in November; XBL's getting a bit pricey, but, what am I going to do, play MW2's campaign? yeahrightlolol
 
Well I care much more about the story :lol: but I know what you mean. Yeah, that's what I SHOULD have done and not tried to save $10 over Amazon's price, but oh well.
 
It works but MS makes you jump over several hurdles to turn off AR. You have to click through several screens where they give you the hard sell about all the "great features" of XBL (Facebook and Twitter, ugh) and the rate plans. If you don't see the change after you're done this little sentence may explain it.

Your changes will not be reflected until the term of your current membership has expired.
Click to expand...
Here's the real kicker though.

NOTICE: If you extend your membership by redeeming a prepaid code prior to the expiration of your current subscription, auto-renewal of your subscription will be reactivated.
Click to expand...
Anytime you use a store-bought code you have to go back in and turn off AR again. Not just once but every time you use a renewal code. IMO, it's pretty shady that they do everything they can short something illegal to try to sneak a renewal on to your credit card. Turning off AR is really not an easy process at all and is essentially consumer-hostile.

EDIT: I just finished turning off AR on my account. At the end it says "We're sorry to see you go." I haven't gone anywhere, I still have 11 months left on XBL. Like I said, consumer-hostile.
 
[quote name='sinwazikashi']I just get the cards and such; I'm hoarding the $40 cards for a few friends before the yearly cost spikes in November; XBL's getting a bit pricey, but, what am I going to do, play MW2's campaign? yeahrightlolol[/QUOTE]

You can get a PS3. ;)
 
stay away from ps plus then... it's either auto renew or add money to your account every time you want to buy a game.

But yeah, never had a problem with the auto renew off function. that's odd. sucks about the hold. I would have been livid when I got on the phone.
 
I got a virtual number from my Discover card. Some of my other ones might do that too, but I've never looked in to it.

I doubt I'll ever sign up for it, but that's disappointing Playstation Plus does that too. Hopefully at least it's easier to turn off!
 
[quote name='Wolfpup']I got a virtual number from my Discover card. Some of my other ones might do that too, but I've never looked in to it.

I doubt I'll ever sign up for it, but that's disappointing Playstation Plus does that too. Hopefully at least it's easier to turn off![/QUOTE]My Bank of America card has virtual CC #'s and I use one per Internet retailer.

I checked my account and I don't have auto renewal on and I know I've added subscription codes since I had them remove my inactive/dead CC from my account, which was a giant PITA. I know auto-renewal was turned off after they removed my CC, so it's been off and remained off.
 
bugger.. i freaking hate paypal for killing that awesome plugin. no way for me to get an american CC while i'm in Canada.. oh well thanks for the info.
 
Omg.. I went through this sort of thing with Microsoft a couple of years ago. SO annoying! Even after I spoke to someone and thought that I had cancelled my subscription and turned off auto-renew, I had another surprise when they continued to bill my credit card the month afterwards. I called again, had to go through the same rat race again, and finally, after about 40 mins of being volleyed back and forth from rep to rep, I was able to get rid of the service. No more charges to speak of from then on.

Point being, and as the original poster stated, NEVER give MS your credit card info or sign-up on a Live! month-to-month basis where they can continually & automatically charge your credit card. I learned from my experience and I've avoided it ever since.
 
The one time I had the remove my credit card, I just asked them to do that. Not to cancel my gold.

Turned out I got a free 3 months out of it, so it was all worth it on my end. I had the same conversation for about the same time you had, OP, and seriously, its only frustrating if you make it frustrating.
 
I had no problems at all a couple of months ago when they offered a month of live for a buck. I paid the buck, followed Major Nelson's notes to remove auto-renew then let my month expire for a day so I could remove the CC info. Interesting that even though the subscription period is paid for in advance that they "need" to keep your CC info on file through the entire subscription period.

Oh and for pretty much all my online purchases, I use a virtual Citi Credit Card #. I can generate as many as needed right on the web and they by default expire at the end of the next month, though you can change that date and/or limit the authorized amount allowed on the VCC. It's a great feature, especially for late night 'impulse' purchases. I dont have to dig out my wallet and try and read the numbers w/o turning on the light ;).

---She said "Oh my God! Is that a 'Black Card'?"
I turned around and replied "Why yes, but I prefer the term 'African American Express'."
 
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