My Wet Coast Life

It is New Year's eve and a chilly -5^oC outside. Just as cold as the service I am getting currently from Microsoft's Xbox Live customer service. Does Microsoft even value its inconvenienced customers? So far, it appears NO. Tomorrow will be 1 week since getting a Xbox Live Gold 12 month prepaid card on Christmas and not being able to use it. I called Xbox Live's customer support on Boxing Day and based on my issue with the card's code being invalid even though it showed on there side as unused and available for redemption, it required an investigation. WTF? Did they offer a temporary gold account or anything for this inconvenience while they investigated? No. Even when asked if anything can be done as temp solution, they only offered workarounds on their own system, which anyone could find on the net by googling... If I wanted to do that, why would I have called?

So based on my conversation with the specialist (at what, I don't know as surely he wasn't specialized in customer service or fixing anything right away), I had to wait up to 5 days for them to complete the investigation. 5 days and no guarantee of resultion? Plus I have to call back if YOU have not contacted me in those 5 days? FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!

So I bit my tongue trying to be civil over the holidays but annoyed that I have to wait. Luckily we got a bit of an unexpected snow dump the other day. Perfect time to put the harness on the dog, my son in his sled and go for a run. Not sure who had more fun, my son or my dog but both of them enjoyed it and made every other kid we went by envious. Maybe they can ask Santa next year for their own sled dog? Sadly the batteries were dead on my small camera so no footage but will get some next snow event. Based on my prediction, if I am right, should be February for next big dump. But we could always get a small one like the other day and that was enough for sledding action.

Yesterday, I checked my email and still no response from Microsoft and still no call either. I decided to go to a site and while typing the URL, the xbox.com URL showed up so I decided to check Xbox Live online to see if my account had changed or if there was a message or update. I logged in and alas, no gold account. So for shits and giggles, I decided to enter the code again. What harm can it do? They have not responded to me, I want to use Live Gold and I am not looking forward to having to hold again through the barrage of Kinect messages and terribad menu sound effects. It is a phone system, not a game. Why should I waste more of my time inquiring why their product which only they can fix is still not working. If my update call prompted the tech working on my incident to be zapped with a cattle prod to work faster, maybe I would consider the call but so far, they appear to be moving slower than a herd of turtles in peanut butter. Damn Skippy slow.

So I pull out the card that has cost me over an hour of my time entering over and over again. Hopefully this would be the last time, for at least 1 year until I go through this again. As I punch in the last digits and scan all the characters to make sure "they are exactly as they appear on the card", my son comes up to me and distracts me with one word, "Lego?". Assuming my code is going to tell me it is still invalid I say sure to my son's request. As I am about close the lid to the laptop, I decide to move my mouse down to the submit button and click it...

Processing...

Processing......

Processing..........hmmm, this is taking a bit longer than before to error, maybe, just maybe it is going to work?

Follow up:

Ahhh, crap. An error screen came up stating "Uh oh...that shouldn't have happened. It appears you found a glitch in the system". Apparently I am good at this as it looks like I broke it again but at least no "Invalid Code" error. C'est la vie.


Before going to build some epic Lego creations, I decide to go back to Xbox Live home page and low and behold, it now says I am a Gold member. Sweet. Now to make sure this is not another "glitch in the system", I boot up the 360 and try and attempt to access Netflix. Update required, FUUUUU. Fine. After another minute of waiting for it to apply, Netflix loads!
*does happy dance*

Now I am glad I did not wait for the terribad Xbox customer service to call me assuming until they call, it is broken, go play outside. Now what bugs me is if I re-entered the code earlier this week, would it have worked? Did I need to really wait? The code was successful just past 4 days since my initial call. So somewhere in the 96 hours since I called, someone possibly fixed it but forgot an important part of INFORMING THE CUSTOMER IT IS RESOLVED. In this day and age of instant communications and automated systems, how hard would it have been to send me a email saying we fixed it, we are just that good, you're welcome and thank you for being patient. I think I have a better chance of winning the lottery than that happening.

So the fact my code is now working and I can access Netflix, I am content in that regard but this issue has now pressed my customer service expectations button and not gonna let this go under the rug quietly. I worked in a tech support call center and have been the recipient of more than my fair share of complaints due to poor service or an issue being fixed but the customer not being informed for days or weeks. I was one of the lucky individuals that got to deal with these type A personalities. Sometimes all I had to do was sit there and be the portal for abuse from the customer, So I will be able to relay their sensitive emotions for the situation to my managers. Any company benefits from this feedback, whether positive or negative. It shows where they are doing good and where they need some improvement.

In my experience so far with Microsoft, it has not be satisfactory at all. Now running my own blog, I check the stats to see what type of traffic is coming to my site and what queries returned my results. It has proven interesting information. For example, my article on BC's new drinking and driving laws, I get a lot of searches how to avoid and get out of it. Which shows to me at least, people are more concerned with circumventing the new law and possibly killing someone in the process than adopt the new law and find alternate transport after a couple wobbly pops. Now why do I bring that up? Well, for my initial article on this invalid code issue, I have seen some interesting searches that have made me curious. Firstly, it appears this has happened to a fair number of people this holidays. That sucks. But one search that popped up was the fact a lot of people had to wait 5 days. *scratches head*

Microsoft is aware of its issues with the memberships and seems to use the 5 days clause often but also shows very poor service and follow up with the customers. The forums posts confirm it and it appears it can be even worse for those using the Family Gold packs. Luckily I will never even consider that on my 360. Some posts on Xbox's forum are getting ugly over how the Family account has screwed up their account and some have been waiting weeks due to 8015102F code. Why 5 days is my question? I know when I was in support, we advised up to 3 business days for follow up but that was mainly due to work load and not so common issue. With the millions of users paying, you'd think they would have a quicker way to resolve this kind of issue. It is part of your daily operations to get money from the consumer. You'd assume they would want to make that work as close to flawless as possible. For each day I wait, it is another day they do not get revenue from me (but yet again, they already have as my card was prepaid). Would they not have a process in place to correct licenses, re-issue licenses or migrate account settings? Standard fare for a subscription based service. I know as I was an internal developer for a subscription based system. I understand with any system that communicates over the net, there can be issues which in turn can bork an account. But at the same time, we were aware of these issues and had solutions to correct the accounts in a quick and timely manner. Whether it be re-adding a license or reprocessing the request. We were able to correct the account. In the end, it is just data stating what can and cannot be done by the user and what service(s) they have access to. But I guess that is asking too much for one of the largest technology based companies in the world. Silly me for thinking that.

As for my issue, I am going to enjoy my New Year's eve and weekend and hopefully will have a follow up from Microsoft. As an inconvenienced customer, I expect some kind of compensation from them. Whether it be an extra month or two on my Gold account (which would cost them next to nothing or at most, $10) or some points for a cheap arcade game. It will show me Microsoft values me as a customer and wants to keep me happy. They just offered 25% off a Gold account plus an arcade game so giving me an extra month or game should not be an issue but we will have to see.

If I never re-tried the code, how long would I have waited? Well, we'll see if by next Monday, if I do not have an email or call from them, which sadly is my expected outcome, I already feel sorry for the poor soul that will answer my call come Monday as that would be day 8. I will be seeking an explanation why it took so long, why I was not followed up or provided an update on my issue and lastly, compensation for my inconvenience and having to waste more time. I will not be using abusive words but I will be asking for supervisors or management if the initial tech is not employing good customer service and customer retention. You ticked me off with your level of service Microsoft and I feel I need to assist your company in correcting this and educating your staff on how to properly handle a customer. It would not be hard to post something like this on a site like Reddit or 4chan asking if others have experience the same. You have witnessed what the internet can do when an issue rubs them the wrong way and my experience shows everyone at one point or another has received horrible customer service and would like to see it corrected and improved. I wonder how many of the millions of Xbox users have been rubbed the wrong way by Microsoft's customer service?

As for me, I pride myself in customer service and ensuring my customers get the best possible experience. I have a large stack of customer compliment cards from my time in technical support. All of these people took the time to seek out my info or my manager's info and write a letter or email praising my service. I did not ask for them as I assumed I was just doing my job. Sadly, not all support centers work that way. We would take many calls for Dell customers not wanting to call Dell technical support for their issue knowing they would be speaking with an English as a second language technician in the middle of the night on the other side of the globe. Nothing against those techs, and deny it if you want, but that was the main reason we were being called instead of that support center. The customers stated they either could not understand them or the customer service was terribad.

If you would like some consultation Microsoft on how to better your customer service level, improve retention rates and ensure your customer end the call to your support centers with a smile instead of a frown, please contact me. I would be more than happy to assist your company, at a reasonable rate, that would benefit all parties involved.

To everyone else, have a happy and safe New Year's eve and all the best for 2011.
On a side note, this article is being published within minutes of the 5 days lapsing with Xbox Customer Support and still no contact. I guess I need to call them now.