Thursday, November 27, 2008

Microsoft and their lack of user friendliness.

Did you know there is absolutely no way to remove credit card information from Xbox Live? You can add a new card, but if you are like me, and have an old card all your transactions default to that is no longer valid, there is no recourse for removing it.

What the hell? Imagine if Amazon, or eBay didn't let you remove old payment information. What if Paypal had a list of all your bank accounts since you started the service, and you've moved across the country? It's patently ridiculous.

You can add new cards until your eyes bleed, but removing one is impossible. You can't do it from the Xbox, and you can't do it from Microsoft's website for the Xbox.

Xbox Live is a subscription service, and one that automatically recurs. I'm willing to bet when my time comes to pay more money it will default to my old card, but since I can't remove that information there is little I can do. I can't even set one of the cards to my default payment method.

For bonus points there is also no option to cancel your subscription. At least not on the interface that allows you to give Microsoft money, and apparently not on their website either. Oh no. You have to call somebody directly for that.

I did a Google search, and some poor bastard in the U.K not only had to contact customer support to remove his credit card information from Xbox Live, but his problem was passed on to a "special team," and it took them three and a half months to resolve it.

I understand from a business point of view that Microsoft doesn't want the cancel button to be the first thing you see when you log onto Live, but this is bullshit. It pisses me off, and I don't even want to cancel my account.

2 comments:

BnaX said...

Microsoft is the evil empire!

Jason P said...

I don't know. Anymore I can't tell if this kind of thing is done with nefarious intent, or is just the result of not thinking things through.