I found another report of Gamertag issues due to trouble with Windows Live IDs, this one in an article titled “I Lost My Gamertag and Microsoft can’t find it“. The story there is a little convoluted and not exactly the same problem, but I’m pretty sure our two problems are related and if Microsoft could fix one of them, it could fix both of them. (And all the others posted I’ve already written about).

Again, I don’t know if it will help, but if you see this and have the same problem, post about it on this page (at getsatisfaction.com)

I found more reports of people having the same trouble I’m having with their expired Live ID’s here, and here. It appears a Microsoft employee named M3 Sweatt commented 13 days ago asking the original poster to comment on his blog with a description of his problem, so maybe something can be done. I don’t know if he has the power to do anything, but I’ll try and contact him too and see if I hear back.

If you have the same problem, I urge you to comment on this thread at GetSatisfaction.com, maybe if enough people comment, Microsoft will finally do something about the problem.

It is now day 6 and I still haven’t heard anything from the official MS channels. Its amazing that in this day when there are companies like Zappos.com that give their employees the authority to do whatever it takes to satisfy the customer, there are also companies like Microsoft that get away with such obvious disregard for theirs.

I found an article here covering some of the same issues I’ve been having with Microsoft’s XBox Live service.

Its unbelievable how long these service problems have existed, but I guess MS has no financial incentive to rectify the problems.

While trying to find a solution to my Xbox live problem, I found some information online about getting through to escalated XBox live support. So far it hasn’t been very useful, and I haven’t tried the big-guns yet, but here is what I know:

Tier 2 Support

First, I found here that you can try calling ‘X-Box Escalated Support’. Their number is 866-506-3826. They have limited hours, between 6 am and 4 pm PST, which is a bit of a pain if you live on the east coast and have to do any amount of commuting. You’ll need a support reference number, so make sure you called Tier 1 support and got one.

In my experience, when I call (within their hours of course) and give my case number, it goes straight to a busy signal. Not helpful, or friendly. I’ve tried in the morning, mid-day, and even the evening. I had to work from home one day to try it, and I never got through to a human.

Another note about that number: When you say “operator” or “agent”, or give anything that doesn’t match the expected response to the computer’s question, the system responds with “Thanks for calling microsoft, goodbye”, then hangs up on you.

So, if you give that number a try, give the computer exactly what it expects to hear, and good luck.

Tier 3

I found a reference online to Tier 3 support in Washington as well. Their number is 1-888-236-0927, and you’ll need both a support reference number and an extension to get through the computer system.

I haven’t had much luck with this number either, but then again, I don’t have an extension. I’ve been making progress trying to guess one though! Entering an invalid extension twice gets you a message saying “please hold for the next available agent”, and it puts you on hold. I thought, I was making progress, but after 25 minutes of listening to annoying music, I had to admit defeat and hang up. Ugh!

However, today I did some research online and found out a bit of a pattern for the extensions. They all start with 70 and have four digits. I found a few complete extensions online, but when I tried them, they were disconnected or the people at those numbers had moved to new jobs.

Here are the extensions I know about, please comment on more if you have them:

• 7033 – Went straight to voice mail, so I left a polite message
• 7034 – Went straight to voice mail, so I left a polite message
• 7035 – Invalid extension
• 7036 – Brad, no longer in this position
• 7040 – Empty mailbox, can leave a message but no name associated with box
• 7041 – Unrecognized
• 7075 – Frank, moved to a more internal management position
• 7087 – Unrecognized

The Big Guns

I haven’t gotten this far yet, but if you are really pissed, you can always try bringing in the big guns. I found contact information for a few Microsoft executives online. I haven’t tried contacting them yet, but if this is unresolved next week, I’ll give it a shot:

• robbieb@microsoft.com- Robert (Robbie) Bach- PRESIDENT, ENT & DEVICES DIV
• donm@microsoft.com – Don Mattrick- SVP, INTERACTIVE ENT. BUSINESS
• jabell@microsoft.com – Jeff Bell – CVP GLOBAL MKT INTERACTIVE ENT

Other Ideas

I’m out of ideas, so if you are reading this and have a suggestion, please let me know!