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)

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.

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

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

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

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

Today I got a call back from a support supervisor today at 6:00 but I missed the call, he asked to call back 800-4MY-XBOX. If you call, you must remember to say “agent”, at the initial menu so you can skip through most of the annoying computerized questions.

An agent at the basic support verified my billing information and transferred me to an XBox Supervisor named Jackie, she told me escalated support is doing research on my account and that I should expect a call back in 2-5 business days, possibly longer. When I asked if I could call them directly she laughed and said “They are an offline support team.” Yeah, right.

So now I’ll hold my breath for another call back.

First, I found an article that claims Microsoft is refusing to fix a broken live account. The original forum post that triggered that article is here. Apparently, Windows Live ID’s can expire, and once they expire, they can’t be recovered.

Apparently, if they’ve expired, the account information for your gamertag can’t be modified any more! How F-ing stupid is that?

Other people (
one, two, three) all seem to be having the same problem too!

My optimism on having this issue resolved is dwindling.

A few weeks ago when I bought my XBox 360 so I could play online with my co-workers, I expected I’d be able to migrate my account without much trouble. I could not have been any more wrong.

When I enter my gamertag, I’m prompted for my Windows Live ID, but as far as I can remember I’ve never associated my gamertag with a Live ID. Now, I do HAVE a live ID (actually, it was a Microsoft Passport ID), but I can’t remember ever connecting it to Windows Live.

No problem I figure, I’ll just call XBox Live support, validate my account information with them, and they’ll fix it on the back end.

And thus, my troubles begin….

First, I called the regular support line. Three times. Each of the first three times, they walked me through their ‘Migration Trouble’ script, and when they reached the end and my problem wasn’t solved, they made up lame excuses and got me off the phone as soon as possible, leaving me with ‘homework’ to try, and asking me to call back if it didn’t work. Generally the homework involved creating a new Live ID to try, which obviously wouldn’t make a difference.

The problem is the support representatives at XBox Live are trained to listen to keywords without thinking about the context, so they are too stupid to understand that when an error message says you are entering the WRONG Live ID, obviously creating a NEW Live ID isn’t going to help.

Finally, I called back for the 4th time that night, and spoke with Jim

Even though I explained to him I had already done the script 3 times, he wasn’t capable of realizing the script wasn’t going to help, so we went through it again. He made me create YET ANOTHER Windows Live ID, this time with a hotmail account because “We do everything with the Xbox on Hotmail, you need to have a hotmail account to use Xbox Live”. I knew that was utter crap, but what can you do?

When I started this process, I had one Windows Live ID. NOW I HAVE FOUR, with NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT.

Jim even tried to convince me that there might be something wrong with my 360, and that I should borrow a friends and try and recover the account there. I explained there was absolutely no way the hardware or software on a brand new XBox could be broken. I told him I was not going to try a friends XBox, and that I needed to talk to a supervisor.

Even then he still tried to direct me ‘back on script’, at which point I pretty much lost it and wigged out on him. After much venting of frustration, he finally escalated me to Mel, in the “Xbox Live Escalation Team”.

She clearly seemed able to understand the problem, but didn’t seem to have enough control to actually fix the problem. She said she would try to recover the gamertag on her end, and if she was prompted for Credit Card info, she would do the migration there. If she was prompted for a Windows Live ID, she would escalate my call further.

She went on hold for a few minutes and then came back and said she was getting a prompt for a Windows Live ID as well (No, really? What a surprise!). This told her the Live system was treating my account as an Xbox 360 account, not an original Xbox account. Because of this, she would not be able to do anything and my request would have to be escalated.

She gave me a reference number, and told me someone would contact me at my phone number in the next 5-10 business days.

I hold out little hope of that.