XBOX Live Sucks
by brian @ 13:14:32 - [perma-link]A couple of weeks ago I got an Xbox 360. I got bored waiting for Gran
Turismo 5 (for PS3), so I broke down and got a '360 with Forza 2.
Then I signed up (and payed for!) an Xbox Live account, so I could
race Forza online. The online experience is horrible. Every 10-15 minutes, I get a pop
up saying "You have been disconnected from the network". I've gone
through all the online troubleshooting, reconfigured my firewall
multiple times, disabled my firewall, and even plugged the Xbox
directly into the cablemodem. Still about 95% if the time when I try
to connect to online games, it says "That game is full or no longer
available", even when the game shows only 1 or 2 of 8 players connected. Tournaments have been even more frustrating. I'll spend a few hours
racing the track to get a good qualifying time. Then I show up at the
designated time, try to join the race, and it says "unable to connect." This morning I tried again. Last night I qualified for a race. I
logged on at 11:53 (like I was supposed to), selected "Start Race" and
it actually worked. I got into the lobby and clicked "ready". I saw
the countdown "Starts in 6:23" and it counted down. A short while
later, it got to the final seconds. "5 (beep) 4 (beep) 3 (beep) 2
(beep) 1 (beep), and finally "You have been disconnected from the
network." So I called up XBOX Live. The computer that answered says they're
having network issues (no kidding!) and to try back later if I'm
unable to connect. I'm able to connect, just unable to play a game.
Plus its been like this since I started, so I stayed on the line. The
first guy tells me its service issues. There's lots of people signing
on due to the holidays, and they can't handle the load. That makes
sense (though honestly they should have predicted increased usage
during the holidays), so I asked for a refund for the 2 weeks of poor
service. He transferred me to billing. Billing is unable to help. "Marie" (or maybe Maria?) told me they
hadn't gotten any advisories about refunds. That confused me since
that sounds like something inside the company that I don't really care
about. I don't care how they compensate me for the lack of service,
so long as I'm compensated. So I ask for a supervisor. Karl (or maybe Carl? Hot Carl?), the supervisor, was absolutely
useless. He could only spout off how its not their policy to issue
refunds. I asked if its their policy to provide a non-working
service, and apparently it is. He quoted from the Terms of Service
(that I "agreed to" when I clicked to sign up) where it says they
provide the service "as-is" and do not guarantee that it works. So
yes, intermittent service is their policy (I so wish I could pay
intermittently). Hot Karl couldn't give me a refund. He even said, "if I could, I
would have already," which I highly doubt. He couldn't add a month to
my account (without charging me for it). He couldn't even give me in-
game points as compensation. He can't do anything, apparently. In the end the only service he could provide was to turn off the "auto-
renew" feature on my account, so I won't have to pay for it anymore. Monopolies suck.
| 
