Gaming Microsoft banned me rant

[jumpman17]

I just need to rant/vent.

About a month ago, I discovered on a forum that people found if they make an account in a specific region, that some Xbox Live Arcade games showed up as free along with a full retail game or two. I made a new account and was indeed able to download some games for free. I thought nothing of this as I wasn't hacking anything to obtain them and Microsoft has said before that if they mistakenly put something up for free, then enjoy the free game. A guy on Twitter even asked the official Xbox Support if he would get banned for downloading the free games, to which they replied, "No but mismatched regions is not supported or recommended. ^ST". He was then banned anyway.

The results have been pretty random. Some have not been banned at all, most had their console banned, and some like me had both their console and gamertag banned. This means I am unable to connect to Xbox Live at all on my console, including online multiplayer, or even downloading a title update to a game I own that fixes bugs in the game. Even if I bought a new Xbox, I would be unable to transfer my gamertag and liscenses over to it, so everything I had purchased would be gone.

I have been a loyal Microsoft customer for 5 years and have spent over $2500 on the console and own 72 retail games, 73 XBLA games, and 89 pieces of DLC. I have gone through all the channels I can think of to get this ban overturned, but have had no success. While I understand why action was taken against me, I do not understand why I was randomly given the most severe ban they have.

I will quote all communications I have had with Microsoft below.

I first posted a message on their official forum in the category made for inquiring about bans. The forum states a response should be received with 1 business day. I waited a few days and received no response. (I am unable to quote this post as messages must first be approved before they even show up and mine never was, however, it was very similar to the following email I sent).

Knowing Microsoft's phone support would be unable to help me, I resorted to an executive email carpet bomb to 8 of Microsoft's top executives:

Dear Microsoft Executives,

I have posted on the Xbox forums about this on Thursday, September 26th. The forum states a response is usually received within 24 hours, but I have not received any response regarding this issue. So, I turn to you for help.

Both my Xbox 360 console and profile (jumpman174) have been banned. I'm assuming this is a result of my downloading some games that were free for whatever reason on foreign marketplaces as I had seen posted online. However, I did not think this would result in a ban.

I have spent over $2500 on retail games, arcade games, and DLC, not to mention the games I received as presents. I have enjoyed my 5 years with Xbox Live and playing with friends online. I have also worked hard at completing games to the best of my abilities and racked up a gamer score of almost 80,000.

I understand why action was taken against my account. It was a stupid mistake on my part, but I think banning both my console and profile is a bit severe for a first offense. From my understanding, I can't even buy a new console and download my profile to that and continue.

I am asking that this ban be reconsidered or at the least, let me keep my profile so I can buy a new console and continue on that. As I have said, I have spent over $2500 and I don't see myself starting all over with a new profile. I would love nothing more than to remain a loyal Microsoft customer, but if I'm banned and everything I have spent money on is essentially rendered useless, then I will no longer be spending money on anything Microsoft.

Thank you for your time.

I heard back the following morning:

Good morning! I hope you are having a great day.

My name is [NAME REDACTED] and I am a member of the Customer Advocacy and Exceptions Management team. I am contacting you in regards to the email you sent to Mr. Gates to address your console and gamertag ban.

Your account is now under investigation. I will contact you again within the next 3-4 business days to provide the investigation results.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. I will be happy to address any questions or concerns you may have.

Have a great rest of your week!

Warm regards

After 4 business days had passed with no follow up, I emailed her back:

Any update on my account? I've been lost without my Xbox and am looking forward to being able to continue gaming on the 360 platform.

I received the following reply:

Good afternoon! I hope you are having a great day.

This is [NAME REDACTED] with the Customer Advocacy and Exceptions Management team again.

[MY NAME], I have contacted the Enforcement team again to request a re-evaluation of your ban. As you are aware, your Gamertag was found to be in violation of the Xbox Terms of Use and subsequently banned from accessing Xbox LIVE. Unfortunately, the decision will stand as issued.

I would like to let you know that banning a console/gamertag is the last action Microsoft would take, unless it is absolutely necessary. When we ban a console/gamertag, the company is aware that we will no longer sell memberships, games, or Microsoft points to be used on that console/gamertag. Potentially, we might lose the customer.

However, it is a high priority for Microsoft to assure that the Xbox LIVE community is an extremely safe environment. For that reason, all frauds are taken very seriously and handled accordingly.

We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced and we hope you will continue to be a valued customer. Microsoft now considers this issue closed and will take no further action on the matter. For any support needs in the future, please contact 1-800-4MY-XBOX.

Thank you again for your patience!

Have a great week!

Warm regards

Finally, I replied with the following:

Banning a console/gamertag is the last action Microsoft takes? It was the very first action against me. Looking at the ban forum, people who cheat and try to scam other people are given a 2 week suspension. Yet, downloading a game that was free in another region gets the highest level of a ban? Why was I not given a warning or suspension or had the games' licenses removed? I am totally willing to delete the free games I downloaded and never do so again.

The level of punishment isn't even equal across users. Others who did the same as I had, only received a console ban. Some have had no action taken against them. How is this fair.

One guy even asked Xbox Support on Twitter (https://twitter.com/XboxSupport1/status/375263771230339072) before downloading the games if he would get banned for it, and they said no. Then he got banned.

Is this really how you treat loyal Microsoft customers? I own 72 retail games. I bought them all new and have never traded or sold any of them. I have bought 73 XBLA games and 89 pieces of DLC. I have spent over $2500 on the 360, and because I downloaded some free games, you're banning me.

I understand I am just one measly customer, but I am a loyal customer who has spent way more then the average 360 user. You once put out a factoid that the average 360 user owns 9 games. I have bought 72.

It boggles my mind that Microsoft can so completely render useless a customer's purchases and then tell them that they are banned because they made a mistake and Microsoft no longer wants their money, because they have so much money already, that a loyal customer means nothing to them.

I received the following email back and it appears they are done talking with me at this point:

Good afternoon! I hope you are having a great day.

The people that were banned had committed marketplace fraud across multiple accounts and multiple regions to get a significant amount of free content.

The specific conduct that caused this ban may include, but is not limited to:

- Promotion or distribution of fraudulent methods in order to obtain marketplace content
- Utilizing fraudulent methods in order to obtain region-specific marketplace content or circumvent regional pricing
- Illegitimate acquisition of marketplace content
- Illegitimate acquisition of redemption codes

To help avoid future account suspensions, please review the Xbox LIVE Code of Conduct and the Terms of Use here:

http://www.xbox.com/Legal/CodeOfConduct
http://www.xbox.com/Legal/LiveTOU
http://www.xbox.com/consoleban

We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced and we hope you will continue to be a valued customer. Microsoft now considers this issue closed and will take no further action on the matter. For any support needs in the future, please contact 1-800-4MY-XBOX.

Thank you again for your patience!

Have a great week!

Warm regards

So, Microsoft has told me they no longer want my money and don't care because they are Microsoft and have a billion dollars. I was going to get an Xbox One next gen (even though I thought the PS4 was the better buy, I really like Microsoft exclusive games), they have just made sure it is now going to be a PS4.

This is just so frustrating that Microsoft can so totally decide to take away everything you have digitally purchased and so totally cripple your system.

 

[DinohScene]

Hate to say it but, in the end MS always wins.
Iirc, Steam can do pretty much the exact same things if they found out you where cheating/hacking in order to get free games/whatever.
Sony, the exact same story.

It's incredibly unfortunate that you've fallen "victim" to this ofcourse.
MS shouldn't ban others on the little glitch that allowed this (seeing that it's a mistake on their behalf)
Which even novice players (like yourself) could happen to stumble upon.
The games where free in another region and able to play back on non matching consoles, nothing wrong with it but still a mistake on MS their behalf.
If they didn't want you to do it then they should've warned people before hand.
And iirc, they didn't do that at all.


2 years ago iirc, there was a trick with banned profiles and downloaded DLC/arcade games that could be transferred and played back on legit consoles.
This also has been patched and people have been banned for this.
This ofcourse is piracy and is the fault of the end user (providing you need the knowledge to inject gamefiles/GT's)


Anyway, long story short.
I think you'll never see XBL again on that again unfortunately.
You could continue to explain it to them but I doubt it'll matter.
If you do continue to explain it, I wish you the very very best of luck!
Seeing that MS is a big bully...

 

[Foxi4]

There you have it then, they don't want to conduct business with you anymore... so don't conduct business with them and move on to a company that suits your needs better.

If a game's price is incorrect then it's Microsoft's problem. If a price is cheaper on a different region market place and may be purchased via an account from that region then sorry, but tough luck Microsoft - this is not a felony. We live in the times of globalization and if I see that a given product is cheaper in another country, I can choose to import it - I don't see how that wouldn't translate to digital distribution games which are a product like any other.

Worse yet, how can Microsoft in any way defend banning multiple accounts for a "felony" committed on another account?

It's ridiculous, nonsensical and I honestly believe that if that's their attitude, you should just take your business elsewhere.

 

[jumpman17]

The problem I have now is, I'm stuck with this useless console that I have no idea what to do with. I guess I'll just play through my backlog of games in single player now that I don't have achievements to bug me.

I also like that any Xbox Live membership you have left is not refunded. Luckily I only had 3 months left on my current subscription.

I plan on calling in next week and bugging them about my credit card linked to that profile. Sure no one can access my account and purchase anything with it (which has happened before and took me 3 freaking months to get my account back because Microsoft literally could not be bothered to hit the letter "O" on the their keyboard), but it's still on file in a database somewhere on their computer. And those never get hacked, lol.

 

[Foxi4]

The problem I have now is, I'm stuck with this useless console that I have no idea what to do with. I guess I'll just play through my backlog of games in single player now that I don't have achievements to bug me.

I also like that any Xbox Live membership you have is not refunded. Luckily I only had 3 months left on my current subscription.

I plan on calling in next week and bugging them about my credit card linked to that profile. Sure no one can access my account and purchase anything with it (which has happened before and took me 3 freaking months to get my account back because Microsoft literally could not be bothered to hit the letter "O" on the their keyboard), but it's still on file in a database somewhere on their computer. And those never get hacked, lol.

Modify the console and "pirate" games.

 

[DinohScene]

Well, if you given up the battle, you could opt for the R-JTAG.
Atleast it'll give you some syslink games back online ;p
Other then that, yeh non legitimate play...

Well Foxi, you know it's MS and Steam pretty much did the same thing (even tho their loosening up now)

 

[Armadillo]

If a game's price is incorrect then it's Microsoft's problem. If a price is cheaper on a different region market place and may be purchased via an account from that region then sorry, but tough luck Microsoft - this is not a felony. We live in the times of globalization and if I see that a given product is cheaper in another country, I can choose to import it

If it was the Oman account thing, then it was not cheaper & able to be purchased there, but a glitch/oversight on MS part.

Live is not officially supported there and has no Marketplace. You can only make an account for those regions on PC due to merging of the account system (windows phone I think). Trying to set up on Xbox you won't have the option & once you was on that region, you had to use search history, to look for specific stuff and as those regions are not supported and have no marketplace, that stuff had no price.

Once it was patched, people just looked for other regions with the same situation.

So not really a case of on another marketplace for cheaper.

Far as I know, they've never banned for ones where it is, make another region account, browse marketplace and see something cheaper/free.

Still, console & account ban is harsh. Especially with the Xbox one coming up. Probably would have been better to just revoke access to the offending content and issue a warning.

 

[jumpman17]

If it was the Oman account thing, then it was not cheaper & able to be purchased there, but a glitch/oversight on MS part.

Live is not officially supported there and has no Marketplace. You can only make an account for those regions on PC due to merging of the account system (windows phone I think). Trying to set up on Xbox you won't have the option & once you was on that region, you had to use search history, to look for specific stuff and as those regions are not supported and have no marketplace, that stuff had no price.

Once it was patched, people just looked for other regions with the same situation.

So not really a case of on another marketplace for cheaper.

They've never banned for ones where it is, make another region account, browse marketplace and see something cheaper/free.

Yeah, Oman was the country. Morocco was the other one. That's what I don't understand. If those countries aren't supposed to have a marketplace, why did the search engine bring up game results? I made an account, searched for the game, and downloaded it. I'm clearly the world's most advanced hacker using those complicated steps. And it's not like every single game was free, it was certain ones.

Again though, I understand I was obtaining games for free that weren't meant for me, and I was willing to delete them and even buy a new console if needed. I do however, have a problem with how they randomly apply punishments to users. It's like they spin a wheel with the options of "nothing", "console ban", and "console and gamer tag ban".

 

[bowser]

Post your story on every social network that you're a member of and hope it goes viral. Maybe also blog it.

 

[calmwaters]

BS - Bicrosoft. I don't see how they can ban you and hope you continue to be a valued customer. This valued customer spiel appears in each email they sent back to you. You've got to look at this from a human standpoint: they're a corporation. A large group of people who look out for each other like we look out for our 'Tempers on here. Do they not care about the rest of the world? GBATemp - 1, Bicrosoft - 0.

 

[Devin]

Yeah, Oman was the country. Morocco was the other one. That's what I don't understand. If those countries aren't supposed to have a marketplace, why did the search engine bring up game results? I made an account, searched for the game, and downloaded it. I'm clearly the world's most advanced hacker using those complicated steps. And it's not like every single game was free, it was certain ones.

Again though, I understand I was obtaining games for free that weren't meant for me, and I was willing to delete them and even buy a new console if needed. I do however, have a problem with how they randomly apply punishments to users. It's like they spin a wheel with the options of "nothing", "console ban", and "console and gamer tag ban".

Cached data from the US Marketplace on your 360 console. I remember doing Non-JTAG stuff on my old Jasper a few years ago. Got my console banned but my GT was untouched. My friend was also into Non-JTAG and got both his console as well as his GT banned. Just luck and it's better to be cautious and know the risks of doing stuff Microsoft really wouldn't like. Other than that Microsoft rarely overturns their bans and those overturns are mostly bans that have gained publicity so that Microsoft can be seen as "The Good Guy". So if I were you I'd find someone to R-JTAG that 360 so you can get any content you'd like for free. Disc games, DLC, XBLA, the works. Like Dinoh said there's an artificial Xbox Live service called LiNK that lets R-JTAG'd 360s play with each other on System link.

 

[T3GZdev]

you should take all 72 games you bought & 2500$ worth of stuff you bought & torrent them useing your gamertag then troll microsofts twitter about you doing it lol. that would teach microsoft be nicer to its customers.

or you can modify it & pirate on it lol

 

[loco365]

Here's what irks me:

Good afternoon! I hope you are having a great day.

How the flying fuck can you be having a great day when you just lost $2500 of games and DLC and you won't be getting a refund?

The people that were banned had committed marketplace fraud across multiple accounts and multiple regions to get a significant amount of free content.

So they're implying that you made many several accounts to get free content. I'd go back to them with this evidence and tell them that this is your only account (Unless they have some kind of proof against that), and because of that, there's absolutely no grounds for a ban like that.

 

[Zaide]

That completely sucks. This is the reason why I try to buy physical copies of games as much as possible. You never know when something will happen and you'll get your account banned and lose all of your purchased content. All I can recommend is get an RGH Xbox 360 so you can continue to enjoy all the content you've already purchased and NEVER buy a Microsoft product again.

 

[Yepi69]

Maybe you can sue them? After all what they did was unfair.
Of course knowing Microsoft they just would come back with a lot of lawyers, still if it opens their eyes...

 

[Zaide]

Maybe you can sue them? After all what they did was unfair.
Of course knowing Microsoft they just would come back with a lot of lawyers, still if it opens their eyes...

Won't work. What the OP did was against Xbox Live ToS so Microsoft had every right to ban him. It's stupid and overkill, yes... but he'd never win a lawsuit over it.

 

[DJ91990]

I'm going to be blunt here; I was just going to tl;dr this and ingorantly state that you get what you diserve by creating alt accounts in regions that you don't reside in to get free games, but upon further reading, I will refrain from doing so.

While you are wrong for doing such a thing, I do believe that Microsoft's enforcement team has over-reacted to this problem. I do see this reaction to be standard expectation for Microsoft, I mean, come-on, they wanted to restrict used game sales for ****s sake! It is sad to see you lose access to patch updates for games, but this is because the USA's laws are not up-to-date with such things. In other countries (of which I cannot recall at the moment) when you buy a game from the internet and download it, it is considered a digital good, and is treated as a good, in which if a title or patch update is released, cannot be blocked by any party. But in the good ol' US of A we see such things as "services." Services as such can be blocked by any party, at any time, for any reason.

I will agree with you; if this problem is such a serous issue, then why hasn't Microsoft banned EVERY USER that has committed this act? Why only ban a few random people? If I was on the enforcement team, I would just revoke your licenses to these games and send you the following message via e-mail and Xbox-Live message:

Spoiler

Hello [Gamertag],

My name is [JackMcButthead] and I am a member of the Xbox Live enforcement team. It has come to my attention that your console has accounts associated with it from another region. Normally we would overlook such things but seeing as your system is where the foreign accounts originated, we suspect circumvention of the Xbox Live pricing system. Such actions harm not only Xbox Live, but the game development studios that have release such games. As such, these actions cannot be tolerated. Because of this, you will find that the following software:
[LIST OF FREE XBL GAMES]
has had their licenses revoked from your account.

We hope you understand the reasoning behind these actions being taken against your account.

If you believe that this is in error, or would like to dispute these actions, or obtain further information about the actions taken against your account, feel free to either contact me via my email [email protected] or at the Xbox Live Enforcement Team Hotline:
1 (800) GOT-URMONEY

This whole ordeal is stupid, and makes me not want to have anything with Microsoft even more. Like BlackBusterCritic said: Even though they 180'd on their used games policy, what's to say that they just won't 180 again and re-enable the used-game restrictions after they have sold enough units?

What I would advise is to no longer do business with Microsoft. If you don't have alot of PC games, I'd say make your next personal computer purshise a Linux based one. Steam has plenty of games available for Linux, also allot of the Linux OS's are free to download and install.

If you wish to buy a next-gen console, then I would highly recommend Sony's PlayStation 4 if you are going for graphics. If you don't really mind graphics, then you could also go for the WiiU.

I would NOT: J-TAG your Xbox, or pirate games for the Xbox 360. Seeing how Microsoft responded to your so called, "fraud", how do you think they'll react if they found out that you have pirated Xbox 360 games? Microsoft has enough money to sue just about anyone, even Microsoft. One more thing you can do to give Microsoft the finger is to develop a game and make it a viral hit, then refuse to publish it on Microsoft's consoles and instead publish it on Sony, Android, and IOS, and PC. That'll be a good slap in the face.

 

[stanleyopar2000]

fuck Microsoft and never go back to them again??

 

[DJPlace]

what i would do is one of the two things.

A.Nail Bill Gates To The FUCKING Cross for making xbox systems exist.
B.Shank His ASS in a dark place where no one can find his body.

 

[Sicklyboy]

what i would do is one of the two things.

A.Nail Bill Gates To The FUCKING Cross for making xbox systems exist.
B.Shank His ASS in a dark place where no one can find his body.

I'll be sure to never play Call of Duty against you.