Gaming My Microsoft points haven't been activated by retailer?

[War]

I got a year of Live and 4000 Microsoft points as a late Christmas/birthday gift from a friend I haven't seen in a long time. Anyway, I went to input the codes today and for both of them, I got some weird error saying something like "This code ahs not been activated. Please contact retailer" Something along those lines. What do I do? I think he bought them at Wal-Mart, but I don't think they'll do anything if I call and say "Hey, I got this weird error in my 360 saying you didn't activate my card". What should I do?

Btw... I really hope this doesn't mean I got banned from Live! Cause I haven't been playing my backups online for about a week now, and when I tried adding in the 4000 points I bought for myself a week or so ago, I didn't get this error :\

 

[DrKupo]

stop stealing point cards

 

[War]

I really hope you're kidding, cause if you're not, I need to have a talk with him.

 

[jumpman17]

Cards need to be activated when sold to you. This prevents people from stealing the tiny cards and using them.

If your friend still has the receipt, they should activate them for you. If not, see if they can look the receipt up for you (hopefully he paid with a credit card, because you can not easily find receipts paid for in cash).

 

[gaboumafou]

Well, maybe it's not activated because he stole them, but it could also be because the guy at the counter just forgot to activate it. Contact your friend... If he still have the receipt, you will probably need to go back to the store to get them activated.

 

[War]

Well, school started back up for him, so its gonna be tough to get a hold of him. But if I show them the receipt, they should activate it, right?

 

[DrKupo]

Well, maybe it's not activated because he stole them, but it could also be because the guy at the counter just forgot to activate it. Contact your friend... If he still have the receipt, you will probably need to go back to the store to get them activated.

it doesn't work like that. in order to get a price you must scan it, which activates it.

it was stolen.

 

[Awdofgum]

Well, maybe it's not activated because he stole them, but it could also be because the guy at the counter just forgot to activate it. Contact your friend... If he still have the receipt, you will probably need to go back to the store to get them activated.

it doesn't work like that. in order to get a price you must scan it, which activates it.

it was stolen.

Not true, when I used to work at Walgreens. I had to activate the gift cards by sliding them through this special reader only for gift cards.

 

[War]

I was about to ask that... cause I was thinking, how do they activate it? When I bought mine, all the guy did was scan the card, I payed him, and he gave me a new card, and it worked perfectly. So could these NOT be activated? I guess the only explanation is that he got them from someone else or... I guess stole them :\

I'm not really too pissed about it because in my head I kinda figured it was too good to be true... however, all that matters is... is my 360 gonna be fine? Will I get banned for having inputted those codes in? Because I tried inputting each code twice before giving up and making this topic... I'm gonna be really pissed if he got my 360 banned by playing a stupid prank like that on me.

 

[Gaisuto]

You aren't going to get banned from a card not going through.

 

[War]

Okay, phew... thanks for that, I was freaking out over here. So I guess if he has the receipt, I'll ask WalMart to activate them... if not, I'll be pretty pissed at him for stealing the cards/getting them through illegal means...

 

[jy2]

I work for a retailer in the UK, while we don't sell swipe 360 points cards we do sell the iTunes vouchers which work pretty much the same.

We swipe the iTunes cards just like a gift card, and they get activated. I don't see how I could take say £15 from a customer (for a music voucher), without activating a card. It's not possible.

 

[754boy]

I suggest you call Microsoft and give them hell. This happened to me with a 1600 point card I bought at Gamestop. I saw the guy scan it but I got that same error message. Called up Microsoft support, acted a little annoyed , they asked for code and where I bought it from. Then they gave me a new code that worked.

 

[triassic911]

Yes, just call Microsoft and tell them that you got it as a gift and that you got that message. With the right tone, they'll gladly give you a new code.

 

[topboy]

You can call me an asshole for this, but my friend stole one and gave it to me xD

hopefully when i call microsoft they can activate it for me

 

[gk.7]

I hate to say it, but ur friend is a thief... (you may wanna watch your stuff when he's around)

And yeah... just call Microsoft to see what's up.

 

[ZombiePosessor]

Bullshit, those cards don't need to be activated to use them. A friend of mine worked at a certain major game retailer, and stole about 16,000 MS points cards and we used all of them without paying for them.

 

[Spikey]

There's two types of cards that I've seen at least in the USA. First there's the kind sold at GameStop. These are in plastic blister packaging and don't require activation. Then there's the kind I've seen at Targets and WalMarts. These ones are NOT in the blister packaging and are a card attached to, what appears like another one for use for hanging it on the rack. These ones DO require activation upon purchase to use.

Googled up some images to show you the 2.

 

[SavageWaffle]

I know what happend, this happend to me last month.
When you buy a Point card it has to be activated, some employees dont know how to do so and just swips it but they have to manually press ENTER or whatever to activate it. They probably didnt. So kinda stole it.

 

[alienmartianjr]

You also may be the victim of a stolen code. There is software out there that generates random acceptable codes for Microsoft Points with out having to buy a card. It's a little more hi-tech way to steal a card without actually stealing the card. works for the person who stole it, but when the actual card is purchased it of course doesn't. Calling microsoft will accomplish 2 things, they will give you a new code AND use the old number to find out what live account used it first (the theif). If they get enuff of these types of "HITS" on a live acount, they ban and prosecute criminally. cool ,huh?