Psychotomy

Tonight I called support for the XBox.

In July the console was sent in for the Ring of Death issue. It was subsequently replaced and shipped back. Great, no problems with that. But then the XBox Live Arcade games that we’d downloaded suddenly started springing issues on us.

See, it turns out that, in a DRM-esque move, Microsoft allows games purchased by one login/gamertag/profile to be played by all other profiles on the DOWNLOAD SYSTEM. Which means, now that we have a new system, the games only work for the account that downloaded it.

Now, the next part was our own fault. We hadn’t realized that the accounts were seperate. We thought the games were purchased by the console, and thus it didn’t matter. We had our first inkling that that was not entirely right when we noticed that one account had “points” (money) left to buy games, and the other didn’t. But that was before the failure, so maybe points are kept on the account that added them, so mommy and daddy can keep junior from downloading everything in sight. But we’d downloaded stuff on both accounts. A few games here, a few there. Game here, expansion there. That kinda thing. So that was our bad.

Now, the new console, isn’t the original console, is it? enter scene!

After going through all this with the guy (in india), he tries to summarize the problem. “So you can’t log in to XBOX LIVE?” This is just so damned promising!!! I go through it again.

“So your profile is missing?” … “So your downloads are missing?” … I’m sorry my problem isn’t on the cheat sheet in front of you, gupta, but perhaps you can think outside the box for a moment. “Gee, if he were calling about something easily remedied by going to the website where he found this phone number, maybe he’d've just done that instead of fighting through our incredibly antisocial automated redirector … I should transfer him to someone who has authority to ad lib.” Oi.

More roundabout, he puts me on hold. He asked if it was OK if he put me on hold while he researched my problem. Very nice of him. But if I say no, you will anyway. But the hold music? mmmm 80′s tecno. And I broke out laughing when they got to some words in the song. B/c they were in hindi. Usually they try to disguise the india call centers , but apparently these guys didn’t get the memo. I guess HQ forgot to include “read all memos” in the list of directions :o

He comes back. “Have you tried downloading the game again?” gee, no! thanks! MS Drone: Try Rebooting! “Yes, I tried that, it didn’t help.” “Oh. Did you try redownloading it again?” Because you know, maybe it’ll forget why it’s not working and just magically do it right the second time? MS Drone: Reboot it again, see if htat helps. Microsot NT 4.0! Now boots 50% faster! (and 50% more often!) “Yes, it didn’t help. Feel free to transfer me to your supervisor, I won’t mind.”

Some more mindless chitchat about things i may or may not have tried to solve problems I don’t have. Then he wants to know if it’s OK if he puts me on hold “for quite a while” while he talks to his supervisor. “Sure” Why not, it’s not like these are really questions. If I say no, will you solve my problem without talking to him? I was amused by the “quite a while” bit though. He comes back a few minutes later to make sure i’m still on the line, and to ask if it was OK if he put me on hold while he kept talking to his supervisor. Sure, whatever.

He comes back, says he’s going to transfer me, but first he needs to ask a few more questions to clarify the issue.

I had XBOX 1. I now have XBOX 2. We have profiles A and B. Games we downloaded with A on 1 could be played by B on 1, but cannot be played by B on 2 (still playable by A on 2, though). B1/A2 same issue.

I didn’t think it was rocket science, myself …

“When you tried redownloading again” (redudancy? or does he really mean a second attempt to redownload? No matter, I tried downloading one a half dozen times, it didn’t help) “it still won’t play?” OMFG! we’re back to a corrupt download theory???

“No, it plays, but it didn’t help” “What didn’t help” “redownloading” “it didn’t work” “it didn’t solve the problem” “how did it not solve the problem” wtf? “I thought you were transferring me to your supervisor (who might speak better english, or is at least a step towards someone who might)” “I need to finish documenting this ” i think he said problem, but it’s possible he was documenting the solution. wtf knows. “OK, whatever. I still can’t play games on B that were downloaded on A” “why not?” “Because it’s a security measure tht only allows games to be played by the downloading account or the downloading xbox, meaning that when i got a new xbox from microsoft, i can’t play games downloaded under my wifes gamertag while logged into mine” “why not” “it won’t let me” then it’s just dead air for like 5 minutes. i finally go “hello?” “yes, hello” “just making sure you’re still there” …. another five minutes, random clicking, another minute, ringing … bad sign …

“If you’d like to make a call …” I want to be charitable. I want to say the line just got dropped. I don’t want to suggest that he hung up on me b/c he couldn’t resolve the problem. OTOH. the fact that this happened almost exactly 30minutes after he first answered (after the automated system) suggests that maybe he hit a time mark “all calls should be resolved within 30 minutes or we’ll dock your pay” … or maybe he just punched the wrong button b/c they weren’t labelled clearly.

Of course, this was over half an hour ago. I’ve come to the conclusion that he was asking for my phone # at the beginning b/c i have a sexy voice. Because it certainly doesn’t appear to be so he can call me back if we get disconnected. Of course, long distance from india? ouch!

Posted in: general by attriel /