As nearly all of the people in the United States know, yesterday was a day of reckoning. Tens of inches of snow were dumped on innocent citizens. I am a firm believer that snow is a physical manifestation of the evil created by the unholy activities of Pittsburgh Steeler fans. No doubt this recent storm was punishment for their activities leading up to the Superbowl. May the good lord save us if they win!
Xbox DEAD
Apparently Microsoft’s XBL division is built upon the backs of gamers. I think that the last time that I renewed my account I must have used a credit card (defying all reason), which put me at Microsoft’s tender mercy. At some point XBL changed the terms of service making you opt in to auto renewal automatically upon give them a credit cart. Also, they removed the ability to disable this “feature” from the console, or web browser. The only way to disable auto renewal is to call XBL support can cancel it. I could have sworn that I did place the call, but I am sure I must have fallen for some other trap that automatically flipped the renewal flag on for my account, they make it pretty difficult to identify when it will happen.
My problem relates to auto renewal. Recently my XBL account expired, and I got the notice about the account expiring. So, I went down to Best Buy can cash in a couple of reward zone certificates to get a renewal card. I then went to xbox.com to redeem my card. Low and behold it wouldn’t let me. It kept forcing me to the billing information page to change my credit card information. With a message stating that the card would be charged $59.95 immediately upon being updated. I said screw that.
After speaking to one of the XBL reps the details of the scam were unfolded. Apparently, since auto renewal was turn on, they did not immediately shut off my account, instead they kept slamming the expired card while leaving the account active for a about a week. As a result, my account is now suspended pending paying an extortion fee to XBL. Since they allowed me to use the service for a week that basically constituted some kind of agreement to pay for the next year at their fully marked up price. Lame.
They will not even let me redeem the points that are already on my account, I’m pretty pissed. At this point I have two choices, I can either pay the extortion fee, or I close my account and start from scratch with a brand new account (losing the $20+ worth of point on my account).
XBL–
UPDATE: Well, I paid Microshaft’s blood ransom. And, my account status have changed to “active.” Now I just need to remember to disable the auto renewal before they obliterate me at some point in the future.
Gaming
Picked up a copy of Red Dead Redemption, Dragon Age, and Halo Reach today, let’s play.
One Chance
@vanlandw, apparently I saved a couple of people.
D&D Comes to an End on the Lakeshore
The two hobby shops on the lakeshore that were hosting public play of D&D no longer do so. The Muskegon shop moved into a smaller space, so there was no longer room. And, the Grand Haven shop was forced to abruptly close due to a variety of reasons. Grand Rapids is now the only host of organized play events in West Michigan at this time. Bummer.
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