Help! Loyal Xbox Fan for 17 years and now Microsoft won’t take my money!
Microsoft has blocked my account from making any purchases after years of purchases, large purchases and I can’t figure out why, or how to resolve it. I even started using a second account and now that account is blocked, and it seems to happen after large purchases of surfaces.
I’ve really been a Microsoft fan and loyal customer since MS-DOS days but in the gaming console world I was sold on the first Xbox when it came out in 2001.
I’ve been a Gold Xbox Member since it was released. I’ve spent years and money on Microsoft via Xbox Games and merchandise. I’ve purchased the first Surface Pro, the Surface Pro 2, Surface Pro 3, 2 Surface Pro 4’s and accessories. Surface Book and more.
Then last Nov 2017, I went to purchase an additional Surface keyboard, after having placed an order for several surfaces earlier in the year, and my payment didn’t work. Odd. Of course I thought it was something on my end at first. I called the bank, checked the card and everything was fine. Tried my card somewhere else, no problems. Tried Microsoft again, and I get the generic message “Contact us at Microsoft. We’re having trouble processing your payment.” The “See Details” just shows some cryptic code. Great maybe someone at Microsoft can use this. It turns out no one I spoke to knew what to do with that code or found it helpful.

So I call the Microsoft Support. Of course they think I’m just a dumb customer and don’t know that my card doesn’t work. I try and convince them and they don’t believe me so they transfer me to the Microsoft Store department. The Microsoft store dept gets on and even remotes into my machine after I keep telling them it’s not on my end. They want see for themselves. I try my card, I try PayPal, I try another card. Nothing works. Finally they believe me and send me back to Microsoft Support. Microsoft Support escalates the problem to another department. This new department “reviews the case notes” and says I should talk to Microsoft Store department. It’s a never ending cycle!
I finally convince the guy on the phone to look at my account further. He does and finds that my account was blocked for some unknown reason. He has to contact someone else and will call me back.
Days and emails later I finally get a resolution. The support person tells me, I had two games, Need for Speed and some other game “stuck” in my cart that’s hidden to me. “ We have finished our investigation and found your order was improperly cancelled.” Which makes sense, I tried to purchase two games through my XBox and it didn’t work. I gave up and never thought anything of it.
He clears out the “stuck” games, whatever that means and says I’m good to go. Great. I try and make the purchase finally and voila! It works. Life is good again.
One month later, Dec 2017, I try and make another Microsoft Store purchase and I get the same issue. What!@#$!@! Kill me.
So I call back in. Of course, I have go through this all again. Transferred around between two departments. One saying they can’t help me and have to escalate and the other saying it’s my card and they don’t handle those issues and want to send me back. They finally say they will escalated it and I never hear back. I call again and again and they don’t have any info because it’s been “escalated”
I email and try to get a hold of someone and I finally get an email back with the following info:
“We have received one or more notifications from your bank disputing purchases made by this account. To protect you and Microsoft from future fraud or abuse, future purchases have been suspended for this account.
I understand that this is not an ideal solution and I apologize that we are not able to resolve this issue as you would like. Given the nature of this issue, there is no further support that we can provide”
First I have no idea what they are talking about. What “disputed” purchases? I’ve never disputed a purchase from Microsoft. I even called my Bank to confirm. If there’s something I owe you Microsoft I’m happy to pay. I have no idea what you’re talking about. I call in three more times and no one will talk to me because the department who makes this decision doesn’t talk to customers.
Frustrating because my Xbox, Windows accounts and life are tied to this account. To get around it I have to use my work account. Now I have to buy gift cards on my work account and send them over to my personal account.
Now when I see a game on my Xbox I can’t give into my impulsiveness and buy it. It’s too my work and steps. Yup, that game looks cool, guess I won’t buy that. Instead I go buy it on Steam and play on my PC because the hassle of buying a gift card and transferring it over is not worth it. I see cool app like the Adobe Sketch app, and I can’t buy it.
Fast forward almost a year later. Aug 2018. I just purchased $3k worth of Surface equipment last week. No problems with my card (by the way it’s the same card I used on my personal) made the purchase got the equipment great. Then this week I go to buy a gift card again, because I need to purchase a Windows 10 license for my other account and I get the same error I got back in Nov 2017!!!! “Contact us at Microsoft. We’re having trouble processing your payment.” What is going on!?
I call in and it’s the same problem! The support guy I call into says it’s my card, it’s not! When they finally believe me they escalate it. When I call back in they want to send back to the first department because they think it’s just me being stupid. It takes me quickly trying to explain my situation for them to take pause and look more into it. I’m still waiting for a resolution and I now have no way to buy anything from Microsoft. Even though my card and my money works for everyone else online.
Microsoft I luv ya, but please clear this mess up and let me praise you once again by making purchases once more.
