**UPDATE 2** Based off talk on the Xbox.com forums it seems people are even having issue renewing their current subscriptions. And many are a little ticked now that their accounts have rolled back to silver keeping them from enjoying Black Ops multiplayer.
**UPDATE** Seems this issue has to do with upgrading Gold Accounts to Family Gold, they are aware and are working to fix the issue, though they say it could take upwards of a week, as they don’t know the root cause.
This morning I logged onto my Xbox and was presented with a deal to upgrade my Gold Subscription to a Family Gold Subscription. The deal is pretty nice you get 12 months plus 1 free, plus 800 MS points, all for $99.99. And for those that don’t know the Family Plan allows you to have 4 gold accounts! To make the deal even better looking I was given a $10 discount to make up for my remaining month of Live. Now all sounds good except when trying to make the upgrade. The system shoots back an error code of 80190821. After trying again and on another Xbox the same code.
As any longtime Xbox fan I go right to the Xbox.com forums to see whats what. And guess what I’m not the only one with the error, but there are some also not having issues. So after a little back and forth on Twitter with @xboxupport I ring up 1-800-4MY-Xbox. I’m then informed the error is with Credit Card authorization and that I should try another credit card, well guess what? Same error. The rep then claims that there must be a problem with my credit card, and that there is an open ticket and I should try purchasing later. So I give my credit card company a call, and guess what? There is nothing wrong with the card, and that they see all the charges from Microsoft, but they are for $00.00 and was given authorization but never completed.
Well fast forward 8 hours I fire up the Xbox to try again and now the deal is gone from the Dashboard. So again I call up support. The first CSR was fine and he was at least quick to say he couldn’t help and would need to send me up the ladder. The second CSR wasn’t as helpful as after explaining the issue, they then came back with “Your account is set to renew next month for $39.99 for 12 months”, well thanks but that’s not the issue. So again after explaining they say they can upgrade me to Family Gold, but the deal I saw on the Dashboard wasn’t in the system.
I don’t understand how Xbox Live continues to grow at such a pace. 5 years ago when I was having to RROD issue it was like pulling teeth getting these people to understand the issue, and after going through multiple levels of techs and supervisors, things still have not changed. I understand that it’s cheaper to send your call centers overseas, but when your CSRs don’t understand concepts like, if your offered a deal you should receive said deal, is it worth pissing off your customers? And prices recently went up on Xbox Live how about use that extra money and bring the call centers back to the USA so we can speak with people who understand simple concepts??
Anyway after 60+ minutes I now wait for a callback from a supervisor. So to all reading, if you have an issue upgrading to Family Gold call support and don’t accept their claims it’s your fault, I have covered all my bases and these billing issues(which BTW I can’t access parts of account management through the Xbox as well) are 100% on the Microsoft end.
