I haven’t had to reach out to Xbox support in many years and the last time I did, I had a great experience. The support person was knowledgeable and was able to help me with my issue. However now a days it looks like Xbox support is just something you reach out to if you want to raise your blood pressure.
I purchased Hitman 3 and was hoping to continue my playthrough of Hitman 1 in Hitman 3 to take advantage of the next gen features and improvements. I own Hitman 1 GOTY Edition, Hitman 2, and as many of you probably know, if you own these two games you should be able to import missions into Hitman 3. Problem I’ve been running into is that while I can play Hitman 2 missions, all of the Hitman 1 missions are grayed out with a subtitle saying “Get access”. Clicking on any of the missions takes me to the store to pay for the Hitman 1 Access Pass for $30, something I shouldn’t be required to do since I already own Hitman 1 GOTY.
So I reached out to Xbox support. The first support person was friendly and after our conversation put me on hold for more than an hour just for the call to disconnect. So I request a call back, the second person didn’t even let me finish explaining my issue before transferring me to Microsoft Store support. After explaining the situation to this person, he questioned if I knew what I was talking about and whether or not I really should be able to play the missions in Hitman 3. After a bit of slightly escalated back and forth, he transferred me back to Xbox support again. The person here cut me off with an attitude as I was explaining all of the back and forth I’ve already gone through during the day and asked what my issue was. I explained the issue again and he put me on hold, just for the call to disconnect a few minutes later. So I request a call back again and the fourth Xbox support person was friendly and tried to work with me on the issue for over an hour. After going through all troubleshooting steps and hunting down all of the order numbers for each title, he ultimately told me that I need to spend more money to purchase the access pass. He put me on hold shortly before telling me this, so I knew this solution didn’t come from him. So as politely as I could possibly be, I told him he was wrong and I wanted my issue escalated or to talk to a manager. He said he escalated my issue and a manager would call me back. Well I never got a call back.
I later ranted about this whole experience on Twitter and today the Microsoft Store account reached out to talk over DM. I explained everything over DM about my issue. I provided links to the feature in the game, all of the order numbers for the games, and at the end of my multiple posts covering everything on the issue, I ended it by saying “I’d much rather get a refund for the game than spend more money I shouldn’t have to.” After all of the information I provided the only thing they asked if I told the support agent I’d like a refund. I responded back saying no because I was hoping to have the issue resolved. After no reply back from them, I just told them not to worry about it and I’ll get a refund. They later responded saying as a social team, they are unable to help and I’ll need to reach out to Xbox support. Ok I get that as that does make sense, but if they couldn’t help, WHY DID THEY ASK ME TO DM THEM?!
So I’ve refunded Hitman 3 and am just floored by how piss poor this whole experience has been. After talking to more than 5 people, I’m left frustrated and they are left not having my purchase. So I’m wondering, has anyone else had equally bad experiences with their support? Is it always this bad? I thought Playstation support was bad, but this was far, far worse. I’ve worked in the support role, I understand that it’s a largely thankless job and I always try to be as appreciative and respectful as possible because of this. However this level of service is so horrible that I can’t believe how bad it’s gotten since the 360 days when I last had to talk to them.
Anyone else have any horror stories like this?
Thanks for reading my Ted Talk.