Due to a misunderstanding on Microsoft's part (mistaking a game-breaking bug for hacking), I've been banned from Xbox Live. Of course, since I haven't done anything wrong, and since I don't like the idea of companies having the right to essentially steal from innocent customers, I'm going to fight to get unbanned and possibly reimbursed my time lost. What are the odds that I'll actually win this fight, though? Is this some David vs Goliath situation where I'll need the power of God to help me out, or are Microsoft actually pretty understanding dudes who'll totally hear me out and recognize their mistake? I've never heard of anyone actually getting a ban revoked before, but Microsoft is run by humans, right? Compassionate human beings with real, living, beating hearts... right?

If you're actually innocent, then you should probably get unbanned if you explain the situation to them.

microsoft was once ran by one of the few of the richest people in the world that in fact give a dam about people but most places don't tend to unban people just because they prove them wrong in fact proving them wrong just pisses them off more.

@Anjon: What did you do?

I was banned from PSN because apparently my credit card was not charged correctly when I bought a game (I didn't know it at the time I was banned because they never told me why). I got the game but they thought I somehow went to my bank and got a refund for it (somehow?). After asking for help a few times through the website nothing was done and posters on the forums basically accused me of wrongdoing that I never did. A week later I finally just called the support number directly and I was unbanned the same day.

If you did nothing wrong... call them directly. It's easy to ignore emails but if you give a support person a bit of sh*t (if you truely did nothing wrong) then it shouldn't be a problem...right?

If you go into it with your current attitude you will probably get nowhere...just calmly explain the situation and you'll get some results. Demanding to be reimbursed for time lost and going on rants about corporations "stealing" from innocent people isn't going to help you any when dealing with customer service agents.

I'd like to hear more about this game breaking bug being mistaken for "hacking". When you're vague like that it's certainly easy to come to the conclusion that you're full of shit.

@handlas said:

I was banned from PSN because apparently my credit card was not charged correctly when I bought a game. I got the game but they thought I somehow went to my bank and got a refund for it (somehow?). After asking for help a few times through the website nothing was done. A week later I finally just called the support number directly and I was unbanned the same day.

If you did nothing wrong... call them directly. It's easy to ignore emails but if you give a support person a bit of sh*t (if you truely did nothing wrong) then it shouldn't be a problem...right?

I like this answer. Talk to a person. I talked an Xbox rep to fix my x-box for essentially no cost, My original 360 failed, and it was probably that heat issue. I had to keep messing with it to see the 3 rings of death once, but I did....once. He was an odd guy and wanted to be acknowledged for having to deal w/ my and everybody's else's issues, but he got it done.

Sony got around 150.00 out of me for their Console blue ray player failure, and I got to talk to no one. Just out of warranty by a couple months.

Nothing like talking to a person.

If you can prove to someone at MS who speaks fluent English that it's a glitch that happens to players and that it can't be helped you should get cleared.

Well, did you try doing the forum thing? I see you can go to "Contact Us" at the bottom of the 360 page and select through menus to ask a question about why you were banned. Then create a forum topic that appears only MS reps can respond in and you can explain the situation and get a response. Have you been given a response by them yet? http://forums.xbox.com/xbox_forums/xbox_support/f/41.aspx

It does seem a little crappy that there is not a number that you can directly call. There must be somewhere... even if the "banning" section doesn't give you one I'm sure you could find one somewhere. I remember calling them a long time ago to cancel my Live membership from auto-renewing (looks like you can do it from the website these days though... don't think that was an option when I did it).

It seems you may already know why you were banned so perhaps that doesn't matter. I know when I was banned from PSN I had absolutely no idea why until I finally called them.

I honestly have a hard time understanding why people pay a subscription to be able to play online on Xbox-es. It's such a foreign notion to me (quite literally since the Xbox is really unpopular in my country of residence). Not only are there free alternatives, I also don't hear this sort of horror stories about PSN or Steam. It's possible there are just as many though, and I just don't stumble upon those.

Anyway, keep us posted, I'm kind of curious where this'll end up.

You sound like a retail worker's worst fucking nightmare. Sheesh.

"I know my rights!"

@handlas: Yup, I went through the whole forum business, which is pretty damn convoluted, because being banned from Xbox Live also means being banned from the forum, an issue that they openly admit. They straight up tell you that you need to create a new account in order to access the forum and ask about your banned one. Except that message is posted in the forum, so I had to make a new account to even see it. Still, I'm trying to keep a cool head here. Haven't received a response yet either. I'll probably call back tomorrow and see if there's anyone else would can help me.
 
@Snail: I was actually of the same mindset. I thought it was dumb to pay for the service Xbox Live was providing when PSN was just as good, and also free. Unfortunately, I ended up with some PSN horror stories of my own which sent me back to Xbox Live. Really though, I think it's the player base that makes Live the dominant force in America. I have a whole lot more friends on Xbox Live than I do on PSN.

@Napalm: I also seek reimbursement when the internet goes down. Time is money, literally. (Almost joking). Seriously though, I've always had kind of a phobia of companies ripping me off and getting away with it. I think I got it from my dad. Now I always have to "stand up for my rights" when I think I'm being slighted. On the reverse, I think most gamers are too lax with defending their rights.

@Anjon said:

@handlas: Yup, I went through the whole forum business, which is pretty damn convoluted, because being banned from Xbox Live also means being banned from the forum, an issue that they openly admit. They straight up tell you that you need to create a new account in order to access the forum and ask about your banned one. Except that message is posted in the forum, so I had to make a new account to even see it. Still, I'm trying to keep a cool head here. Haven't received a response yet either. I'll probably call back tomorrow and see if there's anyone else would can help me.

Yeah, same deal with PS3. When my account was banned it also banned me on the forum which is just dumb. Had to make a new one in order to even ask a question in the support.

@Anjon: Except that using Xbox Live isn't a right. It's a private service and Microsoft can forbid you from using it for virtually any reason. I often make that distinction with people who scream about their right to freedom of speech being violated because their post got deleted on Giant Bomb.

ya know,i once got hasseld for two days straight by two guys named [omitted] and [omitted] nothing but racial slurs and homophobic rants. they literally went out and bought halo reach just so they could continue to hassle me. i reported them to microsoft. convinced over 80 people on my friends list to report them and even left a post on gamefaqs that people should report them and i got dozens of people saying they would.all of this happened over a year ago. as of about two weeks ago they were still online. you would think someone with the gamertag [omitted] would have sent up red flags for the ban hammer but i guess not.

and this guy gets banned for "stealing" dlc? well shit.

You sound extremely obnoxius. You should check your attitude when you deal with these people otherwise I look foward to seeing you on http://whywasibanned.com/

@MB said:

@Anjon: Except that using Xbox Live isn't a right. It's a private service and Microsoft can forbid you from using it for virtually any reason. I often make that distinction with people who scream about their right to freedom of speech being violated because their post got deleted on Giant Bomb.

I have to agree with you on that (and not just because you're an allmighty mod (please don't make me sacrifice something)). I can understand trying to get unbanned, but how exactly does one get reimbursed for "time lost"? How do you put a dollar value on something like that? Especially for something like gaming; it does seem a little frivolous, doesn't it?

Also, please don't get me started on freedom of speech; I am sick of people thinking they can use that to say what they want and not face the consequences.

Oh and @Anjon: Ring Microsoft first, explain the situation, see if they'll lift the ban AND THEN start going on about how you're going to go on a one-man crusade if they say no.

@Anjon: You seem to have a lot of issues with games..... suspicious....

@Nightriff said:

@Anjon: You seem to have a lot of issues with games..... suspicious....

Yesss... that's a little strange to have problems with both Sony and MS over games. Red flag?

Be sure to update us on the outcome. I'm interested!

Okay, hold on, I think my tone is getting lost here. Let me bring it down to Earth for a bit. I'm not on any kind of crusade and I'm not going to threaten anyone with lawsuits if that's what you're thinking. I'm not going to try and take Microsoft to court or anything if they refuse to unban me. I'll just be really sad about it. I just think this whole situation is really uncool and I've heard a lot of bad stories about people never getting unbanned, so I wanted a little reassurance and advice. Yeah, I'm going to do as much as I can to get the ban lifted, but I not raging over it. Just disheartened. That being said, the advice you guys have been giving me has all been extremely helpful. Really appreciate it. I just don't want you guys to think I'm going to turn this into a Kotaku article or something.
 

@handlas said:

@Nightriff said:

@Anjon: You seem to have a lot of issues with games..... suspicious....

Yesss... that's a little strange to have problems with both Sony and MS over games. Red flag?

@TeflonBilly said:

You sound extremely obnoxius. You should check your attitude when you deal with these people otherwise I look foward to seeing you on http://whywasibanned.com/

I've been reading that website, and I have to admit a few of them have made me glad I don't own an Xbox. I mean most of them I agree with the mod, but a few I just had to scratch my head. Like one guy who was forced to change his gamertag because his original one was "BlackHayate001", which is a Fullmetal Alchemist reference, but even if you didn't know that, you're not allowed to use the word black on Xbox?

It's kind of turned me off from ever getting an Xbox.

So it seems like my ban isn't permanent or actually even that long. If left alone, it lifts 10/13/12. That seems pretty lenient for the crime of potentially stealing an entire add-ons' worth of DLC. Also, that happens to be the same week that the DLC actually starts rolling out legit. So maybe Microsoft knows about the bug after all? I still haven't gotten a full response from the enforcers, and customer service basically said that the forum is the only avenue for this kind of problem.
 
Edit: Just had a strangely emotional conversation with a kindly Xbox Live customer service rep who basically told me that I was indeed unjustly banned from the service, and that there's nothing I can do about it. To make matters worse, the infraction I was flagged for was so ambiguous that even after my ban is lifted, I'll likely be re-banned until it becomes permanent. The forum to contact the enforcement team has refused to address my questions and said that there are no ways to get accounts unbanned. I'm not sure if that's true, but I'm all out of ideas. Until I can actually get in touch with someone who can help me, I guess I have no choice but to avoid Live and go back to PSN.

@Anjon said:

Due to a misunderstanding on Microsoft's part (mistaking a game-breaking bug for hacking), I've been banned from Xbox Live. Of course, since I haven't done anything wrong, and since I don't like the idea of companies having the right to essentially steal from innocent customers, I'm going to fight to get unbanned and possibly reimbursed my time lost. What are the odds that I'll actually win this fight, though? Is this some David vs Goliath situation where I'll need the power of God to help me out, or are Microsoft actually pretty understanding dudes who'll totally hear me out and recognize their mistake? I've never heard of anyone actually getting a ban revoked before, but Microsoft is run by humans, right? Compassionate human beings with real, living, beating hearts... right?

As a rule, they don't ban based on misunderstandings --- nor do they tend to overturn bans.

@Anjon said:

@MikeinSC: According to customer service, they make mistakes all the time. One of the consolations (don't know if that's the word I'm looking for) they told me was that these situations happen to a lot of people every year, not just me. That didn't really make me feel better, but her tone sounded genuinely sympathetic. Of course, if the enforcement crew wants to maintain their "we never make mistakes" angle, they could start with just telling me what it is they think I did. Apparently it wasn't the DLC bug as I thought, because that would be more serious than "cheating", I would think.

So be less vague and give us an update.

@Anjon: Tell them you want to speak to someone higher up, that is how you get things done with them, trust me, I have gone through 6 Xbox 360's one was out of Warranty, and I still got it replaced free of charge.

At very least if you talk to a higher up they will offer you free stuff.

if your truly innocent and explain to then in a calm and orderly fashion then you can get unbanned. also depends on how you used the gamebreaking bug.

it might take some time but it can be done.

now the reimbursement is highly unlikely and will most likely never happen and might not help your case if you ask for it.

if you do get unbanned you can ask if there is a chance for the happening, not in a form of money but maybe an extension of your gold account, like when xbox got hacked and crashed for a good amount of time but it is a longshot since it was not there fault for banning you.

@Turtlebird95 said:

If you can prove to someone at MS who speaks fluent English that it's a glitch that happens to players and that it can't be helped you should get cleared.

Off topic but, at least if you live in the US, if you ask your costumer rap to connect you to a call center in the US then by law they have to connect you to it.

@Anjon: I hope you get your issue resolved without having to involve lawyers. Good luck.

@Anjon said:

In fact, I feel kind of bad because I told others that they probably wouldn't get banned for it, since it wasn't something done illegally.

See, this is where you start to lose me in this whole situation. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and believe you when you say you accidentally stumbled across this bug. Even so, you advised other people to exploit the glitch - possibly even telling other people about it, I'm not sure on that - knowing that it would allow them access to content you knew they shouldn't be able to access.

I'm sorry, but it doesn't seem to me you're as innocent as you're trying to make yourself sound.

@Anjon said:

I've searched through that forum and I haven't found anyone who've succeeded, and most of the people there are in far worse situations than I. There're countless posts from parents who've put literally hundreds if not thousands of dollars into their children's accounts which are permabanned. All of them believe their kids are innocent, and all of them feel that Microsoft essentially robbed them of huge sums of money, which feels pretty damn scary when you think about it.

Not really... in most of those cases it turns out the kids have actually done something wrong like cheating to get achievements, or having something inappropriate in their gamertag or bio (often on multiple occasions). The amount of money you've put into something is completely irrelevant if you can't follow the rules. I don't always agree with every decision the Xbox moderators make, but it's annoying how many people try to pull the sympathy or "I'm a loyal customer and I've spent a lot of money" card.

@FlarePhoenix said:

@Anjon said:

In fact, I feel kind of bad because I told others that they probably wouldn't get banned for it, since it wasn't something done illegally.

See, this is where you start to lose me in this whole situation. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and believe you when you say you accidentally stumbled across this bug. Even so, you advised other people to exploit the glitch - possibly even telling other people about it, I'm not sure on that - knowing that it would allow them access to content you knew they shouldn't be able to access.

I'm sorry, but it doesn't seem to me you're as innocent as you're trying to make yourself sound.

@Anjon said:

I've searched through that forum and I haven't found anyone who've succeeded, and most of the people there are in far worse situations than I. There're countless posts from parents who've put literally hundreds if not thousands of dollars into their children's accounts which are permabanned. All of them believe their kids are innocent, and all of them feel that Microsoft essentially robbed them of huge sums of money, which feels pretty damn scary when you think about it.

Not really... in most of those cases it turns out the kids have actually done something wrong like cheating to get achievements, or having something inappropriate in their gamertag or bio (often on multiple occasions). The amount of money you've put into something is completely irrelevant if you can't follow the rules. I don't always agree with every decision the Xbox moderators make, but it's annoying how many people try to pull the sympathy or "I'm a loyal customer and I've spent a lot of money" card.

This is where I was, tiptoeing around what you did and saying you don't actually know, I am going to go out on a limb and say that you have some idea what you did, and you're avoiding any details about it.

If you're innocent I sympathise, but at this point it seems like you're leaving too much out on your end for any of us to be on your side.

I agree that Microsoft should give you a straight answer and if you were indeed wrongfully banned you should be unbanned and have your account extended for the time you were unable to play.

If you didn't purposefully exploit this bug, or hack your 360: sorry. You are probably SOL. Keep trying to get someone on the phone, but you are probably better off just starting a new account and moving on with your life. You will never be compensated for "lost time" or whatever, and I would be shocked if you got unbanned.

This whole thing seems super sketchy though.

I've actually being looking into this, and for a pretty significant bug in the game, I haven't really being able to find a lot of information/confirmation about it. I found one other forum topic where two people said a similar thing happened to them, but one of them did ultimately come out and say he used a modded save file which contained the DLC characters (and I did find a youtube tutorial showing you how to do it, which claimed the process did not involve modding). I'm sorry, but a glitch on this scale having very little information on it seems rather suspicious to me; it doesn't seem likely there would be next to no news on it.

Regardless, this isn't a case of an innocent customer getting screwed over by a big bad corporation. Even if he didn't purposely get the DLC himself, he was more than willing to exploit the glitch and keep the content. He was willing to take in the benefits, so I think he would also be willing to accept the consequences. Whether the consequences should be a permanent ban I'm not sure (I'm still not entirely convinced this is something that just happened by accident) but the original poster isn't completely innocent in this matter.

Besides, I've heard some real weird justifications for this kind of stuff. I've heard people use GameSharks and stuff to get all the Pokemon in a Pokemon game (obviously), transfer the Pokemon over to another Pokemon game, and claim "I got all of these Pokemon legitimately, because I haven't applied any mods or cheats to this game".

Regardless, this isn't a case of an innocent customer getting screwed over by a big bad corporation. Even if he didn't purposely get the DLC himself, he was more than willing to exploit the glitch and keep the content. He was willing to take in the benefits, so I think he would also be willing to accept the consequences. Whether the consequences should be a permanent ban I'm not sure (I'm still not entirely convinced this is something that just happened by accident) but the original poster isn't completely innocent in this matter.

I got permanently banned for system tampering or some shit like that and I wasn't even on Xbox that week. Before this I got hacked on FIFA 13 and EA needed my account details to use coding so I think that I got banned because ea were doing this and Xbox think that I'm the one hacking I posted a forum and now there just gonna come up with some pointless other reason such as swearing in messages that I did ages ago. This is so annoying, I'm gonna call them directly and I must get my account back coz this is shit

@jprushton: Sounds like you belong here: http://whywasibanned.com/ Go ahead and ask them and maybe you will end up in the blog.

Did you call them or send them a message about the mistake as soon as it happened? If you just thought you could keep all the DLC even if you didn't originally intend to steal it, your still at fault and they are in the right to ban you as they see fit. If you did report it, then you have a case, otherwise you don't.

I remember reading the xbox forums when the enforcement team gave details about bans and such and wow it was some awesome reading. Stupid people.