A user named RickH from Quarter To Three Forums posted a “Warning About Gamertags and Windows Live IDs”:
“With a middle finger raised in Microsoft’s direction.
I set up an Xbox Live Silver account for one of my sons in April 2007, using a Windows Live ID linked to one of my email addresses. This Christmas, he asked for and got an Xbox Live 12-month card so he could play online.
However, when I try to enter the code, it says it can’t connect to Xbox Live. (Which is BS, because I can do it with the other profiles in the system.) After a half hour on the phone with MS’s highly scripted but ultimately useless 1-800-4MYXBOX folks, they told me that the Windows Live ID “hadn’t been used in so long that it expired.” As a result, my son’s Xbox Live Gamertag, which logs into Xbox Live just fine to record his achievements, is permanently unable to be turned into a Gold account.
So, MS’s customer service tells me they can’t/won’t reactivate the WLID. And that they can’t/won’t change the gamertag to another WLID. In fact, when I asked the 1-800-4MYXBOX binder-jockey whether my son’s Gamertag could be moved to a new Windows Live ID, the response was that I could go to Xbox.com and “try.” Since I know for a fact that it is not possible for a Gamertag to be associated with another WLID through that website, I was basically being told to get lost.
Thanks for wasting a half-hour of my time, gents. And thanks for leaving me in the position of telling my son that a year and a half of achievements and save games are now useless if he wants to actually use his Christmas gift.
Which leads me to my warning: if you claimed a gamertag you thought you might want someday, or just got a Silver “for now,” but haven’t been using the Windows Live ID you created to get the tag, there is a good chance it expired and your tag is now permanently orphaned, stuck in the purgatory created by Xbox Live’s absolute dependence on a WLID that might not be around the next time you want to use it.
And if anyone from Joystiq or Kotaku is reading, would you mind asking MS how many of these millions of Xbox Live accounts that they brag about having are actually useless accounts linked to a dead WLID? If MS is making representations about online market share or potential revenues based on a total number of gamertag accounts that includes a significant number of impossible-to-activate accounts, it should probably correct them.”
PEOPLE! Stop your frickin’ whining to the internet whenever something doesn’t go your Fvk!n way. This crybaby crap is really starting to become an epidemic. For god sakes, get a new gamertag, it’s not like anyone on live ever knew who your kid was anyway. Perhaps if you weren’t so damn keep to begin with you kid would have already had an account.
I don’t feel sorry for you, you’re just another spoiled person, that’s looking for attention. STOP IT! We are tired of hearing from you!
Simple solution….
Buy a ps3…free online; and its a better system overall
You read about these people complaining innocently about Gamertag fiascos, yet when you dig deeper, you find that:
1. They were modding their console.
2. They bought a used console someone else already bricked.
3. Their kid was doing something the father knew nothing about.
4. They were fooling around switching ID’s over and over.
There almost always is something not being told by the people making these complaints. Microsoft doesn’t just kill accounts for no reason at all. Whine as much as they like, but they were up to something and got caught.
Create your WLID, create your Gamertag, then pay your $49/year XBOX Live account fee. And then ….. QUIT FRICKING MESSING WITH YOUR ACCOUNT! And everything will be just fine.
I had the same thing happen to me. But I made a new gamertag and the credit me another 12 month subscription.
You should push farther into the Live support system to get a hold of somebody that would be able to do what you ask… You just have to push harder than they do.
And any claims that MS makes about market share are generally believed to be over inflated, they did this with their Operating system numbers for years, they always claimed X amount of installed windows computers – what they did not tell you was that nearly 2/3 of them were in the supply chain in warehouses but they claimed that when Dell or IBM or Compaq purchased pre-install licenses those were included with the market share numbers even though they were not sold to the general public yet… So it makes the mental impression that there are more people using the software than really are… That was part of their Anti-Trust suit complaint.
FOR YOUR INFORMATION AS THE GUY SAID IN ARTICLE IF YOU DONT SIGN IN TO YOUR HOTMAIL ACCOUNT AT LEAST ONCE WITHIN A YEAR FROM LINKING IT WITH XBOX LIVE GOLD, THEN THE ACCOUNT WILL BE USELESS. SO ITS WORTHWHILE TAKING NOTE IF YOU DIDNT KNOW THAT YOU NEED TO ACTUALLY USE THE EMAIL ACCOUNT YOU USE TO SETUP…. ITS A PERFECTLY SOUND MEASURE TO TAKE ON MICROSOFTS BEHALF SO THEY DONT GET HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF ACCOUNTS STACKING UP ON THEIR SERVERS, AND MANY OTHER REASONS WHICH I WONT GO INTO..
this guy is a moonie,the first guy nailed it,playing the victim over something this minor that could be resolved with common sense is truly becoming the new epidemic,over-babied adults who cry foul at any hint of something not going exactly their way,and not wanting to put any effort into fixing their OWN damn problems.
the sad thing is this guy got some woman to pro-create with him and push another spawn out so that he may teach his way unto him.
True story here. I created my WLID when 360 was launched November 05. I have not even used that account since. As a matter of fact, I forgot the password and the answer’s to my securtiy questions. So that account is way past dead, I am stillable to log into my Xbox live account and collect achievements. Don’t beleive look at my GT, GS. ThatLaLaLa. You’ll see games and achievements dated way back to then. So obivously your “kid” was doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing, and MS brought the Banhammer on him.
[...] Microsoft Refuses to Fix Broken Xbox Live Account A user named RickH from Quarter To Three Forums posted a “Warning About Gamertags and Windows Live [...] [...]
i wouldn’t reccomend a shit box to a blind kid.
the posters in this user comments section are jerks. disabling your saves because your not a current gold subscriber is nonsense. if you create a silver account and choose to upgrade to gold there shouldn’t be a problem. further tying game saves to hardware or an account name is ludicrous. as for achievements those are as stupid as the xbox live crowd and the pricks posting here.
Once again, the son was likely doing something he should not have been and the father doesn’t know about it. What? A teenager lying to his old man. Wow that never happens!
We are simply not getting the whole and truthful story here. Microsoft does NOT, repeat does NOT disable accounts for no reason. Every forum whiner has a hidden truth that they leave out when complaining online.
they cant do any thing right
Well, I’m glad all you internet geniuses know what’s going on. Too bad you actually don’t have a clue. My wife’s gamertag just had this same thing happen. She had her comcast email set up as her live ID. The comcast email is extremely active, however she does not use live for anything other than xbox. She had not signed into xbox live for a while and her account went silver. Just yesterday we tried to upgrage it back to gold, but there was no email address associated with the account, and her live ID no longer existed. Any attempt to enter the live code or to change the live email address resulted in an error on the xobx console. So even though the actual email address was fine, the live ID had expired (lack of use?) and this clobbered the gamertag as well. There is apparently no way to fix it other than to abandon the original gamertag with all her saves and achievements and start a new tag. It’s a flawed system.
So for all you big keyboard cowboys claiming that this happens because of “messing with the account” you’re just wrong, do some research before you go spouting off at the mouth with a load of bullsh!t.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1033379554
I have been trying for 2 days to purchase an xbox live account for my son. After billing my credit card 6 times xbox says they cant help. that their website is undergoing maitainence. Oh well. Im out a couple hundred bucks. All for my sons birthday present. He got fed up and went to bed after the 9the attempt to recover account. Xbox doesn’t know what they are doing and maybe they should get someone who speaks english to help with customer service before they dont need that department anymore due to lack of customers. xbox sucks and bill if you are reading this do something before u piss all teens and moms of we are your bread and butter after all.
fedupmotherof9..Buy a prepaid card and there will be no issues, with credit cards and then they cannot go and buy points with the card and you will have one less thing to complain about. I upgraded to gold and had a few issues but IT was helpful and got it all up in running in a matter of a half hour. So stop whinning and put on your big boy painties
I started my gold account a few months afer the 360 came out for 12 months gold membership. Then i left if for about 1 half years mabye 2 i didnt bother to play on line as i got a ps3 so chow down on that for a while. When i tried to sign in to xbox.com i had forgot my password for it and my alt email was hotmail and that had be closed for over year. after many days sending emails to ms tryin to remeber stuff that ive not been able to get into any more they told me they wont help me. now my email i sign up with was gamesmaster69@uboot.com evey time i asked for my password reset sent to that email it would not turn up no mater how many times i tryed as for the hotmail add not open. if it wernt for the fact that i set the 360 up to auto sign in when i connect to live i would be buggerd. So i have done fuck all wrong apart forget a password so what Company Man Said: get ur facts right be4 you shoot that big moth off u ass
Create a new gamertag? How fuckin hard is that?
Ok for all you d0uches in here saying “Stop your frickin’ whining to the internet whenever something doesn’t go your Fvk!n way” some people just cant dish out money whenever they want and buy another gamertag ok microsoft is obviously cheating its clientel with these bull Sh!t policies they should fixbroken gamertags just cause they are cheating you when the email dies out and you accidently deleted your account off the hard drive or memory card and want to recover the account your still paying for and you cant do it because the emails dead or you forgot your email that you used you should be able to get the email account re opened again and or email given to you no passwords of course
There have been plenty of times when my hotmail account “expires”. My xbox live account has never been affected and I have always been able to just go to hotmail.com and “refresh” my account.