XBox Live

If there’s one thing the citizens of JeffLand like to do… it’s game. Without a doubt, we love our video games. We have almost every recent video game console available however our favorite is my XBox 360.

Since November of ’09, we’ve been on the Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 kick and there has been no stopping us. While the campaign mode is fun and difficult, it’s the allure of online play that beckons us back in front of that gorgeous 47″ LCD television time and time again.

As it turns out, every male citizen of JeffLand has been graced with an XBox Live profile by the Ministry Of The Interior. Although we all have accounts, the three youth members all have ‘Family Settings’ enabled and only the most junior Prince (who’s eight years old) lacks the Gold membership. XBox Live’s ‘Family Settings’ allow kids to talk to their friends while silencing everyone else they play with. As well, they can’t add friends without the parental figure inputting their password to give the parent control over who their kids are playing with and talking to. The boys give me grief about it however I stand firm by my decision; I’ve witnessed, first hand, some of the anti-social behavior of Neanderthal miscreants. Besides, I’m the King. My word is law ’round these parts.

Last week, my 12 month subscription for XBox Live ran out. The subscription is set to auto-renew with the payment coming from my credit card… so when the payment was returned due to the card being over it’s limit… my online status was left in limbo.

I had a gift card to Best Buy left over from Christmas so I went out and picked up a pre-paid Gold membership card. I though that would be the solution to all of my problems; little did I know that there was a transaction pending on my credit card that would put a stop on the whole works. I needed a valid credit card to input as a an alternate method of payment… however, at that point… that card would be charged and my pre-paid Live card would become redundant.

Overcome with frustration

Obviously, I was at an impass. I had gone as far as I could go with the tools available to me. I would have to place my fate and the fate of JeffLand’s gaming public in the hands of a Microsoft customer service representative.

I’ve dealt with XBox Support before when my XBox 360 RROD’ed and the whole experience really crushed my soul… dealing with inept reps and getting bad information… it was a rough time. Because of this, I didn’t have much hope of having a rep being able to actually help me.

After being on the phone with the representative for ten minutes, he was able to fix my problem and get my Gold membership re-instated to get me back online.

…and an international incident has been averted!