I came across one gamer’s experience today complaining about being pissed at Microsoft for taking his Microsoft Points away. Who wouldn’t be ticked off having someone rob you of Microsoft Points that you’ve spent your hard earned $ on? I know I would but in this case it wasn’t what it appeared to be at all.
The points were won in one of the various promotions involving Microsoft Points that dish them out as the prize. What most don’t know is that these types of Microsoft Points have an expiration date. That means they expire, go bye-bye and vanish after a certain time. It’s all about reading the fine print. Any Microsoft Points you obtain via promotion, contest, giveaway or special hook-up are subject to expiration. This does not include Microsoft Points you purchase from the Dashboard or buy at a retail outlet.
I’m not sure why it’s like this but I figured I would give you all a head’s up because if you’re like me, you like to sit on your Microsoft Points stash for long periods of time. I also suggest paying closer attention to your account at www.billing.microsoft.com. It has all the information about your points and which (if any) are due to expire. All promotional points are used first so if you have a total of 1000 Microsoft Points and you win 500 Microsoft Points from somewhere, the next purchase you make will use the points you won first.
I hope this helps someone to not lose their minds when their promotional points expire without use. Some of you may have known but others may not have. Use those points boys & girls because some of them may have an expiration on them. You don’t want to waste any points now do you?
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Can I haz help also?
I won this contest http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/news/2007/0222-arcadechallengewinners.htm and was winner number 40. I never got a thing and they never tired to contact me. I found out when I goggled my tag. XD I demand mad points and a cookie!
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:00 pm
[...] unscripted360 [...]
July 4th, 2008 at 2:46 am
Good to know for the future…now where do I go to win these mysterious Microsoft Point contests?
July 4th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Nice to know you are getting the word out about this. Yea it was my fault for not reading the fine print but I never thought the points would be taken from my account!!! lol. I guess someone important read the thread though because they gave me half the points back so +1 to Microsoft
July 4th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
well that’s good news Frodo.
July 6th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
This is nonsense. I’ve tried contacting Microsoft support about this and they don’t want to hear anything about it. Now i’m out a ton of points because of this little bait and switch. You really have to jump through hoops on their terms of service pages or must have already known about the billing website to even be remotely aware of this.
Never would I have expected that after physically redeeming points from the cards that they could be removed straight from your account balance. They wouldn’t even push back the expiration on these to unscrew the countless people who lost their points. Has anybody found a channel for their frustration to get something done about this yet?
July 8th, 2008 at 12:03 am
Same here. No notification of the promo points to expire. Got an email on the 1 month gold trial expiration. Very disappointed.
July 11th, 2008 at 11:05 am
well if it was a card you purchased from a store, they don’t expire. if they were points you won??? they expire unfortunately.
there’s no notification. it’s just something you’re supposed to know but again, at least this is getting out to more peeps.
spread the word about it to help someone else who may not have known.
July 12th, 2008 at 9:50 am
[...] submit the entry and you’re given 100 Microsoft Points. These are promotional points so as you should know already, they expire. In fact, the expiration date for any points received via this challenge is Feb 17, [...]
July 12th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
SPEND SPEND SPEND…. M$ drives our economy. Horray!!