I don't know what is up with all the Horror Stories of Microsoft Support.
I'mma spin you a little tale:
On the fourth of July, I was about my business browsing gaf and two SMS messages arrived on my cellphone. It was a my bank telling me that my CC was charged for 1800 MS points (1000 + 800).
I went bananas and marched right into Microsoft's Billing site. Indeed, the points were purchased. I quickly changed passwords and thought everything was a-ok. I though: Hey, I changed my password so the dude can't do anything else. I got the points, but whatever, i'll just use them.
A couple minutes later, I refreshed the billing website and noticed that somebody was making purchases for a game I didn't not have: Fifa 11. It was the "PREMIUM GOLD JUMBO". Not only that, he was buying MULTIPLE copies of that. I didn't know what it was, but it did not matter. By this time, also, Microsoft already sent me an email confirming my MS points purchases. In other words, even if my bank didn't have the service to tell me that my CC was used, I would eventually find out that somebody did something on my account.
I called Microsoft support and the nicest lady I've ever encountered on a phone support line walked me through everything that needed to be done to certify that my account was hacked. She was wonderful and had to put up with my horrible, horrible spoken english.
She told me that I had to cancel the Credit Card (which is a bummer, yes, but my CC assigned to my Live account is only used there, so no big deal. I also have to cancel the Credit Card so the bank can start a investigation that goes back to Microsoft, so they can certify that it is really my Credit Card) and that the account would be put on lockdown until it was solved. I should be hearing back from them in 8 business days.
So I waited. While I waited, I went back regularly on billing.microsoft.com to see what was going on. What I didn't say in this story is that I had 5500 points on the account already. Out of those points, whoever got a hold of my account used 2100 points.
After the 8 business days, I called Microsoft again. This time, I was greeted by an older sounding woman, and not as nice. Still, she was much nicer than everybody I've ever talked to on a phone (except the first lady). She told me that "8 business days" was a wrong information and the maximum amount of time it would take for me to hear back from them would be, in reality, 15 business days.
I asked a couple other non-important questions and told her about the missing points I had originally. She said it was a good thing I called her back to tell her about those points, and she would add that information to the investigation, and that I should wait the 15 business days from the first call to hear back from the investigation team. I also could call again at any time (as long as I had the case number) to clarify any lingering doubts.
SSFIV:AE came out for PC in the meantime, and I was kinda pissed. But it's my fault that my account got stolen, so...
On july 19th (15 REGULAR DAYS, not business days as given) I received an e-mail from Microsoft saying that the investigation was over. the 2100 points I lost were credited back on my account. My Credit Card refund was being processed and would be returned to me, on my next billing cycle, and they even gave me 2 extra months of live as a "sorry for the time the investigation process takes"
I literally had the worst "stolen account" experience. Yet, it was a painless process to get it back. Sure, I think 15 business days as a time limit is ABSURD. This should take ONE WEEK tops. It took two regular weeks (15 regular days) to get my account back.
Since it was my fault that I lost the account in the first place, it didn't sound that bad of an experience to me.
