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[januswon]

Japan Xbox360 Live Users being discriminated

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About Xbox Live Annual Renewal.

My original gamer tag is "januswon". My Xbox360 was bought in Japan. My Xbox Live Gold Membership started from Jan 18, 2006 and ended on Jan 17, 2007. I noted that my membership has been auto-renewed on Jan 18, 2007 from Annual Membership (5229YEN/Yr) to Monthly Membership (819YEN/Mth = 9828YEN/Yr). And the Japan Xbox360 call center told me that I could not change the Monthly Membership to Annual Membership until the 1st month expired and was not entitled to refund. I was not satisfied with this service and requested Japan Xbox360 call center to terminate my Xbox Live membership.

However, I found that the auto-renew is different between US and Japan
In US, annual membership will be auto-renewed to annual membership.
In Japan, annual membership will be auto-renewed to monthly membership (fee being almost doubled per year)

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US

Annual Renewals
Q: I bought a Starter Kit last year and I am up for renewal soon. Will my current subscription renew into a monthly offer or a yearly offer?
A: If you allow your subscription to auto-renew without doing anything, your subscription will be renewed into an annual subscription on your one-year anniversary date. If you prefer to be renewed into a monthly offer, you must modify your subscription section of the Xbox Dashboard by selecting Monthly from the renewal options.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/live/billingFAQtwoMonthTrial.htm
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Japan
ゲームとオンライン エンターテイメントの世界へようこそ。ゲームのデモ版や予告編ムービー、ダウンロード コンテンツ、トーナメント、フレンド、そして Xbox Live 上で自分自身を表す名前に相当するゲーマータグのご利用など、Xbox LiveR ゴールド メンバーならではのサービスをお楽しみください。月間わずか 5229 円 (消費税込&#12415 で 12 ヶ月間のゴールド メンバーシップをご契約いただきますと、ゴールド メンバーのお客様限定の様々な特典をご利用いただけます。このメンバーシップは、期限が切れる前に更新の変更や解約を行わない限り、その時点の価格で月間メンバーシップに自動的に更新されます。価格について詳しくは、お客様のゲーマー プロフィールの [アカウントの管理] 画面でご確認いただけます。メンバーシップの変更や解約、およびメンバーシップの払い戻しポリシーについて詳しくは、www.xbox.com/live/accounts をご覧ください。
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[Beer Monkey]

That's racist.

 

[Kittonwy]

That's racist.

 

[marvelharvey]

Thank god I haven't given my cc info to MS, prepaid cards all the way baby!

 

[BlueTsunami]

This is payback for making me wait 6 Months for Blue Dragon. Suck it Japan!

 

[januswon]

This is payback for making me wait 6 Months for Blue Dragon. Suck it Japan!

i have bought Blue Dragon and DOAX2
but i have not managed to find some time to try these 2 games

recently i was busy playing the wii sports
and i have not unpacked the wii play ("hajimete no wii")

 

[soco]

i don't know if it works here, but my card was about to get charged in europe for the auto-renewal for a year, and it's so much more expensive than you can buy those 12month cards from the US, so i did that and used the card, which prevented the auto-renewal and i paid less than half what they would've charged my CC.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Microsoft's reply in Japanese had a nasty mistake in it.

"月間わずか 5229 円 (消費税込&#12415 で 12 ヶ月間のゴールド メンバーシップをご契約いただきます"
"We offer 12 month contracts at the low rate of 5229 Yen per month."

12 months x 5229 Yen = one hell of an expensive yearly contract. You should stick that to 'em and cry incompetence!

I have a feeling that they don't automatically renew contracts because a lot of people who simply forget to cancel would prefer to be only charged for one month than another year. Is this really that big of a problem?

Edit: Also if you have the option you should considering buying prepaid cards. You can easily get the 12 Month + 1 Month (13 Months) card for around 4800 Yen or less at big retail chains.

 

[bud]

Uh oh, this is not good for 360 sales in Japan

 

[The Innocent X]

Prepaid cards all the way. You are in control and you can get discounts too.

 

[Diablohead]

Thank god I haven't given my cc info to MS, prepaid cards all the way baby!

I would love to do this, but bringing over my old tag means they still have my details

 

[januswon]

Microsoft's reply in Japanese had a nasty mistake in it.

"月間わずか 5229 円 (消費税込&#12415 で 12 ヶ月間のゴールド メンバーシップをご契約いただきます"
"We offer 12 month contracts at the low rate of 5229 Yen per month."

12 months x 5229 Yen = one hell of an expensive yearly contract. You should stick that to 'em and cry incompetence!

I have a feeling that they don't automatically renew contracts because a lot of people who simply forget to cancel would prefer to be only charged for one month than another year. Is this really that big of a problem?

Edit: Also if you have the option you should considering buying prepaid cards. You can easily get the 12 Month + 1 Month (13 Months) card for around 4800 Yen or less at big retail chains.

i also noticed that stupid wording
i'd better check my credit card statement to confirm whether they did charge me 5229 Yen per month

about the prepaid card, i found it a bit troublesome that i need to go to the convenient store to buy the card and to use it. it just gives you 1 more month of xbox live service. i think i am not gonna to spend time visiting the convenient store

below is the renewal notice (so stupid)
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月間わずか 819 円 (消費税込&#12415 で 月間のゴールド メンバーシップをご契約いただきますと、ゴールド メンバーのお客様限定の様々な特典をご利用いただけます。このメンバーシップは、期限が切れる前に更新の変更や解約を行わない限り、その時点の価格で月間メンバーシップに自動的に更新されます。価格について詳しくは、お客様のゲーマー プロフィールの [アカウントの管理] 画面でご確認いただけます。メンバーシップの変更や解約、およびメンバーシップの払い戻しポリシーについて詳しくは、www.xbox.com/live/accounts をご覧ください。
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[Deleted member 17706]

i also noticed that stupid wording
i'd better check my credit card statement to confirm whether they did charge me 5229 Yen per month

about the prepaid card, i found it a bit troublesome that i need to go to the convenient store to buy the card and to use it. it just gives you 1 more month of xbox live service. i think i am not gonna to spend time visiting the convenient store

below is the renewal notice (so stupid)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
月間わずか 819 円 (消費税込&#12415 で 月間のゴールド メンバーシップをご契約いただきますと、ゴールド メンバーのお客様限定の様々な特典をご利用いただけます。このメンバーシップは、期限が切れる前に更新の変更や解約を行わない限り、その時点の価格で月間メンバーシップに自動的に更新されます。価格について詳しくは、お客様のゲーマー プロフィールの [アカウントの管理] 画面でご確認いただけます。メンバーシップの変更や解約、およびメンバーシップの払い戻しポリシーについて詳しくは、www.xbox.com/live/accounts をご覧ください。
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I guess your local convenience store isn't very convenient then is it!

13 Months for around 500 Yen less than 12 months sounds like a good deal to me, but I guess I wouldn't care if I had lots of money to burn.

 

[januswon]

I guess your local convenience store isn't very convenient then is it!

13 Months for around 500 Yen less than 12 months sounds like a good deal to me, but I guess I wouldn't care if I had lots of money to burn.

there are many convenience stores in japan
nearby my office and nearby my house

however i would rather use credit card so that i do not need to do anything
e.g. i use credit card to pay for another japan OLG, 3150 YEN/mth
they send me payment notice email before each month end and i am quite ok with them
their auto-renewal will renew the SAME plan

now what MS has done......
their 360 auto-renewal in Japan will renew a different and more expensive plan

they have a different auto-renewal in US
i believe MS will have the same auto-renewal like US in the other places
but NOT in Japan

 

[kiUNiT]

Uh oh, this is not good for 360 sales in Japan

What could be?

 

[Deleted member 17706]

there are many convenience stores in japan
nearby my office and nearby my house

however i would rather use credit card so that i do not need to do anything
e.g. i use credit card to pay for another japan OLG, 3150 YEN/mth
they send me payment notice email before each month end and i am quite ok with them
their auto-renewal will renew the SAME plan

now what MS has done......
their 360 auto-renewal in Japan will renew a different and more expensive plan

they have a different auto-renewal in US
i believe MS will have the same auto-renewal like US in the other places
but NOT in Japan

I know there are many convenience stores in Japan. I live in Japan as you could probably tell from my posts. Judging from your posting style I assume you are Japanese?

Anyway, I understand your complaint, but its hard to call this discrimination. This system actually is beneficial to people who sign up for a year and forget to cancel, because instead of being charged 5000ish Yen for a year of a service they may or may not want anymore, they only get charged 800ish Yen. The best thing for Microsoft to do would just to not automatically renew contracts in my opinion.

 

[soul creator]

I thought you could change whether it's monthly/annual directly from the dashboard?

You could on the original Xbox.

 

[XSamu]

This is payback for making me wait 6 Months for Blue Dragon. Suck it Japan!

:lol

Spoiler

But you're so right

 

[januswon]

I know there are many convenience stores in Japan. I live in Japan as you could probably tell from my posts. Judging from your posting style I assume you are Japanese?

Anyway, I understand your complaint, but its hard to call this discrimination. This system actually is beneficial to people who sign up for a year and forget to cancel, because instead of being charged 5000ish Yen for a year of a service they may or may not want anymore, they only get charged 800ish Yen. The best thing for Microsoft to do would just to not automatically renew contracts in my opinion.

i am a guyjin in japan

my question is why MS japan do not follow the same practice in US
by auto-renewal i expected that they would renew the same plan

anyway MS taught me a lesson
they have an xbox live practice in japan quite different from the other parts of the world

 

[januswon]

I thought you could change whether it's monthly/annual directly from the dashboard?

You could on the original Xbox.

you could change from annual to monthly, or from monthly to annual, on Xbox
and the difference can be used to offset future subscription payment

but now on Xbox360 in Japan, they wouldn't allow you to use the unused subscription to offset the payment during plan changes

might be in the other places, you can do this.

 

[Apharmd Battler]

Hmmmm, interesting read....

 

[januswon]

i think we can still do a lot with the free silver membership
360 is mainly used as DVD player at my home

 

[crunker99]

it is ms tryign to make money , why does it have to be racist, myabe they didnt do it in the US cause they dont have the resources to run millions of cc transcations every month

fact is we dunno why they did it, so until they say it was purely based on race, which they never willl, we cant be sure it isnt clerical

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

First XBLA has very little aimed at the japanese consumer, and now this.

 

[arne]

what can you do on your "My Xbox > Manage Profile > Modify Membership" page?

What are the options listed?

also, this is so out of my scope... I'm just curious.

 

[mylilbuddy]

how is that discriminating? Everyone pays more than the Japanese when purchasing an xbox 360 so I guess they are all being discriminated against as well. Mods should be able to delete threads instead of just locking them. This thread is a joke.