A rep from Edelman, Microsoft's PR company, wrote:
Wanted to follow up with you on your Consumerist story about a dog buying LIVE points (Man Wakes Up To Find Dog Went On XBOX Spending Spree)! It got back to Microsoft and they are taking action to correct the situation. People spend tens of billions of dollars on their pets every year, but it's pretty unusual for your pet to return the favor! Luckily for Greg [redacted], Microsoft is refunding his LIVE points and providing extra for good measure. We also created a gamertag for his dog Oscar so that Oscar doesn't feel left out anymore!
It's still probably a good idea to set those parental controls if you've got your credit card info saved on your Xbox Live account.
(Photo: Kotaku)
]]>Dear Microsoft,
I'm a little worried one of my cats is going to buy all the paid DLC for Fallout 3. Just giving you a heads-up.
Love,
Me.
Man, all my dog does is leave his chew toys in my bed. The cats, on the other hand....a large number of the desktop icons have had their names changed to mmmmmmmmmmm, xxxxxxxxxx, 00000000000 etc.
]]>Sure enough AMEX got my 7.95 back but one week later my xbox account was suspended despite 11 months remaining on my prepaid card, which, by the way, is not refundable.
]]>...is he a dachsund? If so, one would think his tag would be Oscar Meyer.
]]>@Trai_Dep: If I had an Xbox I'd friend the cat instead of the dog.
But that's just me.
]]>Suffice to say, if they're ridding PR on this, they probably let him keep the points (or else just transferred them to the new dog GT since the dog bought them technically) since it generates more positive publicity for them and probably costs them next to nothing.
]]>@willystyle: Psh, hide it? More like encourage the dog and catch him in action! Free points!
But seriously, I'll probably hide it cause I'd prefer a working controller.
]]>@willystyle: I don't think pecan is discounting what they did, rather just trying to clarify the details.
]]>His gamertag is:
Oscar The K9
You can send him a friend request.
[live.xbox.com]
I added him.
]]>Good move MS. As I've said before, their CSR's are useless, but the company as a whole does care. You just have to dig hard enough to find someone to talk to who isn't a CSR.
]]>Note to self, hide any game console controllers from dogs from now on.
]]>Didn't he say he already spent the points?
]]>@pecan 3.14159265: It seems like they are letting him keep the points since they said they were providing extra.
But yeah, unclear.
]]>Did Microsoft refund his money and let him keep the points or did they refund the money, take away the points...and then give him points? Great thing Microsoft did, but I'm just unclear as to whether they refunded Greg's money and took back their points, or just gave him the points as freebies.
]]>Ok, not really, but that's a pretty good response from Microsoft.
]]>Ahaha! Good read to start off the morning.
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