I'm going to keep this simple: Fix Xbox Live. When you've finished fixing it, I want credit in my account for the time the service was down.

Why isn't this happening?

Last night I spent 28 minutes on the phone with your technical support and then billing departments before you disconnected me while transferring me to a supervisor. During those 28 minutes I explained the technical issues I was having with the service and was asked for a statement on my feelings on the whole outage situation. Then I was given a case number and thanked for taking the time to give you more information on the problem. The gentleman I spoke with was very nice and attentive, but wasn't able to resolve the situation (I didn't expect this), nor was he able to offer me an reparations for my time without service so I had him transfer me to billing.

This is the part that makes my head explode.

I gave the billing representative all my account information again (it seems your computers were having trouble looking people up by gamertags. Go Windows!) and then explained to her the problems I had been having. She informed me that you were going to give everyone a free arcade game for their troubles. I told her that I didn't want a free mystery game--all I wanted was a month's credit (I don't want to have to waste my time calling back to give you an exact number of days it was broken for me) for the time the service has been (and judging by your inept repair efforts) and will likely be down. She told me that you hadn't authorized any other course of action. I explained to her that if my cable or phone service went out for a period of two weeks they wouldn't offer me a free phone call or pay-per-view movie and still charge me for the time I didn't have service--they'd just give me an excuse (you've got that part down) and credit me for the downtime. After she read her little script about unforeseen issues causing the problems (Really?!) You didn't know people were getting Xbox 360's for Christmas?!) I asked to speak with her supervisor in hopes that they had the ability to help me. She quickly informed me that they would tell me the exact same thing and I wouldn't be getting anything other than a free arcade game. She put me on hold and that's when we magically got disconnected. Fun times!

So here's where we stand:

- You were totally surprised when all those Xbox 360's you sold between Thanksgiving and Christmas all went online on the same day.
- Live still doesn't work properly.
- You can't tell anyone when these issues will be resolved.
- You think an arcade game is going to make everything all better.
- Nobody knows that this mystery arcade game is and when we'll actually get it.
- You're making me pay for a service that doesn't work.
- You don't seem to care that you're making me pay for a service doesn't work.

I love Xbox Live, but you guys are making a strong case for Sony's free service being the best solution. I used to argue that I was getting my money's worth from Xbox Live, but right now I'm getting anything but. You're a billion dollar corporation--get things working and give me credit for the downtime. Oh yeah, enjoy your lawsuit--you've earned it.

Regards,
Aaron Thomas