According to InformationWeek, Microsoft this week is facing a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of Samuel Lassoff, of Horsham, PA. Lassoff claims he was ripped off by the Microsoft Points system used on Xbox Live. He said, according to IW, "an invoice he received earlier this month from Microsoft included charges for purchases he couldn't complete due to a balky download system—and he claimed it wasn't an accident."
Lassoff alleges that he and "hundreds" of other Xbox Live users have been overcharged. "Microsoft breached that contract by collecting revenues for digital goods and services which were not provided," the lawsuit states, adding that Microsoft "engaged in a scheme to unjustly enrich itself through their fraudulent handling" of his account.
The crux of the problem is that Microsoft sells its points only in certain numbers, and those often don't match up with whatever the consumer wants to purchase, meaning he/she has to spend more to add points on Xbox Live and then is stuck with leftover points, which are usually not enough to buy something else - unless you buy still more points.
The Microsoft Points system has always seemed a little awkward. That's one area where Sony's PSN seems to be superior - you see the actual price on an item and you simply pay for it. Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg told G4TV this week, "We never intended to mislead people." We'll be curious to see if Microsoft overhauls its payment system on Xbox Live with a dashboard update in the coming months.
Update: For those of you interested in reading the full legal complaint, you can check that out here, thanks to Silicon Alley Insider.
7 Comments
January 26, 2010
If only one thing comes from this lawsuit, I hope it's that Microsoft finally fixes their retarded points system. I know exactly why they do it, to get people to buy more points for more stuff. But I want exact dollar amounts for items and exact point amounts to match them.
January 27, 2010
The math really isn't that difficult. $20 gets you 1600 points, 1600 points/$20 = 80 points/$ all day, every day.
If a shirt for your avatar costs 160 points (10% of 1600), guess what, it actually costs you $2 (10% of $20)...
I agree that the system is rigged to leave you with too many or too few points (so you've either wasted money or have to buy more) but if you can't do the math to figure out the actual cost of a point then you probably shouldn't have the debit card needed to buy them through the marketplace in the first place....
January 29, 2010
Also, if you only buy Xbox Live Arcade games, then you don't have to worry about having odd amounts. It's only when you start buying DLC or useless crap like Avatar clothing and dashboard themes that you get odd amounts.
This lawsuit has no merit and will get thrown out.
February 8, 2010
can help me anybody? because i heard i this (2010) year [url=http://www.xboxlivesklep.pl/punkty-xbox-live.html]ms points[/url] will for fre. is it true?
March 11, 2010
ou can't do the math to figure out the actual cost of a point then you probably shouldn't have the debit card needed to buy them through the marketplace in the first place.
micro sd card
April 21, 2010
Still a better payment system like the one sony uses would be a lot better.
buitenkeuken
May 6, 2010
Microsoft took my points away that were given to me because I over paid for an xbox 360 game. They will not give me my points back, the points I paid for, because they claim they were promotional points. If I was given points back because I over paid for a game, shouldn't I be able to keep those points that were originally paid for by me?? Not to mention I was never notified about over paying for an xbox game.