A few months before I left Ireland to move
to the USA I purchased an Xbox360 and setup an Xbox360 Live account, part
of the process was filling in my credit card details and billing address
which included Ireland as the country. Before I moved to the USA I sold
my Xbox360 and games and then purchased a brand new one over here so I
wouldn’t have any region and NTSC/PAL issues.
Fast forward on a year and the account
has expired and the Irish credit card that was used to setup the account
no longer exists so I receive an email letting me know that I need to provide
new credit card details but what should be an easy matter of filling out
a few fields on a form and updating my address details hits a brick wall.
The COUNTRY field is not editable, it’s fixed to Ireland, this means
that the credit card verification fails so I can’t renew my account.
Ok, maybe it’s time to call xbox support.
They answer, I give my details and tell them the issue and their answer
is that I cannot change the country. I tell them that people move countries
all the time, they must have some method of updating account information,
they tell me that they have no way of changing the country,
Apparently once the xBox360 Live account
is setup the country you select is permanent. Their solution to the
problem is to delete the account and have it setup again and this sounds
like a reasonable solution until you ask about all the items that you have
purchased on Xbox Live that are linked to your account.
Their answer is not a good one, Once
the account is deleted you will lose all the items your have purchased
and they cannot be transferred to the new account but you will be able
to repurchase them on the new account. Ok, what about a refund…
nope their system cannot provide refunds.
This is ridiculous, who designs a system
that makes it impossible to change the country field in a users account
details? People do move countries and not just to the USA but all around
the world.
What makes this a really laughable situation
is that I want to give Microsoft money for something and they are refusing
it, without the update to the country in my account I cannot use the Microsoft
Live marketplace to purchase new games on the Xbox Live Arcade, I cannot
access the Xbox Live video marketplace to purchase and download movies
and I can’t play any of my xbox Live games online without my subscription
account.
So if you have an Xbox Live account
then make sure you cancel any plans you may have in relation to moving
countries.
Dec's Dom Blog 
I have a similar problem with my Bank of America account: despite their name implying a uniform nationwide entity, they won’t allow you to change states. I opened my account in New Mexico, and now I’m in North Carolina. I’ve given them my new address, but something still flags the account as a New Mexico account, and they tell me there’s no way to change that. So now whenever I make a deposit at the bank branch 2 miles away from my permanent residence, I have to fill out an out-of-state deposit slip. They don’t keep any in the lobby, so I have to wait in line to request one, get out the way while I fill it out so I don’t hold up the line, then get back in line to actually deposit my money. They said they’d send me prepopulated deposit slips, but never have. Modern efficiency is a marvelous thing… thank heaven my employer offers direct deposit.
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How incredible backward.
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@1 I actually think it’s a US thinkg versus Bank of America thing. I moved from Massachussets to New Hampshire and have the same issue.
I tend to think now of American States as different countries, I find that helps to explain all the weird differences in laws etc.
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im in australia and have a similar problem.i used to love my xbox 360 and had bought about 20 000 points.all this hassle is turning me rite off the 360 and buying more points.great way to piss off good customers.
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I have the same problem I Moved TO New Zealand but can’t change my billing info from USA. So i purchased a points card but it wont accept the code because apparently i still live in America
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I got a british account can I delete it and then recover it to make it a us account?
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I have a similar problem, I was living in the US when I first purchaced Xbox Live, and I now live in Canada. I tried to change my account to Canada.
First phone call: the guy said no problem, took my information, and then made me hold for 20 minutes. He told me everything should be fine. I checked, and it wasn’t. So I called again.
Second phone call: I told him straight away that I moved to Canada, and I need to update my account from US to Canada. He said no problem. About 30 minutes of back and forth and he told me that it was impossible. So, I suspect their policy is to play ignorant. When I finally confronted him about it, he told me that it was Microsoft policy no to do this. To this, I told him to change the policy (futile, I know), but he said “sorry, I can’t help you, is there anything else you need help with.” He was trying to ignore me!
After asking him again to change my address, and being refused, he told me to blame the Canadian government. I was so taken back. That’s rediculous. There’s Xbox Live in Canada, and the US, so obviously, there is no barrier. I mean, if it was trade laws, then technically, I shouldn’t be able to buy anything in the US. If I go and buy something online from a US company and have it mailed to me, no problems. Why is this so difficult?
If it’s for tax reasons, then why can’t they just charge me the Goods and Services Tax, and change my account. I would be OK with that.
As it sits, I have a few hundered dollars worth of stuff in my XBL account that will stagnate. I can’t buy anymore points because I don’t have a canadian address, on my credit card. Which, by the way, I can use just fine to pay for my XBL yearly fees. If I could just by more MS Points, I wouldn’t care, but this is rediculous.
If anyone from Microsoft reads this: Your policy stinks. If there was ever a good time to buy a Wii, I think it’s come.
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Given the predatory nature of Microsoft policy towards any changes to user accounts I suspect that a class-action lawsuit is in order.
I attempted to delete my unneeded hotmail account in an effort to tidy up my online clutter. I was denied. I contacted India and after 3-4 hours on the phone I met the same end. I was told to allow it to expire by not accessing it for 120 days. I told them to pretend 120 days had lapsed and to initiate the process that deletes the account. They couldn’t do it. Couldn’t do it or wouldn’t do it? Being that they wrote the admin software and designed the Hotmail system I suspect that “couldn’t” is a relatively remote possibility. This leaves “wouldn’t” which equates to unfriendly business practices towards consumers which should lead to a legal review of Microsoft consumer policy.
If email policy is this aggressive I can only imagine what it will be like when Microsoft controls online access to your financial accounts.
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Same problem… Greek in Italy
Are they so stupid indeed ???
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I have had the same problem. I moved to Norway from Australia and can’t change the country field. To add insult to injury when I change the country field on my new ID it changes the language to Norwegian which I can’t read. Just to ice the cake I havn’t got a Norwegian credit card so when I used my wife’s on the new Norwegian account it didn’t allow me to pay. Makes me wish I spent money on a new pc instead. I think microsoft needs to lift their game
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same problem! wend MS lunch xbox live ,my country”PORTUGAL” dont had LIVE so i made a spanish acount! today i recived an email from xbox live spain that my credit card has been refused to pay for the new 12 month membership! the email state to give them a new form of payment! so i went live and insert a new credit card ..and it did not accepted i also insert a 3 month pre-PAY CARD and got the same message on screen method not accepted please insert a new method of payment! phone support and the say that new rules are apliable since last update ,if the credit card adress dont match the country of the acount than it will be blocked!and since I own them the member ship the pre-pay card dont work weither!”I BROUGHT A pre-pay card from spain !just like my account !i think the way is to open a new acount in PORTUGAL !!but what about my 22.800gamertag achivements will i lose them????any one????
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i bought xbox in ireland and purchsed live there aswell, but i moved to wales, most things still work to be honest but i want the dlc for cod:black ops and cant because i moved they realy need to sort it out, i was talking to the head office in dublin and they said “you can make a new account but keep your old one on the xbox this will allow you to keep all your downloaded stuff” i asked “what about my microsoft points, can i transfer them?” basicly they said no, what a load of pricks, im going to get my friend in ireland to recover my gamer tag and download the content then,
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