Are Microsoft TRYING to **** me off??

[Silverbullet767]

You would think that buying a microsoft product would make you a valued customer. You would think that buying 2 of the same product would make you a fantastic customer, but oh no, Microsoft like to make it as hard as possible for everyone.

I have been using an Xbox360 for the past 2 and a bit years. I have 2 gamertags on this machine. Mine: Silverbullet767, and my girlfriends: Sharona

Everything has been working fine, no complaints.

I bought a 2nd Xbox360 to solve the issue of the 2 of us wanting to play at the same time.

So I set up the new xbox and recovered my gamertag and we both played Call of Duty 4 fine.

Then came the dealbreaker... once I recover my gamertag on another console I cannot sign back into my gamertag on the first console, why the hell not??!

Surely a simple bit of software would stop 2 sign-ins on the same account without resorting to recovering my gamertag (20 to 30 pissing minute process) everytime I fancy playing in a different room.

Its absolutely ridiculous. All I want is to be able to play on either console, with either gamertag, without any hassle.

If I cant get it sorted then Im just going to take it back as its not worth the 30 minute wait to change room.

I emailed microsoft customer support with the query, so fingers crossed.

They will lose out on more hardware and software sales from me if they cannot come to a solution.

Does anyone have contact details of a head-honcho at xbox live HQ, as I feel I will just get the standard 'no-dice' reply.

Effin useless.

Edited by Silverbullet767 on Wednesday 27th August 00:13

Edited by Silverbullet767 on Wednesday 27th August 00:14

[ih8thisname]

I gave up hope on Microsoft a long time ago, so yes I agree.

fkin' useless..


Anyway, IIRC Mekon is the man you want to talk to for contact details of the big shots!

Edited by ih8thisname on Wednesday 27th August 00:36

[DKMsport]

would swapping the hard drive when you want to play on a different machine solve the 30 minute problem?

[Steve Evil]

If you'd buy that memory card I suggested yesterday you could simply store your tag on that (I do) and then it makes it a cinch to take your profile with you if you go to a mates or in your case wander into another room.

[madrob6]

I have the same thing and I just swap the hard drives over. Takes no time at all and saves hassling about.

[Altrezia]

I didn't realize they locked it out like that - seems a bit pointless?

[Silverbullet767]

Steve Evil said:

If you'd buy that memory card I suggested yesterday you could simply store your tag on that (I do) and then it makes it a cinch to take your profile with you if you go to a mates or in your case wander into another room.

This is looking like the answer, I take it you dont need to wait on it downloading the gamer profile then?

What I don't get is, my gamer profile is only 7MB on my new xbox, what the hell is it downloading?? I can download 500MB map packs quicker than that.

[Steve Evil]

Silverbullet767 said:

Steve Evil said:

If you'd buy that memory card I suggested yesterday you could simply store your tag on that (I do) and then it makes it a cinch to take your profile with you if you go to a mates or in your case wander into another room.

This is looking like the answer, I take it you dont need to wait on it downloading the gamer profile then?

What I don't get is, my gamer profile is only 7MB on my new xbox, what the hell is it downloading?? I can download 500MB map packs quicker than that.

Must be authenticating something. You don't need to wait for it to download anything no, mine just sits there with the memory card in 99% of the time, as soon as you turn it on it signs the profile in. It's really useful for those times when you go to a mates and you're playing a 2 player game, so you take your memory card with you and you earn all the gamerpoints for it as you normally would. Plus you take your friends list with you too, so you can invite people on your list that your mate won't necessarily have on his.

[Silverbullet767]

Steve Evil said:

Silverbullet767 said:

Steve Evil said:

If you'd buy that memory card I suggested yesterday you could simply store your tag on that (I do) and then it makes it a cinch to take your profile with you if you go to a mates or in your case wander into another room.

This is looking like the answer, I take it you dont need to wait on it downloading the gamer profile then?

What I don't get is, my gamer profile is only 7MB on my new xbox, what the hell is it downloading?? I can download 500MB map packs quicker than that.

Must be authenticating something. You don't need to wait for it to download anything no, mine just sits there with the memory card in 99% of the time, as soon as you turn it on it signs the profile in. It's really useful for those times when you go to a mates and you're playing a 2 player game, so you take your memory card with you and you earn all the gamerpoints for it as you normally would. Plus you take your friends list with you too, so you can invite people on your list that your mate won't necessarily have on his.

Ok to clarify then....

I keep my gamertag, and her gamer tag authenticated on Xbox A,

I copy both gamertags to the memory card...

I keep the memory card in Xbox B and it can use both gamertags without authenticating??

[Steve Evil]

Silverbullet767 said:

Steve Evil said:

Silverbullet767 said:

Steve Evil said:

If you'd buy that memory card I suggested yesterday you could simply store your tag on that (I do) and then it makes it a cinch to take your profile with you if you go to a mates or in your case wander into another room.

This is looking like the answer, I take it you dont need to wait on it downloading the gamer profile then?

What I don't get is, my gamer profile is only 7MB on my new xbox, what the hell is it downloading?? I can download 500MB map packs quicker than that.

Must be authenticating something. You don't need to wait for it to download anything no, mine just sits there with the memory card in 99% of the time, as soon as you turn it on it signs the profile in. It's really useful for those times when you go to a mates and you're playing a 2 player game, so you take your memory card with you and you earn all the gamerpoints for it as you normally would. Plus you take your friends list with you too, so you can invite people on your list that your mate won't necessarily have on his.

Ok to clarify then....

I keep my gamertag, and her gamer tag authenticated on Xbox A,

I copy both gamertags to the memory card...

I keep the memory card in Xbox B and it can use both gamertags without authenticating??

Not exactly no, you'll need to store your gamertag(s) on the memory card, then when you want to play on box A it will need to be in box A, likewise with box B. If you both want to play on seperate machines then you might want to consider a second card for the second tag, or you'll have to keep one tag permanently on one machine.

Sadly you can't keep your tag in more than one place at a time, so you can't have it on a box and on a card at the same time.

[Silverbullet767]

Steve Evil said:

Silverbullet767 said:

Steve Evil said:

Silverbullet767 said:

Steve Evil said:

If you'd buy that memory card I suggested yesterday you could simply store your tag on that (I do) and then it makes it a cinch to take your profile with you if you go to a mates or in your case wander into another room.

This is looking like the answer, I take it you dont need to wait on it downloading the gamer profile then?

What I don't get is, my gamer profile is only 7MB on my new xbox, what the hell is it downloading?? I can download 500MB map packs quicker than that.

Must be authenticating something. You don't need to wait for it to download anything no, mine just sits there with the memory card in 99% of the time, as soon as you turn it on it signs the profile in. It's really useful for those times when you go to a mates and you're playing a 2 player game, so you take your memory card with you and you earn all the gamerpoints for it as you normally would. Plus you take your friends list with you too, so you can invite people on your list that your mate won't necessarily have on his.

Ok to clarify then....

I keep my gamertag, and her gamer tag authenticated on Xbox A,

I copy both gamertags to the memory card...

I keep the memory card in Xbox B and it can use both gamertags without authenticating??

Not exactly no, you'll need to store your gamertag(s) on the memory card, then when you want to play on box A it will need to be in box A, likewise with box B. If you both want to play on seperate machines then you might want to consider a second card for the second tag, or you'll have to keep one tag permanently on one machine.

Sadly you can't keep your tag in more than one place at a time, so you can't have it on a box and on a card at the same time.

Christ, so I need 2 memory cards?!!

I'll be on to microsoft for 2 free ones, if not, its going back!

What a rip off!

ETA: Christ! £23 for a 64MB one or £30 for a 256MB

So thats £46 or £60. That's the price to pay for buying another xbox, what the hell are they playing at??

Don't they want repeat business??

Edited by Silverbullet767 on Wednesday 27th August 11:25

[DKMsport]

wouldnt a memory stick work just as well as a xbox memory card? you could easily pick up a couple of 1gb memory sticks for less than that.

[Silverbullet767]

Called xbox live helpline, got through to a unhelpful helpful Indian UK based representative who game me the standard reply "you can recover your gamertag on either console providings, the authenticating process only takes 5 minutes free ring ding(erm no it doesn't, I done it twice last night, and it look a bloody lifetime)

I asked why a 7MB profile takes longer to download than a 500MB map pack, must be your ISP she said, erm, no... I have the UK's highest rated ISP and I've not had any problems with speed, weather its day, night or half past Sunday.

It's not looking good, I would cancel my whole subscription if I werent so damn addicted.

If I don't get a reasonable answer I'm going to take it back, the waits not worth the hassle. As I said before, whats to stop a simple bit of software stopping the same gamertag signing in twice, its a bloody joke. And a money making scheme designed to make you buy memory cards.

Its not on.

[Silverbullet767]

DKMsport said:

wouldnt a memory stick work just as well as a xbox memory card? you could easily pick up a couple of 1gb memory sticks for less than that.

I don't think it works like that, would be great if it did, I already have 2 USB flash drives.

[Riknos]

Can't you just swap hard drives over? Literally can take 30 seconds, including running to and from rooms? Put a post-it note on each HD so you know which one has your gamertag and which has the lady's on?
Sounds like the cheapest/quickest/easiest option IMO..

[Silverbullet767]

Riknos said:

Can't you just swap hard drives over? Literally can take 30 seconds, including running to and from rooms? Put a post-it note on each HD so you know which one has your gamertag and which has the lady's on?
Sounds like the cheapest/quickest/easiest option IMO..

I like your thinking, I call the 60GB!

Does that mean that if I download castle crashers tonight on my new xbox HDD then she wont be able to 'download again' on her HDD??

We can both play games that I paid for on the first machine when the 2 gamertags were together.

Would I need to authenticate again to download it on the first xbox, then authenticate on the 2nd and 'download again' so we both can play?

ETA: I see this was suggested right at the beginning of the thread, apologies, I had my blinkers on and skim read the reply's. Thanks all.

Why is nothing ever bloody easy?

Edited by Silverbullet767 on Wednesday 27th August 13:08

[RB Will]

Should have bought a PS3 or a Wii instead of another x box. then no hassle at least that opens you up to playing more and different games. Please dont tell me you own 2 copies of COD and you both play at the same time in different rooms?

[Silverbullet767]

RB Will said:

Should have bought a PS3 or a Wii instead of another x box. then no hassle at least that opens you up to playing more and different games. Please dont tell me you own 2 copies of COD and you both play at the same time in different rooms?

Yep. I also have a PS3 & a Wii.

They don't really get a look in, the Xbox 360 is far superior than both.

The PS3 gets used to stream movies (until GT5 comes out)

And the Wii gathers dust until I have my mates over for a drink or 10.

I am gamings biggest cash cow. And I love it.

[MK4 Slowride]

SB, prozak

It's all been engineered this way so you complaining isn't going to do anything but waste your time. All Microsoft are interested in is hackers & copyright infringement.

They made it so, nowt anyone can do about it as they know you'll be back regardless.

Probably a lot of people in your situation so they just milk that bit more money from everyone.

[Silverbullet767]

MK4 Slowride said:

SB, prozak

It's all been engineered this way so you complaining isn't going to do anything but waste your time. All Microsoft are interested in is hackers & copyright infringement.

They made it so, nowt anyone can do about it as they know you'll be back regardless.

Probably a lot of people in your situation so they just milk that bit more money from everyone.

I would be quicker opening my wallet, bending over and shouting "rape me microsoft, rape me"

I gave in and bought 2 memory cards, slightly cheaper than usual £15 each.

Everything works the way it should now.

I'm still not a happy bunny, but I'll get over it, I've got castle crashers to play!