So i logged into my Live account today and noticed I was missing a decent chunk of MS points. My Xbox account was hacked nearly a year ago so my first thought was, "Here we go again..." I went to the Billing section to check out my purchase history to see how my points were spent and discovered this:

So I'm on the phone with a representative named Jamie now and will update shortly.

Edit: I should also mention that the vast majority of the points I have purchased are from the $20/1600pt cards I get from Best Buy, Target, Wal Mart, etc. I typically buy a handful of them when I find them on sale.

That's crazy, especially since one of my accounts has had points(just a few hundred, but still) sitting on it for over three years and they've never expired. I'd give them hell.

Only MS points won immediately from a Microsoft-sponsered contest (unless it's an ordinary points card) expire. Perhaps you're account was hacked, and that the hacker claimed it as "Points expired" in hopes of not getting caught?

I know if you get them from a contest they can expire.

I guess this is why Microsoft is getting rod of points. Too many probelms.

So I was on hold for just over 26 minutes and now my issue has been forwarded to a "Tier 3" support level. Our best theory is that when my account was hacked last year, Microsoft refunded me all my lost points. Sadly, when they put the points back into my account, they may have marked them as "promotional" points which is why they expired.

Now I have to wait a few days for them to sort it out and hopefully refund my points...

This is why I just buy the cards and use them as needed rather than put all the points on the system and save them that way. Especially after I was hacked last year. Best of luck getting this sorted out Magi hope you get your points back or at the very least give them hell.

I think I'm heading that direction as well. I specifically asked the tech support guy if the actual cards expire. He said no. I figure I'll just buy them on sale and toss them in a drawer until I'm ready to redeem them. I should be good...unless my house gets hacked! lol

I'll report back in a few days when I get help from "Tier 3"

_{that's the first thing that popped into my mind, lol}

_{omg ily}

That sucks. Microsoft needs to know that the points they give to hacking victims shouldn't expire. That's a mistake they should be expected to fix. Hopefully they learn form this and change the way they do this kind of thing so it doesn't happen again.

So in the interest of closure, here are the results:

I called tech support again last night (my third phone call) and despite the notes taken by the previous two reps, the guy immediately starts blaming me for not using my "promotional points" before they expired. I half-imagined that he was sitting there in his chair with his headset waggling his finger at me. I patiently listened to his spiel and then asked that he read the notes because he was mistaken. After being placed on hold for a few (five?) minutes, he returned and apologized. I was checking out my account while I was talking to him and noticed that he credited back 1600 points and then another 600 points for a total of 2200 points. He told me the bonus 400 were for my troubles.

Case closed, thank goodness.

So now I'll have enough to purchase the Cold Stream DLC for one of my FAVORITE GAMES OF ALL TIME: Left 4 Dead 2 (I hope).

Glad to hear it finally worked out in the end. Bonus points for actually getting a service rep to admit they were wrong!

Literally... lol.

Wow, that was nice of them. Glad to here that everything worked out. Next time though if I were you I would just buy the cards and stick them in a drawer until I am ready to make my purchase.

Cool, at least the tech was nice enough to apoligize and give you a few extra points. It all worked out in the end.

Well, I thought it was case closed...

Just got an e-mail from Microsoft with 1800 MORE points! I'm a happy camper to be sure.

wow, that's nice of them — any word on what the extra points were officially for?

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My best guess is that the guy I spoke with on the phone the third time did not update the work order with his resolution (the intial points refund). Because of this, the "investigation" continued. Once the second group came to the conclusion that my points shouldn't have expired, they gave me my points back without realizing the first guy already did.

That's just my best guess. The e-mail today was a pretty vague form-letter.

edit: With this kind of confusion, I can definately start to see the validity of the news articles that were going around stating that the Xbox tech support people were being social engineered into unwittingly helping unscrupulous people hack accounts.

Nice. That's good service.