I'm posting an update to this because it is truly comical. Keep in mind, I have no realistic expectations in getting this game back. It was delisted a decade+ ago and appears to be gone from their servers. At the most, I was just wanting to make them aware of this situation as it seems to be off-nominal…other delisted games still worked just fine when I did the license transfer to the "new" Xbox 360.
So I called customer support on Monday morning. Detailed the situation as best I could. Years ago, I actually exported a spreadsheet from the marketplace to keep track of all of my purchases. I did this before the transition to the current Xbox store. So I actually have the exact date of the purchase…5/9/2007.
I was put on hold for 30 minutes while the account was researched. The rep came back and told me there was no record of that purchase. I was puzzled at that response, so I asked if they could see any other purchases I made during that timeframe. Again, I have a list so I rattled off some purchases before and after that date to see if there were records of those. These were XBLA purchases such as Sonic, Golden Axe, TMNT 89, etc. A mix of games I still have access to today despite them being delisted. All purchases within days/weeks of Double Dragon. I was then told that their database doesn't go back that far. So realizing I wasn't going to get anywhere I asked if the issue could be escalated. I was given a case number and told a supervisor would contact me within 24-48 hours.
So that gets me to today, obviously I was never contacted by a supervisor so I requested another call back. I told the rep I had a case number and would like for the call to escalated. But nope, we start the whole process over again. I play along. Mostly it's me being put on hold. But I get the same response. No record of this purchase. I ask if there is anyway online for me to check my purchase history going back that far. I was directed to "order history" tab on your account page. But my experience with that is awful. I can only scroll back a few months before it just locks up. There is no way to filter for specific dates. A very frustrating design. (If anybody knows of a better way please let me know. I would love to be able to search through my nearly 20 years of Xbox purchases for moments just like this)
So again I ask to speak to a supervisor. They ask if I would like a call back while the supervisor did some research but I declined. I said I'll hold. So that I did. I put the phone down on speaker and just let it sit. Occasionally I would ask if anybody was still there and I would immediately get a response. Still researching. I was on hold for over an hour and 15 minutes before I got to speak to the supervisor. This is close to a 2 hour phone call at this point. Mostly just me sitting on hold though.
The supervisor starts the whole process over again. I'm trying to explain as best I can the situation. He cuts me off and asks if I can redownload the content from the Xbox 360 by scrolling through the download history. (Anybody who has done this knows what an absolute pain it would be to find one purchase 10+ years ago) I told him that I can not because the content has been delisted so therefore it doesn't show the title of the content in my download queue. It lists it as "content not available"…among hundred of other pieces of content that are no longer available.
At this point over 2 hours on the phone, I was hung up on. I was kind of stunned to be honest so I hurriedly requested another callback. I get another rep. I don't even say anything about my previous experience. I just tell him my name and that I have a case number. He takes the number and immediately says "I'm sorry sir I can not hear you…can you repeat" *click* hung up on again. lol Apparently I have been put on a blacklist of sorts.
I don't even know what to think at this point. I've had some trying customer service issues over the years but this one is right up there. I tried to request a callback again but apparently I've hit my limit of requests for the day. It tells me to try back tomorrow.
Again, I have no delusions of this of ever getting resolved. So I have no idea why I'm wasting my time over a $10 purchase 15 years ago. It's not worth the hassle. I did DM @XboxSupport on twitter but haven't gotten a response. I doubt I follow up anymore. Just wanted to vent here, I guess. Hopefully this is just one bad hiccup on our way to an all digital future. Thanks for reading.
