Microsoft just locked my brand new Microsoft account
... citing activity in violation of the terms and conditions.
Not saying I had carried out such activity. So... perhaps a bad person tried to log in? But then how could MS know that he/she had given agreement to such T&Cs - without which s/he cannot be in breach of them?
MS has really not thought this through.
Then I find on web MS says "it's because activity associated with your account might violate our Terms of Use."
Now it is only /might/.
What next? Precrime? ;)
6 comments
[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 22.1 ms ] threadMaking the account seemed problematic - there was flaws, one of which was on the face of it fatal, in the sign up process, which I was able to work around. It was a lot of work.
Support were worse than useless. Not contacting them would have saved time and frustration and had the same outcome as far as problem solving was concerned.
(Support talked past me. I don't think they ever once read what I wrote, and they sent boilerplate replies - they were repeated every few replies - on a subject vaguely related to the matter in hand, but completely useless and irrelevant to the actual situation.)
Having made the account, handed over all the personal info, bam. Account not used, but supposedly violated T&C.
What I think it really is, is post-creation assessment, with a set of criteria by which MS ban accounts. So you go through all the hoops - all the time and effort - and it's a waste of time.
I can imagine MS not wanting to publish these criteria, to prevent them being circumvented, but I would guess the real players know them already. Normal people like you and me, we all get burned.
I avoid big companies these days. I find the experience invariably agonizing and invariably in the end a failure.
Sounds likely.
MS said they would lift the block if I entered a code sent to my phone. I did and they did.
Quite how entering a phone code remedies a genuine violation is anyone's guess.
Phone number is the gold standard for accessing third-party data broker collated information.
If they didn't have your number, and then they did, you really let them me know who you are, and all about you.
And yes I aquiesced to extortion. The alternative was being unable to run or refund the program I'd bought.