deadlax

Spent about 15 minutes on the phone convincing the Xbox rep that I wanted to cancel Xbox live. I didn't want their free game, I didn't want to transfer to monthly service, and I sure as shit don't want to transfer an account to a friend under my name. $50 a year is just not worth it for sports games when I can play them for free on PS2. I will miss the downloadable rosters for ESPn games, but football is over anyways. Just watned to let everyone know what the experience is like.

BizRodian

I actually got a $20 gift card for signing up with AOL. I was dreading calling up and cancelling it, but when I finally did, it was really simple and such. Surprised me.

jeffdsmith

Ugh. I'm going to have to face that call come july, not looking forward to it. I already tried the "Can I set up my account to cancel when my time is up?" - "No, you can only cancel within the month your account expires." Bah.

dgc

I have no intentions of cancelling but maybe I should try to cancel to see if they offer a free game.

Get Me Coffee

You know you can cancel XBL via the XBOX...

deadlax

I saw no method of cancelling xbox live through the dashboard. The e-mail I was sent also said you had to call to cancel, as did their faq page online. I spent about 15 minutes trying to cancel on the 'box before I called them.

kar10

no you can't!

You have to call 1 800 4MY XBOX

I did it this morning and it only took about 5 minutes to cancel. They didn't hassle me or offer me a free game. They just ask me why I was cancelling and that's it. I got my cancellation # and the phone call was over.

Wozza

I cancelled mine through the dashboard - easy as a press of a button.

Maybe it's differant in the US? I have a PAL console.

Then resumed it about a week later for burnout 3 goodness!

Verbal Gorilla

WHAT?!!! When I called and cancelled, it was as easy as pie. And they didn't offer me a free game?! I might have stayed if they did. Curiously, did you use your accont often up until you decided to cancel? I hadn't logged in once in the previous 2-3 months, so maybe they put less pressure to keep me around knowing I will probably just cancel in a few more months anyway...

amped

From the Live dashboard, go to account management, then subscription.

It'll ask if you want to cancel your subscription. I've cancelled 2 accounts this way.

deadlax

I had only used my account 10 times in the year I had it. Only for Sports games, and mainly for roster downloads. When I went to the Subscription menu the only thing it asked me was if i wanted to go yearly, monthly, or use a pre-paid subscription card. No metion of cancelling my subscription. Either way, it's done.

Get Me Coffee

That's what I did too...but kar10 says it can't happen.

Michael Ballack

I canceled x box live in october. They should have an option to let you do it online somehow. When I called they tried to make me feel guilty that I was cancelling. THey're like, "You do know that you can no longer use x box live and your gamertag can't be used again, dont you". The same thing happened to me when I went to cancel Star Wars Galaxies. I know companies don't like to lose customers, but making them feel bad is not the way to keep them.

Commando

According to the dozen or so people I talked to at Xbox, there is no way of them knowing when you logged into their system with your gamertag. I had my credit card charged and didnt realize it until they sent my credit card renewal notice the next year. I called them and argued for a refund since I had not used my account in over a year "Cant someone just look up in the system the last time I logged on" and their response "no one in our company can determine when you logged on", which I know is a load of crap, but M$ will deny anything to rip the customer out of $50. /rant

sniper308

I'd say that was probably just an ignorant CSR...

Michael Corvin

Well, an easy way I found... cancel your credit card or request a new one with a new number. I just got lucky and my time was up for a new card, and it had a different number than the one I used on Live. I got emails for about 3 months from Xbox Live saying they were trying to charge my card but can't get it to go through. Persistent bastards. No dealing with MS this way. You might be able to tell your CC company to refuse any charges from MS or Xbox also.

starseed1981

I cancelled mine through the dash board, took a whole ten seconds.

mr.snowmizer

Why not just take the (anywhere from) 5 to 15 minutes... which, if actually accurate, has to be a wild exception... to call to notify them as one had to agree to when entering into the contract?

I really don't understand what the issue is.

Verbal Gorilla

Funny, and probably off topic, I have cancelled a few other subscription services by "updating" my credit card information with an expired date.

jeffdsmith

The dashboard thing, my older xboxes have it listed, my newest one does not. So apparently its a version thing. (Big Surprise.) So to those that did it through the dashboard, when did you do it? I have the feeling that if I connected one of my old boxes it would update live and that option would disappear.

mr.snowmizer

It's probably the way to go when dealing with some hard-to-reach service ("Who exactly do I call to cancel this magazine?"), but for Microsoft with Xbox Live? Seems like a needless hassle if you're just going to have to cover yourself by contacting your credit card company.

Just call Microsoft in the first place.

Groucho

What free game do you get if you pretend to cancel?

amped

The first cancellation was 2 months ago on a Thompson drive. 2nd cancellation was on a Samsung drive 3 days ago.

Cyberock

I had no problem canceling, I cancelled the credit card I registered with.

Michael Corvin

b/c like someone said, you can only cancel during the month it is set to renew/expire. I don't remember when I signed up, so calling multiple times and sitting on hold for 15 minutes each is a hassle. One short call to the credit card company is all it takes.