My Experience With Microsoft and Sony Supports

[ethomaz]

Let's start...

I created a email at Microsoft in November to allow my little boy to play with me with his own PSN Account linked to that email.
It worked pretty and and I even choose to buy God of War Ragnarok on his PSN because it was way cheaper (let's say the dollar in Brasil was so high at time that it should be way more than the R$300 I paid on his PSN).
For that it done like 6 months without any issue.

Well this weekend due the 75% deal I choose to buy another game on his PSN... well I just don't remembered the password so I had to go on recover with a email sent to Microsoft email... well if I don't remember the PSN password how I will remember the MS Account password? So I blocked both accounts trying all the password that makes sense in my that I could have used to his account (remember I don't give him access to his account... I was the only one with the password ).

It was my fault to not have saved the password but it gives the opportunity to work with both supports.

First I thought "let's just recover the email account and after use it to change the passworf of the PSN"... pretty easy, no?
Nope... it was a nightamre.

MS doesn't allow you to enter in contact with them directly... you have to use a Recovery Account Form that I have suppicious that nothing happen on the other side.
You have two chances per day... I used 8 times in the last 4 days and all of them where rejected.

Why?

Well all the personal info of my child was right (I checked because as Father my child account is behind my own account so I can see and change some personal data including give some permission to him but I can't change or recover his account lol).
But the dumb form questioned two things that I could not get right...

- List your previous used passwords (WTF? If I know the exactly ACTUAL password I should not be here... and what PREVIOUS? This account never had another passwor than the one I created it).
- List the the emails and subjects you SENT email (WTF? I never sent email with that account... how can?)

I tried to put the emails I know I RECEIVED (for example the Puschase confirmation for God of War Ragnarok) but not avail it needs to be a email that I sent... and more dumb it is requiried even if you never SENT a email.

Dumb is beyond logic.

I so waited in a chat to talk with the actual MS support and the fixed response was... the only way to recover your account is from the Recovery Account Form then, you can try every day twice.... and after you recover your account you need to fill yor security info to not lose your account again.
My pacience was gone when he repeated the 5th time the same thing after I explained the form doesn't ask question that I can reply... it ask question that there is no reply in my case because I never sent a email to anybody.

I listed to him possible emails with date and even the content like the value I paid for God of War Ragnarok... with date 11/11/2023... and nothing he keep saying the Recovery Account Form.

I said a fuck bullshit... and left the chat.
It is beyond ridiculous... they don't even have a way to ask official documents to prove I'm really asking to recover my 4 years old child account.

I took some time... and so started to open the chat on PlayStation Support (after all I already used the 2 tried on Recovery Account Form today).
It took around 1 fucking hour to enter an atendee but I was on kitchen drinking somehting and in less than two minutes without reply the guy closed the chat.
I was so angry... and I tried to open chat again and the PS Support replied "There are too many chats on hold right now... try late... our working time is blablabla".

I give up for a hour or so.

Tried again and at least it put in the forever waiting queue... I keep checking each minute the chat... working and checking... took I believe over a hour to enter a attendee.
That basically make me happy again.

She was so fast to understand my issue.
Just checked the personal info like Name, Email, Credit Card last digits, etc.
And give me the option to change my email address... bingo... I created another one, she waited in the chat, and even keep saying things to the chat not drop, and so I recocered the account.
I give 10 to the attendee that resolved everything.

My only complain was the queue being to long.... waiting one hour is not acceptable so I discontent and the overall PlayStation Support received a 6.

Resume...
MS support is a JOKE.
Sony Support works fantastically when you get on the attendee... the waiting queue is beyond painful.

Still Sony keeps winning but needs serious enhancements in the system.

 

[ethomaz]

Man... I wrote too much
I wont review it... you guys deals with the errors.

 

[anonpuffs]

Let's start...

I created a email at Microsoft in November to allow my little boy to play with me with his own PSN Account linked to that email.
It worked pretty and and I even choose to buy God of War Ragnarok on his PSN because it was way cheaper (let's say the dollar in Brasil was so high at time that it should be way more than the R$300 I paid on his PSN).
For that it done like 6 months without any issue.

Well this weekend due the 75% deal I choose to buy another game on his PSN... well I just don't remembered the password so I had to go on recover with a email sent to Microsoft email... well if I don't remember the PSN password how I will remember the MS Account password? So I blocked both accounts trying all the password that makes sense in my that I could have used to his account (remember I don't give him access to his account... I was the only one with the password ).

It was my fault to not have saved the password but it gives the opportunity to work with both supports.

First I thought "let's just recover the email account and after use it to change the passworf of the PSN"... pretty easy, no?
Nope... it was a nightamre.

MS doesn't allow you to enter in contact with them directly... you have to use a Recovery Account Form that I have suppicious that nothing happen on the other side.
You have two chances per day... I used 8 times in the last 4 days and all of them where rejected.

Why?

Well all the personal info of my child was right (I checked because as Father my child account is behind my own account so I can see and change some personal data including give some permission to him but I can't change or recover his account lol).
But the dumb form questioned two things that I could not get right...

- List your previous used passwords (WTF? If I know the exactly ACTUAL password I should not be here... and what PREVIOUS? This account never had another passwor than the one I created it).
- List the the emails and subjects you SENT email (WTF? I never sent email with that account... how can?)

I tried to put the emails I know I RECEIVED (for example the Puschase confirmation for God of War Ragnarok) but not avail it needs to be a email that I sent... and more dumb it is requiried even if you never SENT a email.

Dumb is beyond logic.

I so waited in a chat to talk with the actual MS support and the fixed response was... the only way to recover your account is from the Recovery Account Form then, you can try every day twice.... and after you recover your account you need to fill yor security info to not lose your account again.
My pacience was gone when he repeated the 5th time the same thing after I explained the form doesn't ask question that I can reply... it ask question that there is no reply in my case because I never sent a email to anybody.

I listed to him possible emails with date and even the content like the value I paid for God of War Ragnarok... with date 11/11/2023... and nothing he keep saying the Recovery Account Form.

I said a fuck bullshit... and left the chat.
It is beyond ridiculous... they don't even have a way to ask official documents to prove I'm really asking to recover my 4 years old child account.

I took some time... and so started to open the chat on PlayStation Support (after all I already used the 2 tried on Recovery Account Form today).
It took around 1 fucking hour to enter an atendee but I was on kitchen drinking somehting and in less than two minutes without reply the guy closed the chat.
I was so angry... and I tried to open chat again and the PS Support replied "There are too many chats on hold right now... try late... our working time is blablabla".

I give up for a hour or so.

Tried again and at least it put in the forever waiting queue... I keep checking each minute the chat... working and checking... took I believe over a hour to enter a attendee.
That basically make me happy again.

She was so fast to understand my issue.
Just checked the personal info like Name, Email, Credit Card last digits, etc.
And give me the option to change my email address... bingo... I created another one, she waited in the chat, and even keep saying things to the chat not drop, and so I recocered the account.
I give 10 to the attendee that resolved everything.

My only complain was the queue being to long.... waiting one hour is not acceptable so I discontent and the overall PlayStation Support received a 6.

Resume...
MS support is a JOKE.
Sony Support works fantastically when you get on the attendee... the waiting queue is beyond painful.

Still Sony keeps winning but needs serious enhancements in the system.

Are you level 4 with your ps rewards? If it takes that long even with elevated support priority i cant imagine how long it would take for base level users lol

 

[ethomaz]

Are you level 4 with your ps rewards? If it takes that long even with elevated support priority i cant imagine how long it would take for base level users lol

It was my son account so it should be level 0 because it was created in last November
I don't know which level is mine.

Edit:

Thinking a bit about the girl talked with me in Portuguese BR so that means the support is regional (even the working time being the US one that translate to 12:00 to 22:00 here... a weird support time when most companies here works betwen 08:00 and 18:00).

So maybe the waiting time is longer here than others places

 

[ethomaz]

Being fair when you have your issues fixed so well you end forgetting the waiting time.
It was bad but at the end everything was resolved... I was in fear to lose the account and well lose God of War Ragnarok

 

[Zzero]

I dealt with either one of them once only, sort of. The specific case was me trying to play Minecraft after a decade of not touching and finding out that, suprise, my old Minecraft account was hacked. Obviously the ancient hack of my account included whoever it was moving it to a new e-mail. I had no 2FA (as none existed) and thus there was no way to give me my account back according to the e-mail from Mojang customer support. A form letter e-mail that took more than two full weeks to arrive in my in-box. At that point fuck it, I'll never play Minecraft again or "steal" something that is legitimately owed to me.

 

[ethomaz]

Ohhhh I forget to say the email account is probably gone... I won't bother trying that FORM again.
The new email account is already liked with PSN... so there is no point in try to get the old one.

 

[KnittedKnight]

Sony winning? I couldn't get to a chat rep for over two weeks. It's actually sad in retrospect that I kept wasting my time trying to get to them for an issue still unresolved as of today, even after getting through and wasting even more of my time. Literal torture requiring zen-like patience.

Fuck Sony and their atrocious, borderline criminal customer service. OP got a wrong topic for a flex. They're trash period. No capping gonna change that. Not even on an anecdote pushing the "MS is worse" angle "relatively". Any negativity towards Sony's PS customer service aka "Support" is 99% well earned and hard earned. God knows they try hard to earn that bad rep.

As for MS, fuck them too just cause

 

[Bryank75]

I used Sony customer service back around the end of PS3 and start of PS4 and it wasn't good back then.... but I have heard positive things since.

Apparently in many regions they have improved but Ireland is still very difficult because we rely a lot on services meant for the UK and with Brexit, it has complicated where, how much and how long things will take.

I do hope Sony keep working on it.

I haven't used MSFT / Xbox since early 360 for rrod, so I can't comment on that....

 

[Yobo]

Account recoveries are a nightmare with any big company

I had 2FA set up on a bunch of Facebook and Google accounts and after I dropped my phone in water I lost access to the 2FA app codes

Took Facebook about 6 months to get me my accounts back

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

Microsoft accounts are a pain, nobody should have one... until windows forces it on them (like, I have one just to forego the nagging in windows 10/11, but I use none of their services).

 

[ethomaz]

Microsoft accounts are a pain, nobody should have one... until windows forces it on them (like, I have one just to forego the nagging in windows 10/11, but I use none of their services).

Just setup Windows 10/11 with internet disabled and use a local account

After it gives you Local account option you can turn internet on again.

I created all accounts to my family locally and if they want they can link with a MS account after that… the advantage here is that you can link/unlink the MS account any time without lose your user on the machine.