Microsoft apologizes, Undertow for free, and your thoughts?

For those that haven’t heard the news, Microsoft is offering Undertow, free of charge from this Wednesday to Saturday, as an apology for the Live service acting up during the holidays. Many people are considering this as compensation for the service that they are paying for and not receiving. However, the game will be offered to Silver (non-paying) accounts as well. The “apology” is meant to be a form of compensation. If you were a paying member of X-Box Live (Gold account), does this appease you? Do you agree with the multimillion dollar class action lawsuit filed against Microsoft for charging subscribers even when their servers couldn’t completely handle the influx of new users?

Microsoft apologizes, Undertow for free, and your thoughts?
Microsoft has been a monopoly for so long they are getting sloppy about abusing their own customers. Its a shame the government doesn't step in and find them guilty of this behavior, but the Bush administration seems happy about giving them a press pass over our rights.
Reply:i honestly didnt know anything about this until i read your post, i have a gold account, and reading this kinda pisses me off. what is undertow? (email me please)
Reply:The MS TOS for Live says:





16. WE MAKE NO WARRANTY


We provide the Service "as-is," "with all faults" and "as available." The Microsoft Parties give no express warranties, guarantees or conditions. You may have additional consumer rights under your local laws that this contract cannot change. To the extent permitted by law, we exclude the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, workmanlike effort and non-infringement.





Look at what it LEGALLY says. “We provide the Service ‘as-is,’ ‘with all faults’ and ‘as available.’" MS is saying they are providing a “service” that you paid for, but it may have a few glitches and bugs here and there. When Live shuts down the way that it did, MS was NOT providing a “service,” therefore has no right to charge it’s subscribers.





Secondly, notice “You may have additional consumer rights under your local laws that this contract cannot change.” Every state in the US has something called consumer fraud laws. These laws state that a company can not charge for services they aren’t providing the way they advertise. Remember, this TOS is written with a worldwide market in mind. US customers are protected by consumer fraud laws to stop companies from charging for services they do not provide.





Next, “To the extent permitted by law, we exclude the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, workmanlike effort and non-infringement.” Consumer fraud laws have accommodations to the “as is” and “no warranty” disclaimers. It is called “as advertised”. If I advertise that I will remodel your bathroom with certain materials, and I come in an do differently do you think you have to pay me for the work? Nope. Warranties are guarantees that things will work a certain way, but with “as advertised” a statement of a minimum amount of service is being made. A contract of sorts. You pay the annual/ monthly subscription rate and Live will have service running for you to use.





Continue to read down on to section 17 of the TOS. If MS knew that they would never have to pay compensation for service because of section 16, why would the very first sentence of section 17 say, “You can recover from the Microsoft Parties only direct damages up to an amount equal to your Service fee for one month.” if they knew they would never have any liabilities?





This isn’t a case of crap happens. It is a case of MS outselling their service’s ability. They weren’t providing the services that they advertised. Plain and simple. Regardless of what MS will tell you about their “no warranty” policy, the laws of bait and switch apply. You can’t get a sale offering something, service or goods, and demand payment when you don’t deliver.





As for the game being compensation? No, however I get the feeling that MS would like it to pacify enough people into letting it rest. It can’t be considered compensation if it is offered to users under non-payment conditions. This whole thing is for MS to save face. It is a nice gesture, but by no means does it devoid their liability or obligations to their customers.