Microsoft tries to get gaming writer fired - My stance.

PA forumer Squirminator2k has recently been having some trouble with his Xbox live billing, he moved from the UK to the USA, and Microsoft's system seems to be unable to deal with this.

Whilst trying to fix this issue, he has been hung up on, had emails ignored, been told to move back to the UK (!) and now, Microsoft has taken it to a new low. They have tried to get him fired from his job.

Ben Paddon - "I’ve been given the go-ahead to discuss what has happened concerning my Microsoft issue. It’s a particularly big thing, so you may want to sit down.

I write for a couple of gaming websites at the moment - RealVG, which I helped found in 2006, and GamePartisan, which I’ve been writing for on and off since 2003. My relationship with GP has seen its ups and downs, but right now it’s at a high point and I can only see good things going for that site in the future. So, apparently, do Microsoft.

Yesterday, A Microsoft rep spoke with Jonny DeViney, the Editor in Chief of GamePartisan. While I can’t discuss the ins and outs of what the phone call involved, I can tell you that Microsoft asked DeViney to drop me from the Editorial team - to “remove any potential sources of contention” between the site and Microsoft. I’m not sure what DeViney’s answer was exactly, but the general jist of it from what I’ve heard is that he told them to take their hand and go fuck themselves.

Not content with denying me my request to be able to, y’know, pay for my Xbox Live services, they’ve now taken to flat-out attacking me by trying to lose me a writing job. Well, no. I’m very thankful that DeViney has decided to back me on this one - it would have been so easy for him to shove me out the door, and he would have valid reason to given I haven’t written anything for GP in weeks. I’ll be writing an article about this which will be going up on GP tonight, or tomorrow morning at the latest.

The gloves are off now."

This whole situation is disgusting, and I can't believe that Microsoft would treat any of its customers like this.

I have a moral obligation to my readership, I can't just let things like this go by without doing what I can.

I will not be sending any business Microsoft's way until this issue is acceptably resolved. I won't post any bargains for Xbox or other Microsoft products until Microsoft has made a full apology. I encourage you to consider whether this is a company that you want to fund with your hard earned cash.

Full details of the whole ordeal can be found here.