András: Hello Mandy!
András: How are you today?
Mandy: Hi András!
Mandy: I am doing good, thank you for asking.
Mandy: How about you?
András: Good, good, only tired cause night shift you know, but I wanted to stay up and chat about this issue here, to get things straight :)
András: I hope it will be quick and painless :D so I can go and have my beauty sleep
Mandy: Well you came to the right place to talk about anything related to Xbox
András: I hope so. Okay let's start, let me summarize you the problem here first in a few sentences, as I had time to write it down while I was waiting in the queue, okay ..?
Mandy: Please go ahead.
András: So, first of all I have to mention that Xbox.com and the Marketplace now is terrible by response times, absolutely unacceptable by Microsoft standards I think, maybe you have some tickets already pending, I don't know as the support page only tells about a 'Purchase and Content Usage' limitation which is there for more than 3 days. But, anyways ...
András: I still can't open the store/payment part here on xbox.com to try and purchase for example Call of Duty Advanced Warfare, the site went blank three times already after about 4-5 minutes of loading. My main problem which led me here lies with Payment however: Payment in the US STORE was working with both PayPal and Debit Card few days ago, but since then we always got "PAYMENT METHOD NOT WORKING" or some similar reply, when I hit the payment confirm button.
András: I need information what is going on, do you have any ongoing real issue(s) with the payment system, or suddenly Microsoft decided to not to accept our foreign cards and bank accounts? ... Because I am from Hungary by location, but using US store for the well known reasons and problems with local store here.
András: And this issue affects all my friends here. They were able to make their payments without problem and enjoying the not-geo-locked services so far but not in the last 2 days.
Mandy: Your concerns are all well founded and for me to give you a proper explanation I need to pull up your account and check it for myself.
András: Sure, please.
Mandy: May I please have the gamertag or the email address linked to your profile to locate your account?
András: gamertag is: Macccy
Mandy: Thank you
András: Yw.
Mandy: Out of curiosity, are you using the Xbox one or 360 console?
András: Xbox One for about a week now. Xbox 360 is not used anymore, I mean not too much.
Mandy: On your Xbox one, can we check and see that information under Settings > System > Location
András: Yes, it is set to United States.
Mandy: In the past have you tried migrating your account to US instead of Hungary?
András: No, I haven't. You see, in the past, on Xbox 360, we used United Kingdom for a period, due there was no Hungarian store back then or there were not a wide range of contents available.
András: Then in 2013 I guess, I migrated to Hungary and let it there as I was not using Digital Contents that much to make a difference.
András: Now, the MAIN point of using Xbox One would be digital downloads, as there is no problem with the discs or drives, no inconvenience and the price is also lower than shop prices here in my Country
András: So ... this was working fine till this week I was told, I know many with Xbox One using US store.
Mandy: From what I can deduce so far, the problem lies mostly from the fact that your account region is set to Hungary but you are using US payment and and billing information
Mandy: Since you are physically in Hungary there is a technical term for this which we call as geofencing.
András: But why is this, I mean considering it was okay for my friends in the past, with Hungarian and UK profiles and Hungarian debit cards, they were able to spend their money in the US store.
Mandy: If this was my account and to avoid such problems, I would migrate my account from Hungary to US since my console and billing information is US based already
András: Geofencing should be affecting all the contents, isn't it? Because I can download Free with Gold contents from US store. Why? It seems for some reason the store only has problem with the payment methods. And why does it affect PayPal? That is an international payment solution, built for this. No matter where I pay in the planet, PayPal will do the conversion and deliver the money, right? It's even based in Luxemburg I guess. So why PayPal doesn't work either? While I can buy things on eBay US and Amazon US ... :(
Mandy: If you also notice now, some of your friends might be having the same if there setup is the same as yours.
Mandy: You are correct Paypal is a international payment method but as you can check also on the link below
Mandy: http://support.xbox.com/en-US/billing/manage-payment-options/use-paypal
András: Okay. I can see your point Mandy and I tend to agree, but I have concerns with Migrating. You know, this migration is handled way bad by Microsoft also. Last time I migrated, I lost one of my game (Witcher 2 digital content) which I paid for, and your colleagues at UK support told me I can't get it back, no matter that Witcher 2 can be bought right in Hungarian Store either!
Mandy: Not all countries are currently supported by Xbox for Paypal use
Mandy: That is the catch also with migrating since some game licenses are not released on some countries so it will not carry over to the other country if again not released there
András: But it was! That's the point.
András: I lost it despite we had Witcher 2, even a localized and voice-overed version!
András: And I lost it.
Mandy: I see, that is odd as it should carry over. Did you tried getting in touch also with the game developer aside from Xbox support about the game?
András: However, you showed me this link of support page with supported PayPal countries. You see, as far as I know how it works, I tried to Pay in the United States, right? Which is supported among the first. Why does it not work then? Even the marketplace offers me the choice of using PayPal and I can chose it, It should remove the money from me and that's it! Where is the hickup then? :/
András: No. Why should I reach out for the devs, because Microsoft is the publisher in this case. Microsoft should take care of what he's messing with the digital licenses here!
Mandy: Yes Paypal is supported in the US and your console is set to US and billing information is US but the region of your account itself is not set to US as right now it is Hungray and that alone starts a conflict since account and billing does not match
András: Okay. I give you that, I gotta say. Okay.
András: Mandy, here's my 5 billion question then: :D
Mandy: I will try my best :-)
András: will I be able to hold on to my contents now, as I will try and move to United States?
András: Because we are flying blind here, you see. As I assume no one from you - guess you're from the States yourself - ever tried it reverse, because you got no reason to migrate, your Store is working and content prices are fair, okay?
Mandy: Most of the games released are available in the US, talking about licenses here, so yet you should be able still to hold of all your contents once migrated to US region
András: But I need to be sure before I move, because I have many contents even for the Xbox 360.
András: And when I move, I will only be able to return - in case it didn't solve the payment issues - after 3 months ?
András: Not earlier?
András: Because that might also be a tough one for a blind try.
András: If that doesn't solve the problem I will get stuck in your region for 3 months and not able to redeem contents from Hungarian Store either ? :D
Mandy: Yes you are correct migration happens only once every 3 months and of course you get your games moved to the US Account
Mandy: What does not move is local curreny or MS points only.
András: This region thing is crazy anyways in 2014/2015, no matter that Xbox One was advertised as region free console, we are still messing with regions and stores like in the old days :D
András: I don't have MS points, and only about 50 cents of local currency left, so absolutely no biggie ...
Mandy: Then it is a go then.
András: Only several Games with Gold contents and other games I bought in UK and HU stores.
Mandy: I myself live in Singapoe and my account is US
András: Ahh, Singapore! :)
Mandy: So I get all the games since I have a US Account and my xbox one is set to US and same thins as my billing
András: And you can pay into US store?! You're getting more and more interesting here Mandy (don't get me wrong) I thought that you won't be able to provide me a working example because I thought you're from US but :)
András: :D
Mandy: More than happy to clear that out for you today!
András: Okay, fine, that's fine by me. And you're using what as payment method? Debit card, PayPal ?
Mandy: None, as I use local currency to buy games and prepaid gold for my membership
Mandy: One thing I have is a US billing information
András: Local currency, what does it mean?
Mandy: Like MS points, let me give you a link so that you can see it
András: Oh, no thanks, I get it now.
András: But that drives me to another thing here you know ...
Mandy: http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/cat/Xbox-Live/categoryID.62686700?icid=Xbox_ModF4_Live
András: How do you upload the local currency - in this case US dollars, right?
András: I know how MS points worked, but I saw these hilarious pre-paid cards with currencies and this is not an option as US dollar cards are priced here at a x1,5 multiplier
András: So I should pay 20-25 dollars for 15 dollars card and so on.
András: Is there a way I could upload US dollar currency from my PayPal maybe ?
Mandy: I have friends and relatives in the US and I asked them to purchase it for me and I redeem them on my account
András: Ahh .... :(
András: Another "barrier" then ...
Mandy: Before I had that setup which as you can see is a little expensive but if you have Paypal or International card then that would not be a problem
Mandy: Since your account, console and billing are all US then.
András: But my card is Hungarian still ...
András: I mean my debit card.
András: I'm wondering it would make it possible after migrating.
Mandy: How about your Paypal?
Mandy: It is widely accepted in the US and allowed by Xbox and as long as it has funds on it it works
András: I don't know how far my data goes. As I told you it works with everything, worked with everything so far. And my Hungarian VISA card also worked with every international payments, USA, UK, Hong Kong
András: But still don't get it how is that possible that all my friends had this method working with accounts from outside the US and now all of a sudden, it won't work anymore. Was there any change at MS regarding this? Or it is related to that Payment issue now you have on xbox LIVE?
Mandy: Basing from chat and personal experience it has worked most of time with Paypal and a US account ann console
Mandy: There was minor update made on our Billing system made just for this, it was a fix as we were told so that billing and account information should match for a purchase to go thru that is why a Hungarian account and Paypal will not work as Paypal is not available for Hungary for use with Xbox
András: Ahh. Great.
András: Okay. Well, I guess that makes sense.
András: So content is still not geo-fenced or geo-locked or region locked or whatever, only Billing should be US and at least Billing and Region should be the same.
Mandy: Yes it should match that of account and payment method
Mandy: There should not be any discrepancy or else an error will occur
András: Okay then.
András: Thank you for your help. Is there a possibility that you can set this ticket to on hold to be able to resume in case I would experience any issue, or we should close this then?
Mandy: You are most welcome and yes I can leave this ticket open
András: As I will inform my buddies too, so they will also try this out.
Mandy: Ticket number is 1268729825
Mandy: That is a good idea András
András: Okay. Then please do so and in case no reply, I guess your team will close it within sometime.
Mandy: It was a pleasure working and chatting about your issue today.
Mandy: If anything comes up please feel free to contact us anytime we are open 24/7.