1. Jack, the Christmas Elf, saved Christmas.

    Christmas was almost ruined.*

    *Seriously, though, it wouldn’t have ruined Christmas.

    There, an exaggerative line of drama to snag your attention for what could be a long story. I’ll start from the beginning: I asked my dad for a Kinect for Christmas. Yes, this year’s hot tech item. Like a Tickle-Me-Elmo scenario, the Kinect was sold out locally and even many online retailers. ( Yes, I know they are in stock now; they were not then. ) My father is at work whilst searching and cannot browse the web there except on his iPhone, which isn’t made to be used for prolonged periods of time. So, he calls MicrosoftStore who claims to have a fair amount of the Kinect and -like bundles at their disposal.

    He selects his bundle of Kinect and a game. The woman on the receiver takes down his credit card information. Incorrectly. My father banks with PNC, who are quite over-protective of their bankers. ( Better than not, I suppose. ) PNC notices a bad expiration date on the process and freezes his card. The MicrosoftStore employee gets notice of this, and my father puts her on hold. He then calls PNC, waives the flag, and resumes his call with the MicrosoftStore employee. She says it’ll get there before Christmas, they exchange salutations and part their ways.

    Dad is content. A few days later he got a shipping notice. He got his son what he wanted for Christmas. Super-Dad.

    Then, Kryptonite struck.

    MicrosoftStore, not long after sending a shipping notice, sent an email notifying him that his order was on hold. Why? An error with his credit card. ( Keep in mind my father provided his information for an employee to enter, he never manually entered anything himself. ) He quickly called them to resolve the issue. A gentlemen answered and listened to his troubles, only responding that their “system” was down and they would call him when it comes back up. Fast-forward to the end of that day. After receiving no call, my father calls them. The “system” was back up, but the employee told my father that they no longer had the products in stock and they canceled his order because of the problem with the credit card. He asks to talk to a supervisor, who offers no help.

    Dad is livid. I could tell he felt defeated.

    I did what I could. I live on the internet. I know many companies use Twitter for support. I know that the companies who do, usually have their Twitter support at a corporate-level. I hunt down @MicrosoftStore on Twitter and send out a, rather irritated, public tweet mentioning them. They end up getting in touch with me after a few more rants. I point them to my father, and they say they’ll get in touch.

    A day later, they have yet to call him. I send an angry direct message reading:

    My father received no phone call from you, over 24 hours later. Would a letter to Consumerist help spur you to action?

    Suddenly, he received a call. Now, I’m not saying that this “threat” worked. It could well be that they just happened to finally have time to get in touch with him. However, it was nice timing. This is where the story takes a nice turn.

    My father spoke for a while with a very nice representative by the name of Jack. Jack sorted it all out for him. Apologized, was very polite, and offered to throw in a free Xbox for the trouble they had caused. All is well. My father payed the price of the Kinect + Game bundle and would receive the Xbox + Kinect + Game bundle for no difference in price.

    Bad again: My father wakes up to an overdraft notice. MicrosoftStore charged him $360 ( the full price of the Xbox + Kinect + Game bundle ), which was not in his checking. Another direct message on Twitter to them and phone call from Dad. They are going to reimburse the difference when the product ships. Somewhere in this bit of time, Dad speaks to a rep that is not Jack, his name is Dumitro.

    Good again: Today, my dad received a call from Jack. Along the way, Dumitro and Jack both were following my father’s case, unaware of the other. They both credited my father with the $200 difference, bringing a total of $400 in credits from MicrosoftStore. Jack approached a supervisor about the issue. The supervisor advised Jack that it is Christmas and to let my father receive the bundle free of charge and keep the extra $40 left from the credits.

    MERRY CHRISTMAS, INDEED.

    tl;dr — After trouble with MicrosoftStore, they followed through to make good in the end. And make good they did.

    Bad once again: Dad only received one credit. Seems the credit department got a hold of the mistake. Hrm…