Adam Butler sent a message to William Henry Gates that said:
I have been trying over the past few years to contact Microsoft about this problem- I try every several months or so in hopes of getting better service. Each time, it has failed miserably.
In 2010, I ordered Age of Empires III: Complete Collection over the Games for Windows Live Marketplace. It was a great game- though I never did much multiplayer, I played through the main campaign and the first expansion twice each, and enjoyed it immensely.
However, sometime after that, the GFWL Marketplace stopped working. I can still download and open the program- sometimes it'll even still let me log in. But it will not let me download the game anymore. I've tried seeing who I can contact- I'd be happy with a physical disc or even just a Steam key for the game, but this has been very frustrating. I still have the CD key to install and authorize the game, but that's useless without an installer.
I call Microsoft to ask about it, and they want to bounce me around between departments. I call Microsoft Windows tech support, they want to hand me off to X-Box. So I call X-Box tech support, and they want to send me back to Windows. This time I finally did get to talk to someone (case number 1474683844 ), and they kept wanting to ask irrelevant questions that had nothing to do with the subject at hand- things like the brand of my video card and the date I installed GFWL. They wanted to remotely control my computer- which I reluctantly allowed. They then proceeded to perform actions without asking permission or even explaining what they were trying to do- they're tech support and they didn't even know you could right click on a shortcut and look the properties to see where it was targeting. In the end I broke the remote control and asked them if they could just give me a way to make contact with Ensemble Studios, the ones who develop the Age of Empires games and a subsidiary of Microsoft. They gave me a telephone number which I promptly called after things were over- it seemed like things were finally getting somewhere after all these years...
...Only apparently your employees think it's funny to prank your customers after they spend an hour on the phone talking to them- the number they gave me was for Ensemble DESIGNS, which so far as I can tell, has no relationship to either Microsoft or Ensemble Studios, and I had to bite my tongue so as not to yell at the poor woman I was talking to on the other end- she had nothing to do with this, after all, and no reason for me to vent my anger against her.
I doubt Mr. Gates will read this. I don't need him to though- I just want this to get through to the right people. I just want to contact Ensemble Studios and get my game back. If you could forward this to someone in Ensemble Studios or really, anyone in Microsoft whom has the pull to get this done, that's all I ask. Please do.
