This dreaded error hit my system recently. Xbox on line support did not shed any light, while a quick google on this code revealed that this problem had become quite common recently. Users complained that Xbox phone support was not effective. Here is the fix. The error indicates that you xbox live purchasing functions have been “locked”. To unlock ensure that your personal details, name, address, etc precisely match your credit card deteils in terms of both content and capitalisation. Call xbox phone support and advise you have made this change and ask them to kick the problem to the credit department. Wait 24-48hours and miracle your account works. Happy “xbox live-ing”.
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gallp13 
I called XBL support and they were no help, but when I got to credit department they started helping. I just called today, so Hopefully tomorrow or the next day I can get some MS points.
So…I have called them and said too unlock my account. They said they didn’t know how and would have their supervisor contact me within 2 months……
Should I ask for the credit department?>
wow… i get the same message.. and after calling xbox live support and telling them my problem… the women told me that thats not normal and then she hung up on me.
Same thing happend to me, the credtid deparetment should indeed be able to fix it in a few days if the error is corrected. Thanks for the help gallp.
I get that same msg. Wtf should I do? This sucks ash.
Have had this problem since late 07, when u fone them up quote the error code and they should put u straight to the billing folks, few days later problem solved
yah same thing happend to me im stuck with a silver membership so i need help if you know the anwser go on your xbox360 and add me as a freind gamertag debo313
help
help plz and if you dont know microsoft is number for us or canada its 18004myxbox
and the micrsofts number in mexico 001 866 745 83 12
1 800 4 13 25 24 2 15 24
lol
same here, she hung up on me
OK…This happened to me too. Thankfully these blogs helped me to research this problem to resolution. I first googled the status code 80169d94 for a clue. Then called 1800-4-my-xbox (5 times). After giving my account info each time then asked to be transfered to billing dept, finally got there. After 1.5 hours on the phone, agent and spv said to goto https://billing.microsoft.com/ website and login with your id and pwd. Then check personal profile information is the same as the credit card billing information exactly. I did this while he was on the phone, then he said they will call me in 3-5 bus days. We’ll see.
Well I called and the people on the phone were very helpful in resolving my error…..until they told me I had to wait 5 -10 business days until I could add Microsoft points. The lesson here kids “Don’t use false information when creating an X-box live account, use the same info as your credit card.” Another lesson “Don’t make your gamer tag something you are embarrassed to say to a stranger”.
[…] 80169d94 and found no shortage of other people with this problem. The best explanation was at Xbox Live 80169d4 Fix. It seems like there’s a case where your account gets "locked from making […]
I called them a few days ago to try and resolve this problem, first person just told me to check the information was correct on my account and then go through the long process of checking your details over the phone and continue my problem with a different person. They said that someone would call back in the next 24-48 hours. When he called he told me to change the details in the hotmail account linked to my Xbox Live account, but the thing is, the accounts are in my name, but the credit card is in my dads, so apparently we have to have the same details that are on the credit card for your Xbox Live account details, billing details ofc, and then your hotmail details :S and the billing account that’s somehow linked to your hotmail from Xbox, which you would imagine would be the same as the one on the Xbox account, but it’s not 😛 So after all of that, he said it would be changed in 72 hours, lets hope so….
I just phoned MS support today on 0800 5871102 (from UK) and selected Accounts and Billing option. The problem seems to be due to incorrect address/phone number infomation associated with the Gamertag. So even if you have entered the name and address correctly where you add a new credit card, you need to type this all in again in a separate screen associated with that Gamertag.
They gave me a website where you can do this easier than doing it on the Xbox – it is http://www.billing.microsoft.com. Login here using the e-mail you have associated with the problematic gamertag. then hit “Go to personal information” and correct the address/phone number.
I have not checked this has actually worked yet, but the MS support person seemed confident that it would work…why they couldn’t post this fix on the FAQ page heaven knows!
Well I have this problem now, I had my parents cancel the CC on my account and when they cancled it they changed the account name to my Mom’s well I changed it and it doesn’t work now when I add a 1 Month Pre-Paid, so I changed it back to my moms now, hopefully it will work in the next few days silver sucks so I am going to call XBL Support tommorow and if that doesnt work I want my $600 Refunded
Ive had this error for a while now, read the xbox live support, shite, phoned xbox support, shite, so maybe checking the details are correct using http://www.billing.microsoft.com . Done that so we’ll see. I will post again in 3 days with results.
Sometime after Halo 3 was released back in 2007, my father wanted me to remove credit card information from the account after a hacker recovered my profile and charged like sixty dollars (what a jerk). On the phone, I asked customer support to remove it (such a major hassle of rage-inducing proportions) and I asked them if I could use a 12-month subscription card after my Gold subscription was canceled (required to remove the CC).
Xbox Customer Support was infuriatingly inept at resolving my problem. My 12-month code could not be redeemed. Just a few minutes ago I tried to redeem a code for 1600 MS Points, but I got the same error.
No1SkankMaster, did you have your issue resolved yet?
Hello all, after yet again checking my details I phoned xbox live for the 8th time. The Queens English wasnt being spoken but it was understandable, the operator raised the issue with a supervisor and said I would get a call in 24-48 hours. I had numerous missed calls from ‘unknown caller’ as in no number, anyway, answered the call on Sat afternoon and supervisor said account locked, he said it would be unlocked and up&running in a couple of days. Ive tried it today and the same thing is happening, so i’ll give it until wednesday evening 04/03/2009 and if it isnt resolved I shall be calling again with the reference number given from the 2nd to last contact with them. Again, I shall post in 3 days.
I’m having the exact same problem. Spoke to a supervisor in billing and he said it would be unlocked in 2-4 business days. That was Sunday, it is Wednesday, still no luck. I’ll give it a couple more days and I’ll phone back. Ridiculous.
Hi again…. Well it still doesnt work. I contacted xbox live wed 4th march with the ref number so they knew exactly what the problem is and where to route the call if needed. Anyway, I stated that the problem is still there and I was advised 5 days ago it would be rectified. The supervisor said the request was sent to accounts and he could see a mark on his system that it is still in the process and that it should be done in a couple of days, he also said that someone would call to confirm when the account is unlocked. Well Iam still waiting for the call. Again, I will call xbox live in 3 days if still not rectified. I will also post the progress on sunday 8th march.
Good luck and keep fighting this is issue with the incompetent muppets from xbox live.
From what I can make out through other forums is that DO NOT ENTER ANY CREDIT CARD DETAILS !!!! just purchase the points from a shop. It does make sense.
Hi again, Sunday 8th march 11:45 GMT ,
still doesnt work. Phoned xbox live again with the ref no and this time a woman with perfect english!! how amazed I was eh!!! anyway she could see ive phoned and phoned and it has been escilated therefore it should take upto 7 working days, however she said, it normailly takes upto 30 days for full completion !! shit get that! 30 days….
Mine better be sorted by next sunday otherwise its another round of fu**s that xbox live will get again.
However, if the muppets can not sort it out, there is another option whereby creating a new gamertag associated with a different live account.
Different gamertags with different live accounts (as in me@live.com) are not linked therefore it will work, however, its only a last resort as you will not be able to access any data associated with your other gamertag ie games saves, game add-on’s etc(one that has this error).
Good luck all
Yeah, I already have a separate Xbox Live account to play online. This really is BS and it’s just absurd how employees of Microsoft F’d this up.
What I find absurd is that yes, I understand data/credit card security, but to lock the account and not inform the user as to when and why and how to resolve it is madness. There are 17 million users of xbox live, isnt that enough revenue? I mean come on, do the math, 17,0000,000 * £40 well….. its clearly not spent on effective customer support. How time consuming and costly can it be for xbox live to unlock an account???
Why do we need credit cards as a second line of security? Why is it that when we’re managing our accounts we can’t simply press a button to choose to remove the credit card information from our account? This security thing kinda back fires when a hacker steals your account and then uses your credit card to charge money off it, but OK Microsoft. (To be fair, it was my fault for not putting a stronger password on my Hotmail address… but dayum!)
Ok, heres the next update. When xboxlive say to you that your personal information should match exactly what youve got down for your credit card, well this is not strictly true, my card has my initial of forename and whole surname, so thats what I put. xbox live cannot accept initials, so even if your credit card has an initial, you must put in the whole name. This is absolute bull, again, a multi-million / billion dollar company and they cannot get the programmers to accept an initial, just as it is on a credit card. Soooo make sure your personal information is fully correct ( case sensitive ) make sure your card details are fully correct ( case sensitive ) and if you have any initials on your credit card use the full name. Well if xbox live told us this in the first instance maybe then so many people wouldnt have the problem in the first place, or at least tell us at the first point of contact, not the sodding 10th !!!!! anyway, again they said it will take a couple of days, so its still a waiting game, I dont know how long I can wait for now, it seems to have been weeeeeks !! I think I’ll bite the bullet if not done by this friday and make a new account without credit card details linked to it !!! Again, good luck.
wow. i’ve been getting this problem since i moved and have now realised when i moved i changed the details in xbox live.
I changed the details back 20 minutes ago, phoned XBOX support line and spoke to billing and accounts.
I explained it all to the guy and how i had changed the address and he asked me to wait for a few minutes. He then told me to try my account and top up my points and low and behold it now works?
From what i’ve read i got away lightly there getting the problem sorted in 20 mins 😀
good luck to the rest of you
yeah i called them today and they said it could take up to 5 days…. this is crap they said they did it because my address is different on my card so they locked it. i think they should at least contact you to clear it up before they lock it up forever until you call them and have to wait another week…
I’m in the same boat here guys, my live subscription works with the exception I’m unable to purchase microsoft points via live.I get the 80169d94 status code when ever I try to buy new points.I thought I could get around this by buying some points on ebay ,4000 for 50 bucks I thought great deal,but when I put in the code to redeem the points the same message popped up. Apparently my account has been locked for reasons unknown and even after talking to billing support it was never really explained to me why. After a 30 minute call I now have a reference number and instructions to wait 5-10 business days for a phone call. WTF!!
The only thing I can think of is I recently bought an elite console to replace my pro that had gone belly up, but I transferred my gamertag and registered the new console. keep u posted
kinda different problem here, and my results are different too, but i thought id give people some hope. i had two different credit cards on my account, and i closed the account with the credit card company on the first one. afterwards, i started getting the 80169d94 error message for anything to do with credit or prepaid cards. i notified xbox support finally and in less than 1 hour, including the 20 minute phone call, it was fixed. i’m not trying to make people mad here by saying how quick it was fixed, i’m trying to give you some hope.
GOOD LUCK TO ALL!!!!!!!
T N9ne
i too have this sh*t status code. all my info is correct and i’ve been waiting 3weeks! now i’m waiting another week just because the was a problem with the 2nd line in my address. this better be fixed i have 80k gamerscore and £100s worth of dlc linked to it.
No1ShankMaster, did ur account get unlocked???
i also have that fucking problem!!! Also contact,as you guys, the support and found how pathetic they are after a few calls! They told me first to make sure that my informations on my credit card were the same as the one on my profil… ok done. Then told me it should be working right away. Holy shit, didn’t worked at all. after that, i called them back, they then told me, after keeping me on the line for several minutes, that my account was right and they couldn’t find out what was going on and that i should just get a prepaid card! Yes, big deal! Then why do they offer that kind of service??? Do they think we’re dumb and that we have just that to do? So i called back to finally have the answer that my account was locked as you and that a supervisor would call me back within 24 to 48 hours! Ok i’ll believe them when i get that call! if somebody got a better way to have support from microsoft let me know before i get completly crazy!!!!!!! thanks
OMG ITS FIXED!!! this can be fixed so dont let em tell u otherwise. one of the previous posters had a point about the credit/debit card name matching ur personal details name EXACTLY. Example if ur credit/debit card name is “A Credit” then on ur personal details make ur first name “A” and ur surname “Credit”. takes a while to update but once it has try ur account and it should wortk. if not then all u do is phone microsoft and wait about 3-5 days.
Hi guys, still having the same problem and not have been called back from the support (it’s been now 72 hours) So i’ll call them back and hopefully i’ll get that fixed. Thanks for the tip Southside4!
My problem is that I don’t have any credit cards linked with my Gamertag. No method of payment, nothing.
Hey, Just to let you know mine account has finally been fixed. If you get you account issues sorted in 48 hours you are very very lucky, it took xboxlive 8 weeks in total to sort it out for me. If you get monkeys to sort out account issues then no wonder it takes forever! its all bull and support are useless muppets. Again good luck and happy waiting, cos thats what you’ll be doing, waiting…..
Yeseterday, I called Xbox Customer Support and they were actually quite helpful and not the ignorant incompetents people complain about. They said they would be working actively to resolve the issue and that they would call me when they were done. Someone called me back and gave me some insight on why this specific error occurred for me; my account was “locked” for “security measures,” probably due to some stupid miscommunication between me and customer support when I told them my account was hacked (but that I got it BACK and that I just wanted my method of payments removed).
Hooray! I’m looking forward to redeeming some one-months soon.
I had my account hacked by some random guy and after 2 days i got it bakc and he downloaded over 16 arcade games/add ons onto my xbox but since that i carnt add my microsoft points i have 4200 microsoft points and i carnt use them and i tried all this and they say my account doesnt exist and yet i can still play online
I DONT MEAN TO RUB IT IN BUT I WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU ALL FOR UR COMMENTS THAT HAVE BEEN LEFT ALL I DID WAS FONE XBL GIVE THEM DETAILS AND BAM I GOT IT FIXED
Oh, right. I forgot all about this blog.
It’s fixed, it’s finally fixed! They called me and told me it was unlocked, finally! Rejoice, my online brethren!
Had this problem today. Turns out this occurred because last month there were some server issues and i was having difficulty buying microsoft points. I just kept clicking away and trying to buy them. Finally, it went through. Unknown to me, it charged me twice but only issued the microsoft points once.
They refunded my money for the second bundle the following day but placed my account on hold. I was not contacted regarding the status of my xbox live account. After a month, i encountered status code: 80169d94. I called customer support after googling the error code and making sure all my account info was in sync.
I informed the customer service rep that people with this issue get transferred repeatedly between tech support and billing. I made it clear from the start that this was a billing issue. He made no attempt to shift the blame.
After repeating my verification to both him and his supervisor. They said the issue would be resolved in 5-10 business days and i would recieve a call letting me know.
Two lessons to be learned:
1. Don’t keep clicking if there is a server/network issue. If it says “try again later”, make sure it is MUCH later.
2. If your account is placed on hold, it will be on hold PERMANENTLY, unless you call 1-800-4MY-XBOX to get it un-held. (Even if the charge is only 13 dollars!)
thank u so much that was so frustrating
So I get the same message, only I think it has something to do with the fact that I have had Gold for a month and a half, when I only payed for a month.
I have a month-to-month subscription, so that I only get Gold when I want it, and I’ve had the gold that I got for over a month now. So I can still play online, but I cannot add MS points.
This is really pissing the hell out of me, since I REALLY want the new Fallout 3 expansion. And when I call they’re not helpful in the slightest, and I don’t even KNOW how to get to the Credit Department.
I hate Microsoft.
Hey, I’m getting the same error code as you guys (80169d94).
I contacted the billing department of Xbox LIVE support (1-800-4MY-XBOX) and they said they will contact me via email in 3-5 business days (what a joke!) after the problem has been fixed. I tried updating the information on billing.microsoft.com with no luck. I’m fairly confident the problem will be fixed when they contact me, but until then there is nothing to do but wait.
Pretty lame.
hey, i have been buying microsoft points for some time off my console, and all of a sudden this error shows? Even if i ring up xbox they are lame on the phone,so i dont want to do that. can anyone help?
Okay guys and gals, here’s the deal. If you want to take the safe and easy way out, just make a new Xbox Live account, and add the SAME billing info onto the new account. It will work.
That’s what I did.
THANK GOD.
Thanks allot, for sharing the detailed post!
I found a youtube video about xbox live hacks: that I would like to share- Xbox live hacks…
but seriously, great post and thanks allot !!
I look ahead to your next post !!
🙂
wow this a-holes put me on hold for like atleast 10x which altogether took more than an 1 hour than they give me bull crap to wait 3-5 business days
ok I called them again and they said they’ll fix it because im “a valuable customer” so they should fix it in 48 hours i hope and thanks for the this blog it really helped
I keep getting this god damn message everytime a try to add/purchase points. The thing is that my gold subscription was suposed to end January 1st. MS decided that every gold subscription purchased on Xbox Live with a credit card was automatically re-purchased at the end of the sub. I have Xbox Live since 2 years and I just wanted to delete my credit card payment option to continue with simple gold card that you can buy at walmart. So I went on xbox.com (because you can’t delete your credit card on Xbox Live) and I just click on the box : Don’t re-subscribe me. Then, I wait until January 1st. THEN I went back on their website and delete my credit card. Now I’m trying to enter some redeem code and I get this message. What the hell did I do wrong? I called MS and they said it would be fixed during the following 5 days. GOD we’re in 2010 and this stupid *ss problem is still present!
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Your website is loading very slow for me. Might just be my isp but i don’t know… anyways informative post. Very helpful, thanks so much. Will definitely bookmark your blog for future reference 🙂
Your site is loading very slow for me. Might just be my isp but i am not sure… anyways awesome post dude. It helps me a lot, thanks so much. Will definitely bookmark your blog for future reference 🙂
Your website is loading quite slow for me. Might just be my isp but i dunno… anyways awesome post dude. Very helpful, thanks heaps. Will definitely bookmark your blog for future reference 🙂
same problem but i cant change my info on the accounts and billing website thing cause idk my windows live password!!!!!
I had the same problem, this was my solution. I called Xbox live support, obviously they didn’t seem to understand what the problem was and were content to bounce me back and forth between depeartments. This of course being the status quo for MS. Obviously the problem was a freeze on my account information, a fact I tried to to tell them. They weren’t having any of it and insisted the problem was on my end. Here is the solution. You scream into the phone all of you peole are idiots, I want to speak to your supervisor. I was abrubtly transfered and the problem resolved in under 5 minutes. Seriously, under 5 minutes, after probably 45 minutes of waiting on hold and talking to Raul from 24/7 in India.
how can you find the phone numbers?? i live in france and it seems impossible to contact those monkeys!! because everytime i click on contact support they send me else where!!! why can’t they make it easy to contact them, i need to complain and get a refund for all purchases i’ve made but that have been blocked because of that f***ing status code!!!
I have this problem, and it is irritating me. I called support three times, but they never helped me. I even got to credit twice, but they never even helped, because they transfered me to another place, before telling me. I just want to buy some points, but apparently I have to adjust my settings which have no problem, and then call them, then wait up to 2 days? and anyway, did the author even say this worked out for him? I want him to tell me about his success.
Great, they are getting their act together. i was expecting a good day or two wait, i called frustrated, but surprsssed it and with good results! i got it all cleaned up in a half an hour, record time for microsoft :D! just ask for billing as soon as you get the operator, and read aloud the code, it takes a good 10 min to get you through, but it just zips on once you get there 😀 Thanks for the help!
Thanks. I liked your post, do you have more like this? The topic needs lots of research, most people don’t have it right.
As of today they have clearly got their act together with this problem. CSO by the name of Mary unlocked my account in a matter of minutes and I was able to instantly redeem my points!
I found that making an entire new account made the error go away. If you are okay with loosing all your data, then this is the easiest way to solve it without waiting for days and days and days