Exchange rates for MSP in Australia

I'm sorry, but what exactly is your issue?

I thought it was relatively clear. Australians pay $1.32 AU for 80MSP -- the equivalent of $1 US -- which probably reflects the AU to US exchange rate of 2005 when the service launched.

The exchange rate is now $0.94 AU to the US $1.

I would like to not pay more for the same content.

I'm sorry that you have issue with the pricing, but those are set this way on purpose. There are always other ways of making your money go further, such as Daily Deals and Indie Games though.

What is this "purpose"? If there is a reason we should pay more, are you able to share it?

I make great use of Daily Deals, but Australians cannot even -see- the Indie Games channel. Admittedly, that is a classification issue and not something that I can blame solely on Microsoft.

I would appreciate it if you could put a modicum of thought or research into your replies.

Is it possible to give negative reputation or whatever system these new forums use? The answers given here by the support representive are appalling.

The issue is clear, why are Australians still paying the outdated rates on MSP (as well as our subscription fees, though this isnt mentioned here)? Our dollar is now equivalent to $US, so there is no real reason for this to be present. This is not an isolated opinion, and many arcade games are skipped over due to these "$15 dollar games" being $20 with no real reason to support the price difference.

When buying retail, we can get more comparable pricing, so why isnt the system being adjusted to allow more convenient purchasing directly through the dashboard? Or does MS like losing sales due to laziness in updating regional pricing?

And telling us to 'just make our money go further' by directing us to features of xbox live which arent even available in Australia? What, you couldnt take the 5 minutes to at least do some basic research before answering a customers query?

The "Rep" is just for playing on Xbox LIVE. It's to let other users know who to avoid playing with in online matches. 

As for the response here, I'm not sure what else you'd like me to say. If you have an issue and would like to see it take further you can try calling phone support in your region. Frankly, no one here on the forums has the power to adjust international pricing schemes for Xbox LIVE and points. Again, I'm sorry you are frustrated with this, but there really isn't anything to be done about it. 

Actually, there is something that can be done. Its called feedback. Which is what we're doing, coming to the official forums, and voicing issues with the system. For some reason with the new forums it was decided we didnt need a feedback and suggestion forum anymore, so I guess we should have taken the hint and the shut the hell up, customer input isnt wanted?

So yeah, now we bring it up where we can, in relevant areas and hope that someone actually reads it. Maybe they should bring back a more managable forums layout? And perhaps the search button could come with it.

I don't want you to take this as me trying to "get rid of you", but I just want to throw this out because it seems like you might appreciate the info. There is a Wishlist/Suggestion/Feedback forum, it's under the General Discussion. Here's the link: forums.xbox.com/.../133.aspx

No, that's perfectly reasonable. My issue is not one that can be met by support. I will say that the forum structure seems really unintuitive, but the fault of creating this topic in the wrong subforum lies with me.

Also, I highly doubt that anyone on the other end of phone support will have any more success explaining to me the price inflation. I think my exchange rate theory is the most tenable, and that Australia isn't a large enough market for consumer backlash to be a motivating factor. We're not unused to the idea, and Microsoft are not alone in their indifference. Really, we should be grateful we don't have draconian censorship laws like Germany, and that we're not as technologically backward as places like Brazil.

I apologise if my friend and I came across as overly aggressive. I think Elijin's tone was a little excessive, but it's easy to rail against a giant, usually faceless corporation. That said, you -did- imply that there's a good reason we pay more without giving any clarification as to why that might be.

Anyway, I mostly just wanted to be on record saying that there's a better way. If we were able to buy US points through PayPal, Microsoft would have bought some goodwill from their user base. Though that's an acquisition that might go unappreciated at shareholder meetings, it cannot be overvalued. I will always admire Bungie's approach to community management and likely continue to buy their games as a result. Microsoft... They're the devil I know.

Your concern is understandable. The best thing I can suggest you do is to post in the Wishlist forum. I hope you eventually find the resolution you are looking for.